FEATURE:
A Buyer's Guide
Part Sixty-Seven: Prefab Sprout
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I have not yet included…
Prefab Sprout in A Buyer’s Guide. They are one of my favourite bands and, with Paddy McAloon at the front and writing such beautiful and timeless songs, their work will be remembered and shared for years to come. The band are still together – although it is pretty much McAloon on his own now. I am going to recommend the essential work of Prefab Sprout. Before then, here is some biography about the legendary band from AllMusic:
“One of the most acclaimed British pop bands of the '80s and '90s, Prefab Sprout was the creative vehicle of vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Paddy McAloon, who has been regularly hailed as one of the greatest songwriters of his era. McAloon has often been compared favorably to Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, and even Cole Porter, not just because of his lyrical and instrumental gifts but for the ambitious creative vision of his catalog. A notorious perfectionist who is also known for his shyness and his struggles with health problems, McAloon's body of work is relatively small (ten albums in three decades), but Prefab Sprout's music is beloved in the U.K., and they have a smaller but passionately loyal audience in the United States. Moving from the smart, beautifully crafted pop of 1984's Swoon and 1985's Steve McQueen (titled Two Wheels Good in the U.S.), Prefab Sprout would explore the influences of American music on 1988's From Langley Park to Memphis, embrace the sound and style of stage musicals on 1990's Jordan: The Comeback, use the Old West as a metaphor on the 2001 concept album The Gunman and Other Stories, and celebrated the power and energy of music on 2009's Let's Change the World with Music and 2013's Crimson/Red.
Prefab Sprout were formed in Newcastle, England, in 1977 by Paddy McAloon, who sings and plays guitar and piano, and his bass-playing younger brother, Martin. In the group's early days, McAloon spun several fanciful tales about the origin of their odd name (one favorite was that the young McAloon had misheard the line "hotter than a pepper sprout" in Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood's "Jackson"), but the truth is that an adolescent McAloon had devised the meaningless name in homage to the long-winded and equally silly band names of his late-'60s/early-'70s youth. With an early fan, Wendy Smith, drafted into the lineup to sing helium-register backing vocals, the trio released its first single, "Lions in My Own Garden (Exit Someone)," on its own Candle label in July 1982. Written for a girlfriend who had left Newcastle to study in Limoges, France (check the acronym of the title), the song was exceedingly clever but obviously heartfelt. The single's warm reception, including many plays on John Peel's radio show, led to the Sprout's signing to CBS subsidiary Kitchenware Records, which reissued the single in April 1983. Another single, "The Devil Has All the Best Tunes," followed later that year.
Prefab Sprout's first album, Swoon, was released in March 1984. Shortly after Swoon's release, drummer Neil Conti joined the group, and Thomas Dolby was tapped to produce the second Prefab Sprout album, 1985's Steve McQueen (retitled Two Wheels Good in the U.S. due to litigation from the late actor's estate). Dolby smoothed out the kinks a bit, and his keyboards helped enrich the album's sound. Prefab Sprout returned to the studio without Dolby in the summer of 1985 and quickly recorded an album's worth of material that was initially meant to be released in a limited edition as a tour souvenir. However, several months after Steve McQueen was released, its song "When Love Breaks Down" (which had been released as a single four different times in the U.K. without chart success) finally became a hit, and CBS feared a new album would hurt its predecessor's sales, so the project was shelved.
The "proper" follow-up to Steve McQueen was 1988's From Langley Park to Memphis. It became their biggest hit, thanks to the massive U.K. chart success of "The King of Rock and Roll" (about a one-hit wonder stuck performing his silly novelty song on the nostalgia circuit; ironically, it was Prefab Sprout's sole U.K. Top Ten hit and remains their best-known song) and the U.S. college radio success of the genial Bruce Springsteen parody "Cars and Girls." Following that chart action, CBS dusted off the shelved acoustic project from 1985 and released it (in the U.K. only) under the title Protest Songs in June 1989. Issued in 1990, Jordan: The Comeback, which McAloon describes as a concept album about Jesse James and Elvis Presley, was released to enormous critical acclaim in late 1990, but unfortunately, its ornate, lush production and suite-like structure doomed it to commercial failure in the U.S., though it was another big hit in the U.K. A fine but unimaginative best-of, A Life of Surprises, met similar respective fates in the summer of 1992.
Many thought Prefab Sprout disbanded at that point, and indeed, Conti did leave the band at some point in the '90s. However, McAloon had written (and in some cases, recorded) several albums' worth of material during the first half of the decade, abandoning them all before finally releasing the crystalline Andromeda Heights in 1997. The album wasn't even released in the U.S., but it was another deserved U.K. hit. An album of subtle beauty, Andromeda Heights showed how far McAloon had come as a songwriter and singer since Swoon.
