Prefab Sprout: Classic Or Dud

so what recs of theirs have you been listening to Tom?

I'm a bit surprised you like them Julio!

I've loved Prefab Sprout since I first heard Lions In My Own Garden on John Peel back in '82/'83.

I wonder if Dr. C was about / remembers seeing them at Reading Uni around '84 / '85 when they were on tour with another great Kitchenware band, Hurrah! and both bands apparently only had one bass & bass amp between them?

Last saw them (without Wendy, sadly) at Shepherds Bush Empire a couple of years ago and they were still magic.

Julio's impeccable taste doesn't surprise me in the slightest btw.

At his best - "When The Angels", title song from Jordan... - McAloon's untouchable. He doesn't quite do it often enough for me tho'.

''I'm a bit surprised you like them Julio!''

songs don't need to have an obligatory free jazz bit in them tom.

well doesn't Dr C like Scritti politti? OK so they aren't exactly alike but both bands have an affinity for soul-type stuff so i thought he would enjoy it.

Dud.

Stewart - yes, yes I saw PF at RUSU in 84 or 85. I wrote at some length about the great Hurrah! on a thread on ILX not long ago. Tim Hopkins and I (and doomie!) were waxing lyrical about them. We invited Hurrah! to a party at our house after the gig and they turned up with Prefab Sprout too!

For about 2 weeks after it came out I thought that side one of Steve McQueen was genius, but it soon passed. I dunno - I have the 2CD thing and it occasionally comes out if I feel the need to hear Lions in My Own Garden or Bonny or Don't Sing - but really I just don't *get* McAloon. The concepts aren't that really that interesting and everything is so *tasteful* that I just can't get interested.

So you're right Jeff, as usual! I don't much like them, but of course I love Scritti. I suppose the comparison is valid tho' I'm not much interested in Paddy OR Green's craftsmanship and intelligence - Scritti get my attention because they're just so damn funky.

Hurrah! Started out so well - they were great live (did you see them at the After Dark too Dr. C?) the 3 or 4 singles they did for Kitchenware (which were later compiled as "Boxed") were excellent; then they signed to Arista and somehow sadly they just seemed to lose the plot.

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.

(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.

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.

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.

(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...

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?

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.

re. lyrics, how about wanting to be the Fred Astaire of words?

I like PF.

iTunes = an antique jukebox in a cafe in North London that only plays PS and PF records

(possibly one of these is wrong)

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?

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

Oh, and Classic, if only for Steve McQueen.

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.

I am touched by JtN's new obsession.

Just thinking about the music to Bonny makes me a bit teary.

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.

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.

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.

Have you spoken to A-ha about this?

Me I'm touchy
Touchy touchy you
Me I'm touchy and you know what to do

I heard Spring Rain in a recd shop the other day and it sounded fucking excellent. I was prob wrong about the GBs, but it may be too late.

And Prefab Sprout are the third best band ever.

etc.

classic-o no fckng danger.

I came to this board about one month too late for this thread's last revival. (Yes, I am one of those dreaded "newbies" who have come to the ILM, much like the Visigoths came to Rome to sample the wine and women, only to have ruined it. Thank you! I'll be here all this week!)

In any event I let the drummer in my band check out Protest Songs and Jordan since he already had Two Wheels Good (ahem, 'Steve McQueen' there's my gaucheness again) and I sat down and listened to them last night and I cried because some mf'er stole my copy of Swoon a couple of months ago. So I give'em a classic. But I'm afraid to listen to anything after Jordan. Should I be scared?

Prefab stuff is great. One day I'll get back round to them. Last I remember I was playing something new by them on the radio in the early 90's. I'll get back to them eventually.

It has impressed me anew. I like the opening drum sound; I'm OK with the pop tune sound that follows. I like the expanse of the verses. The lyrics impress me - 'Will heaven wait / All heavenly'? And teh whole driving as life metaphor is very well extended.

I once said to JtN that it was unfair to write an attack on the Boss. But JtN immediately pointed out that PMacAloon was singing 'Bruce's thoughts / pretty streamers / guess this world needs its dreamers / may they never wake up' -- and now I hear the generosity, from one songwriter to another.

The old address http://www.prefabsprout.com/ isn't working.

In other news: has anyone heard Lisa Stansfield's Trevor Horn-produced version of 'When Love Breaks Down' (with specially commissioned from Paddy Mac extra verse)?

I'd like to hear that.

Shame she didn't chose to cover "Couldn't Bear To Be Special" 'though.

No! And?

I must admit, despite my misgivings prior to hearing any of it, the Andromeda songs on the 2-CD comp are very pillowy — particularly the title track. Any thoughts on that or the Lipson-produced unreleased songs on the first disc?

Also, Jordan deserves its own thread.

I can't for the life of me get anyone else I know to care. They can't get past the production and synth sounds. I don't get bothered by it one bit.

I have to say classic just because of those highpoints (up to and including "Jordan.")

Kylie's version of "If you don't love me" is spine-tingling, and possibly even better better than the original

Do you know where and when it was recorded Edd? It wasn't at Shepherds Bush Empire was it? Was Wendy there? They haven't done many gigs over the last few years, and if it's the gig I was at I'd love to hear it....

Albums that never were -- yet.
OK kids, listen up: This fellow McAloon has this habit of dreamin' big. He's got lots of ideas. Now some of them happen, and some of them don't. As Paddy has said, "they are not ditched...just waiting for the day." In some cases, he feels he doesn't have the clout, the power, or the money, to do them the way he envisions. I personally think that many of these "albums" are simply convenient holding mechanisms for his various songs; most will never see the light of day. Over time, a few bubble up. On the other hand, surely some of these are just meant to "wind up" the interviewer -- or keep me busy updating my web pages!

Paddy did comment generally on the topic of his unreleased work, in an interview in 1999 with Paul Lester:

Q: "What about those unreleased albums, then, Paddy?

A: I'm as frustrated as you that I've not made more records. I feel like a fraudulent Orson Welles figure: the triumphs I never had; my hypothetical career. I need a rich patron, someone like Bill Gates.

Q: You must have more in the vaults than Prince or Dylan! Or Brian Wilson...

A: We all get hung up on the idea of that lost Eden, almost like a Greek myth, of that gorgeous period in 1967 when Wilson produced these fragments of genius [ie, on SMILE] that were never organised into any shape and so remain forever out of reach. I feel it in my own life! I never thought I'd be kept awake at night thinking about all the stuff I hadn't recorded. I'm haunted by all these unrealised visions."

