Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

(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.

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.

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.

(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...

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?

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.

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

I like PF.

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

(possibly one of these is wrong)

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?

http://www.browningmcintosh.com/plocktonwest/paddy2000a.jpg

I don't think any of these supposed concept lp's (18 at the last count) exist anywhere other than in his head but it's nice to know that there may be a concept album about Zorro the Fox or Michael Jackson arriving sometime in the next 5 or 10 years.

Sadly he's shaved his beard off

Oh, and Classic, if only for Steve McQueen.

hmm, i doubt this, in fact. If they did exist he would have released some "songs" rather than putting out "i trawl the megahertz". it seems to have more than a little of the Truman capote/answered prayers about it.

I am touched by JtN's new obsession.

Just thinking about the music to Bonny makes me a bit teary.

Personally I think the albums do exist. I certainly want to think they do.

Probably not as completed, polished recordings; maybe not even as completed songs; but certainly as fragments of tunes and lyrics like bits of jigsaws; some may be just a couple of bits of sky that wouldn't mean anything to anyone other than Paddy; others may be substantially complete apart from a last couple of elusive missing pieces to be located and slotted into place.

I'm sure Thomas Dolby's mentioned mentioned that Paddy's got shelves and shelves and cupboards full of tapes - but again I suspect sifting through them all to sort out the useable fragments would be a dauntingly gargantuan task for anyone to undertake.

Maybe that's why Paddy hasn't done it himself.

As far as I know Paddy had an operation that fixed his sight problems so hopefully he's back to full vision and we'll get a new PS album.

I've heard tell of people who've listened to bits of 'Earth: The Story So Far' etc., which suggests some of these lost albums (or parts thereof) have been recorded. Also, bits of 'Zorro the Fox' are apparently on Andromeda Heights.

Have you spoken to A-ha about this?

Me I'm touchy
Touchy touchy you
Me I'm touchy and you know what to do

I heard Spring Rain in a recd shop the other day and it sounded fucking excellent. I was prob wrong about the GBs, but it may be too late.

Lions

I have been absolutely hoovering up PS the last three weeks. Which is funny because I love them but not unconditionally. I find Paddy’s über-breathy voice and the “slick-but-kind-of-cheap” sound of many of their records to be … not off-putting exactly but also not as enveloping as it could or maybe should be. And outside of Desire As and Bonny, I’ve always had a bit of a tough time locking in on Steve McQueen. And yet, I can’t get enough of them right now.

Some thoughts:

I started many years ago with Jordan, which still
feels like their most fully realized release – kind of a compressed version of all those sprawling concept records he could never finish and chock full of classics (like, literally, a dozen). I sort of wonder what we’d say about them had it been another casualty of Paddy’s ambitious perfectionism.

Langley, as a friend rightly points out, is their Scritti record with multiple producers and probably their most experimental sounding record. It’s great to hear them playing around with arrangements here, and the Stevie Wonder harmonica on Nightengales is an inspired collision.

Let’s Change the World With Music is the surprise for me in their catalogue. Ride, God Watch Over You, Sweet Gospel Music, Earth, the Story So Far are all among their best tunes. And with all respect to Gerald McBoing Boing (who recently shared his b-sides CD-R’s with me), its sound has dated surprisingly well. Just a really delightful record.

Sound of Crying has been rightly praised here but Steve Lipson’s other production that came out on the Best Of, If You Don’t Love Me, is a pretty terrific as well – a PSB-style disco(!!) stomper replete with strings, scratchy guitar and a lovely ethereal Wendy harmony vocal.

I had completely forgotten Tony Visconti produced Gunman – which isn’t on Spotify but I want to spend a little time with.

"barnyard cat! barnyard cat! me, meow!"

Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good being my first, it's the one I'd take to the desert island.

Surprised that an album or two from the vault haven't been completed thanks to the COVID years, not to mention Femmes Mythologiques finally coming out.

