Paul Heaton: The Cross Eyed Rambler
Friday, 04 Jul 2008 10:55
Beautiful South singer goes solo
W14 Music (Universal), out July 7th.
In a nutshell...
Unexpectedly angry; a welcome change.
What's it all about?
The Cross Eyed Rambler is a 12-track collection, Heaton's first solo effort but the 14th studio release in one of the longest and most consistently successful careers in modern music. With the promise of Paul Heaton backed by a band, critics and fans alike could be forgiven for expecting a pseudo-Beautiful South album, but in fact the pace and tone of the disc is quite different.
Many of the same elements are in evidence, but here Heaton has crafted a playlist that does not sit back in the twilight hours of a summer barbecue evening but demands to be listened to, a dozen songs with uncharacteristic vibrancy which, it seems, deal with real issues and not the faceless, nameless angst that characterises some of his earlier work.
Who's it by?
Paul Heaton's fans may know him in a number of different guises. As mentioned, this is his first solo effort, but a 14-album career means there is no shortage of experience thrown into the mix. That album history includes releases such as Carry On Up the Charts with the Beautiful South, one of the best sellers at the time of its release and one which continues to be added to record collections now.
Prior to that, Heaton was part of The Housemartins, a band formed in 1986 which enjoyed considerable success in its own right. Now, 22 years on, the vocalist is looking to complete an enviable hat trick with The Cross Eyed Rambler, a self-confessed attempt to depart from the samey style of the Beautiful South following the group's demise in 2007.
As an example...
"The butcher sells you pantyhose/The supermarket sells you lamb/The newsreader likes to read the news/But he's also in a band." - Everything is Everything
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
For once, I'd say this is an album that definitely deserves an award of some kind. Partly for Heaton's longevity, but also because he's managed to stamp his own identity on a voice that has become synonymous with the songs of the Beautiful South. Good luck to him, I say.
What the others say
"The showstopper on the new album is Everything Is Everything, a funny, polemical, seven-minute rant about Britain's descent into low-brow mediocrity." - Neil McCormick, Telegraph.co.uk
"Paul is on the loose now, with a stream of observations about the current state of Britain that definitely show he's not content." - Jeff Hemmings, Latest 7
So is it any good?
I was once offered free ballet tickets by a drunk man from Hull who claimed to have been just off-camera when Heaton, Norman Cook and the other Housemartins filmed the go-karting scenes for Five Get Over Excited. There was just something strange enough about the whole situation to make it seem like it might actually be true - and I think that says something about Heaton's career, the simple belief that he has actually been everywhere and done everything.
While it's taken 22 years for him to get a solo album out there, this is by no means one of those "the money's running out" recordings. Instead, it really is a polished piece of personalised production with a little hint of country music and a decent dollop of disgruntlement which may just bring a smile to the face of all those fed up with the "I love you so much" style of many Beautiful South songs.
The presence of naughty words will perhaps put off a few of the more mild-mannered listeners out there, but in general I'd say most of the tracks are crowd-pleasers of the best kind.
8/10
Bob Bardsley
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