Leicester’s The Have Nots trade in the kind of fey, whimsical pop tunesmithery that made stars of Everything But The Girl, although these guys have listened to far more country music than Tracy Thorn & Co. Indeed, at their uptempo best, they’re reminiscent of The Revenants in their prime. It’s impossible to dislike Never Say Goodnight, from the toe-tappingly infectious ‘Flyers’ and ‘Papercuts’ to the Beautiful South-esque miserable-ism of ‘New Lace Dress’ or the achingly bittersweet ‘A Tiny Taste Of Death’.
Saddled with the worst band name since Voice Of Cheese, The Sea And Cake often sound like The Beautiful South after two weeks in Benidorm studying jazz construction. And it works for the American four-piece's first album in three years, with vocalist Sam Prekop's soft voice bringing a wistfulness you hadn't known you missed so much.
Combining pop, folk, haunting harmonies and emotionally intelligent lyrics, their lovingly crafted sound is both completely contemporary and yet somehow timeless.
This is a fairly bland, but nonetheless charming and inoffensive album that’s bound to sell in massive quantities to the same people who bought the last Dido record.
If there s one cast-iron prediction
to be made for 1997, it s that
THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH will carry on carrying on up the charts.
JOHN WALSHE meets
Dave Hemingway and Jacqui Abbot to learn
more about life inside the mega
band with the low profile.
Puzzling and pointless it may be but there’s no doubting that Golddiggas… is an awful lot of fun (you wouldn’t want to miss their version of S Club’s ‘Don’t Stop Moving’).
Simultaneously an homage to Preston Sturges and a re-working of Homer's Odyssey filtered through the Coens' twisted sensibility, O Brother Where Art Thou? may not quite represent the brothers' finest hour, but still goes to prove that they're wholly incapable of producing anything that doesn't bear some trace of magnificence.
They’ve sold millions of records but don’t expect to find Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton breaking out in a grin. Unless England have been stuffed at football.
Oh Yeah Belfast have announced the opening of a new café on their Gordon Street centre and to celebrate, Clown Parlour are performing a special gig on June 2.
On first impression Making Music So You Don’t Have To is a ticklish, impulsive body of work, but its happy, functional marriage of strings, piano and guitars hints that the band have played nice, taken their hyperactivity medication and developed the album into a gratifyingly mature, ambitious and reflective work.
Jackie Hayden makes a courtesy call on Eleanor McEvoy and interrupts her putting the finishing touches to her new album. Instead of showing him the door, she shows him around!
Colm O'Hare meets radio DJ and presenter Ryan Tubridy who has forsaken the hallowed halls of RTE Radio 1 for the rough and tumble that is 2FM's Breakfast Show
Canadian songwriter Emm Gryner has released a covers album of Irish rock classics. But what inspired her to tackle Horslips, The Undertones and Gilbeert O'Sullivan? And why didn't The Pogues make the cut?
Raised in India and hailed as an heir to Tori Amos, singer-songwriter Nerina Pallot is set to break big in 2007. Just don’t ask her about her appearance on kids’ television.
Prior to their recent Dublin gig, THE BLUETONES talked to NADINE O REGAN about the fickleness of fame, artistic integrity, America and the dangers of sausage sponsorship!
When your friendly local A&R man (and yes, he's almost certain to be a man) sits down to wade through his latest intake of demos, what exactly is he looking for?
Billy Bragg's larynx, sexual politics, and Jilly Cooper paperbacks. What's it all about? NICK KELLY finds out when he beams himself up to the planet DUBSTAR.
Billy Bragg’s larynx, sexual politics, and Jilly Cooper paperbacks. What’s it all about? NICK KELLY finds out when he beams himself up to the planet DUBSTAR.
Since 1996 the Heineken Green Energy Festival has lit up the capital city with some of the brightest stars of modern rock. Patrick Hedlund and hotpress assistant editor, Stuart Clark, report
With 1993 going down as the year that Irish rock finally emerged from U2’s shadow, HOT PRESS takes an introductory look at four of the rapidly emerging outfits that are poised to make headlines and sell bucket–loads of records in ’94.
Schtum, Ash, Joyrider, Compulsion.
Massive Attack explain why they are outspoken opponents of the proposed war in Iraq, give high praise to Sinéad O’Connor and reveal how a porn soundtrack left them gasping for airtime.
As Duke Special set off for a jaunt around Europe with the Divine Comedy, our correspondent hitched a ride on the tour bus. In between the sound-checks and the motor-way pitstops, he received a unique insight into the life of the touring musician.
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
For an arena-filling band like Beautiful South it was an unusual departure but the lack of a full compliment of musicians was more than made up for by the intimacy of the performance.
After seven albums the tried and tested Beautiful South formula of sophisticated melodies, transparent production and quirky lyrics is wearing a bit thin, if not actually verging on the irritable.
