552. Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen (1985)
















Track Listing

1. Faron Young
2. Bonny
3. Appetite
4. When Love Breaks Down
5. Goodbye Lucille #1
6. Hallelujah
7. Moving The River
8. Horsin' Around
9. Desire As
10. Blueberry Pies
11. When The Angels

Review

This is very much not a cool album to like, but then, I do like it, and no one can ever accuse me of being cool. If they do I can just say: "I quite like Prefab Sprout" and that will be that.

The attempt to produce something approaching Pop for a mature audience can many times give birth to pretty disgusting music, except when it is Pop for a literate mature audience, and then you can have good things. This kind of music at this time seems all to be coming from northern Britain, particularly Scotland, with Lloyd Cole, Tears For Fears for example, and Prefab Sprout who are from County Durham, at the northern edge of England are all very different examples of the same thing.

A better comparison would be with another Scottish band, The Blue Nile, only Sprout have a more Pop structure to their music. And the lyrics are really quite good, not as pretentious as many other bands, but simply smart and the music works perfectly for its ends. Actually a pretty great album.

Track Highlights

1. When Love Breaks Down
2. Appetite
3. Goodbye Lucille #1
4. Faron Young

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Critically acclaimed at the time it reached #4 in the 1985 NME end of year poll for best albums and #28 on the Pazz & Jop poll.

It has subsequently featured in a number of all time polls for best album including #47 in a poll by The Times in 1993, #90 in a poll by Mojo in 1995 and #61 in a 1997 poll by The Guardian.

When Love Breaks Down: