Trends may come and go but the music of the Beautiful South remains as reliable as rain in springtime and as English as fish and chips. Still, why complain when the songwriting is this good? As always Paul Heaton has injected his subversive wit into these inventive tales of everyday life, which tackle such glamorous subjects as ugliness, grey hairs and urban loneliness. Painting It Red contains plenty of songs as catchy and affecting as anything the band have ever done - but why they felt they had to pad it out to 17 tracks is a bit of a mystery.
