What seems so strange about the Beautiful South to American listeners is the overriding lack of interest in aural shock. There's no shouting, no distorted guitar noise and rarely an unexpected chord change. Instead, the group's songwriter Paul Heaton rolls out slow, beautiful pop songs backed by melodic tunes that never pretend to be anything but accompaniment. This is not to imply that something is lacking in the music. It is rich, profound and mood-setting-qualities which have made the band's albums bestsellers in their native Britain.

This side of the Atlantic, the extreme emphasis on singing seems anachronistic, but the Beautiful South's focus is clear. The band has three vocalists for the four instrumentalists, allowing for spectacular vocal range and clever bantering among singers. Still, there are signs of experimental distortion: spectacular songs like "Half-Hearted Get" show the expert hand of Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, credited with "open groove surgery." Critics have often described Heaton's lyrics as bitter and cynical (the band's previous female vocalist reputedly left because of one of the lyrics). But on Painting it Red, Heaton comes across as a defender of true love, even if he rarely sinks to clichd subjects and metaphors, singing about love through old age and rages against infidelity and abuse. For all the songs' backwards compliments, Heaton's muse is always in sight, as on "10,000 Feet": "the landing won't be fatal/If love's parachute's been dropped." A- -Roman Altshuler

Soundtrack

Rugrats in Paris (Warner)