ProStudioMasters.com

"[Heaton's} eighth solo album (and his fourth with former Beautiful South singer Abbott) is trademark stuff, which will be familiar to fans of that band and Heaton’s previous outfit, the Housemartins. There are richly observed, gently acerbic vignettes about the vagaries of British life, delivered over a mix of steadily uptempo pop, folk, ska and soul." - The Guardian Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott release their fourth studio album Manchester Calling. The album boasts all the hallmarks of Heaton’s beautifully bittersweet song-writing – catchy melodies allied with an everyman’s biting exasperation at the modern world alongside some truly heartfelt love songs. Produced by long time collaborator John Williams who produced the previous three Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott albums, Manchester Calling was recorded at Blueprint Studios in Salford, Manchester. As is Paul Heaton’s habit, the lyrics were written in various locations in North Holland and Belgium while the music was composed in a hotel in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria and in Limburg An Der Lahn in Germany. "If there’s a theme to the record, it’s anti growth, anti greed, against the continuous tearing down of old buildings and sticking up soulless offices, and the disappearance of local accents on TV, along with the creeping spread of Americanese. So, some curmudgeonly moans, plus some hopefully uplifting love songs." - Paul Heaton