N.K Pop

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For his half-century in 2012, Heaton set out on a bicycle tour, peddling 2,500 miles – that’s 50 miles for each year he’d been on planet Earth – to perform at 33 different pubs. The production, courtesy of UK duo God Colony, is particularly great on Feel Alive, with the song’s sparkly synths towing the line between sugar trap and a casino-themed level on Sonic the Hedgehog. This beat inspires Flohio to wake up from a grief-driven slumber, as she tellingly pledges: “From the dead I have risen”. 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. I was amazingly surprised, but I had dipped my toe in the water on The 8th, a musical I wrote about the seven deadly sins and [Abbott] sang a little bit on that. And when she sang live, the whole room lit up. Clearly, people had really missed and loved her voice, and that's still the case. They do like me – I do get paranoid that they only like Jacqui! But she's got a voice that connects with people.” 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’.”

Leicester indie alt-pop outfit easy life match their previous chart peak, with new LP MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE… debuting at Number 2. Prior to this the group, comprising Murray Matravers, Oliver Cassidy, Sam Hewitt, Lewis Berry and Jordan Birtles, have enjoyed Top 10 success with 2020 mixtape Junk Food (7) and 2021 release life’s a beach (2). Paul and Jacqui Abbott’s fifth album as a duo, N.K-Pop, was released on 7 October and, a s usual, it’s another immaculate collection of instant pop gems, 12 could-be, should-be singles as dazzling as anything from best-selling Beautiful South comp Carry On Up The Charts. But, as Heaton says, we should have had this album much earlier. 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. Heaton, now in his sixties, has reached the ‘respected elder statesman’ era of his career (Gareth Paisey of Los Campesinos! regularly cites The Beautiful South as his favourite band), but the barbs have become no blunter. While much of N.K. Pop is firmly in the tradition of radio-friendly pop, it’s the lyrics that give these songs their extra dimension.

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I know several people who’ve been radicalised by the right-wing press, against immigrants, against anybody on the left, against woke. It’s sad to see, because you can’t argue with them. That’s what the song’s about – if you go out looking for trouble, you’ll find it.”

For the last four years south London emcee Flohio has been consistently touted as “the next big thing”, praised for an elevated flow that tends to work best over beats that sound like they were concocted to appeal to 4am ravers tweaking on ketamine. The release of her long-awaited debut LP, Out of Heart, is a chance to rubber stamp all this hype and turn co-signs from hipster London-based music bloggers into a bigger mainstream audience. Paul, in the 1989 song Love Is … you estimated your life expectancy as 52. Given that you are still going strong, any reason why you envisaged such a short lifespan? BernardMunch

John Murphy of musicOMH found that "While much of N.K. Pop is firmly in the tradition of radio-friendly pop, it's the lyrics that give these songs their extra dimension", concluding that "There are songs on N.K. Pop that stand squarely alongside some of Heaton's best" and that the "famous fire of his shows no sign of being extinguished". [3] Reviewing the album for Record Collector, Terry Staunton opined that there is "wry humour throughout" the album and that "Heaton remains the go-to chronicler of the Everyman condition" with Abbott providing "a vital contribution as both equal-billing foil and relatable conduit of female perspectives in these songs". [7] Too Much For One is another example of a great conversational/argument songs between yourself and Jacqui. How would you define the chemistry the two of you have? Heaton and Abbott have already previewed the forthcoming ‘N.K-Pop’ with the singles “Still” and “Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two)”. With the former song, the pair aimed to “raise awareness for folk who have lost a child, whether by miscarriage, stillbirth or in infancy”.

Earlier this year, Heaton spoke to NME about how he and Abbott played a number of free gigs for NHS staff as a thank you for their efforts throughout the pandemic. 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. It’s three in the morning, the sun’s up, and there’s all these beautiful people in this halcyon moment,” he recalled earlier this year. “People are laying on the grass, making out, drinking, smoking. It was an incredible moment. When the world stopped [for the pandemic], I had this moment to write in real time, to calculate. I was compelled by this vision, this anomaly, this memory, of being under the midnight sun.” There’s no mention of Portugal, or indeed Germany or Holland on N.K-Pop. Like the Paul and Jacqui albums before it, as well as Heaton’s four solo records and his crateful of Housemartins and Beautiful South long-players, this one feels as British as a battered sausage. a b Staunton, Terry (9 September 2022). "N.K-Pop | Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott". Record Collector . Retrieved 12 October 2022.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. Heaton has written in foreign climes ever since he became famous. “It’s part of the adventure, going away,” he says. “You’ve got your folder out with all of your half-written lyrics and you’re finishing your song in a place where nobody knows you.