Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

"A Life of Surprises" is seriously about the best advice song ever, makes Steely Dan look like whiny teenagers

yeah, I love his penchant for advice - there isn't much like it in pop, I think, since at its best it seems actually wise - Life of Surprises is the high point but also love that scolding 'She is a person too / She has her own will' in Goodbye Lucille* - really the key thing to be telling moping lovelorn boys. In fact, all the way through to 'Girls, have some fun' at the end of Adolescence.

He's really profoundly uncynical I think. Even seeing through things, in anger or bitterness, he's very humane and very scrupulous about emotion.

*also 'what are you - 21? The world is a million'

finally, a second poll:
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen / Two Wheels Good poll

All this Prefab talk made me queue up my compilation of b-sides. I think this is complete, not counting remixes. It's not all gold but there's lots of gems here:
Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone)
Radio Love
The Devil Has All The Best Tunes
Walk On
Spinning Belinda
Donna Summer
Diana (single version)
Silhouettes
Oh! The Swiss
Real Life (Just Around The Corner)
Wigs
The Guest Who Stayed Forever
Old Spoonface Is Back
Vendetta
Nero The Zero
Dandy Of The Danube
Tin Can Pot
Tornado
Bearpark (demo)
The Sound Of Crying (full version)
If You Don't Love Me
Just Because I Can
Where The Heart Is
Dragons
The End Of The Affair
Girl I'm Here
Never Trust A Spell
I'm A Troubled Man (demo)

I also include these unreleased cuts from a fan bootleg:
Constant Blue (demo)
Cherry Tree (demo)
The Glass Slipper (demo)

Agreed on the gems, like "Donna Summer" and "Bearpark". We might own the same compilation, if "When the Angels (Instrumental)" is on yours, too. Wish there were more out there to collect. For better or worse, they're left to their original releases. The Collection included "LIMOG(ES)" as did one of the later singles, but that's pretty much it, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbdjD6a-xw

Just gorgeous...what an absolute hero he is

They got Santa for their new video?

paddy has looked recently-descended-from-a-mountain for like... over a decade now?

Has he ever "explained" his appearance recently? So hard to reconcile the voice on the early records with this Gandalf looking figure

How do you explain sth like that?

Think his 'look' is at least partly related to the terrible eyesight problems he's had over the last ten years or more.

yeah "i trawl the megahertz" was like 2003 and he looked the same... who really cares though?

yeah, wow, ask Paddy what gives--I'd love to hear that response

Yeah, Paddy's looked like this for a long time now... I'm surprised that people are surprised about this now?

people should explain themselves when they grow beards

LOL Tom Scharpling used to do a segment where he adjudicated whether bearded callers had "earned their beard"

don't know if this has already been posted, but

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/88/da/a9/88daa9e7f3be063d3b7f6b3bf333575b.jpg

lol

My guess is it's the public expression of a self perceived sea change of identity.

Or a way to not be recognized in public by his fans who I'd guess to be somewhat obsessive

Or a plea for attention but that doesn't seem to be his style.

thanks, Soref--perfect

goddamn his voice sounds great in that new video

"I told myself, 'one a year'. But if I did one thing a year, I'd be 60 by the time I cleared eight of them. And I have a lot more than eight." Clear-eyed, twinkle-eared, coulda-gone-deaf-and-blind Paddy McAloon, the sanest maverick and most engaged recluse in music, chuckles. At himself, at his situation, at the world.

This from a 2009 interview. Funny how one a year is spoken of as not making a dent in his projects, yet 9 years on, nothing new released. Haven't even heard any good rumors. The most recent mentioned a reissue of _I Trawl the Megahertz_ in the works, but nothing on that front sadly. If there's an album worth of additional tracks for that, I'd weep.

The Independent interview, which is probably somewhere upthread.

New Paddy interview with discussion of the I Trawl the Megahertz reissue under the Prefab Sprout moniker, and a snippet of a new song from Femmes Mythologiques, a projected late 2019 release.

omg

Np https://youtu.be/fZO40Yc_EwE

wow never heard that one before it's fantastic

aw i love "wigs"

New Megahertz is somehow different to the old I’m reading? Anyone heard it yet? It’s on Spotify I notice...

Can’t say I noticed any significant difference. I have the original cd, but some time since I played it. Think I’ll need to investigate

I've only just discovered this group for myself via an '80s compilation CD collection I purchased the last time I was in London (i.e. December 2017). So far the two Prefab Sprout songs on said album ("The King of Rock and Roll" and "When Love Breaks Down") are really, really fucking amazing. Next up: actually listening to one of their full albums. BTW, I have a very dear friend of mine who's a native of Albuquerque and now I can't help but associate her with the former song, even though we met via a shared fandom of a completely different musical artist.

https://t.co/c2MIu6mrln #prefabsprout

— @needlemythology (@needlemythology) February 20, 2019

Looks like that’s been removed; shame.

Looks like that's back; hooray!

Your daddy loves you very much. He just doesn't want to live with us anymore.

vinyl reissues in september:

Prefab Sprout have announced vinyl reissues of three studio albums and one compilation. New pressings of their 1984 debut Swoon, 1988’s commercial breakthrough From Langley Park to Memphis, 1990’s double album Jordan: The Comeback, and 1992’s Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout are all out September 27. A press statement notes that the packaging and remasters were overseen by band members Paddy and Martin McAloon. Pre-orders are available at their website.

Earlier this year, Paddy McAloon’s 2003 solo album I Trawl the Megahertz was reissued as a Prefab Sprout LP.

... i think i'm gonna need to buy jordan

Interesting that they didn’t include Steve McQueen. I hope these stick around long enough for me to confirm the pressings are better than my originals.

hope they fixed the glitch on life of surprises

What glitch?

sorry, i must be insane. i remember there being some weird glitch on a PS song, thought it was LoS, thought it was discussed on ilm as an error during mastering but re-listening i don't hear anything. apologies for derail

no, wait, it's there, around 3:38-41 on the word 'not' !

I've noticed that glitch too. Pretty weird oversight on their part, unless it was the only possible way for them to stitch it together. I hope that's even fixable at this point!

any news on femmes mythologiques?

nothing beyond the planned release in September mentioned at the start of the year

media is precious and fragile ... but despite the glitch LOS is still perfect

Trying to figure out why Steve McQueen (my fave of them, by far) was excluded, I found out there was a RSD release of 'Steve McQueen Acoustic'. Anyone heard it?

yeah, steve mcqueen is my favourite album of theirs :/