Every time, a PS or Blue Nile / Paul Buchanan thread revives, I enjoy that brief "new album, good news?" burst of joy.

same with scritti lol

"Your daddy loves you very much, he just doesn't want to live with us anymore."

Absolute classic. Steve McQueen is one of the top three albums of the decade. It rewards repeated listens in a way that few other albums do.

That ITtM title track makes my eyes leak, so I avoid it at work. The lyrics, the assembly, the woman's voice, the music - in my top 5 PS/Paddy songs.

re: new music, i thought paddy was having health/vocal issues that made new prefab music unlikely?

he had a new album on the way a few years ago with but ended up losing the files or something iirc and it never came out

Femmes Mythologiques was the 2019 release supposed to follow the remasters/vinyl.

From a March 2020 interview:

Speaking of the many written things, there’s a rumoured-to-be-forthcoming Sprouts album due at some point, Femmes Mythologiques, containing pop songs about famous female historical figures, if reports are to be believed.

“I’m working really hard on that, I’m trying to finish a vocal now, which is a bit slow given the hearing condition. If it’s not ready for September, it’ll be ready for January.”

Then from July 2021, this interview mentions his eyesight and the Meniere’s Disease he struggles with, but also the "three albums a year" still being written (adding _Jockey of Discs_ to the unreleased album names list), working with Cinque Lee & Spike Lee, etc, but no mention of lost files or the FM album.

femmes mythologiques was the one i remember hearing didn't come out due to losing the files or some similar technical issue. briefly looking i can't find a good source but there are people mentioning that story on twitter so i didn't totally imagine it at least

Fansite mentions it here as rumour, but likely:
https://www.sproutology.co.uk/exposition/sproutological-review-of-2019/

Sorry, didn't mean that as doubting you. I read the same news, and was looking for a credible answer online. Seemed like Martin was encouraging his brother to release more stuff, as was maybe Keith Armstrong, so the delay continues to seem odd given all the mentions back then. He's an artist I wish would communicate once or twice a year on projects in work.

Every December I wait for 'Total Snow' to appear and every year I'm disappointed. Enough to stop me believing in Santa Claus.

Reminds me of the famous second Ralph Ellison novel.

Let’s Change the World With Music is the surprise for me in their catalogue. Ride, God Watch Over You, Sweet Gospel Music, Earth, the Story So Far are all among their best tunes. And with all respect to Gerald McBoing Boing (who recently shared his b-sides CD-R’s with me), its sound has dated surprisingly well. Just a really delightful record.

OTM, that might be my favorite Prefab record now. It's kind of a meme do describe things as "pure" and "wholesome" but those words come to mind when I hear that album; it has this warm, empathetic, positive glow about it that's bolstered by the conspicuously artificial instrumentation

Not a big fan of that album but "Earth, the Story So Far" is gorgeous

Yeah that's definitely the highlight (along with "Ride" imo)

Also this board's namesake song is so adorable, an instant aural anti-depressant

It seems like one of the problems with releasing the unreleased albums is that Let’s Change the World With Music set such a high bar for completedness. Did Paddy record all his stuff that well? I mean, the Jordan demos are great … but sound much more like demos. Of course, I want to hear all of them anyway …

So this is lovely and unexpected

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1QlcnCdBoU

really nice

Nice indeed, wish more people would cover them.

most of their songs aren’t exactly ones you pick up and play haha. i’ve seen a few “wild horses” covers, that one is two chords. and “bonny” is on the simpler side as well

YouTube algorithm threw me this live version next. Somehow, had never thought of checking out old clips. Very cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zefR13phCKM

Have you guys seen this? I picked some rare stuff from Sproutology years ago before it got pulled but this is ridiculous. https://danilaundry.com/prefab

The initial section through the live Durham tracks aren't familiar, so thanks! Most everything after that I've heard or own, but cool.

Nice to see these collected as John Birch seemed to gatekeep them decades ago. "Bearpark", so good.