Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Momus' posterity butterfly-collector may not rate Paddy McAloon but what about the rest of you? The new Cole Porter or got more praise than he oughta?

― Tom, Friday, 27 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Although Wendy Smith's angelic voice was sometimes a bit too much for my liking, I'd still say classic. Steve McQueen! And how can you not resist singing along about jumping frogs?

― Stevie Nixed, Friday, 27 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Well Vicky rated Paddy over me - SO i'D SAY CLASSIC - he busks better than Martin Stephenson

― Geordie Racer, Friday, 27 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

I've been toying with the idea of floating this out as a C-or-D myself ever since there was a thread a while back which mentioned a new album on its way. (Should be in the shops June 2006, then). I'm just totally puzzled about the appeal of Prefab. I can hear the 'craftsmanship', I can tell that he uses lots of wierd chords, and yes, the melodies are unusual and the wordplay is often clever. Yet it's all so MOR, so polite. I got the 2CD best of in a sale last year, and I still can't get past the surface polish. Back in 1985 everyone was clamouring about "When Love Breaks Down" being one of the greatest songs ever written, and the bloody thing was released about 5 times to try and get a hit. Yet I can't listen to it without my attention wandering after about 30 seconds.

― Dr. C, Friday, 27 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

Forget the new Cole Porter - the question is, who's the new Lloyd Cole?

― the pinefox, Friday, 27 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

i think he is brilliant. i can completely agree with the sentiment that all of the records save 'swoon' and 'protest songs' are mor/adult contemporary but that doesn't seem to bother me, i've no idea why. he is craftsman in my eyes and i think he never releases a song that isn't complete and wonderful. well maybe a few like say 'the fifth horseman' which is a bit crap. allegedly he writes and records hundreds of songs but i doubt that, the website is sticking by the may 22nd release date for the new record 'gunman and other stories'. the pearlfishers record is a nice primer.

― keith, Friday, 27 April 2001 00:00 (12 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Just got "The Gunman". I thought I was disappointed by Andromeda Heights. This is a new low. Firstly, I only get 10 tracks, of which 4 tracks have been previously released in one form or another. Secondly, some of the songs are just pure filler... Example: Farmyard Cat??? What kind of crap is that?! I'm a Farmyard Cat.. Meow??? AAARGGGH!!!! Thirdly, if I wanted a country album, I'd look up Travis Tritt... Someone help me here! Is it too much to ask for an album with COMPLETELY UNRELEASED MATERIAL??? Paddy I think has lost the will to be his best.

― Lance Wright, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

From what I've heard they're ..nice. I like the song Bonnie

― Mike Hanley, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

I look forward to when he ditches the muso session men and expensive producers and releases the solo accoustic album he's destined to do. I love his stuff but on the last two albums he seems to be trying to sabotage his work by making it sickly smooth and sweet, he should try scuffing his knees now and again.

― Billy Dods, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

I'm back into them again now so let's revive!

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 9 January 2003 17:07 (10 years ago) Permalink

'steve mcqueen' is a beautiful beautiful record. I'm kinda surprised dr C doesn't like 'em.

so what recs of theirs have you been listening to Tom?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 9 January 2003 17:31 (10 years ago) Permalink

I own everything up to "Andromeda.." but all on tape so I'd not listened for years. Isabel likes them too and we were thinking vaguely of playing something by them at the wedding, so I bought the 2CD best-of. The first CD I think is really patchy - they weren't particularly a 'singles band' and so a chronological arrangement of same definitely has its ups and downs. The second CD is pretty much terrific right up until the Andromeda material which I never liked, though - I loved them at their absolute softest, really limpid pretty hushed ballads like "When the Cows Come Home"; "Desire As"; "Doo-Wop In Harlem"; "Pearly Gates" (Protest Songs is my favourite album by them and is full of that stuff).

I'm a bit surprised you like them Julio!

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 9 January 2003 17:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

Classic.

I've loved Prefab Sprout since I first heard Lions In My Own Garden on John Peel back in '82/'83.

I wonder if Dr. C was about / remembers seeing them at Reading Uni around '84 / '85 when they were on tour with another great Kitchenware band, Hurrah! and both bands apparently only had one bass & bass amp between them?

Last saw them (without Wendy, sadly) at Shepherds Bush Empire a couple of years ago and they were still magic.

