Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

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.

in the last few years, prefab sprout has become one of my very favorite groups. paddy mcaloon in my top 5 singers of all time.

ultra ultra classic and ridiculously ignored by most people at the moment. did When Love Breaks Down and King Of Rock N Roll at karaoke at a friends house party on saturday, it ruled.

You were the Fred Astaire of words, Paddy.

Jordan is maybe my favourite album.

Cornfield Ablaze is the last song I really, really loved.

I don't understand how "Wild Horses" is only referenced once on this thread...unless there's a video.

My gawd, everything about it so cool. I sorta think he's channeling Prince here. The (relatively) glitchy-ness of the hook is super catchy. And the lyrics are so smart and his delivery is so smooth.

the sprout are basically the british steely dan. each reflecting the awesomeness of their respective countries.

that's a feast that the whiskey priest may yet have to forgooooowhoooaoaaoah

'Swoon' is one of the loveliest debuts ever...a little faberge egg of an album...Never really did anything spectacular after 'Jordan' but there are a few gems...'Blue Roses' is lovely...

Bonus points for having Jenny Agutter do the voiceover on "Wild Horses."

Swoon just blew me away the first time I heard it, it's such a strange and addictive album. I'd had Steve McQueen for years and liked it, then in about 2006 I got Swoon and they became one of my favourte bands. Jordan is their third classic album. Protest Songs is a really good album but not on the same level. All their other albums have some moments but are pretty patchy.

Lions in my own Garden remains my favourite song of theirs. This is a great live version of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MKy5bAEG6g

YES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEJdfDD4dVg

This just bubbled up on my iPod...a little lost gem...love the bass on this...trying sooooo hard to be funky

http://m.youtube.com/?reason=8&rdm=1448#/watch?v=cB32rSsQTaU&desktop_uri=/watch?v=cB32rSsQTaU

http://www.obscuresound.com/2013/06/lost-prefab-sprout-album-surfaces

damn, did anyone hear the new Prefab Sprout tracks before they were pulled from Soundcloud? hopefully there'll be a new album out soon, but it's all very mysterious.

there's a long fan discussion about it here, but the Soundcloud link is dead.

The Cupid & Psyche thread made pull out a few tarcks from Steve McQueen. Quite stuck on Bonny at the mo.

I listened to Steve McQueen recently for the first time in ages and it still sounds beautiful, singular, all that. It also triggered one of those transporting reveries that only music can provide where I was back in 1985 when I discovered this album and it was physical like I could smell the air in my old apartment - a mix of pizza fumes from downstairs & Saturday afternoon pot smoke - as well as feeling the emotions I was going through as a single guy about town, callow but sincere. Like I was there again. Haven't listened again but not because it wouldn't sound good. Gotta watch it w/nostalgia!