Where "Dross" Becomes Gold - The Actual Best of The Beautiful South

 

One could be forgiven regarding this as yet another cash-in Beautiful South "best of" compilation, containing "re-mastered" versions of tried and true classic cuts any dedicated fan already owns on one of this critically applauded (and maybe equally slagged) British pop/rock ensemble's other 10 studio albums.  Even if you're a casual admirer, you might still expect to already own all of their necessary hits on whichever of their 4 officially released compilation albums you probably picked up years ago.     

This newest compilation, wryly titled Gold & Solid Dross, offers a bit of a twist though. 

For the first time ever "Song for Whoever" is absent from the tracklist - and it's about time!  As the South's original "calling card" single, it made itself an obligatory inclusion on every showcase collection they've released to date; following them around like a snapshot of something once in fashion, but has now all but become kitsch.  Not that it isn't a clever track... it's just lost its luster next to their subsequent offerings.  And for a band that tended to repeat its themes and sentiments from one album to the next, that 1989 first-outing ends up now coming off as a mere demo version of better renditions of the same message (hate to be the first to point that out - but truth proper!) 

But fear not, their other standards are all present here: the male/female call-and-answer anthem (and the band's only number one hit), "A Little Time";  The rousing 0898 lead-off  "Old Red Eyes Is Back";  the sauntering "Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)" from Blue Is The Colour; and let's not forget the bottom heavy sing-along "Perfect 10" from their magnum opus Quench. 

But even all that gratuity in place, Gold & Solid Dross dives a little deeper into the Beautiful South archives.  The explicit version of "Don't Marry Her" appears here (this edit seen only once before on Paul Heaton's Last King of Pop anthology), as well as the oft discarded lower-charting singles "Prettiest Eyes" and "Let Love Speak Up Itself".   

What truly makes this compilation worth the cost of admission is not just the inclusion of a few fan favorite non-singles like "The Slide" and "Have Fun", but also a handful of ultra-rare b-sides.  Like "Little Chef" from the Painting It Red sessions, and most surprisingly "A Long Time Coming" and "New Fence", both of those being the only representations from their much disregarded 2003 album Gaze.  

No tracks are included from their rather uninspired 2006 covers album Gold Diggas, Head Nodders & Pholk Songs, or from their final studio album Superbi; but that's really okay with this critic.  The Beautiful South lost its step, and never again recovered their prior appeal, after celebrated female vocalist Jacqueline Abbott left the group during the Painting It Red tour in 2000.   

The Beautiful South |  Gold & Solid Dross [Compact Disc and Vinyl]

SIDE A

1. Old Red Eyes Is Back

2. Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

3. Perfect 10

4. Don’t Marry Her

5. A Little Time

6. The Slide

SIDE B

7. Little Chef

8. Just Checkin’

9. Have Fun

SIDE C

7. Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud)

8. Prettiest Eyes

9. The Mediterranean

SIDE D

13. A Long Time Coming

14. The Table

15. Hot On The Heels of Heartbreak

16. Let Love Speak Up Itself

17. New Fence