Track Listing

1. How Long's A Tear Take To Dry? - Jon Kelly, The Beautiful South, Paul Heaton, Jacqueline Abbott, David Rotheray, John Brough, Annie Whitehead, Roddy Lorimer, Simon Clarke, Tim Sanders, Gary Hammond, Damon Butcher
2. The Lure Of The Sea - Annie Whitehead, Damon Butcher, David Hemmingway, David Rotheray, David Stead, Jacqueline Abbott, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Roddie Lorimer, Sean Welch, Simon Clarke, The Beautiful South
3. Big Coin - Jon Kelly, The Beautiful South, Paul Heaton, John Brough, Jacqueline Abbott, David Hemmingway, David Rotheray, Sean Welch, David Stead, Damon Butcher
4. Dumb - Jon Kelly, The Beautiful South, Paul Heaton, John Brough, Jacqueline Abbott, David Hemmingway, David Rotheray, Sean Welch, Annie Whitehead, Roddy Lorimer, Simon Clarke, David Stead, Damon Butcher
5. Perfect 10 - Annie Whitehead, Damon Butcher, David Rotheray, David Stead, Gary Hammond, Jacqueline Abbott, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Paul Weller, Roddy Lorimer, Sean Welch, Simon Clarke, The Beautiful South, Tim Sanders
6. The Slide - David Hemmingway, David Rotheray, David Stead, Jacqueline Abbott, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Sean Welch, The Beautiful South
7. Look What I Found In My Beer - Annie Whitehead, Damon Butcher, David Hemmingway, David Rotheray, David Stead, Jacqueline Abbott, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Roddy Lorimer, Sean Welch, Simon Clarke, The Beautiful South, Tim Sanders
8. The Table - Damon Butcher, David Rotheray, David Stead, Jacqueline Abbott, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Sean Welch, The Beautiful South
9. Window Shopping For Blinds - Damon Butcher, David Rotheray, David Stead, Jacqueline Abbott, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Sean Welch, The Beautiful South
10. Pockets - John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, The Beautiful South, Jacqueline Abbott, Damon Butcher, Simon Clarke, David Hemmingway, Roddy Lorimer, David Rotheray, Tim Sanders, David Stead, Sean Welch, Annie Whitehead, Samantha Smith
11. I May Be Ugly - David Rotheray, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Sean Welch, The Beautiful South
12. Losing Things - Damon Butcher, David Rotheray, David Stead, Jacqueline Abbott, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Sean Welch, The Beautiful South
13. Your Father And I - Damon Butcher, David Hemmingway, David Rotheray, David Stead, Jacqueline Abbott, John Brough, Jon Kelly, Paul Heaton, Sean Welch, The Beautiful South

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8007 in Music
• Released on: 1998-10-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 52 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Otherwise known as David Rotheray and Paul Heaton's Blue Period, Quench saw the usually wry and ebullient Beautiful South retreat into a Tom Waits-influenced period of depression, misanthropy and despair. It's something that hits many bands, but it suited the South more than most--it's only a quick walk, after all, from their 1994 hit "Old Red Eyes Is Back" to Quench's more desolate "Liar's Bar", and it's not like they abandoned the pop altogether: the hit single "Amsterdam (Or Anywhere)" is as gorgeous as anything else in their canon, and it seemed like they hit a public nerve--Quench is, somewhat incongruously, the Beautiful South's biggest-selling album proper (only their hits collection, Carry On Up The Charts, has done better). --Caitlan Moran

CD Description
QUENCH, the Beautiful South's sixth album, finds them a little more musically introspective and somewhat more melancholy than before, though the songs still maintain the band's twin obsessions: singing about drunks, about drinking, and about being drunk; and disguising brutal and often cruel lyricswith deceptively sweet (verging on sad) music. From the slide-guitar tinged "How Long's a Tear Take to Dry", through the miniature epic-weepie "The Slide", to the jaunty snipe-fest of "Your Father and I", the album swings on a number of intriguing contradictions.
"Dumb" introduces an oddly introspective mood before breaking into a Motown-influenced chorus. "Window Shopping for Blinds" swaps its string-saturated opening for something that mixes a German beer hall and a Western saloon, while "I May Be Ugly" is a track that, other than its explicit drug references and crass juxtapositional jokes, wouldn't sound out of place being sung by Jim Croce. The best cut, however, is the piano-driven "The Table", which obliquely examines a familial relationship from the perspective of a table.

