― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 10 January 2003 09:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
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.
― ArfArf, Friday, 10 January 2003 11:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jeff W, Friday, 10 January 2003 11:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Friday, 10 January 2003 11:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
(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.
― ArfArf, Friday, 10 January 2003 12:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
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.
― Tom (Groke), Friday, 10 January 2003 13:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― ArfArf, Friday, 10 January 2003 15:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 18:46 (twenty years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 18:50 (twenty years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 18:53 (twenty years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 19:02 (twenty years ago) link
― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 19:14 (twenty years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 20:10 (twenty years ago) link
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.
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 20:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:16 (twenty years ago) link
― LondonLee (LondonLee), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 21:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 22:35 (twenty years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 22:54 (twenty years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 11 March 2004 02:12 (twenty years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Thursday, 11 March 2004 02:34 (twenty years ago) link
― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Thursday, 11 March 2004 02:45 (twenty years ago) link
(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...
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 11 March 2004 03:00 (twenty years ago) link
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?
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 11 March 2004 04:34 (twenty years ago) link
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.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 11 March 2004 10:34 (twenty years ago) link
― Buffalo Stan, Thursday, 11 March 2004 16:19 (twenty years ago) link
re. lyrics, how about wanting to be the Fred Astaire of words?
I like PF.
― the bluefox, Thursday, 11 March 2004 16:54 (twenty years ago) link
iTunes = an antique jukebox in a cafe in North London that only plays PS and PF records
(possibly one of these is wrong)
― zebedee (zebedee), Thursday, 11 March 2004 17:17 (twenty years ago) link
― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Thursday, 11 March 2004 19:45 (twenty years ago) link
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?
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 11 March 2004 21:07 (twenty years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 11 March 2004 21:32 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.browningmcintosh.com/plocktonwest/paddy2000a.jpg
I don't think any of these supposed concept lp's (18 at the last count) exist anywhere other than in his head but it's nice to know that there may be a concept album about Zorro the Fox or Michael Jackson arriving sometime in the next 5 or 10 years.
Sadly he's shaved his beard off
― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 11 March 2004 22:19 (twenty years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 11 March 2004 22:22 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 11 March 2004 22:28 (twenty years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 11 March 2004 22:48 (twenty years ago) link
Oh, and Classic, if only for Steve McQueen.
― David Nolan (David N.), Friday, 12 March 2004 01:28 (twenty years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Friday, 12 March 2004 02:07 (twenty years ago) link
hmm, i doubt this, in fact. If they did exist he would have released some "songs" rather than putting out "i trawl the megahertz". it seems to have more than a little of the Truman capote/answered prayers about it.
― jed_ (jed), Friday, 12 March 2004 03:36 (twenty years ago) link
I am touched by JtN's new obsession.
Just thinking about the music to Bonny makes me a bit teary.
― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 12 March 2004 09:43 (twenty years ago) link
Personally I think the albums do exist. I certainly want to think they do.
Probably not as completed, polished recordings; maybe not even as completed songs; but certainly as fragments of tunes and lyrics like bits of jigsaws; some may be just a couple of bits of sky that wouldn't mean anything to anyone other than Paddy; others may be substantially complete apart from a last couple of elusive missing pieces to be located and slotted into place.
I'm sure Thomas Dolby's mentioned mentioned that Paddy's got shelves and shelves and cupboards full of tapes - but again I suspect sifting through them all to sort out the useable fragments would be a dauntingly gargantuan task for anyone to undertake.
Maybe that's why Paddy hasn't done it himself.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 12 March 2004 09:44 (twenty years ago) link
As far as I know Paddy had an operation that fixed his sight problems so hopefully he's back to full vision and we'll get a new PS album.
― mms (mms), Friday, 12 March 2004 10:04 (twenty years ago) link
― Mr Mime (Andrew Thames), Friday, 12 March 2004 10:06 (twenty years ago) link
I've heard tell of people who've listened to bits of 'Earth: The Story So Far' etc., which suggests some of these lost albums (or parts thereof) have been recorded. Also, bits of 'Zorro the Fox' are apparently on Andromeda Heights.