And here's another quote, this from the London Independent, February 27, 2000, as told to John Harris:

"There are well over a hundred songs," he laments. "It sounds precious, because there are worse things in the world to worry about, but I am awake at night sometimes, thinking that it's immensely frustrating that some of my best material isn't out there. I've got to do something about it, but it's hard to know what - because a part of me only wants to record these things when they get the financial backing they deserve. We're not a cheap ride. " He laughs. "The aesthetic behind these things is kind of posh."

Here's a list of the albums Paddy has mentioned in various interviews:

·Famous Fakes
Paddy: "In the '70s I thought I'd make an LP called 'Famous Fakes' and the songs were gonna be 'Donna Summer,' 'Faron Young,' like portraits, biographies. And most of 'em were crap." NME June 20, 1992

·June Parade
[NME, about 'Swoon'] Maybe you should have called it 'Spoon': spoon in June with Prefab Sprout. "[Paddy] Well, since you mention it, our next LP is called 'June Parade.'" NME, March 17, 1984

·Total Snow
Paddy: "But I've done other stuff also...like my Christmas record. I wanted to make a Christmas record because these are doubting times and I wanted to do something that reflects a positive attitude." Record Mirror, April 23, 1988

Paddy:"I've also written a Xmas album called Total Snow which I hope to get other people to sing on and I've got a top secret project which I'm half way through, so I'm busy as hell." i-D The Tribal Issue

Paddy: "The Christmas album is great--it's called 'Total Snow.'" says Paddy, denying repeatedly that this is a wind-up. "It's basically a collection of new Christmas songs, some of them very traditional in feel and others trying to capture the wildness of the idea that somebody should be born in Israel in order to save everyone. It's a gorgeous idea and yet a really sad one too." NME, February 6, 1988

John Birch indicates another title for this Christmas album was "A Symphony of Snowflakes."

·Zorro the Fox
NME: And if that [Total Snow] sounds like an unlikely project, it's got nothing on'Zorro The Fox', which Paddy conceives of as an antidote to the current rash of movies seemingly designed to showcase appalling American rock soundtracks.

"I want it to be exciting and witty and unusual," [Paddy] says. "I see Zorro as this guy for whom it's almost a character failing to be heroic. He can't help it. He's somebody who doesn't have much joy in his life, other than the fact of being good at what he does, which is to be a hero. It's quite a daft idea isn't it?...

"I think it maybe came about because I felt I needed some sort of mental scaffolding to start writing new songs. The music is very different from Prefab Sprout, very romantic, modern as hell. It's given me a whole new lease of life."

"The intention is to release 'Zorro' as an album at the very least, but ideally to develop it into a film musical. "I'm tentative talking about it because I know people will laugh," predicts Paddy. "But the thing is, I'm deadly serious about it. I'm aware that it could be completely hopelessly bad, but the idea just tickles me. I'd like to stress that there's nothing here of your rock musician seeing film as a mature medium and pop as something he's going to outgrow..."

"I'd like it to be a Prefab Sprout record, but if it turns out that it's not, that's OK." NME February 6, 1988

In an interview about Andromeda Heights, Paddy indicated that "Swans" was originally from 'Zorro.'

·Behind the Veil
Paddy: "I've written an entire album about Michael Jackson called 'Behind the Veil'...it's like a portrait of him. I was going to call this tune [The Sound of Crying] 'Only the Boogie Music Will Never Let You Down'--and I thought that was such a crap title!" Epic promo flier, 1995

Paddy: "I've accumulated a number of albums, with different titles, about different things...God knows when it'll see the light of day, but one of them's called "Behind The Veil" and it's about a black singer who was a child star who grew old and changed his face and sold billions of records - so it's about someone not a million miles removed from another artist." NME April 15, 1995 (Thanks to Stew Gregg)

John Birch reports that other tracks on this album were "Unicorn in Trouble," "Danger and Me," "Mr. Lightning Boots."

·Earth:The Story So Far
Paddy: "And the big one, what I've been working on for the last two or three years is an LP called "Earth: The Story So Far"... in pop song form, it's a history of the world, drawing parallels between different characters. It's not nearly as progressive as it sounds, not nearly as pompous. I hope that it's very moving. For example, I take the idea, for dramatic purposes, of when Adam and Eve meet each other. I've got a love song about that. And however many years later, when another couple comes along, like John Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, I use the same music and the same chorus, but it's gone through a billion revolutions since then. And some of it is a bit more fun. Some things are drawing parallels between people who were adventurers and were mocked for it - like Columbus and Picasso. It all looks a bit serious, but I think it swings along..." NME April 15, 1995 (Thanks to Stew Gregg)

Paddy: "With Earth: The Story So Far, I wanted to use collage and some of the techniques used by people in the dance world. I became so enmeshed in all the arranging, it began to occur to me that if I wasn't careful we would never make another record." Q Magazine, May 1997 (Thanks to Stew Gregg)

Paddy: "At the time [when he was asked by Jimmy Nail to write for "Crocodile Shoes"]-I think it was February '94- I had been working on a history of the world "EARTH: THE STORY SO FAR", and was tired with the process of arranging it. I always prefer writing to any other activity connected with music-including interviews (laughs) and as my history of the world is very different from the style Jimmy wanted, I was happy to take a break from it.

Q: So you abandoned a PREFAB SPROUT record to do it?
A: Yes... but as the writer of "EARTH: THE STORY SO FAR" I'm in the unique position of seeing that to make what will be an ambitious record-perhaps over an hour long-there are certain battles that have to be fought and won...Records cost money- if you want to make them the way I like to. You have to justify the expense every inch of the way, and your albums have to earn enough to cover that expenditure. So I took a long cool look at "EARTH : THE STORY SO FAR" and decided that I wasn't ready to face the arguments that will undoubtedly surround it when we try to make it...from the "Who do you think is interested in this stuff?" to the "Why does it have to be so long? "In fact-I so exhausted myself just thinking about arguments I hadn't yet had that it was a relief to write for Jimmy Nail." January 1997 interview with Ray Gibbon

·Let's Change the World With Music
Paddy: "And I have an album called "Let's Change The World With Music"; lots of songs about music, playing on that horrible thing where you listen to a song like "We Are The World" and the sentiment is great but it's such a cliche that it sticks in your throat. It plays on that edge between that kind of thing and real sincerity." NME April 15, 1995 (Thanks to Stew Gregg)

Paddy: "I actually wrote a Gulf War album called 'Let's Change the World With Music,' and I've got a couple of beauties, but there are right and wrong times to do things, and it came after another album I wrote which is much lighter...it's called 'Billy Midnight,' very romantic. So the Gulf War album was a more serious response to that. I keep junking things all the time." NME June 20, 1992

Paddy: "Look since 1990 I've written what I think of as my best music. You can hear some of it on "ANDROMEDA HEIGHTS". But I have also- in detailed demo form- an album called "LET'S CHANGE THE WORLD WITH MUSIC". It was written as the follow up to "JORDAN". Some of it has even been covered - Two of the songs an Australian artist called WENDY MATTHEWS recorded.

