The Beautiful South - Quench

Those refugees from the Housemartins who did not become Fatboy Slim became the Beautiful South, a band whose obstinate Englishness earned them enormous popularity in the U.K. and a decade's worth of total obscurity in the U.S. The Hull-based band's 1999 release does little to change any of that, even though a certain Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim) slipped into the studio to help give it a modern gloss. No matter, the spotlight is still on Paul Heaton, Jacqueline Abbot, and company as they croon their way through clever tales of bittersweet excess. From "Perfect 10"'s meditation on big body parts to the more poignant "Your Father and I," Beautiful South continue to follow their own idiosyncratic path, and fans wouldn't have it any other way. --Bill Forman Amazon.com

Review Quench by the Beautiful South

Great lyrics and tunes. I imagine the lyrics might be a little deep for some folks. Its one of my favorites. February 27, 2008

Quench

Quench~ The Beautiful South is a great easy listening Brittpop album. The music is straightforward and not that pretentious with simple lyrics and a sound that is great to listen to as background music. Usually the cover of an album is connected with the music or the title. However, in this case I have no idea what they wanted to convey with that cover. The book-let is not that great and it lacks pictures and there is only one photo and this is a sad story that could have been taken with a cheap cell phone. I must say that the cover does leave a perplexing feeling. It just does not match with the sound at all. Still and all this is a better then average album that I give 4 well deserved stars. June 17, 2007

Quench - by "The Beautiful South"

Great album. Love the sone "Perfect 10" which is why I bought the CD. Can't beat the price and the seller sent me the stuff right away! October 8, 2005

I love TBS

This is by far one of my favorite albums. Almost every track is so compeling. Jaque and Paul were a great team, I will miss her presence on the new record. November 12, 2003

Perfect 4

The first review in this section was right in that Quench is an amzing album but wrong in that it really missed the point of the songs and their meaning, Big Coin is not about Love meaning more than money, but comparing it to love, big coin being the love spent easuly, this the kinf of love Paul Heaton sings about. But if someone can miss the meaning of an album and still enjoy it then that is fine, Quench shows The Beautiful South at their best, those hit singles from 1989 - 1990 will always be what they ar eremembered for, but the band have matured and gone beyond those confines. In fact Quench is proabably the finest overall album they have produced, every song is so complete and mirrors life in all its awkard crazyiness. There is so much truth in the words but the explosion is subtle and often cruel, but then isn't life abnd that is what The Beautiful South are, perfect life music. Perfect 10 with its cutting lyrics masked by those famous happy melodies, Lure of the Sea, Dumb, Big Coin, the only weak track for me was Pockets. What an amzing album, clever honest and well produced and even great if you don't undersatnd the lyrics, what more could you ask for? September 20, 2000

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