Prefab Sprput

From Prefab Sprout's early-'80s singles up through their often brilliant but much maligned album The Gunman and Other Stories in 2001, Paddy McAloon has written some of the finest pop tunes you're likely to hear in your lifetime. Comparisons have been made with Cole Porter, Lennon/McCartney, Brian Wilson, Stephen Sondheim, Jimmy Webb, Elvis Costello, and many others, but he remains a truly original and gifted singer and songwriter. While Prefab Sprout could never be called prolific in terms of physical album releases, McAloon has continued to write and demo material throughout the band's 20-plus-year career.

Jordan: The Comeback is Prefab Sprout's largely successful attempt to embrace the breadth of popular music; wisely reuniting with producer Thomas Dolby, Paddy McAloon freely indulges his myriad ambitions and obsessions to weave a dense, finely textured tapestry closer in spirit and construction to a lavish Broadway musical than to the conventional rock concept LP. Over the course of no less than 19 tracks, McAloon chases his twin preoccupations of religion and celebrity, creating a loose thematic canvas perfect for his expanding musical palette; quickly dispensing with common pop idioms, the album moves from tracks like the samba-styled "Carnival 2000" to the self-explanatory "Jesse James Symphony" and its companion piece "Jesse James Bolero" with remarkable dexterity.

Smart, sophisticated, and timelessly stylish, Steve McQueen (titled Two Wheels Good in the U.S. after threats of a lawsuit from the actor's estate) 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 Young" to the stately pop grace of "Moving the River."

Jordan: The Comeback is Prefab Sprout's largely successful attempt to embrace the breadth of popular music; wisely reuniting with producer Thomas Dolby, Paddy McAloon freely indulges his myriad ambitions and obsessions to weave a dense, finely textured tapestry closer in spirit and construction to a lavish Broadway musical than to the conventional rock concept LP. Over the course of no less than 19 tracks, McAloon chases his twin preoccupations of religion and celebrity, creating a loose thematic canvas perfect for his expanding musical palette; quickly dispensing with common pop idioms, the album moves from tracks like the samba-styled "Carnival 2000" to the self-explanatory "Jesse James Symphony" and its companion piece "Jesse James Bolero" with remarkable dexterity.

Smart, sophisticated, and timelessly stylish, Steve McQueen (titled Two Wheels Good in the U.S. after threats of a lawsuit from the actor's estate) 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 Young" to the stately pop grace of "Moving the River."

Due to Paddy McAloon's obsessive perfectionism, Andromeda Heights was the first Prefab Sprout album in seven years. Of course, it was greeted with anticipation, but the album doesn't quite fulfill the hopes of the group's fervent followers. On one hand, it doesn't deliver enough after the sweeping Jordan: The Comeback, since it is just a collection of 12 well-crafted songs. On the other hand, the sound of Andromeda Heights is so similar to all of Prefab Sprout's previous albums, it's hard to believe that it took McAloon so long to write the album. Even with these faults, Andromeda Heights is a solid Prefab Sprout record, filled with elegant melodies, wry lyrics and immaculate production, but after seven years, that nevertheless ranks as a disappointment.

Due to Paddy McAloon's obsessive perfectionism, Andromeda Heights was the first Prefab Sprout album in seven years. Of course, it was greeted with anticipation, but the album doesn't quite fulfill the hopes of the group's fervent followers. On one hand, it doesn't deliver enough after the sweeping Jordan: The Comeback, since it is just a collection of 12 well-crafted songs. On the other hand, the sound of Andromeda Heights is so similar to all of Prefab Sprout's previous albums, it's hard to believe that it took McAloon so long to write the album. Even with these faults, Andromeda Heights is a solid Prefab Sprout record, filled with elegant melodies, wry lyrics and immaculate production, but after seven years, that nevertheless ranks as a disappointment.

After the seven-year gap between 1990's Jordan: The Comeback and 1997's Andromeda Heights, many Prefab Sprout fans were surprised by the comparatively brief four years between that album and 2001's The Gunman and Other Stories. The album holds other surprises for the longtime Prefab Sprout fan; for one thing, backing vocalist Wendy Smith is absent, having left the group after the birth of her first child, and for another, it's a Western-themed concept album.

Even though he had been suffering from hearing and sight impairments, Prefab Sprout man Paddy McAloon actually picked up the pace with the release of Crimson/Red, an album that follows Let's Change the World with Music by four years, halving the eight-year wait after 2001's The Gunman and Other Stories. It's also interesting that songs like "Mysterious" (an appreciation of Bob Dylan) and "The Songs of Danny Galway" (a lush love letter to the work of Jimmy Webb) cover the same ground as Let's Change the World's numerous odes to the power of pop music, but that album was arguably "tricky," because with the Sprout, overly smart and overly ambitious are the delicious pratfalls fans still savor.