― Buffalo Stan (Buffalo Stan), Friday, 12 March 2004 10:50 (twenty years ago) link
― eleki-san (eleki-san), Friday, 12 March 2004 11:59 (twenty years ago) link
― mms (mms), Friday, 12 March 2004 12:36 (twenty years ago) link
― the bellefox, Friday, 12 March 2004 13:02 (twenty years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 12 March 2004 14:06 (twenty years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 12 March 2004 14:14 (twenty years ago) link
Have you spoken to A-ha about this?
Me I'm touchyTouchy touchy youMe I'm touchy and you know what to do
― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Friday, 12 March 2004 14:19 (twenty years ago) link
― the bellefox, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― the bluefox, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:57 (nineteen years ago) link
"Scarlet Nights" has become my favorite track off JORDAN at the moment. That understated key change in the final chorus is pure magic.
― winters (josh), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 05:29 (four years ago) link
The kick / snare drum triplets on the Bobby Fischer section of Cue Fanfare
― June Pointer’s Valentine’s Day Secret Admirer Note Author (calstars), Thursday, 14 November 2019 14:35 (four years ago) link
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.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Thursday, 20 February 2020 00:37 (four years ago) link
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
― Dan Worsley, Saturday, 23 May 2020 17:10 (three years ago) link
Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone.Let's pretend that we're together, all alone.
― ACABincalifornia (voodoo chili), Thursday, 9 July 2020 23:13 (three years ago) link
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
― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Thursday, 9 July 2020 23:34 (three years ago) link
Some absolute shockers of posts at the beginning of this thread. The Sprout were incredible.
― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Friday, 10 July 2020 13:43 (three years ago) link
holy shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZA8GuZ1SI
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Tuesday, 16 March 2021 22:37 (three years ago) link
this is a worlds colliding unexpectedly moment for me to rival the blue nile/rickie lee jones video discovery
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Tuesday, 16 March 2021 22:38 (three years ago) link
Those plangent chords in Lion are the greatest thing ever
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 17 March 2021 18:20 (three years ago) link
Lions
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 17 March 2021 18:21 (three years ago) link
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 stillfeels 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.
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 14 April 2022 09:23 (two years ago) link
"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.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Thursday, 14 April 2022 12:40 (two years ago) link
same with scritti lol
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 14 April 2022 12:51 (two years ago) link
"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.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 14 April 2022 13:07 (two years ago) link
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.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Thursday, 14 April 2022 13:31 (two years ago) link
re: new music, i thought paddy was having health/vocal issues that made new prefab music unlikely?
― in places all over the world, real stuff be happening (voodoo chili), Thursday, 14 April 2022 14:30 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Thursday, 14 April 2022 14:34 (two years ago) link
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.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Thursday, 14 April 2022 14:51 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Thursday, 14 April 2022 15:46 (two years ago) link
Fansite mentions it here as rumour, but likely:https://www.sproutology.co.uk/exposition/sproutological-review-of-2019/
― woof, Thursday, 14 April 2022 16:08 (two years ago) link
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.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Thursday, 14 April 2022 16:16 (two years ago) link
Every December I wait for 'Total Snow' to appear and every year I'm disappointed. Enough to stop me believing in Santa Claus.
― Dan Worsley, Thursday, 14 April 2022 16:54 (two years ago) link
Reminds me of the famous second Ralph Ellison novel.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 14 April 2022 16:59 (two years ago) link
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
― J. Sam, Thursday, 14 April 2022 22:22 (two years ago) link
Not a big fan of that album but "Earth, the Story So Far" is gorgeous
― Vinnie, Friday, 15 April 2022 12:38 (two years ago) link
Yeah that's definitely the highlight (along with "Ride" imo)
― J. Sam, Friday, 15 April 2022 15:50 (two years ago) link
Also this board's namesake song is so adorable, an instant aural anti-depressant
― J. Sam, Friday, 15 April 2022 15:52 (two years ago) link
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 …
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 16 April 2022 08:31 (two years ago) link