For some reason I liked the second half of this album much more than I did the first, and this is probably because I listened to it at two different times. The first half came perhaps too soon on the heels of Scritti Pollitti and so yet more Eighties sophisti-pop was a bit of an overload.
That said, there’s straight away a difference in tone between the two bands, Prefab Sprout sounding just a bit more weighty. Perhaps this is due to the presence of Wendy Smith’s backing vocals to Paddy McAloon’s main vocals, perhaps it’s that McAloon’s compositions are just that little bit more complex compared to Green Gartside’s.
I couldn’t help throughout thinking of McAloon as an English Donald Fagen – there's certainly that similar blending of jazz and pop here as there was with Steely Dan, albeit with a slightly lighter touch. And, readers who have seen my earlier entries to this blog will know, it’s not the kind of music that really grabs me.
The big Prefab Sprout hits that you will almost certainly have heard on the radio at some point – King Of Rock And Roll and Cars And Girls – are not on this album, but often that’s a good thing as the album can become all about the Big Hits. For me, the stand-out tracks, where I realised that I did appreciate the music somewhat, were Horsin’ Around and Desire As. Horsin’ Around switches between sections with a bossa nova beat and sections with a more up-tempo funkier beat, where Smith’s backing vocals play an important role and where the jazz elements (the jazzlements, as long-time readers may recall....) really shine. Desire As follows this track and is a slower number, building up instruments as it goes, a contemplative piece with the glorious lyric “I’ve got six things on my mind; you’re no longer one of them”.
No, this still isn’t my favourite kind of music, it’s not one I would go to out of choice, but as with the Steely Dan records it does reward careful listening and cultivating the taste for it. Putting it side-by-side with Scritti Politti, I’d say this one has the edge, partly because McAloon has a less fey voice than Gartside, partly because the instrumental sounds are a little bit less rooted in the early-mid Eighties.
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