Julio's impeccable taste doesn't surprise me in the slightest btw.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 9 January 2003 17:45 (10 years ago) Permalink

no, this is definitely Julio music - especially Cruel I would say - and not Dr.C music.

At his best - "When The Angels", title song from Jordan... - McAloon's untouchable. He doesn't quite do it often enough for me tho'.

― Jeff W, Thursday, 9 January 2003 17:47 (10 years ago) Permalink

I really loved 'Steve McQueen' and 'Cars & Girls' .. but I just haven't been able to get into anything else ... I really want to too - because Steve McQueen is 'simply amazing' (a phrase that will undoubtedly show up on the cliches we love to hate thread) - and maybe it's that high standard that's kept me from liking much else...

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 9 January 2003 18:04 (10 years ago) Permalink

I also taped steve mcqueen of the record library but I haven't heard this record in a long time. I should prob buy this, actually because I can't remember exactly why i liked this record so much (you see I taped Joy division's closer on the other side to save money on buying tapes and I don't think they go well together).

''I'm a bit surprised you like them Julio!''

songs don't need to have an obligatory free jazz bit in them tom.

well doesn't Dr C like Scritti politti? OK so they aren't exactly alike but both bands have an affinity for soul-type stuff so i thought he would enjoy it.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 9 January 2003 18:07 (10 years ago) Permalink

definitely one where I wish their was an option between classic and dud but I'll say classic. Compared to Elvis Costello's post-This Years' Model stuff it's gloriously hernia-free but like Aztec Camera's High Land, Hard Rain I kinda forget this stuff exists most of the the time. Fine when I hear it though.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 9 January 2003 19:48 (10 years ago) Permalink

I thought they were pretty good back in the Langley Park days, but i played that album a year or two back and it was quite a painful affair.

Dud.

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 9 January 2003 19:53 (10 years ago) Permalink

Hey up! My ears are burning.

Stewart - yes, yes I saw PF at RUSU in 84 or 85. I wrote at some length about the great Hurrah! on a thread on ILX not long ago. Tim Hopkins and I (and doomie!) were waxing lyrical about them. We invited Hurrah! to a party at our house after the gig and they turned up with Prefab Sprout too!

For about 2 weeks after it came out I thought that side one of Steve McQueen was genius, but it soon passed. I dunno - I have the 2CD thing and it occasionally comes out if I feel the need to hear Lions in My Own Garden or Bonny or Don't Sing - but really I just don't *get* McAloon. The concepts aren't that really that interesting and everything is so *tasteful* that I just can't get interested.

So you're right Jeff, as usual! I don't much like them, but of course I love Scritti. I suppose the comparison is valid tho' I'm not much interested in Paddy OR Green's craftsmanship and intelligence - Scritti get my attention because they're just so damn funky.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 9 January 2003 20:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

"I wrote at some length about the great Hurrah! on a thread on ILX not long ago."

Hurrah! Started out so well - they were great live (did you see them at the After Dark too Dr. C?) the 3 or 4 singles they did for Kitchenware (which were later compiled as "Boxed") were excellent; then they signed to Arista and somehow sadly they just seemed to lose the plot.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 9 January 2003 21:17 (10 years ago) Permalink

Prefab Sprout are the musical equivalent of a Disney movie- nothing in the league of Alice In Wonderland, mind you, but better than Pocahontas. So yeah, tasteful, "nice", "clean". But with enough wide-eyed wonder to lure me in.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 10 January 2003 00:18 (10 years ago) Permalink

Stewart - yes, they were bloody unbelievable live. I saw them 4 or 5 times in Reading - St. Patricks Hall, another hall (St. Georges?)After Dark and RUSU twice (once with PF and once with Microdisney). I treasure 'Boxed' and the Rev-Ola comp.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 10 January 2003 09:41 (10 years ago) Permalink

Haven't heard it for ages but I used to think that if you could get past the dodgy production "Swoon" was their best album. This seems to be as eccentric a view now as it was then. The 3 or 4 best songs on "Steve McQueen" were better than "Swoon", and the production was obviously much more sophisticated. But the quality of the ideas was patchier and it was a less consistent album. By "Langley Park" the magic had all but gone, to return only very sporadically.

Their career seems in a minor way to echo Steely Dan's, a band they were close to stylistically - they started off rough-but-brilliant, hit their peak when they added some production smarts (although PS's peak lasted for about 4 songs while SDs lasted for several albums) and then petered out as an obsession with high-production gloss turned them bland.

