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Like a box of chocolate truffles with BBs hidden in them, a Housemartins album offers deceivingly simple and tuneful pop songs that are designed to cause you some discomfort once you start chewing on them. Singer and songwriter Paul Heaton sings with a disarmingly boyish voice, high and adenoidal, and his bandmates contribute angelic harmonies as well as sweet and straightforward guitar pop instrumental settings. But listen closely to Heaton's lyrics and you find yourself plunged into a world of class resentment, bitter economic disappointment, and strangled rage. "Get Up Off Our Knees" includes the deathless couplet "Don't point your fingers at them and turn to walk away/Don't shoot someone tomorrow that you can shoot today," while "Sitting on a Fence" ridicules those who "see both sides of both sides" and "Sheep" bemoans the apathy of the downtrodden masses. Heaton is no simple lefty -- his politics are a strange amalgam of Marxism and Christianity -- but his views are brutally uncompromising, and they constitute a very iron fist wrapped in the velvet glove of the Housemartins' blissful guitar pop. Agree with him or not, there's no denying the music's power.
© Rick Anderson /TiVo
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Norman Cook, Bass Guitar, Additional Vocals, AssociatedPerformer - Paul Heaton, Guitar, Vocals, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Phil Bodger, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist - Stan Cullimore, Guitar, Additional Vocals, AssociatedPerformer - Hugh Whitaker, Drums, Additional Vocals, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Matthew Key, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Matthew Key, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go Beat Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Pete Wingfield, ComposerLyricist - Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Anthony Matthew Key, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
DISC 2
Norman Cook, AssociatedPerformer, Bass (Vocal) - Paul Heaton, Vocals, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Jeffrey Wood, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Matthew Key, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist - Ted Key, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Stan Cullimore, Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Hugh Whitaker, Drums, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 1985 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist - Stan Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Key, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1985 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist - Stan Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Key, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
John Williams, Producer - Lloyd Charmers, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Curtis Mayfield, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1985 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist - Dale Griffin, Producer
℗ 1985 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, Composer - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, Composer - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Robert William Scott, ComposerLyricist - Bob Russell, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Norman Cook, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Paul Heaton, Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist - Stan Cullimore, Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Hugh Whitaker, Drums, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
The Housemartins, MainArtist - Charles Hutchinson Sr Gabriel, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist - Stan Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Key, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1985 Go! Discs Ltd.
Pete Wingfield, ComposerLyricist - Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 2009 Go! Discs Ltd.
Paul Heaton, Composer - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, Composer - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 2009 BBC
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 2009 BBC
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Anthony Matthew Key, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 2009 BBC
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 BBC
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist - Dale Griffin, Producer
℗ 2009 BBC
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 2009 BBC
Paul Heaton, ComposerLyricist - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, ComposerLyricist - Anthony Matthew Key, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 2009 BBC
Album review
Like a box of chocolate truffles with BBs hidden in them, a Housemartins album offers deceivingly simple and tuneful pop songs that are designed to cause you some discomfort once you start chewing on them. Singer and songwriter Paul Heaton sings with a disarmingly boyish voice, high and adenoidal, and his bandmates contribute angelic harmonies as well as sweet and straightforward guitar pop instrumental settings. But listen closely to Heaton's lyrics and you find yourself plunged into a world of class resentment, bitter economic disappointment, and strangled rage. "Get Up Off Our Knees" includes the deathless couplet "Don't point your fingers at them and turn to walk away/Don't shoot someone tomorrow that you can shoot today," while "Sitting on a Fence" ridicules those who "see both sides of both sides" and "Sheep" bemoans the apathy of the downtrodden masses. Heaton is no simple lefty -- his politics are a strange amalgam of Marxism and Christianity -- but his views are brutally uncompromising, and they constitute a very iron fist wrapped in the velvet glove of the Housemartins' blissful guitar pop. Agree with him or not, there's no denying the music's power.
© Rick Anderson /TiVo
About the album
- 2 disc(s) - 34 track(s)
- Total length: 01:40:22
- Main artists: The Housemartins
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: UMC (Universal Music Catalogue)
- Genre: Pop/Rock Rock Alternative & Indie
© 2009 Mercury Records Limited This Compilation ℗ 2009 Mercury Records Limited
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