A much-improved two-disc anthology, The 38 Carat Collection, was released by CBS in 1999 as the group was leaving the label. (Unexpectedly, the group’s U.S. label, Epic, belatedly reissued this set as The Collection in early 2001.) Wendy Smith left the group during this period, after the birth of her first child. Prefab Sprout, by this point consisting solely of the McAloon brothers, signed to EMI in late 2000 and delivered their Western-themed concept album, The Gunman and Other Stories, in early 2001. Unfortunately, the album’s release was delayed several months when Paddy McAloon was diagnosed with a medical disorder rendering him partially blind. As McAloon was homebound due to his health problems between 1999 and 2002, he wrote an album of music inspired by true life stories he recorded from radio broadcasts. Combining the radio recordings with orchestral arrangements of McAloon’s melodies, the mostly instrumental I Trawl the Megahertz became his first solo album when it was released in 2003.
After a six-year layoff, McAloon returned to recording as Prefab Sprout and released the self-produced, performed, and recorded Let’s Change the World with Music in 2009. This set’s songs and concept date to 1992 and were originally to be recorded as the follow-up album to Jordan: The Comeback; for various reasons, those sessions never happened. It was initially issued by Ministry of Sound and later in the year licensed by Sony/BMG in the U.K. In 2010, the independent Tompkins Square imprint issued the album in the United States. Both the album Crimson/Red and its lead single, “The Best Jewel Thief in the World,” were issued by the Icebreaker label in 2013. In March 2017, a video posted on the Internet featured a homemade solo acoustic clip of McAloon performing an original song, “America,” a protest against U.S. immigration policies under Donald Trump. In 2019, Sony reissued McAloon’s I Trawl the Megahertz under the Prefab Sprout banner”.
If you need some guidance about Prefab Sprout and which albums to get, I have suggested the four essential albums, the underrated gem in the pack and the latest album. I could not find a book about the band that is in print – for next week’s subject(s), I will make sure there is a book available. Here is my guide to the work of…
THE amazing Prefab Sprout.
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The Four Essential Albums
Steve McQueen
Release Date: 22nd June, 1985
Labels: Kitchenware/CBS
Producers: Thomas Dolby (except for track four, which was produced by Phil Thornalley)
Standout Tracks: Faron Young/Appetite/Desire As
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/prefab-sprout/steve-mcqueen
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/07CZepJZT17AllXPFRvogL?si=ukyZYqIDRACCtZFdPXMIZw&dl_branch=1
Review:
“Smart, sophisticated and timelessly stylish, Two Wheels Good (titled Steve McQueen throughout the rest of the world) is a minor classic, a shimmering jazz-pop masterpiece sparked by Paddy McAloon's witty and inventive songwriting. McAloon is a wickedly cavalier composer, his songs exploring human weaknesses like regret ("Bonny"), lust ("Appetite") and infidelity ("Horsin' Around") with cynical insight and sarcastic flair; he's also remarkably adaptable, easily switching gears from the faux-country of "Faron" to the stately pop grace of "Moving the River." At times, perhaps, his pretensions get the better of him (as on "Desire As"), while at other times his lyrics are perhaps too trenchant for their own good; at those moments, however, what keeps Two Wheels Good afloat is Thomas Dolby's lush production, which makes even the loftiest and most biting moments as easily palatable as the airiest adult-contemporary confection” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: When Love Breaks Down
From Langley Park to Memphis
Release Date: 14th March, 1988
Label: Kitchenware
Producers: Thomas Dolby/Jon Kelly/Paddy McAloon/Andy Richards
Standout Tracks: Cars and Girls/Hey Manhattan!/The Venus of the Soup Kitchen
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/prefab-sprout/from-langley-park-to-memphis/lp
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2gYTh5OCAI8leP681bfpUH?si=GqeYCKeETmWGBQ6MqfJwvQ&dl_branch=1
Review:
“Prefab Sprout arrived in 1988 with two highly acclaimed albums already behind them. With their latest release, 'From Langley Park to Memphis' set to release in March, the band was anxious and in high hopes that the new record could fulfill the sonic aftermath left by the magnificent sophisti-pop odyssey that is 'Steve McQueen'. Thankfully, in my eyes and in the eyes of many others, it succeeded in this feat and then some.