― ArfArf, Friday, 10 January 2003 11:28 (10 years ago) Permalink

heh, I meant "Swoon" when I said "Cruel" above (the latter's a song on the former).

― Jeff W, Friday, 10 January 2003 11:55 (10 years ago) Permalink

I've always found Swoon pretty much impenetrable - it stopped me enjoying PS for a long time (I bought it first because it had the best title). All that oblique wordplay.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 10 January 2003 11:56 (10 years ago) Permalink

I wouldn't defend the lyrics, Tom. Generally lyrics are just not very important to me. I seem to remember some of the images added a nice weirdness to the proceedings and worked sonically, but I'd never have been interested in thinking "what exactly does that mean?"

(This reminds of a comment Elton John made in an interview in the aftermath of Blur releasing "The Great Escape" (to great critical acclaim) and Oasis releasing "What's the Story" (critically rubbished). EJ said the critics were going to end up with egg on their face, partly because they were too obsessed by the lyrics, but also because they did not understand how lyrics worked. Oasis's lyrics might be rubbish in terms of meaning but they sounded ok so they did the job. EJ obviously isn't indifferent to lyrics or he wouldn't employ Bernie Taupin, and pay him a huge royalty share: he wasn't saying lyrics don't matter. He was saying they mattered in a different way than the critics thought.

This stuck in my mind because I agreed with his him both on how lyrics worked and on the relative merits of the two albums (not that I was a particularly fervent admirer of the Oasis album, but it did have some very good tunes while the Blur album IMO was obviously rubbish. Even Blur's lyrics, sixth-form poetry shot through with a celebrity's contempt for the rest of us with our boring jobs and lives, were much more offensive than Gallacher's mere awkwardness.

EJ turned out to be "right" at least in the limited/provisional sense that WTSMG outsold TGE by a huge multiple and the critical consensus shifted hugely in its favour as well.

― ArfArf, Friday, 10 January 2003 12:52 (10 years ago) Permalink

Neil Tennant made a very similar point re. Blur/Oasis lyrics, and I think he and Elton were probably right. My interest in lyrics flickers on and off - if they don't attract my attention I won't judge them. With Swoon though it seemed to me that the lyrics were drawing attention to themselves quite a bit, leaving me little choice but to pay some kind of attention. And often they left me feeling rather irritated.

Actually thinking about it this happened with the backing vocals more than the lyrics - something like "When Bobby Fischer's plane touches the ground" is interrupted by that pert little "(plane, plane!)" in the backing, and for whatever reason it infuriates me every time, draws attention to the lyrical quirkiness. I hate that feeling when I'm listening to music and suddenly find myself thrown out of the record thinking "But why on earth is *that* there?". The "Doh-bee. Doh-bee." stuff at the start of 'I Couldn't Bear To Be Special' has the same effect.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 10 January 2003 13:01 (10 years ago) Permalink

Again, I wouldn't want to defend these specific instances. I'd agree that some of the quirkiness/archness is irritating and obtrusive. But in terms of liking the album overall it obviously didn't bother me so much.

― ArfArf, Friday, 10 January 2003 15:33 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Revive - if only because, after years of unrequited like from both parties, they suddenly seem to be the band my mid-thirties were waiting for. 'Nightingales' just came on iTunes and it's like Heidegger rewritten by Dietz and Schwartz.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 18:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

Goodness!

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 18:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

I am also... touched at Dr C.'s precognitive typo throughout this thread... where he types PF instead of PS... repeatedly!

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 18:53 (9 years ago) Permalink

I also think there is an unmatchable b-sides collection to be compiled here - 'Girl I'm Here' and 'The End of the Affair' (unbelievably, a couple of b-sides from different editions of the ok 'Electric Guitars' single) alone are worth the price of admission.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 19:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

I found them to be CLASSIC until "Langley Park" which is unbelievably DUD. My little brother looooves them, go figure once again

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 19:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

I must listen to the 2CD best of thing tonight to see if I like them yet. I sort of want to like PS.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 20:10 (9 years ago) Permalink

I agree with Donna Brown's little brother!

