Welcome to the Beautiful South is the debut album by the English band the Beautiful South. It was released on 23 October 1989 by Go! Discs and the next year in the United States by Elektra Records. Three singles were released from the album, which became top 40 hits in the United Kingdom: "Song for Whoever" (No. 2), "You Keep It All In" (No. 8) and "I'll Sail This Ship Alone" (No. 31).
The original album cover depicted two pictures by Jan Saudek, one of a woman with a gun in her mouth, and another with a man smoking. Woolworths refused to stock the album, in the words of the band, to "prevent the hoards [sic] of impressionable young fans from blowing their heads off in a gun-gobbling frenzy, or taking up smoking"; An alternative cover featuring a picture of a stuffed toy rabbit and a teddy bear was therefore made. A second alternative cover was also prepared for the Canadian edition of the album; this version omitted the picture of the woman, and featured only the smoking man.
I was wondering why the band name seemed familiar and it's because there already was an album by these guys on here.
It's fine. About as harmless as indie pop gets. Strong 2/5.
With an album cover like that, you'd expect something raw, challenging, or controversial.
The most challenging thing about this album is staying awake long enough to turn it off - unless you're streaming from your PC. When your head inevitably hits the keyboard, that should pause it.
In the early 90s I happened to get Welcome To The Beautiful South’s “Choke” and was hooked on its wry, unique style. A year or so after that I bought this earlier album and loved it every bit as much. The songs reveal an interesting and vivid world or happiness, heartbreak and love. The style feels like happiness with strong tinges of pain or regret - and the lyrics explore a variety of positive and negative emotions that means a lot of these songs have stuck with me. With only two albums from this group in my repertoire its high time I do some more digging in their catalog!
Song for whoever brought back some memories if my time living in Europe. One of my favorite songs ever is by Beautiful South, A Little Time. Not on this album but they do have a great sound for the era. I’ll definitely keep listening.
That's two days in a row I've gotten an album where the cover shows someone pointing a gun at themselves. What the hell, what is the universe trying to tell me? I'll just chalk it up to coincidence but if I get another one tomorrow it's going to make me seriously wonder.
The music is nice, pleasant, well done. I didn't realize this band was the follow-up to the Housemartins. They certainly have a distinctive style and every time I hear them I'm reminded how much the Barenaked Ladies borrowed that style. 4 stars.
This is the debut album of The Beautiful South. I liked the other album on the user list (Blue Is the Colour) a lot better. On albums after this one a female singer is adding a pleasant dynamic in the vocals and overall presentation. Also this album has an second half of the 1980s production with prominent drums that sound dated. Not a bad album though.
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