Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

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!

I still get a little smile on my face when I think that these guys titled one of their albums From Langley Park To Memphis... it's one of those album titles that gives me a certain feeling because I know Langley Park fairly well (it's not one of the most glamorous places in the world to say the least) and have loads of really drunken memories of the places, whereas Memphis remains a very mythical place to me.

This Devil Came A-Calling leak is arguably PS's most easily accessible album since Steve McQueen. Going down very well this morning.

Was relaxing in the sunshine a couple of days ago when 'Bonny' came into my head, such a beautiful song. It's usually either that or 'Appetite' which crops up in my mind from time to time when I least expect it.

Doug - I agree, Devil is the most consistent album since Jordan. I heard Change The World but I don't remember it at all. I've heard Paddy say Devil is a downer album but I don't hear it that way at all. And the way he says "assholes" is remarkable!

christ 129 *pages* on that Sprout forum about this one leak? i know it's a big deal like but still. when were these new songs recorded do we know?
...Change The World was great but sounded like polished demos in places.

just on a first listen the Devil seems comfortably best album since Jordan. So delighted! The Best Jewel Thief in the World!

I listened to "Let's Change The World" on Spotify. Blah, decent songs ruined by crappy beats.

yeah, I struggled to get over the demo-sound, found it hard to enjoy the songs. None of it's stayed with me, but I should give it another listen.

I listened to "Let's Change The World" on Spotify. Blah, decent songs ruined by crappy beats.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing

I agree with this, terrible production.

I had no idea there was a new album out, is it just a leak then or is coming out properly?

Leak, album is due out in October.

Have had 4 songs from this just going round and round in my head in earworm rotation this last week, Adolescence gets replaced by Best Jewel Thief in the World gets replaced by Billy gets replaced by Mysterious gets replaced by Adolescence etc

Just giving this my first listen on Spotify. Best Jewel Thief is indeed earworm, I've been wanting a song like that from him for a long time now.

Paddy sort-of went from youngish looking lad to very old looking bloke, without any in between stage!

Well we didn't really see him for a long time, that was obv. the horrific in-between transition stage

I'd love a Prefab Sprout all songs poll but I have no time to volunteer! Talk about all deep cuts!

Best Jewel Thief is some top-drawer Sprout indeed.

Yeah that is an incredible opener. Shame the rest of the album doesn't quite match up to it.

Oh I don't know about that. Billy, The Dreamer and Adolescence are are highly anticipated here.

*are also

PS fans, drop everything and listen to this

http://www.mixcloud.com/longplayer/long-player-with-pete-paphides-episode-5-paddy-mcaloon/

Blocked in the U.S. (or maybe just for me). Any news of a new PS or Paddy album? _I Trawl the Megahertz_ is a comfort food album for me. Would love additional work in that vein.

can some kind soul capture an mp3 of this for the yanks? i just happen to have had i trawl the megahertz on heavy rotation for the last couple weeks!

This was great. If my middle age is spending sunday afternoons building flat-pack furniture while listening to an hour-and-a-half interview with Macaloon, then I can just about accept my middle age.

Iago, do you still need an mp3? I could probably work it out, but I'd just be using a mixcloud downloader - & I imagine if you used an online one it might bypass the US block.

I must say that, although I found Crimson/Red overall a bit underwhelming, "The Dreamer" is a super, super tune, one of his finest ever songs. It definitely has a Jimmy Webb tinge to it - evocative of "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress", "Still Within the Sound of my Voice" et al. - and needs to be covered by some moderately popular MOR singer stat. (The actual song about Jimmy Webb, "The Songs of Danny Galway" is rather bland by comparison.)

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.

It's "Boh-bee". Obviously it's "Boh-bee". I love "Boh-bee" and I love the album it's on. I think of it as being a bit like "77" by Talking Heads, a sort of awkward debut album, overlooked and understimated, but one I'm more likely to listen to than their later albums. The "Boo-Boo-Ba-Ba" at the end is pushing it though.

This was great. If my middle age is spending sunday afternoons building flat-pack furniture while listening to an hour-and-a-half interview with Macaloon, then I can just about accept my middle age.

Iago, do you still need an mp3? I could probably work it out, but I'd just be using a mixcloud downloader - & I imagine if you used an online one it might bypass the US block.
--woof

Thanks, woof. Still dying to hear this! Anyone have?

"Bonny" came up on shuffle and there is not a single thing out of place with it. From the breathy backing vocals to Paddy's inflection, it is absolutely perfect.
.

indeed. one of my absolute favorite songs on the 80s

on of

Have you guys heard the band Roman a Clef? Clear Sprout love.

Love "Cue the Fanfare"

playing for blood, as grandmasters should

i listened to steve mcqueen for the first time this year and it was immediately one of my favorite records of all time

Yup. It's great. Try Swoon next.

I only just heard 'The End of the Affair' for the first time. My favourite non-album track I've heard from them so far.

Moving the River is beautiful and ridiculous simultaneously

Iago - I have a copy of the interview now if you're still looking. My ilx mail should work.

Teared up a little at 'Adolescence' this morning - that final "Girls - have some fun".