"After hitting the U.K. Top Five with all three of their prior duo albums, the Beautiful South's Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott return with a generous 16-track set. A tip of the hat to the Clash's double album London Calling, Manchester Calling verifies that Heaton can indeed churn out enough bouncy earworms and playfully acerbic verses to fill the more ambitious length ... Manchester Calling is dominated by lively, playful songs, and though the track list might have been improved by cutting a handful of the more similar ones, the couple can't be justly accused of allowing any filler"