Q: Why didn't you record them?
A: Because it was felt in certain quarters that perhaps we should try something different.

Q: What do you mean?
A: Well, without wishing to make it sound like a grand conspiracy theory, it was suggested-and I should say here that I was party to the decision- that maybe we make a simpler record then "JORDAN". So instead of making an album with nineteen tracks (which "JORDAN" was) I decided to expand one of the songs on "LET'S CHANGE THE WORLD WITH MUSIC" into a one track album.

Q: And did you?
A: I tried.

Q: And couldn't?
A: I did it. But the one track consists of about....20 to 30 individual songs.

Q: So let me get this straight. You prepared an album "LET'S CHANGE THE WORLD WITH MUSIC".
A: Yeah

Q: Then took one of the songs from it until it became another album?
A: Yeah. [To help readers becoming confused, this refers to EARTH: THE STORY SO FAR -- Bedford]

Q: Then you got tired of arranging it (McAloon interrupts)
A: Tired and weary of knowing that what I was working on was beautiful but still a long way from completion, and looking beyond that I anticipated the trouble I would have in getting it made the way I wanted. So....along came Jimmy Nail with an offer I couldn't refuse. When I said "money rules" I wasn't being cynical. There is no guarantee that any record will sell large numbers. But it occurred to me that I was knocking myself out writing music that I might not get to record properly. So I started to see the way I work in a different light." January 1997 interview with Ray Gibbon

Paddy: "[The album] contains 28 tracks...Sony wanted to release it and then they changed their mind." BEST magazine (France) July 1997, translated by Laurent Bodnar.

·Billy Midnight
Paddy: "[Let's Change the World With Music] came after another album I wrote which is much lighter...it's called 'Billy Midnight,' very romantic." NME June 20, 1992

·Knights in Armour
Paddy: "There's also an album called "Knights in Armour", which is very romantic." NME April 15, 1995 (Thanks to Stew Gregg)

John Birch suggests that "Billy Midnight" and "Knights in Armour." are two different names for the same "album."

·Atomic Hymnbook
Paddy: "(It's) a gospel record of sorts... I have been told that songs about spiritual subjects mean you're a religious nutter and you will frighten off the British people. I know I'm going to meet this resistance and that's why Andromeda Heights has no songs of that nature. They've gone to the Atomic Hymnbook and other places..." Q Magazine, May 1997 (Thanks to Stew Gregg)

Described in one article as "secular gospel songs." The Independent, (London) February 27, 2000

·20th Century Magic
Paul Lester: "Why not satisfy the record company and lovers of idiosyncratic Paddy by doing a (Bowie's) LOW: one side pop songs, the other experimental?"

Paddy: "Funny you should mention LOW -- it was my model for 20TH CENTURY MAGIC. But I thought it was too much of a compromise." Uncut Magazine, December 1999.

20th Century Magic [is] intended to soundtrack the millennial mindset. It contains songs about Princess Diana and - contrary to the idea that McAloon's disappearance from the pop life might have uncoupled him from the zeitgeist - the Dome. "That song's called 'Twilight Of The Pimps'," [McAloon] explains. "It's about it being a fabulous symbol of the age: 'Dear Tony, It's a bold idea/We could use an unloved dome round here.' It's a compendium of images that are very 20th century. I regret it not being out at the moment." Article by John Harris, The Independent (London) February 27, 2000.

·Columbus Dreamed America
Meet The New Mozart
Doomed Poets Volume 1
All mentioned by Paul Lester in his article in the December 1999 issue of Uncut magazine. No other information about them, however. (Many thanks to Chris Wirtalla for providing the info on the Uncut interview seen in this section.)

·Sleeping Rough
According to Kitchenware (October 1999), this album was to be released in 2000. Sleeping Rough turned out to be a track on “I Trawl the Meghertz.”

·Enfant Terrible
Paddy:"The next album is a radical shift: ENFANT TERRIBLE -- two tracks, largely instrumental. It's way out there." Uncut Magazine, December 1999. Based on this description, it may have been an alternate title for “I Trawl the Megahertz.”

·(unknown titles)
John Birch reports in his book that in 1992 Paddy completed "a twelve song biographical opus based on the life of Francis Albert , the skinny black/white billionaire from Indiana" I haven't the slightest idea who he's talking about. John also refers to "an album about cities and of McAloon's fascination of how a mood or atmosphere is expected/portrayed by the name of a city or place..."

·The Wendy solo album
I SWEAR I either heard a Paddy interview or read that he had plans to do this.

·And the mother of all never weres: "Hidden Sprouts." Here is the info on this tantalizing 2 CD offering from Japan:

Epic (Sony) ESCA - 5311/2 -- Hidden Sprouts -- CD (1991)

Lions in My Own Garden (Exit Someone) / Radio Love / The Devil Has All the Best Tunes / Walk On / He'll Have To Go / Spinning Belinda / Donna Summer / Diana / The Yearning Loins / Silhouettes / Faron Young (Truckin' Mix?)/ Heaven Can Wait / Oh! The Swiss / Wigs / The Guest Who Stayed Forever / Old Spoonface is Back / Vendetta / Nero the Zero / Real Life, Just Around the Corner / Dandy of the Danube / Tin Can Pot / Tornado / Hey Manhattan (JFK Mix) / Nightingales (edit) / King of Rock 'n' Roll (demo) / Bearpark (demo) / Golden Calf (long version) / Bonny (live) / Looking for Atlantis (extended mix) / Carnival 2000 (M.H.B. Mix)

The only problem: There is no evidence this CD was ever released; it was deleted from the catalog the same year it was issued.

