N.K Pop

Product Information

It’s true that while there’s always been a political edge to his writing, you’d be wildly off-base to define Heaton’s work by it. Unsurprisingly, this received rapturous applause from Jacqui's home crowd and marked a special moment for the Sutton Heath singer - whose family and friends were all in attendance.

Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott will release their fifth studio album ‘N.K-Pop’ on EMI on 30th September 2022. ‘N.K-Pop’ adds another clutch of deliciously barbed pop songs to Heaton’s Ivor award winning song collection. Paul & Jacqui’s previous album ‘Manchester Calling’ went straight to No 1 on its release in March ’20. Paul, have you ever thought of reforming the Housemartins, just for a giggle and maybe charity? MikeollierWhile some of the songs slip into genericity, such as the forgettable There’s a First Time For Everything, others are 80s-inspired, synth-led earworms. Smells Like Me stands out as one of the album’s highlights, a masterclass in pop writing with an ultra-memorable hook. The opener That’s Hilarious serves an early reminder of just how good Puth is at writing ridiculously catchy hooks; how simple-but-effective his melodies are. For many people hitting the big six-o, like Heaton did in May this year, thoughts of mortality are omnipresent. But Paul clearly isn’t the sort to give into that kind of age-related gloom. That’s what’s nice about going away, you can talk to anybody and ask them what they’ve been up to. There are some weird, amazing stories out there.” The relative anonymity suits him. “I’m more famous for my songs than I am facially. I probably could have walked into a few of those pubs and sat down and had a drink and wouldn’t have got noticed,” he says. “And that’s how I like it.” The colours in his music are as vibrant and multi-hued as they were three decades ago and, despite confessing that sometimes he “bends down for something, but then can’t get up”, he seems genuinely unfazed by his newly sexagenarian status.

Still, it was something of a belated correction for the way The Beautiful South – never a critics favourite – have been somewhat airbrushed out of the 90s music story. “It feels a little bit like history’s been rewritten,” Heaton says. “We’d never be in one of those 200 best albums of the 90s lists. But we didn’t particularly sound or look like bands that you associate with the 90s. And it can be quite helpful not to have a sound that dated. It can be limiting if you sound like a band from the 90s. It’s though you’re doing a permanent revival”. Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott perform at the Royal Albert Hall (Photo: Christie Goodwin/Redferns via Getty) Paul Heaton is on the crest of a wave ahead of the release of N.K-Pop - his fifth album with Jacqui Abbott - via EMI today (October 7). Paul, I saw you fronting the Housemartins at the Leadmill in Sheffield and remember you saying : “This one is for anyone who voted Tory. Get up off your knees, you bastards.” Do you think we ever will [escape Tory rule]? Flashbleua b Staunton, Terry (9 September 2022). "N.K-Pop | Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott". Record Collector . Retrieved 12 October 2022. The British songwriting greatwas awarded Outstanding Song Collection at the 2022 Ivor Novello Awards for his work with The Housemartins through to The Beautiful South and his current collaboration with Abbott. What is your writing relationship? Does it come together in the studio or is it created elsewhere? karlcronin Abbott proves why she’s such a good counterpoint to Heaton – her voice perfectly meshes with him, and duets like You’re Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two) demonstrate their musical chemistry perfectly. Who Built The Pyramids is another highlight for Abbot, a big duet about unlikely romances. Baby It’s Cold Inside may derive its title from the rather problematic Christmas song from the 1940s but is actually an incisive takedown of sexual predators and serial harassers.

The night was a special occasion for Jacqui, who had never played in her hometown before (Pic: Dave Gillespie)That 60th birthday thing was a chance to celebrate and tell people I’m 60 ’cause I’m sort of proud!” he laughs. “Forty was a bit more murky because I was drinking a lot. Fifty was brilliant because I did the cycle tour all the way around Britain and Ireland.” Do you think musicians and bands are more reticent about being overtly political nowadays than they were in the 80s and 90s? HilsLM a b c Murphy, John (4 October 2022). "Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott – N.K. Pop". musicOMH . Retrieved 12 October 2022. In narrative songs like The Good Times, how much of the story is mapped out in advance before you put pen to paper? Prettiest eyes … Heaton and Abbott in the Beautiful South, 1996. Photograph: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images

Despite this, his first two albums received mixed receptions, which is perhaps why Puth’s third, Charlie, feels so much like a statement of intent. Out today and entirely self-produced, the 30-year-old calls it “my most personal body of work”. “I’ve been doing this for eight years, but Charlie is finally me,” has said Puth. “For a long time, I was trying to be ‘the cool guy’.” I know it sounds funny to say but I didn’t have any problems with her passing,” he says, matter-of-factly. “She’d reached the age of 90 and she was still happily belligerent and argumentative and causing the nurses no end of bother in the hospital, which was fairly amusing.I can’t stand the idea of people knowing me or watching me. It’s quite a private thing, even though I do it in public.” This year, he’d planned to do the same, gigging at 60 pubs (drinking holes feature a lot in Paul Heaton’s life) across the UK and Eire. In the 2018 Channel Four documentary Paul Heaton: From Hull To Heatongrad, its then fiftysomething subject confesses to fears that he’s run out of things to write about. We started off with about 21, 22 songs for this album,” Heaton tells us, “but some of them didn’t sound right or they’ve been ignored because somebody in the band doesn’t like them, and then they drop away and you’re left with your favourites.”