Customer Reviews

Ugly Beautiful

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Quirky but catchy tunes that lodge in the brain are used to dupe you into accepting the razor (disturbed) sharp lyrically payload. how many people have sung along to the bouncy chorus of You're Gorgeous (big hit in UK) without picking up on the songs teenage porn exploitation theme? Brilliant album just for its shear creativity and alternative to the Beatles derived Britpop that was all the rage whilst it was being created.

PS. According tho the sleeve notes an earlier album, Steve Jones was born in Telford England, and although he did live a while in New Zealand he is based in Sheffield England. Another misconception is that he spent ages locked in his bedroom recording his own songs, in reality Steve spent years touring as part of the Dogs in Honey 'multi media performance group', before forming Baby Bird.

I bought this cd at a yard sale for a couple of dollars (I love finding good music in surprising places), which at the time seemed a bit much for a yard sale, but I had a hunch, I guess. I loved this cd before the first song was over and haven't tired of it after playing it many times. I played it at a party and impressed my friends who were saying, "This music is great! Who is this?!" I guess they're even less hip than I am for not having heard of this musician before. This is high-quality and well-built music that is surprising in its lyrics, which is fine by me- keeps the riff-raff away.

I first heard You're Gorgeous on the radio in the office. As soon as I heard the first line of the first verse I grabbed my pen and waited for the DJ to tell me who it was. My immediate reaction was Echo and The Bunnymen meets U2 with a splash catchy infection to top it off. Once I had Baby Bird scrawled on my memo pad I rushed out to HMV and bought the album.

Every song was great. The highly addictive riff of Candy Girl underlined the U2 - Edge influence which was a positive thing. I fell in love with the oboe on Deadbird Sings, laughed my head off at Jesus Is My Girlfriend and drowned happily in 45 And Fat. Of course, You're Gorgeous stayed infectious and still is to this day despite all the TV advertising overkill - they are seriously using it for baby's nappies now!!! Oh ek!

Somethings Going On was in the same league without the splash of catchy. Back Together is truely amazing. I havent heard any of the low-fi stuff (except Shop Girl - hilarious) but am wondering whether its worth splashing out on the box set.

I'd love to see him play live and eagerly await some new material.

cheers

There is some very distasteful and disquieting stuff here -- start with the insert cover which may be a toe-tagged corpse, follow that with the blasphemous-to-some Jesus Is My Girlfriend and Bad Shave, and then I Didn't Want to Wake You Up (not that he could have because the object of the song is quite dead, thank you). You get the idea. A couple other cuts miss; Atomic Soda in particular seems endless. I just hit the skip button for them and doing so still leaves eight or nine wonderful pop songs, twisted pop in a couple cases (Candy Girl and You're Gorgeous) but tuneful hooks and singable choruses abound. The CD closes with two wonderful bittersweet love songs, July and Baby Bird, pushing you out of this odd CD with a lingering taste of sweetness and, yes, innocence.

These songs, especially "You're Gorgeous" and "Candy Girl" have a great nostalgic value to me, yet that is only possible because they are good enough to be remembered for a long time.

When I first got my "Ugly Beautiful" CD, it was disturbing to see all that blood and grime on the sleeve, but it's what's inside that counts, isn't it? Aside from the aforementioned two tracks, the rest of the album is a little less appropriate for mainstream charts, but that's probably good -- you see what those lads are really all about.

The vocals are memorable, and the tunes will stick in your head. That's probably all you need to know.

More of a greatest hits than an album proper, Ugly Beautiful pulls songs from several of BB's indie releases for his major labor debut. It's fairly out there, some in England thought that I Didn't Want to Wake You Up was about murder or necrophilia (though I don't). BB has been compared to Echo and The Bunnymen, Robyn Hitchcock and The Smiths. He's mournful and a little low key. Still, I recommend it highly.

This is a wonderful record from a phenomenally talented man, greatly under-appreciated. Stephen Jones is a great singer and writer and it's a travesty he's not commonly recognised as the huge talent that he is. A bit mad and bad, with a real troubadour spirit, and with a musical ethic that's far too pure and peculiar for the shabby and grubby world of popular music. A very talented man, and this is a wonderful record. Can't praise him highly enough.

In another guise I am an experienced music reviewer. That this man isn't famous is one of the great tragedies of music. This album is the brilliant compromise - FIVE prior CDs of bedroom based - and brilliantl;y individual - albums were released at the end then followed this the 'Band' interpretation of the best. and it is the best. Ultimate I would say. one of the best 10 albums ever.

Ridiculously underrated.

The early raw versions of the same songs are great too. but this is the Apex.

I'm reviewing this just because I love the song "You're Gorgeous" so much!!!! I'm from the US and was listening to a British station one day and heard this fantastic track. It's catchy, fun and even has to story to it if you care to follow. I'd go so far as to say that "You're Gorgeous" is one of the best pieces of pop music of the 1990s.

The rest of the compact disc fares pretty well. There's some well crafted pop here and some of the gentler numbers really seems to work. Just be prepared, there's only one "You're Gorgeous". Tracks to listen to: "You're Gorgeous", "Goodnight", "CFC", "Candy Girl", "July", "Dead Bird Sings".

I first heard of this band at a British friend's wedding. The wedding song was "you're gorgeous" (which for those of you who haven't heard it- it isn't exactly your typical love song! shows ya that my friends are goofs!) I loved the song and tracked it down immediately. There are some other really good cuts on the album, but that one is still my favorite. I give it four stars only because I was hoping to find another gem like that on the album and didn't.