Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott: NK-Pop album review — a jolly soundtrack with sober moments

The new album from Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, former members of The Beautiful South, opens in a pub. It’s a typical habitat for Heaton’s work, going back to his first hit with “Happy Hour” in 1986 when he was in The Housemartins. Since then he has made music videos inside pubs, written a solo song called “The Pub” and actually owned a pub in Salford. Earlier this year he marked his 60th birthday by putting £1000 behind the bar in 60 British and Irish pubs for free drinks for all comers, surely one of the biggest rounds ever.

NK-Pop’s pub-set opener is “The Good Times” in which Heaton takes the role of a publican sitting alone by the fireplace late at night. The music is a jolly ska-tinged knees-up, a get-the-pints-in soundtrack, but the sentiments are not so jaunty. The publican is brooding over the death of his wife and his feelings of guilt for his role in causing it. Like “Happy Hour”, which was sung from the perspective of a disillusioned drinker, it’s a singalong with a hangover wrapped up inside it.

This bittersweet mode continues in the other songs. Heaton’s duet partner Abbott comes to the fore in them, a melodious counterpart to his more pressing vocal style. The course of true love rarely runs smooth in their lyrics, but the music thrums away agreeably, a sociable fug of horns, piano, guitars and drums with nods to Motown and rockabilly. It’s mostly played by the same set of musicians as the pair’s previous four hit albums together, including Heaton’s co-writer Jonny Lexus as guitarist. Comfort shades into predictability — but there are flashes of sharpness too, like the antipatriotic stomper “My Mother’s Womb”, and a straight-up tear-jerker, “Still”, that cuts through the surrounding pubby blare like a desolate moment of sobriety.

★★★☆☆

‘NK-Pop’ is released by EMI