But now come two terrific yet utterly dissimilar spinoff albums. Welcome to the Beautiful South (Elektra) is the one that sounds like the Housemartins, except that its surface is even more feckless and dulcet: drummer-turned-vocalist Dave Hemmingway trades sugarlumps with Heaton, the political edge is gone, and keyboards cut into the jangle that new guitarist David Rotheray isn't much given to anyway. Keep listening, though, and Rotheray's melodies start to sink in. Then you notice that Song for Whoever is mean pop satire as well as shamelesslly pretty pop, and that the Woman in the Wall was put there by a husband who "enjoyed a pint or two or three or four." Aftershocks galore.

In one respect, former Housemartins bassist Norman Cook is less complex: Beats International's Let Them Eat Bingo (Elektra) means to be as happy as it sounds. But Cook's methods are anything but simple. A DJ in Hull since his band disbanded, Cook has created the mixing record music lovers dream about--with bits of Afropop and Delta blues and disco and folk-strum and every kind of pop-funk hybrid segued together into a universal dance music that earns its billing, nothing is forbidden and everything fits. The only people immune to music this universal are copyright lawyers.

Playboy, May 1990

Apr. 1990

June 1990