·And, on a related note, there's:

The US tour that 'never was'
The "Hot Flash" press release from Epic records dated November 30, 1990 gave the dates for the Sprouts' first American tour, in support of "Jordan." It was going to start January 29, 1991 and visit the following cities: New York, Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. So now you're either saying "Nuts!" or, "No big deal, they weren't coming to Boise anyway" or something similar.

To quote the release, "Further details--dates, venues, and show times--to follow ASAP!" (I'm still waiting...surprisingly, I understand from Neil Conti that it was Paddy's refusal to scale down the Jordan Tour concert presentation at Epic's request, not his well-known aversion to touring, that was this tour's undoing.)

·And the next time you see them live, ask them to play "I Am A Plumber" or "Marsden Rock" for the encore!

http://www.browningmcintosh.com/plocktonwest/sprout_misc.html#never

No! And?

It's sort of...awful. There are thunderstorm sounds. Oh, Trevor. And Lisa sounds like she's not really comfortable with the ket she has to sing in. Oh, Lisa.

But don't take my word for it: http://s21.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1KVQE1R45T7KT2ZSJXTNIYSYH9

If anyone knows the bonus songs, please post. Googling turned up nada.

An argument could be also made for "Spinning Belinda", "He'll Have To Go" (although I think those really belong with SWOON), "Vendetta" and "Nero The Zero" (although those probably belong with From Langley Park To Memphis).

There was also a Radio 1 "In Concert" which was recorded around that time (at Reading University, in front of myself, Dr. C and all of a couple of dozen other people, most of whom seemed more interested in the cheap booze in the Uni. bar, iirc) which would be a rather nice addition.

I am still more interested in cheap booze than Prefab Sprout. Hurrah! were good that night though.

Btw. Paddy McAloon's projects have been frighteningly dud lately. He hasn't released a true quality album since 1997's "Andromeda Heights".

And x-post, count me in on the lobby for a 10+ disc boxset.

Shame that all the b-sides Stewart lists above were already "collected" on the _Silhouettes_ bootleg. I'd like to see a bonus disc with some of the tracks that John Birch included on his fanzine cd-rs. "Cherry Tree", "The Glass Slipper", "Constant Blue", etc.

http://www.prefabsprout.net/media.html

probably. but anyway...

i've never heard any of the 90's b-sides and such. still have a bunch of 80's 12 inches, so those aren't as unknown to me.

I've also figured out that it's the Jordan album I remember from the early 90's, so I will give that a go very soon. Would you believe I wrote 'Prefab Sprout' down on a list of stuff to check out not more than a week before this thread was revived?

I was about to buy The Collection, when I discovered there's a NEW best of that just came out called "The Kings of Rock 'n' Roll":
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kings-Rock-Roll-Prefab-Sprout/dp/B000WTNDOO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1197444424&sr=8-2

I've got Steve McQueen and Jordan: the Comeback; which one should I pick up?

38 songs for £6.99? Go for it.

@ Geir: Those acoustic renditions are really quite nice, not tossed-off afterthoughts at all like a lot of acoustic re-recordings tend to be.

I've got Steve McQueen and Jordan: the Comeback; which one should I pick up?

"From Langley Park To Memphis" obv. Their most underrated album, IMO just as good as the two "classic" ones.

I bought the deluxe edition without having heard the album before and I have to say I like the acoustic versions better.

THE SWEET SEPTEMBER RAIN

I picked up the 38 Carat Collection used. One of my best bargain finds. Makes me want to check some later stuff I've overlooked.

I've just recently realized how amazing this band is. Was always aware of them, but now it's all I want to listen to. What else should I check out along these lines? Bear in mind I don't mind 80s production but can't handle Scritti Politti or anything that makes Prefab Sprout sound like Chrome in comparison. In other words, less or AS wimpy as Prefab Sprout, but no wimpier.

Scritti Politti! Dude, come on. PS themselves'd say Steely Dan, if they were feeling cocky. Occasional bits of Orange Juice, Pet Shop Boys, Smiths, but noone I can think of right now was all that much like them

I've been meaning to get into Orange Juice for years...I only know a few stray tracks and Edwyn Collins solo stuff!

Couldn't go far wrong with the first two Thomas Dolby albums. There's plenty of others who treaded the fairlight ridden path of sensitive singer songwriter in the 80's but few as good as them.

If I was being mischievous I'd suggest Momus as a more rococo alternative, but fear of being struck down by lightning prevents me.

Aztec Camera's first LP fits nicely alongside Prefab Sprout...Go-Betweens up to/including 16 Lovers Lane...

DEACON BLUE

THE SCOTTISH PREFAB SPROUT

I hope you're jesting.

Aztec and Go-Betweens're excellent suggestions. Maybe Blue Nile too, "Hats" is perfect, similar vibe to slow PS

Y'know what a few Prince songs're pretty close too actually, things off Parade and Sign O the Times, round that

well, Deacon Blue do sound more like Prefab Sprout, and perhaps vice versa, than any other band I can think of.

I concur with the Go-Betweens suggestion. I'd also recommend Microdisney as Prefab Sprout-type fodder - similar mixture of sophiscated melodies and enjoyably glutinous 80s production, except with Pol Pot on vocals. Their Best Of "Big Sleeping House" is a good introduction.

The latest Pearlfishers album Up With The Larks (on Marina) is a dead-on and thoroughly enjoyable Prefab Sprout homage. "Womack and Womack" does the best job of combining bouncy white soul and world-weary lyrics.

^^^been meaning to check them out...there's also a band called le Concorde or something like that who are supposed to recall vintage Prefab Sprout (I've never heard them), and there's Cane 141 (who are mostly downtempo electronica now, but have done very Prefab-ish stuff in the past)...

david scott from the Pearlfishers is an extreme brian wilson obsessive but i was about to suggest him as well as he's a genius and everything he's done since 1995 has been amazing. he's also been making great bmx bandits records the last couple of years.
i always say the judybats were a poor man's american version of prefab sprout, especially on the first two records, they don't have any of that studio sheen but the same odd sense of drama and poetry of everyday life.

As far as travelling in similar orbits, Halloween, Alaska could list both the Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout as influences, both in delivery and music. Stars' _Nightsongs_ is another RIYL.

The first two Dolby albums OTM, as well as some of his later stuff ("Budapest by Blimp" has keys that sound right out of "Desire As").

