London 0 Hull 4

by The Housemartins

Overview

Like a box of chocolate truffles with BBs hidden in them, a Housemartins album offers deceivingly simple and tuneful pop songs that are designed to cause you some discomfort once you start chewing on them. Singer and songwriter Paul Heaton sings with a disarmingly boyish voice, high and adenoidal, and his bandmates contribute angelic harmonies as well as sweet and straightforward guitar pop instrumental settings. But listen closely to Heaton's lyrics and you find yourself plunged into a world of class resentment, bitter economic disappointment, and strangled rage. "Get Up Off Our Knees" includes the deathless couplet "Don't point your fingers at them and turn to walk away/Don't shoot someone tomorrow that you can shoot today," while "Sitting on a Fence" ridicules those who "see both sides of both sides" and "Sheep" bemoans the apathy of the downtrodden masses. Heaton is no simple lefty -- his politics are a strange amalgam of Marxism and Christianity -- but his views are brutally uncompromising, and they constitute a very iron fist wrapped in the velvet glove of the Housemartins' blissful guitar pop. Agree with him or not, there's no denying the music's power. ~ Rick Anderson

Product Details

Release Date:	10/25/1990
Label:	Elektra / Go! Discs
UPC:	0075596050128
Rank:	32398

Tracks

1. Happy Hour
2. Get up Off Our Knees
3. Flag Day
4. Anxious
5. Reverends Revenge
6. Sitting on a Fence
7. Sheep
8. Over There
9. Think for a Minute
10. We're Not Deep
11. Lean on Me
12. Freedom
13. I'll Be Your Shelter (Just Like a Shelter)
14. People Get Ready
15. The Mighty Ship
16. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Housemartins   Primary Artist
Pete Wingfield   Guest Artist,Piano
Stan Cullimore   Guitar,Vocals
Hugh Whitaker   Bass (Vocal),Vocals,Drums
Paul Heaton   Chimes,Guitar,Vocals,Melodica,Harmonica
Jeff Wood   Piano
Norman Cook   Bass,Vocals,Guitar (Bass)
Anthony Pleeth   Cello
Tony Pleeth   Cello

Technical Credits

Bodger   Engineer
Anthony Matthew Key   Composer
Anthony Key   Composer
Ian Peter Cullimore   Composer
Stan Cullimore   Composer
Gus Devlin   Photography
Paul Heaton   Composer
Bob Russell   Composer
Curtis Mayfield   Composer
Charles H. Gabriel   Composer
John Williams   Producer,Producer
Robert William Scott   Composer
Phil Bodger   Engineer
Jeff Wood   Producer
Pete Wingfield   Composer
Nick Davis   Tape Operator
Diane Warren   Composer
Dale "Buffin" Griffin   Producer
Bobby Scott   Composer
Barry Andrews   Producer
Lloyd Charmers   Composer
Mike Engles   Engineer
Wingfield   Composer
Fred Kay   Engineer
Gino Sprio   Photography
Key   Composer
Nikki Rodgerson   Photography
P.D. Heaton   Composer
David Storey   Design
David Tietz   Tape Operator
Martyn Parker   Engineer
Ted Key   Composer