Customer Reviews

Beautiful South - Solid Bronze: Greatest Hits

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At first, I bought this album just for the song "song for whoever" because I only familiar with this song. But when I listened to the whole album, I just loved it. All the tunes are very catchy and become my favourite. Especially "Don't Marry Her", very catchy melody that makes you sing along. If you are a pop rock fan, get it.

Beautiful South never made big waves in the charts in Belgium, though I knew all the songs on this 'best of' and could not help singing along after listening to it once. Songs like "Rotterdam or anywhere", "Perfect 10", "You keep it all in", ""A little time", "Song for whoever", are good examples of those songs you hear once and remember forever. My favourites also includes "Don't marry her", "Everybody's talkin" or "How long takes a tear to dry" and the Morcheeba mix of "The mediterranean", but this collection is just flawless.

Listen to it while you're busy doing something you don't like and you'll do your job whistling. It's perfect while driving. It's perfect on sunny days. It brights up rainy ones. The alternance of female and male voices creates variety, the compositions are unstoppable, the lyrics full of humour. It is difficult to determine what makes a song so catchy and "instantaneously classic sounding" but Beautiful South has found the recipe without any doubt. If you don't know them this is the right place to start. Highly recommended!

....This just isn't it. In my opinion their creative output reached its peak in 1992 with "0898," and the group would go on to produce fewer and fewer good songs per album since until 2000's slight resurgence with "Painting It Red", whose first 3 songs are keepers. "Carry on Up the Charts" (1994 singles collection) has mostly great songs, while this one just takes some of those songs and tries to update their compliation of hits with later, substandard songs; however, these post-1994 singles are farely well-known in the UK, so you might like them. What is undeniable, though, is that "Carry On" is much better. If you feel like making the investment and might be a fan, get the first 3 albums; "Welcome to.. The Beautiful South" (1989) and "0898" (1992) are my favorites, while 1991's "Choke" is a bit uneven, but has some fantastic tracks. In short, "Carry On" is a great introduction, while "Welcome to," "Choke," and "0898" are great purchases since they include great songs not found on the first compilation, "Carry On Up the Charts."

Whilst sitting in a pub in Edinburgh I first heard the Beautiful South in 1998. Since then I have told everyone with ears to please check out this band. Their melodies are so haunting and the lyrics so clever that I want everyone to listen at least once. Now mind you, this testimonial is coming from a 50ish Beatles fan. After the Fabs, the Stones and the Who I reach for the Beautiful South and you should too!

I lived in the UK in the mid to late 80's, and really liked the Housemartins. As I was preparing to leave the UK the Housemartins had split up and some members had formed The Beautiful South. On a whim I looked for the CD and found this one on line. It seemed to be a greatest hist comp, so I went ahead and bought it. While I did not live through these songs - and they got zero airplay in the US, I find about half of the songs to be very enjoyable. Song for Someone is my fave on this CD, some of the old Housemartins humor comes through. I liked enough of it to go ahead and greenlight it for any fellow Housemartins fans out there.

Can't find "Bell Bottomed Tear"? How come!

Not even "I'll Sail This Ship Alone"

As the other one said, may be "Carry On Up The Charts" a better place to go.

This is a magnificent compilation of diamond candy.
Buy it, anyway your money has to go in someone else's pockets so you'd better get this! lol
Seriously B.South has always been used to makin' hits and offering us valuable classics.
This is a must-have.

This CD is the first that I have ever actually physically destroyed on account of the sheer offensively awful nature of its musical content. After reading the Beautiful South being hyped up in English rock magazines I decided to see what all the fuss was about and bought this best of... what a stupid idea.

Inane tunes, nonsense lyrics (i mean 'red eyes is back' geez) annoying singing and all from the band that has an idiot lead singer who believes that he is a better songwriter than Lennon & McCartney. When its not being dull this CD is being annoying, it really made wonder about English music 'fans' knowing that these guys have sold out stadiums.

avoid.