venta

It's Friday, it's about 3 o'clock. It's time to go underneath the covers (with the lights out).

I always recommend listening to a cover version without knowing what or who it is, so click on the link before reading ahead...

Today's cover version [link to mp3 download expired]

That was the Beautiful South covering Don't Stop Moving, originally by S Club 7

Some years ago, I unwrapped a present I'd just been given and found myself faced with a Beautiful South album. A Beautiful South covers album, to boot. I attempted to arrange my face into a suitably polite smile.

Well, more fool me because it's bloody marvellous. Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs is a dozen cover versions - chosen from and performed in a variety of genres - and I recommend it really quite highly.

Actually, in small doses, Beautiful South aren't that bad[*]. I mean, they're not the Housemartins, but they do have some good songs. And, I concede, some terrible ones as well. But their high points are worth pausing for.

But anyway: this is an album that - although it doesn't have any stand-out, fall-over-yourselves tracks, works really well as a collection of covers. It's gentle, but it's surprisingly fun. You should give it a try.

[*] Yes, I am aware that I'm writing the praises of the Beautiful South while listening to Frontline Assembly. Thanks for asking.