Jenius

Ask Paul Heaton how many songs he’s written and he’ll tell you he’s not really sure. Perhaps that’s unsurprising: this summer it’s 40 years since The Housemartins released their debut album, Hull: 0 London: 4, peaking at number 3 in Britain. Subsequently, he’s released, in various configurations – with The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, solo and with Jacqui Abbot, not to mention as Biscuit Boy  –another 21 studio albums, plenty going gold, some multi-platinum, as they’ve risen to the charts’ highest reaches. For each, moreover, he’ll have written many many more songs than he’ll ever include.  Now, less than two years since The Mighty Several – itself his sixth album to go Top 5 in a dozen years – this prolific, poetic observer of human nature is back with another fifteen gems. Silly or serious, poignant or pointed, therein lies Paul Heaton’s Jenius.