And -- while I expect disagreement -- I think Dolby/Prefab (or Dolby/McAloon) was a genuinely great partnership. Yes, sometimes an otherwise lush production suffers from a synth patch too scrappy or anemic -- or conversely, a pad too thick and sludgy -- to serve its intended purpose. But Dolby had a knack for giving each track its own sonic vocabulary, and if you forgive the occasional lapse it's possible to get really caught up in the creativity of the arrangements of even the lesser songs -- the punch, rubbery percussive sounds in "Knock on Wood," the spacious acoustic and nicely timed delays on the backup singers in "I Remember That," the Gregorian chant/drone in "Michael," and so on.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 20:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

"the punchY, rubber percussive sounds"

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

Anyone remember the song "Donna Summer" that came (only I think) with the double-single release of 'When Love Breaks Down"? God, that was wonderful. It also came with a different version of "Diana" that was on "Protest Songs" (my favourite Sprout LP I think)

― LondonLee (LondonLee), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:43 (9 years ago) Permalink

No, but I really liked that song "Spinning Belinda" that was on the Debut magazine/record combo and apparently no other Sprout record. Thanks, Paddy.

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 22:35 (9 years ago) Permalink

I had forgotten all about Debut magazine. I had an issue that had Danse Society on it.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 22:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

there are some great songs on Jordan, the Comeback too and that album hasn't been mentioned so far ( i dont think) Mercy is maybe his greatest song. "I'm 49" from I trawl the Megahertz is very beautiful too.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 11 March 2004 02:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

jordan is the best song. andromeda has been unfairly maligned in this subject too, it was a pretty classy comeback album. never heard the last one. i liked that andromeda was dedicated to a couple of carpenters. the judybats were like the american version of prefab sprout, they were classic as well.

― keith m (keithmcl), Thursday, 11 March 2004 02:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

Judybats were TOTALLY classic

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Thursday, 11 March 2004 02:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

I like a few tracks on Andromeda Heights but it was a disappointment overall. I'm glad I didn't give up on it too quickly or I would have missed out on the glorious title track at the end -- glorious despite the ill-conceived instrumental verse.

(Anomie & Bonhomie is another album where you might well bail out early on an artist whose best years are probably behind him, but you'd miss the best track if you did.)

And yes, "Im 49" is beautiful. Depressing as hell, but beautiful.

Never heard of the Judybats -- in what ways are they similar? Sound? Quality of songwriting? Or...

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 11 March 2004 03:00 (9 years ago) Permalink

Classic. I was just playing the first side of 'Two Wheels Good'/'Steve McQueen' today.

As for Elton's praising Noel Gallagher's lyrics, didn't Christgau once cite "You know I can't think straight no more" as a key to Bernie Taupin's state of mind?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 11 March 2004 04:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think Andromeda Heights is fantastic! A much more "mature" sound than any of the other albums, but I wouldn't want to have to chose my favourite between that one, SWOON and Protest Songs.

The Gunman & Other Stories on the other hand was a disappointment.

I Trawl The Megahertz is.... interesting.... I'm not sure, haven't really made my mind up on that one yet. I've enjoyed it to the 2 or 3 times I've played it but I don't feel any great urge to keep going back to it like I did with Andromeda Heights.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 11 March 2004 10:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

Swoon, McQueen, Langley Park, Protest Songs and Jordan infused my teenage life so that McAloon could never in the future put a foot wrong. Of course he did, but I've ignored it in the main. Ok, I haven't- Andormeda Heights, some great songs aside, is swamped by saxophone and slush, and Gunman just doesn't sparkle. Megahertz has a good six songs' worth of filler, but 'I'm 49''s perfect and the opener is touching, stitched together or not. That said, it does sound a bit like my American friend rambling 'meaningfully' over her ex-boyfriend's crappy noodling, but I try to shut that out.

― Buffalo Stan, Thursday, 11 March 2004 16:19 (9 years ago) Permalink

I don't know what Dolby and iTunes are.

re. lyrics, how about wanting to be the Fred Astaire of words?

I like PF.

― the bluefox, Thursday, 11 March 2004 16:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

Dolby = Thomas Dolby, who produced and played on Steve McQueen

iTunes = an antique jukebox in a cafe in North London that only plays PS and PF records

(possibly one of these is wrong)

― zebedee (zebedee), Thursday, 11 March 2004 17:17 (9 years ago) Permalink

Thomas Dolby also produced and performed on parts of Langley Park and all of Jordan

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 11 March 2004 19:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

You know what? I quite like the idea of McAloon - this hyperliterate exquisite loner - gradually moving toward what, some might call, slush. Oddly, it's a sign of adventure. He desparately wants to write the 'Long and Winding Road' of his generation, and I think there's something weirdly admirable about his attempt to stifle his peculiar singularity in search of a standard. In a funny way, he's Jimmy Webb in reverse.

