Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

As far as travelling in similar orbits, Halloween, Alaska could list both the Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout as influences, both in delivery and music. Stars' _Nightsongs_ is another RIYL.

The first two Dolby albums OTM, as well as some of his later stuff ("Budapest by Blimp" has keys that sound right out of "Desire As").

But really there's no band that combines all the Prefab elements in quite the same way: witty lyrics, heartfelt delivery by Paddy & Wendy, hook-filled tunes, lofty themes, etc.

Anyone heard this? Pretty weak.

Heh, I dig it. The spare arrangement draws attention to the words, with the piano adding gravity.

Being an Editors fan, though, I like his voice. Would love to hear "Til the Cows Come Home" or "I Remember That" done in a similar fashion.

Fred Falke's dj 'mini mix' for annie mac's show (about 20 songs in 5 minutes) suddenly featured that "bap bap bah! shadoo-dad-dooda bap bap bah!" vocal riff from CARS AND GIRLS in the middle. i don't know who i was more impressed with Falke or Prefab Sprout but it brought a huge smile to the old face.

OMG, I hope this true...

http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2008/09/prefab_sprout_in_new_album_sho_1.html

ADMIRERS OF PREFAB SPROUT and their singer/ songwriter Paddy McAloon - a soulful romantic with the emotional range of Bacharach and the melodic precision of Steely Dan - are by necessity a patient bunch. They have, after all, only heard two new albums since 1990, excepting Paddy’s superlative, mostly instrumental 2003 set I Trawl The Megahertz.

But that wait for new music will soon be at an end, as MOJO can joyfully report that Paddy and his bass-playing brother Martin have been back in the studio to record the long-awaited follow-up to 2001’s The Gunman And Other Stories. Tentatively entitled Let's Change the World With Music - The Blueprint, it will include the songs Let There Be Music, God Watch Over You and The Last Of The Great Romantics, and a source tells MOJO that they are “some of the best songs Paddy has written!” The band are aiming at a February 2009 release.

Ian Harrison

Shame about the title, but if this is true then fab. Judging from the songs listed, this is like Gunman in being drawn from his last decade or so of songs. God Watch Over You was sung by some Australian woman ages ago. It's a splendid song, despite lyrical sappiness - but that's kind of a given with later McAloon.

NB: track 8.

1. Let There Be Music
2. God Watch Over You
3. The Last Of The Great Romantics
4. Let's Change The World With Music
5. Angel of Love
6. Earth: The Story So Far
7. Falling In Love
8. I Love Music
9. Meet The New Mozart
10. Music Is a Princess
11. Ride Home To Jesus
12. Sweet Gospel Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dq_v5kZeEM

An exclusive chance to hear 'Let There Be Music,' the opening track from Prefab Sprout's new album, 'Let's Change The World With Music,' due to be released 07/09/09. Brought to you by www.prefabsprout.net

I kinda like it.

Also, I don't know what I ever expected Paddy would look like in 2009, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that.

still love his voice...

eMusic has two versions of what look like the same Prefab Sprout album: Two Wheels Good and Steve McQueen. Struggling to decide if the bonus disc on Steve McQueen makes that the better of the two discs (FWIW, judging from the soundscans, the sound quality/production are better on Steve McQueen).

the bonus disc is just the solo acoustic versions that paddy did years and years later right? i personally found them to be of no interest.

They're the same album, except it was called Two Wheels Good in the US. Since Steve McQueen was more popular in the UK in its time, it's since been remastered and expanded.

So LCTWWM is out. Anyone given it a proper listen?

err how come I missed this? Please somebody tell me whether I can listen to this... without being wholly and mortifyingly disappointed.

am so looking forward to this...

he's always had good quality control. only the occasional misstep sees the light of day.

Listened to this a couple of times, sadly I can see why it was passed over in '92. Unless it's a real grower, the albums' back story is giving it a rosy glow it doesn't really deserve.

The new album is surely a return to form. Paddy's best effort since "Jordan...". Not surprising that it was largely done in 1992 though, and also makes me fantasize about how great this album would have been with the magnificent "The Sound Of Crying" - one of his best ever songs - added to the sequence.