But really there's no band that combines all the Prefab elements in quite the same way: witty lyrics, heartfelt delivery by Paddy & Wendy, hook-filled tunes, lofty themes, etc.

Anyone heard this? Pretty weak.

Heh, I dig it. The spare arrangement draws attention to the words, with the piano adding gravity.

Being an Editors fan, though, I like his voice. Would love to hear "Til the Cows Come Home" or "I Remember That" done in a similar fashion.

Fred Falke's dj 'mini mix' for annie mac's show (about 20 songs in 5 minutes) suddenly featured that "bap bap bah! shadoo-dad-dooda bap bap bah!" vocal riff from CARS AND GIRLS in the middle. i don't know who i was more impressed with Falke or Prefab Sprout but it brought a huge smile to the old face.

OMG, I hope this true...

http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2008/09/prefab_sprout_in_new_album_sho_1.html

ADMIRERS OF PREFAB SPROUT and their singer/ songwriter Paddy McAloon - a soulful romantic with the emotional range of Bacharach and the melodic precision of Steely Dan - are by necessity a patient bunch. They have, after all, only heard two new albums since 1990, excepting Paddy’s superlative, mostly instrumental 2003 set I Trawl The Megahertz.

But that wait for new music will soon be at an end, as MOJO can joyfully report that Paddy and his bass-playing brother Martin have been back in the studio to record the long-awaited follow-up to 2001’s The Gunman And Other Stories. Tentatively entitled Let's Change the World With Music - The Blueprint, it will include the songs Let There Be Music, God Watch Over You and The Last Of The Great Romantics, and a source tells MOJO that they are “some of the best songs Paddy has written!” The band are aiming at a February 2009 release.

Ian Harrison

Shame about the title, but if this is true then fab. Judging from the songs listed, this is like Gunman in being drawn from his last decade or so of songs. God Watch Over You was sung by some Australian woman ages ago. It's a splendid song, despite lyrical sappiness - but that's kind of a given with later McAloon.

NB: track 8.

1. Let There Be Music
2. God Watch Over You
3. The Last Of The Great Romantics
4. Let's Change The World With Music
5. Angel of Love
6. Earth: The Story So Far
7. Falling In Love
8. I Love Music
9. Meet The New Mozart
10. Music Is a Princess
11. Ride Home To Jesus
12. Sweet Gospel Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dq_v5kZeEM

An exclusive chance to hear 'Let There Be Music,' the opening track from Prefab Sprout's new album, 'Let's Change The World With Music,' due to be released 07/09/09. Brought to you by www.prefabsprout.net

I kinda like it.

Also, I don't know what I ever expected Paddy would look like in 2009, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that.

still love his voice...

eMusic has two versions of what look like the same Prefab Sprout album: Two Wheels Good and Steve McQueen. Struggling to decide if the bonus disc on Steve McQueen makes that the better of the two discs (FWIW, judging from the soundscans, the sound quality/production are better on Steve McQueen).

the bonus disc is just the solo acoustic versions that paddy did years and years later right? i personally found them to be of no interest.

They're the same album, except it was called Two Wheels Good in the US. Since Steve McQueen was more popular in the UK in its time, it's since been remastered and expanded.

So LCTWWM is out. Anyone given it a proper listen?

err how come I missed this? Please somebody tell me whether I can listen to this... without being wholly and mortifyingly disappointed.

am so looking forward to this...

he's always had good quality control. only the occasional misstep sees the light of day.

Listened to this a couple of times, sadly I can see why it was passed over in '92. Unless it's a real grower, the albums' back story is giving it a rosy glow it doesn't really deserve.

The new album is surely a return to form. Paddy's best effort since "Jordan...". Not surprising that it was largely done in 1992 though, and also makes me fantasize about how great this album would have been with the magnificent "The Sound Of Crying" - one of his best ever songs - added to the sequence.

"Earth: The Story So Far" is sexual.

Let's Change The World = Ace!

spotify:album:0DJorHkuhJRDNJ1JF4FIGv

Agreed. "God Watch Over You" is a particular standout for me. I hope the reception for this is positive enough that he carries on with other old/new releases.

Have to say also that _I Trawl the Megahertz_ is one of my top albums this decade. Truly wonderful effort, there.

Yeah God Watch Over You is a winner for me too, just brilliant. I can't believe how good this album is. I wonder why on earth he didn't release it all those years back. There was a great feature in WORD about him. He really seems to have been going through it these last years.

I skip God Watch Over You, cause I've been familiar for years with another version by some female singer. I concur about the excellence of the album however.

"Earth: The Story So Far" is sexual.

― Freedom, Saturday, October 24, 2009

very beautiful fan video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gxHcNtzFrU

I listened to "Sleeping Rough" off Megahertz there for the first time in a while - what an absolutely jaw-dropping piece of music.

"carnival 2000" killing me right now ... someone otm upthread re: a band that it is impossible to get your friends to like. perhaps the only quality they share w/ skinny puppy

That's such an odd pairing of bands as Prefab would seem to have universal pop appeal. Except that's the secret - they're NOT pop!

Only one of my irl friends likes Prefab — for most they're too self-consciously corny/cutely earnest.

interview w/paddy mcaloon @ the onion av club

There is a project I’ve been working on over the past few years, called “Digital Diva,” and it’s very much an exercise in delirious romanticism.
-

Get to it Paddy!

one of my friends has recently become obsessed with prefab, which, kinda blows my mind tbh. there are a lot of redeemable qualities in paddy's stuff but so much of it seems like some kinda waiting room music or something.

that's a lovely interview btw

would wait in room while listening to prefab

Adore the band. I always have a hard time explaining my love for them though — on Swoon it's the combination of the jerky arrangements and self-consciously literate and playful lyrics (cf. the art-and-commerce problem of "Here on the Erie", the plays on "plane" and "play" in "Cue Fanfare") that have a sort of just-out-of-art school feel that is both endearing and indicative of their freshness, but it's amazingly assured for a first album. The jerkiness gets smoothed out on Steve McQueen and has a sort of early morning fog sheen like the album cover, and the Dolby production is really nuanced (I love the string-synth woosh that shows up intermittently, I've never heard it anywhere but on Dolby productions (e.g. the "Field Work" single w/ Sakamoto), even moreso on Langley Park to Memphis where it goes almost into childhood storybook mode on "Nightingales",weirdo funk on "Knock On Wood" and sad imaginary situations. The stories he creates are just so vivid and you feel like you've lived it. I think I've listened to Langley Park more than any of their other albums — Protest Songs I've never really warmed up to despite liking several songs very much, it just seems like leftovers. Jordan is really amazing but I think I just haven't listened to it enough. The other albums have good tracks scattered across them (I LOVE the title track from Andromeda Heights!). Let's Change the World is mostly great, sometimes getting almost too maudlin (but that's hardly a valid criticism of Paddy really, it's par for the course), and only bogging down when there seems to be a lack of ideas ("I Love Music" sounds less enthusiastic relative to the other songs) — "Meet the New Mozart" is one of PF's greatest sad story songs.

i love Steve McQueen sooooooo much, but whenever i try to branch out to the other albums i'm always disappointed :/

except for Cars & Girls

It helps if you like kittens. I'm serious.