Customer Reviews

Gets better each time you listen to it.
This was the first Beautiful South record I bought. The first thing that struck me when I heard this album was how the lyrics were very clever, and also quite amusing, especially those of 'How long's a tear take to dry?'. This song is a great start to the album, it's upbeat tempo sets the scene well. The next two tracks, are less upbeat, showing you that this is a varying style album. Then, track 4, is Dumb, which i personally felt should have done a lot better in the charts. Then, from one familiar song to another, you then have Perfect 10, one of the best on the album. The next track Slide, is one of those that grows on you each time you hear it.Then, back go the upbeat style with Look what I found in my beer, a very meaningful song (as are all the songs on the album.) Another two ballads follow, but then comes the only track that I don't like 'I May be Ugly'. Fortunately, the album ends of with two good memorable songs, 'losing things', and 'your father and I'. This is my ratings for each track;-

How long's a tear...:- 10/10 Lure of the Sea:- 8/10 Big Coin:- 8/10 Dumb:- 9/10 Perfect 10:- 10/10 The Slide:- 8/10 Look what I found in my beer:- 9/10 The Table:- 9/10 Window shopping for blinds:- 10/10 Pockets:- 7/10 I may be Ugly:- 2/10 Losing things:- 8/10 Your Father and I:- 8/10

If you like the Beautiful South, you'll love this album.

Without a doubt, their best album
Barcode: 0731453816626

I've always been a big fan of the Beautiful South and every album of theirs contains fantastic pop songs that are as witty as they are catchy, truly memorable in their charm. But in my eyes, it is Quench that represents their most consistent work, practically every song single worthy, it's reaching number 1 in the UK album's chart a testimony to its strength as an album.

Things kick off with the up-tempo single 'How Long's A Tear Take To Dry?', seeing the band at their more country edge, it sets the feel for the album as a whole, vocals and intrumentation bold and confident in their capability. 'The flowers smell sweeter, the closer you are to the grave' being just one of many classic Beautiful South lines.

The Lure Of The Sea is a jazzy little number, dreamy piano and organ driving a right winner of a track before slipping into Big Coin, a delightful ballad.

Dumb is another album highlight, starting with a perfect combo of guitar and strings - it's classic 70s styled soft-pop-rock. Next we have Perfect 10, one of the band's biggest hits, reaching number 2 in the singles charts. The Elvis esque vocals deliver one of the band's most catchy, memorable choruses - a perfect example of the Beutiful South 'sound' and if any of their songs is perfect to introduce the band to new fans, it would be this one. A brilliant song.

The Slide, The Table, Window Shopping For Blinds present further ballads while Pockets starts with a nice little Red Hot Chili Peppers esque funky guitar hook. Perhaps the true winner though is album closer, Your Father And I - the storytelling aspect of the song completely winning in its appeal. I don't know what it is about this sopng but it seems like everything comes together here, like the album itself, presenting the band at their most confident - it truly sounds as if they really enjoyed themselves making these songs. Without a doubt, Quench is a classic album and one of my personal faves - fantastic from start to finish. Buy it!

Quench
With its dark and moody front cover and the depressing and gloomy song subjects like alcoholism, family break-up and suicide it's a real wonder than somehow the whole package of Quench ends up being a jolly, upbeat and inspiring album.

Perhaps it's the style in which the songs are performed. Tackling a multitude of styles they all seem to tick along at a good upbeat pace, the gospel influenced "The Slide", the Big Band sound of "Look what I've found in my beer" or the almost late-night cabaret bass and piano of "Big Coin"

Perhaps it's the very clever lyrics, examples of which are far to numerous to mention here but they are so good it's an album where reading the booklet is really worth it.

Perhaps it's the superb voice of Jacqueline Abbott who outshines both Paul Heaton and Dave Hemmingway (but both support wonderfully well) and really comes into her own on this album.

Anyway, enough of the perhaps-es, one thing is definite, this is one excellent album and is thoroughly recommended.