Product Description

The Beautiful South’s Golddiggas, Headnodders & Pholk Songs features their own inimitable take on classic pop songs. Includes versions of songs made famous by the Ramones, S Club 7 and John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John.

Track Listing

1. You're The One That I Want
2. Livin' Thing
3. This Will Be Our Year
4. Ciao!
5. Valentine
6. Don't Fear The Reaper
7. This Old Skin
8. Don't Stop Moving
9. Till I Can't Take It Anymore
10. Rebel Prince
11. Blitzkrieg Bop
12. I'm Stone In Love With You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8619 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's often hard to discern where The Beautiful South's sound comes from. Their own brand of darkly witty white-soul-cum-country sounds like many things. But what makes them tick? We find out with Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs.

Cover albums are tricky. The band take a risk with "Don't Stop Moving" and "You're The One That I Want", aware of the fans (often their own) who may not appreciate the radical reinterpretations offered here, slowing them down and treating them as near-jazz pieces. Similarly ELO, Blue Oyster Cult, Lush (!), and The Ramones (!!!) get the treatment. Some of it works- "Don't Fear The Reaper" loses its riff but gains smoky Latin overtones--while some of the rearrangements may be considered a little arbitrary. The breadth of taste is to be applauded, as is the adventurous spirit, but this might be one that appeals more to the most loyal of fans. --Thom Allott

CD Description
'Gold Diggas Head Nodders And Pholk Songs' is the eleventh album from The Beautiful South. Celebrating the art of greatsongwriting, the band have handpicked twelve originals and have covered them in their unique pop rock style. The album features 'Living Thing' the first single to be taken from the album.

Customer Reviews

The Best non-Best Of South Album IMHO
Yep the header says it all. I have a MP3 collection of all B.S. Singles, including Housemartins and P.Heaton Solo stuff. Each single has been pretty good and place them amongst my favourite artists of all time.

On the strength of the first Greatest Hits Album (Carry On Up The Charts) I bought both 'Blue Is The Colour' and 'Quench'. Imagine my disapointment when I found the only songs I rearly enjoyed were the singles!

So It was with some trepidation that I got me self a copy of 'Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs'. The new album from B.S. I think the reason I got this is that it's a collection of cover's rather than totally new material.

Wow I've not been disapointed! This is there greatest album, end of story. The whole album gels in a way very few albums do. Fantastic.

Only two songs rearly don't work. The first track and the last. The last, 'I'm stone In Love With You' sounds good but it's missing that speacil something the rest of the album has. As for the first, 'You're the one that i want' - they just shouldn't have bothered. It is diabolical. The only totalt cr*p track on the album, and to put it first! If 'Livin' Thing' wasn;t next I would have turned it off - thankfully I had already heard the first single from the album and liked it so the album get playing.

My fav. track is 'Rebel Prince' which I can't stop singing to myself, and it'd be a crime if neither 'Don't Stop Moving' or 'Don't Fear The Reaper' don't get released as singles.

Also dispite what other reviews might say I actually found 'Blitzkrieg Bop' to be one of the albums strenghs.

All in all worth the asking price, I must have even more so than 'Carry on up the charts' and proves that B.S. are still current and relevant.

Heaton & Co. back to their best!
Cover albums are always dangerous territories. On one side they can scream creative flare with an artist putting their own spin on already existing records; on the other side they can seem a desperate attempt to try and cover up a bad album and bad album sales. It can also suggest a lack of inspiration for new material. It seemed that the Beautiful South were doing the latter following on from 2003's less-than-mediocre 'Gaze'. For obvious reasons, BS fans were beginning to become a little concerned.

We needn't have worried.

The Beautiful South have really bounced back with this album; twelve cover songs all sounding different but all having that typical BS quirkiness put on them. The CD opens with 'You're The One That I Want' (yes, the one from 'Grease'), a much less sprightly affair than the original. But somehow it is pulled off marvellously with Paul Heaton and new vocalist Alison Wheeler providing the heartfelt vocals as they always successfully do.

Following on from this is 'Livin' Thing', originally done by ELO. Here, Dave Hemingway takes charge on lead - is it me or is he getting even better? Onwards we go to hear covers of songs by the likes of The Zombies, Willie Nelson and The Ramones amongst others. My personal favourite track is a cover of 'Ciao!' by the long forgotten (and may I state underrated) Lush. Jaunty and bold, this track really opens your eyes.

My favourite cover however is a different story. How The Beautiful South have taken S Club 7's 'Don't Stop Moving', turned it into a dark and bitter affair and make it work is beyond me. But that's what I love about The Beautiful South - they can take anything and make it sound wonderfully original, and that's why this cover album works so well.

Closing with the touching 'I'm Stone In Love With You', you finally feel that after a few years in the wilderness The Beautiful South are back to their best. All I can hope for now is that their next studio album is a brilliant affair and I hope that this album has given them the inspiration to once again provide that BS sound over a variation of songs.

If you bought 'Gaze' and were disappointed, do not be afraid to buy this album! 'Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs' is simply brilliant, and even if you don't know the original versions of these songs, The Beautiful South sound is well and truly back and nobody else can match it. A wonderful addition to any CD collection!

Good, but not that good
I'm a sucker for cover versions, partly because the songs will usually be familiar, and only if the coveror has done something worthwhile with them, rather than just doing carbon-copies. So I was looking forward to this album, and on reflection it comes down in the good, but could have been better category.

The big plus point is, of course, that they have, by and large, sung and played these songs as if they were their own, and some they have twiddled with radically. It is right, and rather strange, to have "You're The One That I Want" slowed right down to a smooch; it's no less camp for it. ELO's "Livin' Thing" is turned into a Western jazz/country swing number, though they've retained some very ELO strings in the background. Lush's "Ciao!" becomes an upbeat chugger - the "Ying Tong (Tiddle-I-Po)" notation in the booklet is very apt. I love the new rumbha version of Blue Oyster Cult's "Reaper", and on "Rebel Prince" they give the best impression of Sting I've heard in a long time.

I suppose it was expecting a lot for all twelve tracks to be as innovative. "Don't Stop Moving" repeats the trick done on John and Olivia, and the lyric doesn't really match; it sounds funny once, but does it bear repetition? Similarly they take the old Brrok Benton / Ray Charles warhorse "Till I Can't..." uptempo like "Ciao".

"This Old Skin", a relatively obscure number, sounds just like a Beautiful South song, and the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" is
also done as a BS number. Which leaves "Stone In Love With You"; I confess this never has been a favourite of mine and nothing changes here, because they sound just like the Stylistics, or Johnny Mathis in tight pants.

The musicianship and production is, as ever, excellent, and they sound suitably laid-back and as if they had fun recording it. On the whole I like it, but not as much as I was expecting, based upon their brilliant track record. You do get the impression they had to get an album out and had a bout of writer's block so did some covers instead; it is very unlikely they will get away with it again.