I also love what I have heard of the Megahertz record. It's brave and magnificent.

Does anyone know the state of Paddy M's eyesight now? And whether he is likely to release any of his mad folly concept lps or is ever more determined to explore the lonely furrow connecting the BBC world service and Berlioz?

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 11 March 2004 21:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 148 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

If I'm re-hashing someone's later answer, please excuse me... I adore the first two records and would probably consider Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good my second favorite record of all-time. The interesting thing about it is that a lot of the material on said album was A&R'd/selected by Thomas Dolby and actually pre-dates Swoon in terms of when it was written. So, glean from that what you will about how you feel if Paddy's songwriting either blossomed or conversely withered, 'cuz from my vantage point:

Classic: Swoon & Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good
Dud: The entire rest of his/their career

― Hector Savage, Thursday, 11 November 2010 02:10 (2 years ago) Permalink

including Jordan in your dud list is inexplicable. they seem like a band with a very narrow entry angle, no idea why this is, he writes timeless pop songs, perhaps it is all down to the endless optimism and the production. i love him more every day.

― keythhtyek, Thursday, 11 November 2010 03:37 (2 years ago) Permalink

they were the best days/the harvest years

― teflon dawn (uptown churl), Thursday, 11 November 2010 14:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

A lot of people don't like sentimentality.

― corey, Thursday, 11 November 2010 18:34 (2 years ago) Permalink

Well, there's a line between sentimentality and schmaltz over which Mr. McAloon's writing dances over with increasing regularity since Protest Songs.

― Hector Savage, Thursday, 11 November 2010 19:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

Well, you can either expand to include the schmaltz or withdraw and exclude it from validation. "Schmaltz" is merely a descriptive factor, not a qualitative judgement.

― corey, Thursday, 11 November 2010 19:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

"Yet it's all so MOR, so polite"

almost ten (!) years ago i may have agreed with this upthread criticism, but now it just strikes me as so hopelessly missing the point.

also, it has to be said -- sentimental's part of the deal

― teflon dawn (uptown churl), Thursday, 11 November 2010 20:58 (2 years ago) Permalink

I love "Langley Park" and "Jordan...." but I can understand how people who are not into ultra-smooth production tend to prefer "Steve McQueen".

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 11 November 2010 23:51 (2 years ago) Permalink

Yet, those two are my favourites, exactly because they were more produced and smoother. I love "Steve McQueen" as well, but not to the same extent.

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 11 November 2010 23:52 (2 years ago) Permalink

Yep

― corey, Friday, 12 November 2010 00:24 (2 years ago) Permalink

I have five words for you: "Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque"

Worst Prefab chorus of all-time or just worst chorus of all-time?

completely...

― Hector Savage, Friday, 12 November 2010 03:21 (2 years ago) Permalink

Yawn.

― corey, Friday, 12 November 2010 03:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

i always call 'steve mcqueen' one of my favorite albums of all time but there's two or three tracks that i skip over every time - the first side is just flawless tho imo

― bloc trebek-quois (donna rouge), Friday, 12 November 2010 04:00 (2 years ago) Permalink

It's obvious Paddy got too clever for you at one point, Hector. I'm guessing you don't like Scritti Politti or 10cc either.

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, 12 November 2010 04:06 (2 years ago) Permalink

its not the smooth production that bothers me, i love me some smooth production, i just feel like the songs are stronger on Steve McQueen. i'll be giving Langley Park some more time soon, though.

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Friday, 12 November 2010 05:54 (2 years ago) Permalink

actually really digging Jordan right now, kind of overwhelming, though

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Friday, 12 November 2010 05:58 (2 years ago) Permalink

Love love love 10cc... Sheet Music also vies for my Top 10 of all-time, but I think they definitely fell off when Godley and Creme left the group.

I like Scritti a lot... Songs To Remember is a classic but the production is brutally "of its time" on Cupid & Psyche and I find it hard to look past that, but the songs themselves are really great. I went another direction personally after that.

I've given every Prefab album a chance and I quite like Paddy's solo album... I'll agree that Jordan has moments of strength, but there's an undeniable line of delineation at From Langley Park To Memphis.