Maybe a good analogue for Langley Park is the ultra-precise production on Scritti Politti's Cupid & Psyche '85. I think if you like the one it's not a stretch to like the other.

I heard "When Love Breaks Down" on the radio (despite it not being a much of a hit in the US) and bought the album (one of the last I bought on vinyl before I got my first CD player). It turned out to be the only song on the album I liked.

i love both kittens and Cupid & Psyche '85, i guess i just wasn't grabbed by the songs on Langley Park as immediately as Steve McQueen

Future Sound of London mix is my fav. thing of theirs.

If I'm re-hashing someone's later answer, please excuse me... I adore the first two records and would probably consider Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good my second favorite record of all-time. The interesting thing about it is that a lot of the material on said album was A&R'd/selected by Thomas Dolby and actually pre-dates Swoon in terms of when it was written. So, glean from that what you will about how you feel if Paddy's songwriting either blossomed or conversely withered, 'cuz from my vantage point:

Classic: Swoon & Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good
Dud: The entire rest of his/their career

including Jordan in your dud list is inexplicable. they seem like a band with a very narrow entry angle, no idea why this is, he writes timeless pop songs, perhaps it is all down to the endless optimism and the production. i love him more every day.

they were the best days/the harvest years

A lot of people don't like sentimentality.

Well, there's a line between sentimentality and schmaltz over which Mr. McAloon's writing dances over with increasing regularity since Protest Songs.

Well, you can either expand to include the schmaltz or withdraw and exclude it from validation. "Schmaltz" is merely a descriptive factor, not a qualitative judgement.

"Yet it's all so MOR, so polite"

almost ten (!) years ago i may have agreed with this upthread criticism, but now it just strikes me as so hopelessly missing the point.

also, it has to be said -- sentimental's part of the deal

I love "Langley Park" and "Jordan...." but I can understand how people who are not into ultra-smooth production tend to prefer "Steve McQueen".

Yet, those two are my favourites, exactly because they were more produced and smoother. I love "Steve McQueen" as well, but not to the same extent.

Yep

I have five words for you: "Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque"

Worst Prefab chorus of all-time or just worst chorus of all-time?

completely...

Yawn.

i always call 'steve mcqueen' one of my favorite albums of all time but there's two or three tracks that i skip over every time - the first side is just flawless tho imo

It's obvious Paddy got too clever for you at one point, Hector. I'm guessing you don't like Scritti Politti or 10cc either.

its not the smooth production that bothers me, i love me some smooth production, i just feel like the songs are stronger on Steve McQueen. i'll be giving Langley Park some more time soon, though.

actually really digging Jordan right now, kind of overwhelming, though

Love love love 10cc... Sheet Music also vies for my Top 10 of all-time, but I think they definitely fell off when Godley and Creme left the group.

I like Scritti a lot... Songs To Remember is a classic but the production is brutally "of its time" on Cupid & Psyche and I find it hard to look past that, but the songs themselves are really great. I went another direction personally after that.

I've given every Prefab album a chance and I quite like Paddy's solo album... I'll agree that Jordan has moments of strength, but there's an undeniable line of delineation at From Langley Park To Memphis.

i always call 'steve mcqueen' one of my favorite albums of all time but there's two or three tracks that i skip over every time - the first side is just flawless tho imo

― bloc trebek-quois (donna rouge), Friday, November 12, 2010 4:00 AM (8 hours ago)

I agree with this, that first side is one my favourite runs on any album ever. Horsin' Around is the only song I skip it just doesn't belong on such a beautiful album.

but I think they definitely fell off when Godley and Creme left the group.

Not going to argue about there being an obvious drop in quality. Even though I still think they did more standard melodic pop music better than most. For a while anyway.

Horsin' Around is the only song I skip it just doesn't belong on such a beautiful album.

"Horsing Around" is among the ones I like best on "Steve McQueen" actually. It's a bit like the weirder songs on the "Swoon" album, only with a rather smooth and synth dominated production that also makes it point toward the future.

Oh, and the production is the reason why I like "Cupid & Psyche" and even "Provision" much better than I like "Songs To Remember. Of its time, maybe, but what a time! :)

Along with Steve McQueen I'd rate Swoon and Jordon as the other classics. Most of the other albums are patchy.

My favourite song is still the very first single Lion's In My Own Garden, it's such a strange and addictive tune.

Oh, and the production is the reason why I like "Cupid & Psyche" and even "Provision" much better than I like "Songs To Remember. Of its time, maybe, but what a time! :)

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Friday, November 12, 2010 1:03 PM

Some of the production is a little dated on Cupid & Psyche but there are moments of genius, especially Absolute. On the whole Songs To Remember is a more consistent album all the way through, the songs are just stronger. White Bread Black Beer is by far my favourite album of his though.

Yeah, must agree Geir... "Horsin' Around" is one of my favorites; it reminds me of instrumental supermarket music of my childhood with its bursts of muted trumpets.

It's more often "Blueberry Pies." that gets the FFWD.

I have probably moaned on upthread about not really getting PF despite trying for 25 years or so. And it's true I still don't really go for the lushness and the soft focus. But just listening to the 2CD compilation (can't remember name of it) today there are definitely moments of utter greatness that no one-else but Paddy can do. 'I count the hours since you slipped away' in Bonny is one, also 'All my silence and my strained respect/missed chances and the same regrets'. He forces those lines out brilliantly. It's a great production is Bonny - someone said upthread that Steve McQueen was fog-covered or something similar and it's exactly on the money wrt Bonny. Dolby did something really unusual with that album - side one especially is terrific. I rarely listen music to this thought-out and carefully produced these days, but this track really hit home today.

