Blue is the Colour

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Blue Is the Colour
Studio album by The Beautiful South
Released	October, 1996
Genre	Pop, Rock
Length	49:56
Label	Go! Discs Records
Producer	Jon Kelly
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
The Beautiful South chronology
Miaow (1994) Blue Is the Colour (1996) Quench (1998)

This article is about the album. For the song of the same name performed by the Chelsea football squad, see Blue is the Colour (Chelsea).

Blue Is the Colour, released October 1996, is The Beautiful South's sixth album following the two singles "Pretenders to the Throne" and "Dream a Little Dream", which never featured on any album until the release of the second greatest hits Solid Bronze in 2001. It was named after a pub in Sheffield.

The album continued the mellow theme of it's predecessor Miaow, and is generally considered to be the band's darkest moment, Reflecting Heaton's life at the time. This comes across in songs such as Liar's Bar (about alcoholism), The Sound of North America (a sarcastic look at capitalism), Mirror (Prostitution), Blackbird on the Wire, Have Fun (which Heaton has sited as his saddest song), and the self-explanatory Alone.

The album spawned 4 singles, the first being "Rotterdam", which flew to number 5 in the charts in September 1996. The follow ups were "Don't Marry Her" which got to number 8 in December, "Blackbird On The Wire", which got to number 23 in March of 1997 and finally the single "Liar's Bar" which got to number 43 in June. The lyrics to "Don't Marry Her" were substantially altered for radio release - changing from "Don't marry her, fuck me" to "Don't marry her, have me", and with "sweaty bollocks" becoming "Sandra Bullocks". On "Liar's Bar", Paul Heaton's vocal consciously imitates the style of Tom Waits.

The album itself was a hit, getting to number 1.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Don't Marry Her"
2. "Little Blue"
3. "Mirror"
4. "Blackbird on the Wire"
5. "The Sound of North America"
6. "Have Fun"
7. "Liars Bar"
8. "Rotterdam"
9. "Foundations"
10. "Artificial Flowers"
11. "One God"
12. "Alone"

v • d • e The Beautiful South Studio albums Welcome to the Beautiful South · Choke · 0898 Beautiful South  · Miaow  · Blue is the Colour · Quench · Painting It Red · Gaze · Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs · Superbi Compilation albums Carry on up the Charts · Solid Bronze: Great Hits · Gold · Soup Singles "Song For Whoever" · "You Keep It All In" · "I'll Sail This Ship Alone" · "A Little Time" · "36D" · "Rotterdam" · "Don't Marry Her" · "Perfect 10" · "How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?" · "Livin' Thing" · "This Old Skin" · "Manchester" Band members Paul Heaton · Dave Hemingway · Sean Welch · Dave Stead · Dave Rotheray · Briana Corrigan · Jacqui Abbott · Alison Wheeler Related articles The Housemartins