The Beautiful South - Everybody's Talking, Pt. 2

All Music Guide

As with part one of this EP, this disc really seems meant as a thank-you for singer Jacqueline Abbott's success with "Everybody's Talkin'." The Beautiful South gained most of its fame by capitalizing on Paul Heaton's vocals, but of the five different tracks present on the two discs, Paul sings only one and Jacqueline sings four. "Nearer to God" and "Piece of Sky" are covers of songs written by Michael Greaves, a country singer from the U.K. Both of these songs are pretty depressing, but in that wonderful country-music kind of way. Piano-heavy arrangements and Abbott's impassioned voice really bring out the emotion in these ballads. " The only bad thing about this great disc is that none of the songs were written by The Beautiful South. Then again, their writing really hasn't been consistently good since their first three LPs anyway. Maybe they should just become the world's greatest cover band.

- Joe Schanderson, All Music Guide