I POLLED the Megahertz - ILM Artist Poll #100 - Prefab Sprout - RESULTS

This evening I momentarily considered dropping the 2 points I allocated to the next one, so it would be a draw with Swoon. But that seemed like insider trading, plus this record is also very good, of course!

https://images2.imgbox.com/3e/ce/GEm5lzak_o.jpg

#3
FROM LANGLEY PARK TO MEMPHIS
March 1988
Score: 51
Votes: 20 (1)
Youtube excerpt: Enchanted

The King Of Rock 'n' Roll / Cars and Girls / I Remember That / Enchanted / Nightingales // Hey Manhattan! / Knock on Wood / The Golden Calf / Nancy (Let Your Hair Down for Me) / The Venus of the Soup Kitchen

in any other discography this would be the band's best record

OTM. Sometimes feels like their best set of songs, but doesn't come together as an album for me. Maybe because the production's a bit more scattered; maybe because this is when I got into them, and it feels a little like listening to singles.

Still don't get "Cars and Girls" (I dislike both) but "The Golden Calf" reminds me of the Go-Be's when they rock out, i.e. charmingly and awkwardly.

but the song's about how some things hurt more (much more) than cars and girls! i.e. it is diminishing those things you dislike

i almost voted for "does heaven wait all heavenly over the next horizon" in the lyrics poll

xp I remember the Trouser Press Record Guide described 'The Golden Calf' as sounding like Cheap Trick. Maybe if you squint, McAloon's voice on the song is a bit like Robin Zanders?

wha

kinda sound like a looser inxs, maybe?

mcaloon's macca-like 'rockin' voice' has always amused me on that song

https://images2.imgbox.com/75/38/Jr1LNrw3_o.jpg

#2
JORDAN: THE COMEBACK
September 1990
Score: 97
Votes: 25 (8)
Youtube excerpt: Jesse James Symphony

Looking For Atlantis / Wild Horses / Machine Gun Ibiza / We Let The Stars Go / Carnival 2000 / Jordan: The Comeback / Jesse James Symphony / Jesse James Bolero / Moon Dog // All The World Loves Lovers / All Boys Believe Anything / The Ice Maiden / Paris Smith / The Wedding March / One Of The Broken / Michael / Mercy / Scarlet Nights / Doo Wop In Harlem

https://images2.imgbox.com/c4/5b/o3jNthd0_o.jpg

#1
STEVE MCQUEEN
June 1985
Score: 115
Votes: 26 (14) (Including 1 vote for Two Wheels Good)
Youtube excerpt: The Yearning Loins (US bonus track, admittedly -- because it's quite good and we won't be hearing it later!)

Faron Young / Bonny / Appetite / When Love Breaks Down / Goodbye Lucille #1 / Hallelujah // Moving the River / Horsin' Around / Desire As / Blueberry Pies / When the Angels / The Yearning Loins* / He'll Have to Go* / Faron (Truckin' Mix)*

* Two Wheels Good bonus tracks.

of course

Makes sense

In summary...

Rank                                   Points     Votes  #1 Votes 
 1    Steve McQueen                       115        26        14
 2    Jordan: The Comeback                 97        25         8
 3    From Langley Park to Memphis         51        20         1
 4    Swoon                                49        18         4
 5    I Trawl the Megahertz                27        12         0
 6    Protest Songs                        23        10         0
 7    Crimson/Red                          13         6         0
 8    Let's Change the World With Music     9         5         0
 9    Andromeda Heights                     3         2         0
10    Steve McQueen Acoustic                2         1         0

So, no love for The Gunman...

Swoon was my number one...a little faberge egg of an album

I'll return with the lyrics results on (GMT+10) Tuesday, once I've had a proper look at them!

Need to change thread title to A Poll of No Surprises 😉

At least Swoon ran Langley Park pretty close. Also four first place votes!

Who was the holdout who didn’t vote for Steve McQueen?

Andromeda Heights is way too low, I can understand some finding the production too cloying but the songs are up their with his best work.

Wow, it looks like I'm the only #1 vote for Langley Park. Steve McQueen is more consistent but it took a while to grow on me, whereas Langley Park bowled me over immediately and never stopped hitting.

It's funny the connections albums make. SM/TWG for me evokes summer of '88, dragging a ping pong table from basement to lawn on sunny Ballard days, playing beer pong with SM/TWG and Temple of Low Men cranked. Makes a quality album that much better.

I was surprised by the rollout - Steve McQueen and Jordan vying for the top two spots is totally expected, but I would have picked Megahertz to come third on ILX.

It has some really good songs, but From Langley Park To Memphis doesn't work as an album for me. I read an interview with McAloon where he spoke to Paul McCartney and McCartney referred to 'The King of Rock and Roll' as McAloon's 'My Ding-a-ling'.

It took me a long time to enjoy Swoon - it's just about the densest pop album I've ever heard.

I still don't really 'get' Swoon. Probably a factor in its durability for me.

Nice to see some positivity regarding AH here, after I went to bed.

Poor Crimson/Red though. No one wants to say anything about it at all? :)

It starts off well and ends well, I can't remember much about the songs in between. This poll has reminded me how little attention I've paid to the albums since Jordan. I need to rectify that.

C/R certainly sounds great, probably due to the engineer, who I think also produced The Blue Nile's best albums. I rated "The Best Jewel Thief In The World" and "Billy" amongst my top tracks. Can't easily recall any of the others on that album, though.

"adolescence" is brilliant and i forgot to vote for it :(

crimson/red and let's change the world with music both quite underrated here!

https://images2.imgbox.com/9a/8c/93WazKPt_o.jpg

I'll drop a few these now, I think. Maybe the whole lot?