But why oh why oh why didn't they include 'Wild Horses' on this album? Jenny Agutter!

Am I the only one who saw the remarkable thing that happened here?:

It's obvious Paddy got too clever for you at one point, Hector. I'm guessing you don't like Scritti Politti or 10cc either.

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro)

Is this the beginning of a new era?

Doesn't seem that way to me. I still love clever music, like I have always done. :)

Am I the only one who saw the remarkable thing that happened here?:

Now you mention it, yes I do know what you mean, Kevin.

Ok Mark G got it!

Some of the production is a little dated on Cupid & Psyche but there are moments of genius, especially Absolute

The Arif Mardin produced ones hold up better than the Fred Maher produced ones, surely.

(in terms of production, that is. "The Word Girl" and "Perfect Way" are still fantastic songs though)

this song is awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xOke9yb_mk

otm

Pulled out "Jordan" recently and oh god it's the epitomy of romantic. Paddy's voicee is so swoon-worthy, and it sounds like he's feeling what he sings about SO DEEPLY but in a completely sincere way. No "emo" just emotion.

most unfairly under-rated 80s band or what?

The bonus disc of acoustic rerecordings that came with the "Steve McQueen" reissue is crazy good, probably the single best revisitation of material years later.

The blueprint for Kaputt by any chance?

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/prefab-sprout-steve-mcqueen-round-29-toms-selection/

i hear a lot of Blue Nile in it, but Avalon and Boys & Girls above all....(I LOVE Prefab Sprout, whom I avoided for twenty years because I didn't like their name...stupid!)

Horsin' Around was just on WFMU. What a magnificent song.

Classic All the Way. "One of the Broken" nearly brought me to tears today when it came up on iTunes shuffle.

in the last few years, prefab sprout has become one of my very favorite groups. paddy mcaloon in my top 5 singers of all time.

ultra ultra classic and ridiculously ignored by most people at the moment. did When Love Breaks Down and King Of Rock N Roll at karaoke at a friends house party on saturday, it ruled.

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".

between "when love breaks down," "goodbye lucille #1," and "moving the river" sometimes it seems like steve mcqueen is talking directly to me

oh and "desire as" of course

I feel you.

Perfect album for after a thunderstorm when the sun and the clouds make love

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".

Thanks, woof! I'll email you

lol i've been listening to this band nonstop for two weeks

i guess everyone already knew that "the sound of crying" is the greatest song ever

over the past week i've really grown to love let's change the world with music even though it's transparently an early '90s demo for what could've been, with "the sound of crying" included, the best ps record. i almost want to go back in time to make that happen

it may surprise you to learn that I grew up with their best-of in heavy rotation on car trips

the sound of crying is a good one

Jordan the Comeback is so great too. Ice Maiden is one of my top PS jams, love the conceit and the lyrics, everything.

it may surprise you to learn that I grew up with their best-of in heavy rotation on car trips

not particularly! swoon feels like your kind of record

I often have phases when they are all I can listen to for weeks. I usually obsess over Swoon, Steve McQueen and Jordan: The Comeback which are all 10/10 albums.

After several weeks of loving the leaked demos for Crimson/Red, I bought the album on CD although didn't listen to it for a few months. Was kinda gutted when I realized that the two versions were so different, as I much prefer the demos and had foolishly deleted them from my HD after grabbing the CD. Anyone know if/where these might still be found?

I had the album leak, but I don't remember it being very different - were there demos too?

Shall we run through the albums? I know there are only about half a dozen of us who care, but anyway…

Prefab Sprout - Swoon poll

steve mcqueen poll would be literally impossible imo

XP The album had a noticeably different mix than the leak.

A Steve McQueen poll wouldn't be impossible for me, and I love that record. It's 'Appetite', with absolutely zero doubt.

i mean "appetite" is the best song ever but so is "goodbye lucille #1"

God, what a fantastic group. Like The The, they're famous for recording an immense amount of material that has never leaked, which is incredibly frustrating. The first five songs on Jordan: The Comeback may be pop music's zenith

If we'd do a Steve McQueen poll, I'd put "Bonny" just a hair above "When Love Breaks Down" and "Appetite". Prefab has a reputation for being a real "music nerd/snob" group. Anyone agree with that sentiment?

I might have to go with Bonny. "Save your speeches, flowers are for funerals".

Has anyone else come across these live performances on YouTube from 85? They are seriously incredible.

https://youtu.be/zefR13phCKM

The first pressed CDr I ever got in 1998, with a pro looking label and liner notes, was a comp of Prefab b-sides. I felt like I was holding the future.

Thanks for that live link - I saw them right around that time (three weeks before or so), will enjoy reminding myself.

Only band I've ever seen where one of the road crew sprayed breath freshener on each microphone just before show time. Seemed appropriate.

the way he sings the word "improvising" in "sound of crying", i'm like, paddy, never change

also "life of surprises" is so good too

"Only the boogie music ..."

I love Life of Surprises. Good advice throughout, not something you get much in pop.

"tell yourself that will have to do for now"

Plane! Plane! Plane!

can we please talk about "goodbye lucille #1 (johnny johnny)"

No we won't

That's it the perfect song? I'm all about "Donna Summer" right now

These days whenever I want to listen to Steve McQueen I nearly always reach for the accoustic re-recordings.

I finally found out the reasoning behind the initially annoying title and like it a lot now (and wanna hear other Goodbye Lucilles, even if they're crap)

Oh, is it one of his "concept" albums we never get to hear?

Yeah, an album's worth of v different songs all named "Goodbye Lucille".

Is he still in love with Hayley Mills?...

PS tribute next week in NYC. FAP?
http://www.thehifibar.com/event/1185649-hey-manhattan-its-prefab-new-york/

my friend just told me about Prefab Sprout. i'm completely obsessed, and he said that this song "prefigured a whole era of modern music by nearly twenty years"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3H3lKt5_BM

i'm blown out of the water. this track is amazing and sounds like it came out today

def one of my favorite songs ever

The only posts that make up for the "NEW MUSIC COMING!?!" hope crushed to disappointment when a favorite band pop up here (Prefab, The Blue Nile, The Apartments, Romeo Void, etc.) are posts like these, someone discovering the band and falling for them. Like Scrooge McDuck in his money pool, a convert being able to dive into the entire catalog at once is enviable.

