The Beautiful South: 0898
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| Posted on July 31, 2015 at 21:19:55 | ||
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Posts: 7338
Location: Bay Area Joined: December 11, 2000 |
 Hey man, which one of you has my CD, 0898 by The Beautiful South? Oh well, while you have it, I'll nonetheless give this little review of this lost nugget from 1992. In the late-80s, former Housemartins Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway formed The Beautiful South. Think of a 60s or 70s folk act, who took a detour through the Beatles, added some helium-fed female vocals, and ended up giving their commentary on the Bush (the First!) era. In 1991, Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the grunge shot heard 'round the world. It killed every genre of music, except for rap and perhaps Hi-NRG. Nevertheless, you would have thought that TBS would have found a large following in the "alt-rock" wave which followed grunge. I entered UC Santa Cruz in late 1989. There, most of the student body was upper middle class. They all tripped over themselves, trying to become wannabe hippies. After all, our parents' generation included a lot of hippies. And true to form, the UCSC student body loved grunge and alt-rock. But somewhat oddly, they didn't like TBS. I supposed TBS were too much like Schoolhouse Rock for young adults. In April 1992, almost all of the days in Santa Cruz were sunny and warm/hot. One afternoon, while my housemates and I were cleaning, MTV or VH1 played TBS' "We Are Each Other." Even though I was (and still am) a hardcore heavy metal fan, "We Are Each Other" struck a childhood chord in me. It was indeed like Schoolhouse Rock for young adults. One Saturday, I was bumming around Santa Cruz's Pacific Avenue Mall. One record store had pictures of the 0898 album cover on the walls. It's an, um, interesting bit of 90s art. It features a woman's face as a turtle's shell. Since it was on sale, I held my nose, and bought the CD. I took it back to our college apartment, where our stereo consisted of a Sony CDP-520ESII; Denon integrated amp; some JBL bookshelf speakers; Monster IL-400 and Original speaker cable. Um, yes, this is the same CD, which one of you has borrowed, but not returned. During that glorious summer of '92, my friends (we were all in college) were back home in San Francisco, and would come over to my place. Since they knew I had some non-mass-market audio equipment (NAD 5000; Sony ES cassette deck; Sony TAE-1000ESD; Muse Model 100; Paradigm 5SE; AQ interconnects and Type 4), they wanted to come over, and hear music. Imagine that! One nice fog-free afternoon, some of us, after playing softball, went to my place. VH1 played TBS' "Bell Bottomed Tear." At the video's end, we were stunned by the image of the female protagonist gathering middle-aged women with baseball bats. Our friend Patricia, who had come out of the bathroom, and resumed drinking her orange soda, remarked with awe, "I can't believe they [TBS] said that. I can't believe they [VH1] didn't censor it." Don't take Patricia's word for "Bell Bottomed Tear's" lyrics. Look 'em up. I furrowed my brow, and said, "I have that," then pulled out the 0898 CD. When Patricia, two other guys, and I took our trip down the coast to Carmel, we brought this 0898 CD with us. Sadly, in August '92, my friends who were on the semester system disbursed for school, effectively ending the summer. But ah, with the monies saved from my summer jobs, I bought an Adcom GTP-400. I was thus able to bring to UCSC a complete audio system: the Sony CDP-520ESII; Adcom GTP-400 and GFA-535; Pinnacle PN-5+; AQ Lapis, Topaz, and F-14. Maybe it was late September, when I saw MTV or VH1 play TBS' "36D," and that was the only and last time I'd ever see that video aired. 0898, which references the UK's equivalent of 1-900 hotlines, is a decent recording. When it is reproduced well [I just got through reviewing Simaudio's Neo 260D, and now I have in the Evolution 750D, it's like it's 1992 all over again. I can see my college apartments, and recall the music videos. Then I see all those wannabe hippies, and shake my head, that they did not like TBS or 0898. But you can make up for that :-) The Audiophiles' DJ, -Lummy The Loch Monster
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