Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

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

I'm a bit surprised you like them Julio!

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.

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

''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.

Dud.

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.

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.

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.

(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?

any news on femmes mythologiques?

nothing beyond the planned release in September mentioned at the start of the year

media is precious and fragile ... but despite the glitch LOS is still perfect

Trying to figure out why Steve McQueen (my fave of them, by far) was excluded, I found out there was a RSD release of 'Steve McQueen Acoustic'. Anyone heard it?

yeah, steve mcqueen is my favourite album of theirs :/

The Steve McQueen acoustic was all bonus tracks on the 2006 reissue iir

Ah, thanks. The lack of fanfare everywhere made me think already it wasn't something new.

love those acoustic versions.

yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uTKJiD7iQ

is there a rights issue with the label that put out Steve McQueen / Two Wheels Good?

I got to know Steve McQueen via the 2006 reissue so those acoustic versions are as canonical as the originals for me. I think I actually like them better

the Steve McQueen Acoustic disc appears to be on spotify, along with 5 different issues of Steve McQueen (including one of Two Wheels Good), each with a different poorly scanned version of the album art

acoustic version was also issued as a stand alone lp.
https://www.discogs.com/Prefab-Sprout-Steve-McQueen-Acoustic/release/13288548

Variants of this pop up about once every 8 months when there's a news story about prefabricated something. JUST SAY NO. https://t.co/88A7ESVs2X

— NicD (@Sproutology) September 1, 2019

So is there a release date for the new album?

http://stereoembersmagazine.com/prefab-sprouts-new-lp-femmes-mythologiques-set-for-september-release/

McAloon has also indicated his vaults are rather vast.

How vast?

“You can work it out by doing the maths,” he went on to say. “…if you write three albums a year, approximately, and you’ve been doing that for 30 years, then that’s where we are.

damn, I really hope Paddy has a Max Brod in his life iykwim

STORM THE VAULT

New P4K retrospective: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/prefab-sprout-swoon-from-langley-park-to-memphis-jordan-the-comeback-a-life-of-surprises/

Just started checking out the Swoon remaster on Spotify and it is sounding good, less like it was recorded through a wall. Bass! It's a bit odd - that thinness or tinniness was the fabric of the album, the contrast to everything later – but I am liking it.

Anyone familiar with the protest songs record mentioned in that article? xp

it was recorded after steve mcqueen but not released until after langley park. similar in sound to steve mcqueen but not quite as good. has the song life of surprises which is great.

"Scarlet Nights" has become my favorite track off JORDAN at the moment. That understated key change in the final chorus is pure magic.

The kick / snare drum triplets on the Bobby Fischer section of Cue Fanfare

You know, almost all of the songs on LCTWWM are excellent innit. I'm going to blame the arrangements for obscuring this state of affairs for a decade.

In 1985 County Durham pop band Prefab Sprout sung about Moving the River on their highly acclaimed album Steve McQueen. But why are we bringing this up now, and what has it got to do with life in Stoke-on-Trent in 2020? Well, strap yourselves in... pic.twitter.com/dGQ3JTM7r3

— Stoke-on-Trent CC (@SoTCityCouncil) May 21, 2020

Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone.
Let's pretend that we're together, all alone.

i want to hear the diplomats over a flip of "moving the river" so fucking bad. the horn ostinato over those chords is pure plush sonic luxury

Some absolute shockers of posts at the beginning of this thread. The Sprout were incredible.

holy shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZA8GuZ1SI

this is a worlds colliding unexpectedly moment for me to rival the blue nile/rickie lee jones video discovery

Those plangent chords in Lion are the greatest thing ever

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 …