As The Sun Shines Down On Me - Jacqui Dankworth

Advantages: Great lyrics and vocals
Disadvantages: None

...As a long time fan of the Beautiful South, this is easily my favourite of their albums. Heaton’s lyrics reach their peak here, and the substitution of the divinely voiced Jacqui Abbot in for the somewhat screechy Briana Corrigan improves the vocals on all of the female voiced songs. Track by track review: 1. Hold On To What? – For the first time, a South album starts with one of the best tracks as the opener. Much better than ‘Song For Whoever’, ‘Red Eyes’, or ‘Tonight I Fancy Myself’, this is catchy from the first listen, and draws you into the album straight away. 2. Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud) – Featuring the classic lyrics ‘I want my sun-drenched windswept Ingrid Bergman kiss, not in the next life, I want it in this,’ this has gone down as one of the all time... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: 8 albums of pure quality.
Disadvantages: Their popularity has decreased in recent years

...As a seventeen year old at the beginning of the 21st century I really shouldn't like bands like the Beautiful South. No, instead popular culture tells me I should be listening to either dance ‘music' (or as I like to call it randomly selected sounds put together in any old order and repeated several times) or punk bands that shout a lot (a slight improvement on dance, but not much). But, for some reason, I have not gone along with the tastes of the mass audiences. Instead I like the more relaxing tones of indie-like bands such as the Divine Comedy and blur and a bit of rock in the likes of Queen and Bon Jovi. One band, however, takes preference over all other. They are, of course, the Beautiful South. The Beautiful south have been around for a long, long time. They came into existence in 1989 after the brake of The House... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: THERE ISN'T ENOUGH SPACE TO WRITE THEM ALL DOWN!
Disadvantages: A resounding... NONE!

...I LOVE this young band! Fun, happy, feel-good music... makes you want to dance and sing no matter how old you are! Rarely have I felt this enthusiastic about a band, especially one where the musicians are younger than my own son!!! Makes me feel old in some way, but the music in itself is an altogether different story... makes you feel as though the past 20 years never happened! Great sound, loads of enthusiasm and energy, and wreaks of "I LOVE LIFE AND I'M LIVING IT TO THE FULL" sort of thing. Every single song is catchy and happy, and makes the sun shine even if it's pi**ing down outside. If you don't purchase this cd, you'll be missing out on one of life's little pleasures...... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful