The 1985 Listening Post - Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen

Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen

#239/890

June 1985

Prefab Sprout 

Steve McQueen

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Bonny

When Love Breaks Down

Take the Style Council, add a bit of Aztec Camera, shave off any edges but keep the emotional urgency and that is this gorgeous piece of pop confection. 

Like the last one, it runs out of steam before it ends, or maybe I just lose patience and find myself anxious for interesting things to happen. 

They kind of do but not enough to get this record into the top tier. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/steve-mcqueen/220379166

The 1984 Listening Post - Prefab Sprout - Swoon

Prefab Sprout - Swoon

#46

March 1 1984

Prefab Sprout

Swoon

3 out of 5

Highlights:

Don’t Sing

You know, I’ve always heard OF Prefab Sprout but, now that I come to think of it, I’ve never heard them. Oh…there’s that smooth bass…but it’s not so overt that it threatens to overwhelm everything. Probably because all the other instruments are real. 

I’ll accept, based on what I’ve read and their longevity, that Prefab Sprout is one of those bands that hadn’t sprung, fully formed on their debut and that were still getting their shit together. 

It’s not yet. Like on the song, “Green Isaac”. It take s long time to get there and then, once it arrives, I realize that Nate (fun.) Reuss’s first band The Format, must have heard this and tried to rewrite it as a pop rock song. He got close. So did Paddy McAloon.

There’s hints of XTC, Steely Dan, Joe Jackson. But the albums is way too confused. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/swoon/272876423