'Carry On Up The Charts' by The Beautiful South

As a rule, I tend to avoid buying greatest hits compilations, as I’d rather collect the albums which the songs come from in the first place, especially now, when bands release greatest hits collections after only a handful of proper records. This collection from the Beautiful South came into my collection through marriage, and was virtually unnoticed for a long while. It’s not that I’d ever disliked the band, but I’d never really taken any time to appreciate them beyond a vague recognition that Paul Heaton was a good songwriter. Then, a few years ago, I saw them live at the V Festival during a gap in the schedule, and they were fantastic. However, even after this, I didn’t delve properly into this album, not til now, and I’m pleased to listen to it at this point.

The surprise, I suppose, is what’s missing. ‘Blue Is The Colour’ and ‘Quench’, the two massive selling Beautiful South albums came after this compilation, so lots of the songs that are most associated with the band aren’t here. You do, however, get ‘Song For Whoever’, ‘A Little Time’, ‘You Keep It All In’ and ‘Old Red Eyes Is Back’ among its fifteen tracks, most of which are familiar on some level, and all of which are good. The blend of fairly gentle arrangements and delicate lyrics with a heavy streak of cynicism give the songs quite a timeless quality – they’d stand out a bit today, but they would have stood out a bit in the early 90s when they were released as well, which is no bad thing. My initial vague appreciation of Paul Heaton’s songwriting is fully confirmed (with apologies to Dave Rotherway, the co-writer I knew nothing about). In fact, I’ve been listening to this for a few days now, and enjoying it immensely.