Blue Is the Colour is the fifth studio album from English band the Beautiful South, released in October 1996 through Go!

The album continued the melancholic tone of its predecessor Miaow, and is generally considered to be the band's darkest effort, reflecting Heaton's life at the time.

This comes across in songs such as "Liars’ Bar" (about alcoholism), "The Sound of North America" (a sarcastic look at capitalism), "Mirror" (Prostitution), "Blackbird on the Wire", "Have Fun" (which Heaton has cited as his saddest song), and the self-explanatory "Alone".

On "Liars' Bar", Paul Heaton's vocal consciously imitates the style of Tom Waits, while in "Alone" the bass line serves as another allusion to him.

All tracks by Paul Heaton & Dave Rotheray (except where noted) As was their usual modus operandi, The Beautiful South included unreleased material on the B-sides of the singles taken from their albums.