Prefab Sprout- Jordan: The Comeback: Classic or Dud?

Kudos to Thomas Dolby also.

It's still got some great songs on 'though.

Some highlights from JORDAN (from distant memory -- it's been maybe a year since I last listened to this, even though there was a time when I unhesitatingly considered PM the world's greatest songwriter). In each case, it's the marriage of a well crafted song with just the right production touches that raises things to such a rare level of greatness...

The frustrated horniness of "Wild Horses" -- so much intensity here despite the slow tempo, and the drum programming is daringly "empty", which creates a uniquely "laid back" feel, further enhanced by the occasional percussion hiccup courtesy of Dolby.

The nostalgia of "Carnival 2000" -- deeply sad party music. I don't remember what I did to usher in the new millenium, but I should have been listening to this.

"Michael" - PM pulls off an awfully clever point-of-view (topped only by "Hi, this is God here," in "One of the Broken"); Dolby's Gregorian-chant-as-drone is a stroke of genius on the production side of things.

And yes, "We Let the Stars Go" is a perfect song.

I like Prefab Sprout better than Steely Dan, although I like both. I see the similarity in the songcraft -- in particular the jazzy harmonies -- and the polished production, but I think there's a stronger blues/roots element in Steely Dan which diminishes their appeal for me.

(And I like "King of Rock and Roll," although I see how the song, and especially the video, pigeonholed them in an unfortunate way. The single I regard as most uncharacteristic and unlikeable is "Faron Young.")

Can't not put a word in for "Paris Smith", "The Ice Maiden" and "Doo Wop in Harlem", but the main point of the record's genius is in the astoundingly evocative sequencing of tracks, masterful segues and wanderings around an ambitious concept. And of course, Thomas Dolby's production, which t' Sprout have clearly missed since then...

"death is a small price for heaven"

I bought this on iTunes recently. It sure sounds great so far.

Having been turned onto the Sprout only recently I honestly can't get enough of them right now. If Steve McQueen is a bit more immediate than Jordan then Jordan could be the more rewarding over time. Anyway, great stuff.

love this LP!...and have always loved LOVED the "you and I, won't make mistakes, that way that lovers do, saying this will last a lifetime, when it's just a year or two" lyric in "All The World Loves Lovers"...

"one of the broken" is so good. a simple piano ballad that would be on the radio all the time in a better world

Hell yeah, but Paddy had a way of inverting the pop song so that it wasn't as accessible as it seems on the surface.

prefabsprout.net has rumors of one or more albums imminent. One can only hope. And selfishly, would love to see another in the _I Trawl the Megahertz_ vein.

isn't he deaf?

Sounds like he's fixed his eyesight issues, though has a bit of double vision, and he's lost bass frequencies from his hearing. There's a good article linked off that website where he talks about his health problems.

And more interestingly, the various projects and songs he's got squirreled away.

the question is always whether those songs that he's always talking about actually exist. but then the last release had glimpses of things he has mentioned in the past. this record sounds so extravagant and luxurious but surely he didn't command much of a budget. did 'king of rock and roll' make him indispensable and deserving of record company largesse? or is it all down to thomas dolby?

"scarlet nights" is the best song ever

I tend to forget that track due to its spot on the sequence, and always feel a surprised "how could I have forgotten you?" when it plays. "All the World Loves Lovers" is another top one on that disc.

I might be crazy but I think Machine Gun Ibiza is my favorite track on this

I'll chime in with classic as well. Honestly, I never understood the Steely Dan comparisons (well, because I hate Steely Dan) until I heard 'Machine Gun Ibiza.' Great song.
― righteousmaelstrom (righteousmaelstrom), Friday, June 24, 2005 10:07 AM (eleven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ah, that's what it is

yeah that was my fave off it for the first few weeks after it came out.

you guys should check this out, it's excellent http://www.sodajerker.com/episode-53-paddy-mcaloon/

Machine Gun Ibiza is the song I've been looking for since 1990 or 1991 when I heard it on college radio. I spent a few years asking for the Machine Gun Beaver song. I'm so happy to have randomly found it because of this thread.

i love them all but

"scarlet nights" is the best song ever

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Sunday, December 6, 2015 7:19 PM (eleven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

actually sometimes my fav is "one of the broken" which is weird bc i was allergic to the god side of this album for at least the first few months i listened to it

"End of the road I'm traveling
I will see Jordan beckoning!"

yeah that was my fave off it for the first few weeks after it came out.

you guys should check this out, it's excellent http://www.sodajerker.com/episode-53-paddy-mcaloon🔗/

Awesome, thank you! 🙏

Machine Gun Ibiza va Glamour Profession

jesse james bolero

Speaking of which in "Jesse James Symphony" why does Paddy reference Elvis with the lines "Well the zip code may read Vegas / But the heart beats Tupelo"? Is he comparing Jesse James to Elvis in terms of a wayward life?

Excerpt from Melody Maker, summer 1990 by Simon Reynolds

Jordan The Comeback was originally intended as a double album, and three of the sides are suites of thematically linked songs. One suite addresses the "bad boy" myth, using Jesse James as archetype of the spoilt mothers boys, who goes on the run from domesticity. But, grins Paddy, they're all really about Elvis.

Paddy: "The title track is Elvis as Howard Hughes on the top floor of his hotel in Vegas. I wanted to get an Elvis imitator to sing it, but then decided it was bit gimmicky. It's an Elvis monologue, him looking back at his life and saying 'I didn't do it right, but if I come back it'll be gospel music all the way and sod this 'Wooden Heart' crap. 'Jesse James Symphony' and 'Jesse James Bolero" came about when I was trying to kickstart my writing again, and I thought: 'what if I was writing something for someone like Streisand or Presley?'. I decided to write something that would have appealed to Elvis' own self-image. He liked to identify with mythic things, you can see that in his 'American Trilogy'. So I wrote something that dealt with him in those mythic proportions: the image of the outlaw, and all the sentimentality that allows the singer. The idea of his mother looking at him in the cradle, and then he ends up as this big fat guy onstage in Vegas that half the world wants to go to bed with. He's gone from from wearing your nappy, to wearing a nappy again, cos he's incontinent in your bed, which he was at the end. Finally, "Moondog" is about... if he came back, where would the Colonel have him playing?. There's only one place big enough, the moon. A satellite link-up."