Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

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

I love "Langley Park" and "Jordan...." but I can understand how people who are not into ultra-smooth production tend to prefer "Steve McQueen".

Yet, those two are my favourites, exactly because they were more produced and smoother. I love "Steve McQueen" as well, but not to the same extent.

Yep

I have five words for you: "Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque"

Worst Prefab chorus of all-time or just worst chorus of all-time?

completely...

Yawn.

i always call 'steve mcqueen' one of my favorite albums of all time but there's two or three tracks that i skip over every time - the first side is just flawless tho imo

It's obvious Paddy got too clever for you at one point, Hector. I'm guessing you don't like Scritti Politti or 10cc either.

its not the smooth production that bothers me, i love me some smooth production, i just feel like the songs are stronger on Steve McQueen. i'll be giving Langley Park some more time soon, though.

actually really digging Jordan right now, kind of overwhelming, though

Love love love 10cc... Sheet Music also vies for my Top 10 of all-time, but I think they definitely fell off when Godley and Creme left the group.

I like Scritti a lot... Songs To Remember is a classic but the production is brutally "of its time" on Cupid & Psyche and I find it hard to look past that, but the songs themselves are really great. I went another direction personally after that.

I've given every Prefab album a chance and I quite like Paddy's solo album... I'll agree that Jordan has moments of strength, but there's an undeniable line of delineation at From Langley Park To Memphis.

i always call 'steve mcqueen' one of my favorite albums of all time but there's two or three tracks that i skip over every time - the first side is just flawless tho imo

― bloc trebek-quois (donna rouge), Friday, November 12, 2010 4:00 AM (8 hours ago)

I agree with this, that first side is one my favourite runs on any album ever. Horsin' Around is the only song I skip it just doesn't belong on such a beautiful album.

but I think they definitely fell off when Godley and Creme left the group.

Not going to argue about there being an obvious drop in quality. Even though I still think they did more standard melodic pop music better than most. For a while anyway.

Horsin' Around is the only song I skip it just doesn't belong on such a beautiful album.

"Horsing Around" is among the ones I like best on "Steve McQueen" actually. It's a bit like the weirder songs on the "Swoon" album, only with a rather smooth and synth dominated production that also makes it point toward the future.

Oh, and the production is the reason why I like "Cupid & Psyche" and even "Provision" much better than I like "Songs To Remember. Of its time, maybe, but what a time! :)

Along with Steve McQueen I'd rate Swoon and Jordon as the other classics. Most of the other albums are patchy.

My favourite song is still the very first single Lion's In My Own Garden, it's such a strange and addictive tune.

Oh, and the production is the reason why I like "Cupid & Psyche" and even "Provision" much better than I like "Songs To Remember. Of its time, maybe, but what a time! :)

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, November 12, 2010 1:03 PM

Some of the production is a little dated on Cupid & Psyche but there are moments of genius, especially Absolute. On the whole Songs To Remember is a more consistent album all the way through, the songs are just stronger. White Bread Black Beer is by far my favourite album of his though.

Yeah, must agree Geir... "Horsin' Around" is one of my favorites; it reminds me of instrumental supermarket music of my childhood with its bursts of muted trumpets.

It's more often "Blueberry Pies." that gets the FFWD.

I have probably moaned on upthread about not really getting PF despite trying for 25 years or so. And it's true I still don't really go for the lushness and the soft focus. But just listening to the 2CD compilation (can't remember name of it) today there are definitely moments of utter greatness that no one-else but Paddy can do. 'I count the hours since you slipped away' in Bonny is one, also 'All my silence and my strained respect/missed chances and the same regrets'. He forces those lines out brilliantly. It's a great production is Bonny - someone said upthread that Steve McQueen was fog-covered or something similar and it's exactly on the money wrt Bonny. Dolby did something really unusual with that album - side one especially is terrific. I rarely listen music to this thought-out and carefully produced these days, but this track really hit home today.

But why oh why oh why didn't they include 'Wild Horses' on this album? Jenny Agutter!

Am I the only one who saw the remarkable thing that happened here?:

It's obvious Paddy got too clever for you at one point, Hector. I'm guessing you don't like Scritti Politti or 10cc either.

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro)

Is this the beginning of a new era?

Doesn't seem that way to me. I still love clever music, like I have always done. :)

Am I the only one who saw the remarkable thing that happened here?:

Now you mention it, yes I do know what you mean, Kevin.

Ok Mark G got it!

Some of the production is a little dated on Cupid & Psyche but there are moments of genius, especially Absolute

The Arif Mardin produced ones hold up better than the Fred Maher produced ones, surely.

(in terms of production, that is. "The Word Girl" and "Perfect Way" are still fantastic songs though)

this song is awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xOke9yb_mk

otm

Pulled out "Jordan" recently and oh god it's the epitomy of romantic. Paddy's voicee is so swoon-worthy, and it sounds like he's feeling what he sings about SO DEEPLY but in a completely sincere way. No "emo" just emotion.

most unfairly under-rated 80s band or what?

The bonus disc of acoustic rerecordings that came with the "Steve McQueen" reissue is crazy good, probably the single best revisitation of material years later.

The blueprint for Kaputt by any chance?

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/prefab-sprout-steve-mcqueen-round-29-toms-selection/

i hear a lot of Blue Nile in it, but Avalon and Boys & Girls above all....(I LOVE Prefab Sprout, whom I avoided for twenty years because I didn't like their name...stupid!)

Horsin' Around was just on WFMU. What a magnificent song.

Classic All the Way. "One of the Broken" nearly brought me to tears today when it came up on iTunes shuffle.