It is perhaps best not to compare 'From Langley Park to Memphis' to 'Steve McQueen', because even though they both have a sound that is unmistakably Prefab Sprout hard at work crafting dreamscapes, they both differ quite a bit stylistically. Instead of creating a second 'Steve McQueen', Prefab Sprout focus on making a cinematic pop experience with production that is grandiose and sweeping. While the first track, "King of Rock and Roll" gives us a funky and wonky synthpop anthem, the rest of the album takes a much more laid back and refined approach, utilizing synths and strings to create dazzling environments.
Whether its the song "I Remember That" or "Nightingales" (which features amazing harmonica from Stevie Wonder), the entire album brings forth a gorgeous pop sound that seems to reside in a far off dream or memory. Although not dreampop as one would traditionally think of it, that may be the most appropriate description for the music on here. With both Paddy McAloon and Thomas Dolby producing these tracks, they simply exude perfect mixing techniques. This is definitively one of the best produced albums out there. "Hey Manhatten" is another classic track that really exemplifies the artistic standard this album sets for pop music: impossibly high.
The album ends with "The Venus of the Soup Kitchen", a song that almost sounds straight out of End of Evangelion and one that hit me right away with its strange and mesmerizing beauty that sounded all too familiar upon when I had first heard it. It crescendoes into a spiraling, angelic melody packed with rich lyricism and poetic contrast that highlights how one views life. Whether you're in Langley Park or in Memphis, you're always going to feel this need to be in the place that you are not; to go on an adventure. Only to find that home is always the place one wishes to return to time and time again” – Sputnikmusic
Choice Cut: The King of Rock 'N' Roll
Jordan: The Comeback
Release Date: 7th September, 1990
Label: Kitchenware
Producer: Thomas Dolby
Standout Tracks: Wild Horses/We Let the Stars Go/All the World Loves Lovers
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/prefab-sprout/jordan-the-comeback
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3em3CQi7ZdbyJ6GDvwJwp6
Review:
“With few exceptions, highbrow pop music-making is a commercially treacherous occupation. Nonetheless, Newcastle’s Prefab Sprout — something of a British answer to Steely Dan — has done quite nicely, purveying evanescent music and frequently loopy subject matter. With Jordan: The Comeback, the quartet is poised to reach a wide American audience as well.
Produced with gentle grandeur by musician Thomas Dolby, the album offers a catalog of understated pop styles, all framed by the softly enunciated vocals of Wendy Smith and songwriter-guitarist Paddy McAloon. Occasionally couched in orchestral cotton wool, the 19 songs deftly incorporate such ingredients as salsa (”Carnival 2000”), wah-wah guitar (”Machine Gun Ibiza”), dance-rock (”Ice Maiden”), and streetcorner soul (”Doowop in Harlem”) without ever relinquishing the band’s lushly consistent character.
For all their fascinating intelligence, McAloon’s ironic lyrics can be difficult to pin down. Following the whimsical conception of ”Looking for Atlantis,” the arch iconography of ”Jesse James Symphony,” and the Presleyesque content of the beautiful title song (and others: Elvis is one of the album’s thematic threads), it’s hard to resist searching the sincere sentiments of ”All the World Loves Love” for a subtext that isn’t there. And just how seriously are we meant to take the voice of God in ”One of the Broken”? Those accustomed to musical junk food may find Jordan: The Comeback too subtle and complex at first, but this airy delicacy is a taste worth acquiring. B+” – Entertainment Weekly
Choice Cut: Looking for Atlantis
Let's Change the World with Music
Release Date: 7th September, 2009
Label: Kitchenware
Producer: Paddy McAloon
Standout Tracks: I Love Music/Last of the Great Romantics/Sweet Gospel Music
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0qWrBOrtAWsw2yPNl4TaBz?si=-kGBDyihRn28a5mxSfQsxQ&dl_branch=1
Review:
“For an album that was intended to be recorded over the summer of 1993, this has been a long time coming, so perhaps it’s best not to take the title seriously. Few artists talk up unreleased albums as prolifically as McAloon, which is arguably easy to do, but he probably underestimates his unheard oeuvre.
Here, his cynicism filter remains firmly switched off, with the album opening gleefully: the title track alone takes in early house, scratchy funk and gospel, and the hymn-like Ride celebrates returning to better days. Both capture that early 90s positivity, which is surely due for a revival after today’s 80s synthesisers have been powered down.
His thwarted vision, often blamed for not releasing material, is evident here. Never shy of understatement, Earth, The Story So Far (an unreleased concept album in its own right) is an example of Paddy falling short without his band, particularly backing singer Wendy Smith and producer Thomas Dolby, who defined their sound; its elegance never develops beyond a demo. He also sometimes alienates the listener with overly clever arrangements, such as on I Love Music, but with couplets such as “someone from heaven / put you through hell”, his lyrical skills remain as sharp as ever.
