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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, Composer - John Williams, Producer - Ian Peter Cullimore, Composer - 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.
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.
John Williams, Producer - Lloyd Charmers, ComposerLyricist - The Housemartins, MainArtist
℗ 1986 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.
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
- 1 disc(s) - 16 track(s)
- Total length: 00:47:17
- Main artists: The Housemartins
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: EMI
- Genre: Pop/Rock Rock
© 1986 Go! Discs Ltd. ℗ 1986 Go! Discs Ltd.
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