I POLLED the Megahertz - ILM Artist Poll #100 - Prefab Sprout - RESULTS

ride!!!

XP: One might think I'd know what I voted for innit. My ballot only existed in the results spreadsheet and I've got out of the habit of opening it since extracting the final numbers!

Anyway, I need to pick up the pace...

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#36
HORSIN' AROUND
from Steve McQueen (1985)
Points: 114
Votes: 8 (0)
Youtube audio

As an achievement in production and orchestration, Hey Manhattan is incredible.

funny that the spoken word-happy JTC and Hey Manhattan placed right next to each other

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#35
DOO-WOP IN HARLEM
from Jordan: The Comeback (1990)
Points: 127
Votes: 7 (0)
Youtube audio

I'm inclined to agree with jed_.

a gorgeous little sigh of a song, totally devastating. didn’t vote for it because I never listen it it on its own

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#34
ENCHANTED
from From Langley Park to Memphis (1988)
Points: 128
Votes: 10 (0)
Youtube audio

Horsin Around! That one was my favorite track on Two Wheels Good the first few times I listened to it (which was only just 2 years ago). I eventually settled more on Bonny/Faron, but still, great track.

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#33
HALLELUJAH
from Steve McQueen (1985)
Points: 130
Votes: 8 (0)
Youtube audio

the swooniest song on steve, so twisty-turny

Wow i'd always sort-of overlooked One Of The Broken but yeah that's a beaut. I think Jordan is classic for that 'some tracks get lost in the shuffle' thing you sometimes get; mainly because it's so long of course.

Even the shorter SM/TWG is kind of like that. For instance, I'm already regretting not casting a vote for "Blueberry Pies", which I have always thought would be a great song for Sade to cover. Hope it gets its props!

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#32
JESSE JAMES BOLERO
from Jordan: The Comeback (1990)
Points: 144
Votes: 8 (0)
Youtube audio

"doo wop in harlem" too low. play that song at my funeral

the programming on "knock on wood" is just out of this world. that's a yellow magic orchestra-quality song there

i'm surprised eight people voted for "horsin' around"! i do like that song tbh

"enchanted" was a late addition to my ballot. the scritti-est prefab song, so funky

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#31
CARNIVAL 2000
from Jordan: The Comeback (1990)
Points: 147
Votes: 9 (0)
Youtube: original promo video

aaah too low

two too lows in a row

carnival 2000 is so good, all these individual elements mashed together. it shouldn't work at all (who would ever think to layer real horns on top of the synth horns?? the samba breakdown??), and it definitely felt strange to me the first time i heard it, but i learned to love it.

we ask for any wrong we’ve done
the years ahead forgive us
we ask for any good we’ve done
that all of it outlive us

jesse james is one of the 9-10 songs on jordan that can make me cry and it has one of paddy's best chord progressions.

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#30
THE WORLD AWAKE
from Protest Songs (1989)
Points: 153
Votes: 7 (0)
Youtube audio

I should've had this one on my ballot.

A December 2nd, 1985 release for Protest Songs, that flyer claimed.

Anyway, I must suspend proceedings. It's kinda way too late here now. Do talk amongst yourselves!

there's elvis obviously, secretly alive and planning a comeback? and jordan is the river jordan of biblical importance right? but i'm not sure what it's supposed to symbolis and looking that up doesn't really provide any clear answers that relate to the track, so how all that fits together i have no clue.

I think it's comeback as redemption and rebirth/rebaptism (ie Jordan as the place of John the Baptist's work, esp the baptism of Jesus). But yes it's totally a messy album full of parallels and analogues and personal typology, with the death of American icons scrambled up with Satan & side 4's redemption songs. God I love it.

Didn't vote for much from it though - the second half does just kind of flow, and much as I love everything that's place, I never really listen to them separately.

So many classics already today.. and Horsin' Around. Steve McQueen is still one of my favourite albums of all time, but I could definitely live without that one.

The transition from Jesse James Symphony to Bolero is one of my favourite moments on the album. All the Jordan songs that have placed are absolute gold.

I can't see much more from Protest Songs placing at this point. Maybe just Life Of Surprises? I thought The World Awake would be higher. They have some amazing album openers.

"the world awake" kinda feels like the last blush of swoon-era prefab. it's those weird backing vocals. wop-a-doooo

Oh yeah, you're totally right. I never thought of it like that because of the more polished/sparkly production.

i didn't listen to swoon until i was intimately familiar with the albums that followed, but it's been great hearing echoes of that songwriting approach in his later works (or 'earlier works' in some cases, since many of the steve songs were written so much earlier than they were recorded)

Horsin Around = BLISS. My #13. "I guess I let that little vow get lost / forgetting the cost", Wendy drifting in and out of Paddy's vocals, the midstream slowdown to the parsed out "I … deserve … to be … kicked … so … lightly. You … deserve … more … than … I … sold … you for", the very last belted out "Horsin around! HUH!"...

horsin' around doesn't grab me, but i do love the opening line 'it's me again, your worthless friend'

Enjoying getting different perspectives here on tracks I enjoy but more in the album context, that other people rate singly: Paris Smith, Doo-Wop in Harlem, etc. What a strong catalog he has. Really hope this rumored Femmes Mythologiques loss is just delay. Would ask for the same care to Paddy's vault that Prince gave his.

Yeah a lot of the Jordan songs were ones I always liked as part of a sequence/suite and putting my ballot together sort of forced me to think about them individually.

jordan suiiiite, jordan

Vote me any track you find that's lyin' spare

I'll try to get to #21 in the next few hours!

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#29
DON'T SING
from Swoon (1984)
Points: 157
Votes: 9 (0)
Youtube: original promo video

Way too low! The weird structure of this song is still so incredible to me and gets stuck in my head constantly. The chorus in particular is one of the weirdest ones I can think of, especially the musical twists as he sings, "oh no don't blame Mexicooooooo". Amazing song!

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#28
THE GOLDEN CALF
from From Langley Park to Memphis (1988)
Points: 180
Votes: 11 (0)
Youtube: original promo video

yay
`

Quite an uptick in points there by previous standards. Just double-checked I hadn't made a mistake!

two of my votes.

golden calf is an outlier, but they're pretty convincing as a muscular rock outfit. i love it, and i mentioned earlier how much i love paddy's very-mccartney-esque american rock voice.

re: don't sing, it was my second-highest vote from swoon. "oh no, don't blame mexicoooooo" was one of the two lines i sang to myself the most during this exercise (the other is also from swoon, also involves a place, and is sure to come)

also, don't sing is the song that first caught the attention of thomas dolby, so we all owe it quite the debt.

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#27
TECHNIQUE
from Swoon (1984)
Points: 184
Votes: 10 (1)
Youtube audio

God this is reminding me how much I love ‘Swoon’...such a monumental album for me...