There are a lot of ties and the distribution is pretty flat, as expected. I'll just regurgitate what was submitted and leave you to find whatever patterns might be lurking. :)

#32 (TIE)
Score: 1
Votes: 1 (0)

…I am the next poet laureate
And she is the cherry Madonna
And all of the summer is hers.

- I Trawl the Megahertz

In the morning I go walking,
It helps the hurting soften
I've seen a lot of places,
'cos I miss her very often

- Technique

Didn't vote in this, but I would've quoted those exact lines from Technique.

#28 (TIE)
Score: 2
Votes: 1 (0)

All my silence and my strained respect
Missed chances and the same regrets

- Bonny

The sunset makes a fence out of the forest

- Faron Young

Michael, help me write a letter to you-know-who
I will sign it ‘Lucifer Regrets’

- Michael

Now everybody wears the look
Of the child that wished to marry you
Who knocking proudly on your door
Was greeted by your pretty wife

- The World Awake

every lyric on bonny is fantastic, so, logically, i didn't vote for any of 'em

#18 (TIE)
Score: 3
Votes: 1 (0)

If you take, then put back good
If you steal, be Robin Hood
If your eyes are wanting all you see
Then I think I'll name you after me

- Appetite

No one planned it
Took it for granted

- Bonny

I could love you till the stars don’t shine
But I’m not yours and you’re not mine

- The End of the Affair

We’re talking fire
We’re talking flame
We’re talking ice into ashes
But death is a small price for heaven

- The Ice Maiden

Don’t goodbyes deserve some Bach, not Barbershop

- Jesse James Bolero

All my lazy teenage boasts
Are now high precision ghosts
And they're coming round the track
To haunt me

- The King of Rock 'n' Roll

We chopped a billion trees
To print up eulogies

- Moondog

My love and I, we are boxing clever
She'll never crowd me out
Fall be free as old confetti
And paint the town, paint the town

- When Love Breaks Down

There was a boy I used to be
I guess that he was cold
If she came to buy him now
How cheaply he'd be sold

- We Let The Stars Go

Whoops, meant to post this non-tie first. Sorry.

#27
Score: 2
Votes: 2 (0)

You and I won't be the fools that other lovers are
thinking every silver bottle top potentially a star

- All the World Loves Lovers

#14 (TIE)
Score: 4
Votes: 1 (0)

A century has shut its eyes and who are we to wake it?

- Carnival 2000

Little boy got a hot rod
Thinks it makes him some kind of new god
But this is one race he won't win

- Cars & Girls

Desire as a sylph figured creature who changes her mind

- Desire As

We're only men and women doing what we can
Sometimes I think that God is working to a plan
Then other times I swear that he is improvising
Discordant and remote

- The Sound of Crying

shout out to all my votes at #18 lol

Unranked ballot presumably? That must be how it was interpreted, at least!

One voter quoted the second line here. I grouped it with a vote for broader verse.

#13
Score: 4
Votes: 2 (0)

The dream helps you forget you ain't never danced a step
You were never fleet of foot, hippy
All the pathos you can keep for the children in the street
For the vision I have had is sweeping

- King of Rock’n’Roll

Unranked ballot presumably? That must be how it was interpreted, at least!

― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Monday, March 16, 2020 6:10 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes it was! but i thought maybe at least one other voter would vote for just one of my choices.

lol all of my lyrics placed

A bunch of first-place votes...

#8 (TIE)
Score: 5
Votes: 1 (0)

Her eyes china blue saucers, she's born that way
She tastes of apple strudel, you can tell she does
- Diana

If there ain't a heaven that holds you tonight they never sang doo-wop in Harlem
- Doo Wop in Harlem

Oh Anne Garland, You can't call this heartbeat a man
- Ghost Town Blues

Never let your conscience grow harmful to your health
Let no neurotic impulse turn inward on itself
- Life of Surprises

Daddies shook their fists at hidden communists
- Moondog

oh wait i forgot life of surprises!

The 'Diana' excerpt was mine, I believe. Must be -- not many seem to rate that slightly ludicrous song!

#6 (TIE)
Score: 5
Votes: 2 (0)

And there’s nothing pathetic
Listing clothes she’d wear
If it proves that I had you
If it proves I was there

- I Remember That

Life's not complete till your heart's missed a beat
And you'll never make it up, or turn back the clock

- Goodbye Lucille #1

NO YOU WON'T

xpost to some previous comments: For as much as some might say 'KIng of Rock and Roll' is Prefab Sprout's 'My Ding a Ling,' the lyrics are ace!

^ They are rather!

Given that I already said they were first-place votes up there, this is clearly how this bit should have read:

#8 (TIE)
Score: 5
Votes: 1 (1)

#5
Score: 5
Votes: 3 (0)

You surely are a truly gifted kid
But you're only good as the last great thing you did

- Moving The River

#4
Score: 6
Votes: 2 (0)

Paris, any music worth its salt is good for dancing
Paris, but I tried to be the Fred Astaire of words

- Paris Smith

...it's telling that a quarter of your top twenty didn't make the top forty in the ILX poll!

good list, but ya can’t quote ice maiden without including it dammit

I went to sleep with Spotify shuffling 2020 releases and woke to this conspicuously not-so-2020 sampled loop. Freaky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgGkr6Qi8ro

"life of surprises" is just the greatest goddamn song of all time

"We Let The Stars Go" will fight you for that title.

It's "The Sound of Crying" for me, but we're splitting hairs here

1) this goddamn band.
2) I now have an earworm mashup from Life of Surprises to Forever by Charli.

I went through a period of listening to "Elegance" a lot after this poll. Not sure I'd parsed the lyrics properly beforehand but I was suddenly really digging it as a class warfare anthem. Secretly their best song. Maybe. Sometimes.

Nah. Cue Fanfare is the zenith.

When everyone comes in at the start of “Life of Surprises” is the best