The songs on on this 1989 masterpiece found the band (with former members of The Housemartins) constructing pop opuses with jazzy R&B textures, mellifluous vocals, and startling lyrics that sport a novelist’s eye for ironic gestures. The instantly hummable “Woman in the Wall,” for example, tells of a drunk who kills his wife and makes “a cross from knitting needles” and “a grave from Hoover bags.” The song’s graceful pop belies dark lyrical wit. That musical and lyrical contradictions simmer throughout this debut, giving it a heady (yet strangely relaxing) sense of conflict. The album proves The Beautiful South to be one the era’s most underrated bands.