Highly, highly recommend Paddy McAloon's _I Trawl the Megahertz_ if/when you get around to it. Personally, I rate it up there with _Steve McQueen_.

I still like "Appetite."

wild horses is an amazing track.

There's pictures of Paddy hanging with Spike Lee in London last week. Apparently theyre working on something together!?

voodoo up, rollmo down

Great observation by that friend of yours, flap

Jordan vs Steve

jord but also never make me choose

Jordan yeah.

Jordan is Paddy perfecting Steve, which is really close to perfect already.

I might go with Swoon over both of them.

I was just looking at PS lps on discogs and they're a lot more expensive than they were 15 years ago. Like, not break the bank expensive, but last time I bought Two Wheels Good (Steve McQueen) on vinyl, it was about $3. It is not that now.

Jordan. I think there are some wobbles in the first half (Machine Gun Ibiza), but it's completely immaculate Moondog onwards.

I forgot I started polling through the albums… I'll put up a SMcQ/2WG poll when I get five minutes.

I'll save you time...it's 'Bonny'...

I'd think it would be Appetite.

the acoustic Appetite on the reissue is like mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

i love both but steve mcqueen is definitely their best

it's got a much nicer texture & jordan's just a little too sprawling

I'd think it would be Appetite.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Thursday, November 24, 2016 1:24 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, that's the one that I'd vote for!

Picking between Bonny, Appetite and Goodbye Lucille is something I've always struggled with. Such perfect songs.

the run of tracks from Bonny to Goodbye Lucille #1 is their peak, it's incredible

Umm...why not throw Faron Young into that list just for good measure?

First three songs of side 2 ain't too shabby either.

Struggling to get into PS besides 'Wild Horses' and 'When Love Breaks Down.' have listened to TWG and Jordan all the way through several times but nothing has stuck. was talking with my friend that turned me onto PS the other day, he mentioned how vicious and bitter McAloon's lyrics are delivery are throughout his records, he said they make Steely Dan's cynicism look like a party. i'm not hearing it though...

Umm...why not throw Faron Young into that list just for good measure?

First three songs of side 2 ain't too shabby either.

― yugi ex,

Horsin' Around is the only song on Steve McQueen that's less than brilliant.

jordan took me a while to understand. can't imagine loving "when love breaks down" and being unable to apply that to the rest of steve mcqueen tho

idk if i'd characterize prefab sprout as more cynical than steely dan, in "a life of surprises" dude wrote one of the best and most earnest advice songs i've ever heard. "cruel" is sorta dan-ish in that it undercuts its own perspective

There's so many great lyrical moments on this album.

"Save your speeches, flowers are for funerals" vs. "You give me infra-red instead of sun" vs. "Wishing she could call him heartache but that's not a boys name"

definitely gonna keep listening because i'm in love with those two songs, especially 'Wild Horses'... i mean my god, talk about ahead of its time... my girlfriend thinks it sounds like Blood Orange though, and yeah, i've so far had no success turning other people onto the music of PS...

absence makes the heart lose weight

try "cars and girls"

word, i will!

xp ha i thought that lyric was "absence makes the heartless wager," which i'm not sure makes sense but the real lyric is better

"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 :/

The Steve McQueen acoustic was all bonus tracks on the 2006 reissue iir

Ah, thanks. The lack of fanfare everywhere made me think already it wasn't something new.

love those acoustic versions.

yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6uTKJiD7iQ

is there a rights issue with the label that put out Steve McQueen / Two Wheels Good?

I got to know Steve McQueen via the 2006 reissue so those acoustic versions are as canonical as the originals for me. I think I actually like them better

the Steve McQueen Acoustic disc appears to be on spotify, along with 5 different issues of Steve McQueen (including one of Two Wheels Good), each with a different poorly scanned version of the album art

acoustic version was also issued as a stand alone lp.
https://www.discogs.com/Prefab-Sprout-Steve-McQueen-Acoustic/release/13288548

Variants of this pop up about once every 8 months when there's a news story about prefabricated something. JUST SAY NO. https://t.co/88A7ESVs2X

— NicD (@Sproutology) September 1, 2019

So is there a release date for the new album?

http://stereoembersmagazine.com/prefab-sprouts-new-lp-femmes-mythologiques-set-for-september-release/

McAloon has also indicated his vaults are rather vast.

How vast?

“You can work it out by doing the maths,” he went on to say. “…if you write three albums a year, approximately, and you’ve been doing that for 30 years, then that’s where we are.

damn, I really hope Paddy has a Max Brod in his life iykwim

STORM THE VAULT

New P4K retrospective: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/prefab-sprout-swoon-from-langley-park-to-memphis-jordan-the-comeback-a-life-of-surprises/

Just started checking out the Swoon remaster on Spotify and it is sounding good, less like it was recorded through a wall. Bass! It's a bit odd - that thinness or tinniness was the fabric of the album, the contrast to everything later – but I am liking it.

Anyone familiar with the protest songs record mentioned in that article? xp

it was recorded after steve mcqueen but not released until after langley park. similar in sound to steve mcqueen but not quite as good. has the song life of surprises which is great.

"Scarlet Nights" has become my favorite track off JORDAN at the moment. That understated key change in the final chorus is pure magic.

The kick / snare drum triplets on the Bobby Fischer section of Cue Fanfare

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.

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

Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone.
Let's pretend that we're together, all alone.

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

Some absolute shockers of posts at the beginning of this thread. The Sprout were incredible.

holy shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZA8GuZ1SI

this is a worlds colliding unexpectedly moment for me to rival the blue nile/rickie lee jones video discovery

Those plangent chords in Lion are the greatest thing ever

Lions

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 still
feels 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.

"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.

same with scritti lol

"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.

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.

re: new music, i thought paddy was having health/vocal issues that made new prefab music unlikely?

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

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.

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

Fansite mentions it here as rumour, but likely:
https://www.sproutology.co.uk/exposition/sproutological-review-of-2019/

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.

Every December I wait for 'Total Snow' to appear and every year I'm disappointed. Enough to stop me believing in Santa Claus.

Reminds me of the famous second Ralph Ellison novel.

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

Not a big fan of that album but "Earth, the Story So Far" is gorgeous

Yeah that's definitely the highlight (along with "Ride" imo)

Also this board's namesake song is so adorable, an instant aural anti-depressant

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 …