― Hector Savage, Friday, 12 November 2010 12:50 (2 years ago) Permalink

i always call 'steve mcqueen' one of my favorite albums of all time but there's two or three tracks that i skip over every time - the first side is just flawless tho imo

― bloc trebek-quois (donna rouge), Friday, November 12, 2010 4:00 AM (8 hours ago)

I agree with this, that first side is one my favourite runs on any album ever. Horsin' Around is the only song I skip it just doesn't belong on such a beautiful album.

― Kitchen Person, Friday, 12 November 2010 12:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

but I think they definitely fell off when Godley and Creme left the group.

Not going to argue about there being an obvious drop in quality. Even though I still think they did more standard melodic pop music better than most. For a while anyway.

Horsin' Around is the only song I skip it just doesn't belong on such a beautiful album.

"Horsing Around" is among the ones I like best on "Steve McQueen" actually. It's a bit like the weirder songs on the "Swoon" album, only with a rather smooth and synth dominated production that also makes it point toward the future.

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, 12 November 2010 13:01 (2 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and the production is the reason why I like "Cupid & Psyche" and even "Provision" much better than I like "Songs To Remember. Of its time, maybe, but what a time! :)

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, 12 November 2010 13:03 (2 years ago) Permalink

Along with Steve McQueen I'd rate Swoon and Jordon as the other classics. Most of the other albums are patchy.

My favourite song is still the very first single Lion's In My Own Garden, it's such a strange and addictive tune.

― Kitchen Person, Friday, 12 November 2010 13:04 (2 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and the production is the reason why I like "Cupid & Psyche" and even "Provision" much better than I like "Songs To Remember. Of its time, maybe, but what a time! :)

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, November 12, 2010 1:03 PM

Some of the production is a little dated on Cupid & Psyche but there are moments of genius, especially Absolute. On the whole Songs To Remember is a more consistent album all the way through, the songs are just stronger. White Bread Black Beer is by far my favourite album of his though.

― Kitchen Person, Friday, 12 November 2010 13:07 (2 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, must agree Geir... "Horsin' Around" is one of my favorites; it reminds me of instrumental supermarket music of my childhood with its bursts of muted trumpets.

It's more often "Blueberry Pies." that gets the FFWD.

― Hector Savage, Friday, 12 November 2010 13:16 (2 years ago) Permalink

I have probably moaned on upthread about not really getting PF despite trying for 25 years or so. And it's true I still don't really go for the lushness and the soft focus. But just listening to the 2CD compilation (can't remember name of it) today there are definitely moments of utter greatness that no one-else but Paddy can do. 'I count the hours since you slipped away' in Bonny is one, also 'All my silence and my strained respect/missed chances and the same regrets'. He forces those lines out brilliantly. It's a great production is Bonny - someone said upthread that Steve McQueen was fog-covered or something similar and it's exactly on the money wrt Bonny. Dolby did something really unusual with that album - side one especially is terrific. I rarely listen music to this thought-out and carefully produced these days, but this track really hit home today.

But why oh why oh why didn't they include 'Wild Horses' on this album? Jenny Agutter!

― Dr.C, Friday, 12 November 2010 13:59 (2 years ago) Permalink

Am I the only one who saw the remarkable thing that happened here?:

It's obvious Paddy got too clever for you at one point, Hector. I'm guessing you don't like Scritti Politti or 10cc either.

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro)

Is this the beginning of a new era?

― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, 12 November 2010 14:03 (2 years ago) Permalink

Doesn't seem that way to me. I still love clever music, like I have always done. :)

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, 12 November 2010 14:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

Am I the only one who saw the remarkable thing that happened here?:

Now you mention it, yes I do know what you mean, Kevin.

― Mark G, Friday, 12 November 2010 14:23 (2 years ago) Permalink

Ok Mark G got it!

― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, 12 November 2010 14:29 (2 years ago) Permalink

Some of the production is a little dated on Cupid & Psyche but there are moments of genius, especially Absolute

The Arif Mardin produced ones hold up better than the Fred Maher produced ones, surely.

