The Beautiful South - Choke

I knew I had a Beautiful South album in the collection but I thought it was the greatest hits LP "Carry On Up The Charts" so I was taken a back when I saw this. I had completely forgotten this record, and one of the joys of this exercise is to rediscover so many gems. I do have "Carry On Up The Charts" but on CD, but CDs and cassettes will be a later project..........

Looking at the tracklist I didn't recognise many of the titles, but once it started playing, a lot of it came flooding back.

For me, the most enjoyable part of Choke are the jaunty, uptempo numbers, one of which is the opener "Tonight I Fancy Myself". The song begins with the sound of faint bagpipes, and then a Pathe News style newsreader stating "Our period of waiting is over, this is the time" and after a faintly strummed acoustic guitar the joyful, bouncy brass launches the song. Brilliant !

More bouncy trumpets feature on "Should Have Kept My Eyes Shut", another great song with the lead vocal by Brianna Corrigan. I could have sworn this was a single, but perhaps I just played it a lot. "I Think The Answer Is Yes" has beautiful trumpet melodies and piano harmonies and soulful vocals from Dave Hemingway in the chorus. 

"A Little Time" is the huge hit from the album and can be described as a bittersweet kitchen drama, giving both sides of a broken relationship, with more great, emotional vocals.

"Let Love Speak Up Itself" is a slow ballad that manages to be beautiful, sad, cynical and dark all at the same time, and there is also some nice brass here as well. It is disappointing it only got to number 51. However "My Book", the other single from the album was a strange choice, as the song is a bit odd, and hardly commercial at all. It's no surprise it didn't chart, although it does contain some interesting lyrics, including "Albert Steptoe in Gone With The Breeze, mother played by Peter Beardsley, father by John Cleese" !!

There are some other unusal pieces of work on Choke."I've Come For My Award" lacks the melody of most of the other songs and seems to be self congratulatory. There is a hint of The Smiths on a bad day. "I Hate You ( But You Are Interesting )" is just weird, whilst "Lips" is just over a minute long and sounds a little like a lullaby, but that wasn't probably the intent.

The LP starts strong but the weakest three numbers end the album. "Mother's Pride" has some nice brass but not a great tune, there is the aforementioned "I Hate You ( But You Are Interesting ) and then the final track is "The Rising of Grafton Street" lightweight jaunty, up tempo instrumental.

At their best, The Beautiful South can match The Smith with addictive tunes, uplifting music combined with clever, cynical, witty, grumpy old man sacarsm with a bit of domestic violence and broken relationships thrown in for good measure.

I like it !

Track Listing :

1. Tonight I Fancy Myself
2. My Book
3. Let Love Speak Up Itself
4. Should Have Kept My Eyes Shut
5. I've Come For My Award
6. Lips
7. I Think The Answer Is Yes
8. A Little Time
9. Mother's Pride
10. I Hate You ( But You Are Interesting )
11. The Rising Of Grafton Street

Released 1990
UK Chart Position : 2

Singles :

A Little Time ( No 1 - 1990 )
My Book ( No 43 - 1990 )
Let Love Speak Up Itself ( No 51 - 1991 )