419) Paul Heaton - Jenius

I watched the BBC2 tribute night to Paul Heaton. Why not, as I went and saw The Housemartins back in the day and bought a fair few Beautiful South albums and was interested in his debut solo album because a couple of Joe Strummer’s Mescaleros were involved.

When he got back with Jacquie Abbott his profile seemed to rise again and I enjoyed a couple of their albums.

I then read that sadly Jacqui had stepped away and he had brought in Rianne Downey. I then read her backstory (Paul saw a video of Rianne performing Rotterdam on YouTube) and that she was from Bellshill, five minutes from me and a member of my family was her teacher that made me listen.

The Mighty Several was his first record without Jacqui and he didn’t put himself on the front but Rianne, and other vocalists Yvonne Shelton and Danny Muldoon were also on the cover and was a solid record with Ian Broudie sprinkling his production magic over the record.

Broudie and Downey are back for the follow up Jenius

A hard riff opens the record and stays to the end as Heaton sounds fired up on Can’t Get Next To You and Rianne duets with him on the country tinged My Favourite Kind Of Idiot with a sing-along chorus that I’m sure will become a live favourite and Rianne leads on the beautiful I Want the Job.

Sad Songs and Lawsuits is slightly ska and maybe the lyric “who put the DIV into divorce,” and I did wonder if this was linked to his personal life, but he has said this is not personal.

She Ain’t Pretty Rianne takes the lead, Paul arrives for the chorus and the guitar throughout is magic and a bar piano storms through One Eye Open not one for Reform voters who think all our troubles are caused by the boats.

Send in the Clowns is a piano led ballad but simply read the lyrics (do the same with Jet Black and Before Before, clever man)  and Do Not Ask Me the horns are magical (a nod to And The Beat Goes On) and Don’t Lean On Me Rianne manages to outperform Paul.

Declan O’Rourke makes an appearance on The Whiskey Did, Paul and Rianne obliging with the chorus and then they all have a go, Heaton not afraid to share the vocals out.

Paul’s band have been with him for years and listen to the way they take us out on Good for the Bees and again he must have known when hiring Downey that their voices would complement each other, see Go Upstream.

He decides to give us a stomp belter to end the record where he uses a word that’s often used in Glasgow beginning with a c, not used by many and will mean zero plays on the radio but worth a listen I can assure you.

This is Heaton’s twenty third record, Housemartins, Beautiful South and solo, and he has never been bigger. Heaton seems incredibly grounded he has been famous most of his life but doesn’t seem to have become a total (that c word) like many do and it could be argued has reached national treasure status.

However, he is not resting on his laurels or just trading on his name he is still delivering.

Nice to see and hear.

8/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Do Not Ask Me