"Earth: The Story So Far" is sexual.

Let's Change The World = Ace!

spotify:album:0DJorHkuhJRDNJ1JF4FIGv

Agreed. "God Watch Over You" is a particular standout for me. I hope the reception for this is positive enough that he carries on with other old/new releases.

Have to say also that _I Trawl the Megahertz_ is one of my top albums this decade. Truly wonderful effort, there.

Yeah God Watch Over You is a winner for me too, just brilliant. I can't believe how good this album is. I wonder why on earth he didn't release it all those years back. There was a great feature in WORD about him. He really seems to have been going through it these last years.

I skip God Watch Over You, cause I've been familiar for years with another version by some female singer. I concur about the excellence of the album however.

"Earth: The Story So Far" is sexual.

― Freedom, Saturday, October 24, 2009

very beautiful fan video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gxHcNtzFrU

I listened to "Sleeping Rough" off Megahertz there for the first time in a while - what an absolutely jaw-dropping piece of music.

"carnival 2000" killing me right now ... someone otm upthread re: a band that it is impossible to get your friends to like. perhaps the only quality they share w/ skinny puppy

That's such an odd pairing of bands as Prefab would seem to have universal pop appeal. Except that's the secret - they're NOT pop!

Only one of my irl friends likes Prefab — for most they're too self-consciously corny/cutely earnest.

interview w/paddy mcaloon @ the onion av club

There is a project I’ve been working on over the past few years, called “Digital Diva,” and it’s very much an exercise in delirious romanticism.
-

Get to it Paddy!

one of my friends has recently become obsessed with prefab, which, kinda blows my mind tbh. there are a lot of redeemable qualities in paddy's stuff but so much of it seems like some kinda waiting room music or something.

that's a lovely interview btw

would wait in room while listening to prefab

Adore the band. I always have a hard time explaining my love for them though — on Swoon it's the combination of the jerky arrangements and self-consciously literate and playful lyrics (cf. the art-and-commerce problem of "Here on the Erie", the plays on "plane" and "play" in "Cue Fanfare") that have a sort of just-out-of-art school feel that is both endearing and indicative of their freshness, but it's amazingly assured for a first album. The jerkiness gets smoothed out on Steve McQueen and has a sort of early morning fog sheen like the album cover, and the Dolby production is really nuanced (I love the string-synth woosh that shows up intermittently, I've never heard it anywhere but on Dolby productions (e.g. the "Field Work" single w/ Sakamoto), even moreso on Langley Park to Memphis where it goes almost into childhood storybook mode on "Nightingales",weirdo funk on "Knock On Wood" and sad imaginary situations. The stories he creates are just so vivid and you feel like you've lived it. I think I've listened to Langley Park more than any of their other albums — Protest Songs I've never really warmed up to despite liking several songs very much, it just seems like leftovers. Jordan is really amazing but I think I just haven't listened to it enough. The other albums have good tracks scattered across them (I LOVE the title track from Andromeda Heights!). Let's Change the World is mostly great, sometimes getting almost too maudlin (but that's hardly a valid criticism of Paddy really, it's par for the course), and only bogging down when there seems to be a lack of ideas ("I Love Music" sounds less enthusiastic relative to the other songs) — "Meet the New Mozart" is one of PF's greatest sad story songs.

i love Steve McQueen sooooooo much, but whenever i try to branch out to the other albums i'm always disappointed :/

except for Cars & Girls

It helps if you like kittens. I'm serious.

Maybe a good analogue for Langley Park is the ultra-precise production on Scritti Politti's Cupid & Psyche '85. I think if you like the one it's not a stretch to like the other.

I heard "When Love Breaks Down" on the radio (despite it not being a much of a hit in the US) and bought the album (one of the last I bought on vinyl before I got my first CD player). It turned out to be the only song on the album I liked.

i love both kittens and Cupid & Psyche '85, i guess i just wasn't grabbed by the songs on Langley Park as immediately as Steve McQueen

Future Sound of London mix is my fav. thing of theirs.

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

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.

they were the best days/the harvest years

A lot of people don't like sentimentality.

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

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.

"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