Sat May 04 2024
4
Great album, but does feel maybe a hair bloated. I loved a few tracks of this album enough to elevate it to a firm 4 though!
This is a Random Album Generator.
One album a day.
From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Blue Is The Colour
The Beautiful South
1996
- Album Summary
This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.
Blue Is the Colour is the fifth studio album from English band the Beautiful South, released in October 1996 through Go! Discs and in America through Ark 21 Records. The album was released following the two singles "Pretenders to the Throne" and "Dream a Little Dream", which never featured on any album until the release of the second greatest hits Solid Bronze in 2001. The album continued the melancholic tone of its predecessor Miaow, and is generally considered to be the band's darkest effort, reflecting Heaton's life at the time. This comes across in songs such as "Liars’ Bar" (about alcoholism), "The Sound of North America" (a sarcastic look at capitalism), "Mirror" (Prostitution), "Blackbird on the Wire", "Have Fun" (which Heaton has cited as his saddest song), and the self-explanatory "Alone". The album spawned four singles, the first being "Rotterdam", which peaked at No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1996. The follow-ups were "Don't Marry Her", which reached No. 8 in December, "Blackbird on the Wire", which peaked at No. 23 in March 1997, and "Liar's Bar", which stalled outside the top 40 in June. On "Liars' Bar", Paul Heaton's vocal consciously imitates the style of Tom Waits, while in "Alone" the bass line serves as another allusion to him. The album itself topped the album charts on 2 November 1996.
Reviews
Like a review? Give it a thumb up to help us display relevant reviews!
Sort by:
Top
Date
Mon May 06 2024
4
I liked this pretty well, interesting lyrics. The music was very competently performed, a little too soft a touch for me though, it needed some more edge and texture.
Sat May 04 2024
3
Blue is a kind of self-conscious indie record before its time; Not surpassing that, it gets points for creativity. The songs refuse to lock in place and the universality is first-order. Bad move: sacrifices almost all of it. I can easily imagine it as one's first Beautiful South record, don't have to imagine in fact.
Sat May 04 2024
3
It needed to grow on me, but in the end it still didn't. I found it more to be some background music
Sun May 05 2024
3
This sounded beautiful indeed, but also a bit tidy and nothing out of the ordinary.
Sat May 04 2024
2
Sometimes you can judge an album by it's cover.
Sat May 04 2024
2
Wow this was horrible. The quirky lyrics do not make up for the terrible, cheesy 80s lounge act music.
Sun May 12 2024
2
Some of the odder lyricism and songwriting I've heard from an album here – at first intriguing, but things became much too amorphous and disparate as the LP progressed for there to be much of an artistic statement. Not sure what this band is trying to convey or affect here, and I think I was more confused at the album's end than before I had even begun.
Sat May 18 2024
2
Ew Fuck off
Sat May 04 2024
1
Very calm, soft pop, sometimes boring or slow
Mon May 06 2024
1
Oh god, it's more alternative folky garbage. Is this all the other users actually listen to? Every second user album is this crap ffs. 1/5.