Manchester Calling

Manchester Calling is the fourth studio album by Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, both formerly members of the Beautiful South. The album was released on 6 March 2020 by Virgin EMI.

Heaton wrote the songs in various locations in North Holland and Belgium, and composed the music between a hotel in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, and in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany.

Heaton and Abbott were set to tour the UK in support of the album across April and May 2020, but this was postponed until later in the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also performed several songs on The Late Late Show on 6 March.

Background
Heaton called the theme of the album "anti growth, anti greed, [and] 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" in the United Kingdom, and more specifically Manchester. The cover of the album is a composite picture of two skyscrapers, one of which is the Beetham Tower, the location of the Hilton Manchester Deansgate.

Critical reception
Writing for The Guardian, Dave Simpson called the songs "richly observed, gently acerbic vignettes about the vagaries of British life, delivered over a mix of steadily uptempo pop, folk, ska and soul".

In a review for The Scotsman, Fiona Shepherd felt that Manchester Calling is about Heaton disliking "what he sees in Brexit Britain" as well as his "tribute to The Clash's London Calling, broadly inspired by commercial expansion in the city he calls home", although Heaton also still writes about "the man on the street or in his home" with "wry lyrics in diverse, celebratory sonic settings".