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, 12 November 2010 14:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

(in terms of production, that is. "The Word Girl" and "Perfect Way" are still fantastic songs though)

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, 12 November 2010 14:34 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

this song is awesome

― gr8080, Monday, 10 January 2011 01:43 (2 years ago) Permalink

otm

― mizzell, Monday, 10 January 2011 03:26 (2 years ago) Permalink

Pulled out "Jordan" recently and oh god it's the epitomy of romantic. Paddy's voicee is so swoon-worthy, and it sounds like he's feeling what he sings about SO DEEPLY but in a completely sincere way. No "emo" just emotion.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 10 January 2011 03:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

most unfairly under-rated 80s band or what?

― piscesx, Thursday, 2 June 2011 17:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

The bonus disc of acoustic rerecordings that came with the "Steve McQueen" reissue is crazy good, probably the single best revisitation of material years later.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 2 June 2011 18:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

The blueprint for Kaputt by any chance?

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/prefab-sprout-steve-mcqueen-round-29-toms-selection/

― yugi ex, Friday, 8 June 2012 23:08 (11 months ago) Permalink

i hear a lot of Blue Nile in it, but Avalon and Boys & Girls above all....(I LOVE Prefab Sprout, whom I avoided for twenty years because I didn't like their name...stupid!)

― Iago Galdston, Friday, 8 June 2012 23:48 (11 months ago) Permalink

4 months pass...

Horsin' Around was just on WFMU. What a magnificent song.

― john. a resident of chicago., Monday, 15 October 2012 01:42 (7 months ago) Permalink

Classic All the Way. "One of the Broken" nearly brought me to tears today when it came up on iTunes shuffle.

― Cliftonb, Monday, 15 October 2012 02:10 (7 months ago) Permalink

in the last few years, prefab sprout has become one of my very favorite groups. paddy mcaloon in my top 5 singers of all time.

― mizzell, Monday, 15 October 2012 03:45 (7 months ago) Permalink

ultra ultra classic and ridiculously ignored by most people at the moment. did When Love Breaks Down and King Of Rock N Roll at karaoke at a friends house party on saturday, it ruled.

― Jamie_ATP, Monday, 15 October 2012 08:36 (7 months ago) Permalink

You were the Fred Astaire of words, Paddy.

Jordan is maybe my favourite album.

Cornfield Ablaze is the last song I really, really loved.

― woof, Monday, 15 October 2012 11:22 (7 months ago) Permalink

I don't understand how "Wild Horses" is only referenced once on this thread...unless there's a video.

My gawd, everything about it so cool. I sorta think he's channeling Prince here. The (relatively) glitchy-ness of the hook is super catchy. And the lyrics are so smart and his delivery is so smooth.

― john. a resident of chicago., Monday, 15 October 2012 16:17 (7 months ago) Permalink

the sprout are basically the british steely dan. each reflecting the awesomeness of their respective countries.

― Jamie_ATP, Tuesday, 16 October 2012 13:51 (7 months ago) Permalink

that's a feast that the whiskey priest may yet have to forgooooowhoooaoaaoah

― bryan "radical" ferry (clouds), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 14:07 (7 months ago) Permalink

'Swoon' is one of the loveliest debuts ever...a little faberge egg of an album...Never really did anything spectacular after 'Jordan' but there are a few gems...'Blue Roses' is lovely...

― The Pastiche Liberation Front (sonnyboy), Tuesday, 16 October 2012 16:34 (7 months ago) Permalink

Bonus points for having Jenny Agutter do the voiceover on "Wild Horses."

― henry s, Tuesday, 16 October 2012 22:08 (7 months ago) Permalink

Swoon just blew me away the first time I heard it, it's such a strange and addictive album. I'd had Steve McQueen for years and liked it, then in about 2006 I got Swoon and they became one of my favourte bands. Jordan is their third classic album. Protest Songs is a really good album but not on the same level. All their other albums have some moments but are pretty patchy.

Lions in my own Garden remains my favourite song of theirs. This is a great live version of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MKy5bAEG6g

― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 16 October 2012 23:53 (7 months ago) Permalink

YES

― Jamie_ATP, Thursday, 18 October 2012 15:33 (7 months ago) Permalink

This just bubbled up on my iPod...a little lost gem...love the bass on this...trying sooooo hard to be funky

http://m.youtube.com/?reason=8&rdm=1448#/watch?v=cB32rSsQTaU&desktop_uri=/watch?v=cB32rSsQTaU

― The Pastiche Liberation Front (sonnyboy), Tuesday, 23 October 2012 17:44 (6 months ago) Permalink

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.