Rave had effectively taken over the airwaves, and with critics salivating over all things baggy, Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray's songs were suddenly finding trouble being heard. 0898 failed to spawn any significant hits and yet all the quintessential Beautiful South hallmarks abound: Heaton's spirited defense of the barfly ('Old Red Eyes Is Back', 'The Domino Man'); a bilious castigation of burgeoning lad culture; and the royalty-baiting 'We'll Deal with You Later'. They're often derided for being middle-of-the-road, and inasmuch as 0898 owes more to Bacharach than the Stooges, it's true