In common with other virtuoso songwriters, the songs and themes of this album unfurl with repeated hearing, although overuse of muted trumpet occasionally grates. If the closing song, a piano-led paen to death, is the last we hear from McAloon, then a more romantic last bow is hard to imagine.
Like motorway service stations halving the value of money, long-awaited albums often disappoint and this too feels like a slightly missed opportunity. Importantly however, you can’t imagine anyone else singing it. It’s good to have him back, no matter how temporarily” – BBC
Choice Cut: Let There Be Music
The Underrated Gem
Swoon
Release Date: March 1984
Label: Kitchenware
Producers: David Brewis/Prefab Sprout
Standout Tracks: Don't Sing/Here on the Eerie/Elegance
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/prefab-sprout/swoon
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6gsBvvfX2yItSa23rEblyF?si=AHF1_tCQTa2olwU94WlL2g&dl_branch=1
Review:
“At first, Paddy McAloon thought he had to invent his own chords to write songs. As a result, the earliest music by his band Prefab Sprout can sound comical and haywire, like a jazz band entertaining themselves at a cocktail party before the guests arrive. As McAloon continued refining his voice, he earned comparisons to Elvis Costello and Steely Dan, but his heroes were people like Michael Jackson and Prince, Stephen Sondheim and George Gershwin. He dreamed of writing songs that the whole world could sing along to—but he wanted to do it his own way.
Four new vinyl reissues offer a thrilling survey of his journey as a pop songwriter. The series comprises the band’s 1984 debut Swoon, 1988’s commercial peak From Langley Park to Memphis, 1990’s double album Jordan: The Comeback, and 1992’s The Best of Prefab Sprout: A Life of Surprises. These reissues—which feature subtly improved artwork and sharp remasters from McAloon and his brother Martin—leave out but orbit around Steve McQueen, their 1985 masterpiece that remains the ideal entry point to their catalog. It was a breakthrough for the band members, marking their first collaboration with producer Thomas Dolby, whose playful, surreal touch helped define their characteristic sound. Dolby even helped curate that album’s tracklist, choosing songs from a stockpile that McAloon had amassed since forming the band with Martin in County Durham, England in the late ’70s.
Several of those songs predated Swoon, their scrappy debut, whose post-punk edge would be abandoned for a smoother, more sophisticated sound. While Swoon was unrepresentative of the band that Prefab Sprout would become, it set the template for how they’d navigate the pop world. The brothers were joined by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Wendy Smith, who accompanied McAloon for wordless refrains and non-sequitur exclamations that took pleasure in twisting expectations. McAloon was beginning to write eloquently about heartbreak and adulthood (“Cruel,” “Elegance”) but he was also having a blast addressing questions that most songwriters might find trivial: What is the life of a celebrity chessmaster? When was the last time you played basketball?” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: Cruel
The Latest Album
I Trawl the Megahertz (Released as a Paddy McAloon solo album in 2003; reissued under the Prefab Sprout name in 2019)
Release Date: 2019 (originally 27th May, 2003)
Label: Liberty Records
Producers: Paddy McAloon/Calum Malcolm
Standout Tracks: Fall from Grace/I'm 49/Sleeping Rough
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/prefab-sprout/i-trawl-the-megahertz
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/3JtTs7tzD7uj6hpPb1apkT?si=C7-FYjMlSAilH1hjsicxcw&dl_branch=1
Review:
“I Trawl the Megahertz, Paddy McAloon's first solo album, is as likely to perplex and infuriate as it is likely to stun and spellbind. Grand, heavily orchestrated, predominantly instrumental, and not the type of thing you put on prior to going out or when you're in the mood for cleaning the house, the record is incredibly powerful -- almost too powerful -- even when held up against everything from Prefab Sprout's past. The most significant song is the opener; 22 minutes in length, it's nearly elegiac in it its mournful tones played out by a swaying string arrangement and a weeping trumpet. Throughout its duration, Yvonne Connors speaks matter-of-factly -- yet dramatically enough to be poignant -- as she rifles through fragments of her memory, the most disarming of which reads like this: "I said, 'Your daddy loves you very much; he just doesn't want to live with us anymore.'" Of the eight remaining songs, McAloon's voice is present on just one, which doesn't come along until near the end. This song, the particularly autumnal "Sleeping Rough," is almost as emblematic of the album as the opener, expressing a somewhat sorrowful but content coming to grips with the passage of time ("I'll grow a long and silver beard and let it reach my knees"). The album was conceived during and in the wake of McAloon's bout with an illness that temporarily took away his eyesight, but it's plain to hear that his vision remains” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: I Trawl the Megahertz