Re: Prefab Sprout

[pwh@bradley2.bradley.edu (Pete Hartman)]

In <9011080129.AA15848@gaffa.MIT.EDU> MasterMind <VNOZICK@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU>
writes:

>I haven't seen any word of the new Prefab Sprout album _Jordan: The Comeback_
>here on gaffa.  Has no one heard of them (which I doubt), or does no one other
>than me like them?

Oh, there are those of us who like them.

However....we'll see.

>_Jordan: The Comeback_ is a welcome surprise from Prefab Sprout.  The band has
>a sound similar to the Dream Academy.  This is their fourth album.  The first
>one, _Swoon_, has a sound which is indescribable.  It is nothing like their
>later albums.  Their second album, _Steve McQueen_ (known as _Two Wheels Good_
>in America, where Steve McQueen refused to release the rights to use his name),

As I understood it, there was an album between these two:  something about
protest songs....  Of course, discussion in rec.music.misc after this
release was the first I'd heard of EITHER of the first two albums.  If 
anyone has a pointer to where I can find them, I'd really appreciate it.

>has a country feel to it, with Paddy McAloon's lyrics.  You may have heard the
>songs "When Love Breaks Down" and "Appetite" (They seem to be more popular in
>Europe.  Here in America they seem to get little attention)  

I LOVE those songs.  The entire album is fabulous, and if _Swoon_ is 
"better" as some have said, I can hardly wait to find it.

>								Prefab Sprout's
>third album, the title of which escapes me at the moment, was overproduced and
>lacked the band's distinctive style.  So _Jordan: The Comeback_ is
>appropriately titled.

you can say that again.  But.....

>I recommend "Jesse James Symphony", "Jesse James Bolero", 

ICK!

>							"Doo-Wop In Harlem",
>"Jordan: The Comeback" (I think this is already a single in England), "The
>Wedding March" (I love the big-band feel of this song.), "One of the Broken"
>(Paddy (?) sounds great saying the first line 'Hi, this is God here.') and
>almost all of the other songs.  ("Looking For Atlantis" has even grown on me,
>albeit, after about 20 listenings.)  The album is much better than there last
>attempt.  It really is a comeback.

It is a LOT better than _From Langley Park to Memphis_ (the last one),
but I didn't like it's first hearing nearly as well as my first of
_Two Wheels..._.  It has grown on me some since I first got it, but
it's still on the edge of overproduction, and I only like about half 
of it.  Things like the Jesse James junk, and some of the really overtly
(to me, by comparison) religious themed music really turned me off.

I really like "Atlantis", and "Ice Maiden" and a few others, but they
none of them seem to match the confessional tone of the stuff from
_Two Wheels..._
-- 
-----
Pete Hartman		pwh@bradley.bradley.edu			Haazavaa?