Prefab Sprout - Jordan the Comeback.
First of all well done
@NickMc who guessed correctly from some pretty cryptic clues. Doffs cap sir....you know your Prefab Sprout!
My pick moves from the iconic, legendary, Kate Bush live album Before the Dawn to what is a bit of an outrider in my list of favourite albums. It was the only ‘pop’ album to make my top 20 and it was made in 1990 which is quite a bit later than my ‘sweet spot’ for favourite music - the late 60s through to about 1978.
It also contradicts my penchant for Prog rock 40 minute marathons.
The album is Jordan the Comeback, by Prefab Sprout, an ambitious album that IMO represents the bands creative peak. The album is produced by their long time collaborator and friend Thomas Dolby and all songs written by the underrated genius Paddy McAloon. The band was made up of Paddy, his brother Martin, (Bass) Wendy Smith on guitar and vocals and Neil Conti on drums.
Prefab Sprout were more critically successful (one critic wrote that they produced some of the most beautiful and intelligent records of their era) than commercially successful, probably due to the fact that McAloon far preferred writing and recording songs to actually marketing them and touring. He once famously said he had never seen a positive royalty statement in his life. The band had a string of hits in the 80s and 90s such as ‘King of Rock and Roll’ and Cars and Girls which was an affectionate and literary critique of the imagery of Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics. Their second album, Steve McQueen, also produced by Dolby, is listed on many ‘best albums of all time’ charts. I like Steve McQueen but consider this far superior in ambition, scope and songwriting.
Jordan the Comeback (their 5th album) was released in 1990. At that time I was in my early thirties, had three young kids and was banging my pan in at work. I genuinely cannot remember a more stressful period juggling work, financial pressures and family life. At the time we couldn’t afford to buy lots of CDs so I used to borrow them from the local library and this is how I found this gem, in amongst the classical cd’s and Scottish folk music. Whoever acquired it for the library did me a big favour. I remember playing it for the first time through headphones and finding it absolutely joyful. Full of very strong melodies, beautiful layered vocals, swooping synths and perfect musical arrangements. Very few albums have ever had that kind of immediate ‘hit’. I played it a great deal that year and it is still one that I reach for when I feel down. It immediately makes me feel better, calmer and more centred. For me, it is proof that pop music can be thoughtful, beautiful and an art form in itself.
This album takes the band in areas they had never been before, a multi concept album spanning a number of styles. Although the album was single, its length of over an hour makes it feel like a double. This impression is heightened by the fact that the songs are in 4 different segments albeit thematically connected. David Wild of Rolling Stone said, "If Brian Wilson at the height of his creative powers had spent a year in the studio working up a concept album about love, God and Elvis, the result might have sounded like Jordan: The Comeback." Praise indeed and I can buy it. Some of the melodies and vocals have similar emotional impact to the beauty of ‘Surfs Up’.
Don’t let the ‘concept’ word put you off though, this is a very accessible album.
So to the songs:
Part one of Jordan, contains five stand alone songs, all with the potential to be singles. Of the five, ‘Looking for Atlantis’ and ‘We let the stars go’ were the ones released and both of them grazed the top 50. I like all five songs but have a soft spot for the melancholic “we let the stars go” (I am a soppy bugger) and for the driving samba rhythm of “Carnival 2000”. Lyrics are simple but profound, for example from “we let the stars go”;
There was that girl I used to know
She'd tease me about my name
Fan the embers long enough
I sometimes catch her flame
The soothing voice of distance tells me
That was just a fling
Other music fills my ears
But I still hear her sing
She sings:
"
Paddy Joe! Say, Paddy Joe
Don't you remember me?
How long ago one gorgeous night
We let the stars go
On the other songs listen for the burbling bass lines, the synth horns, the short guitar breaks, the mouthie work and the breathless backing vocals by Wendy Smith.
The first of the three suites on Jordan is introduced by the title track and concerns the King of Rock, Elvis Presley. (Clue 1.) Various references to the deceased icon are made throughout the suite, such as his addictions (“Jordan: The Comeback”) and his life in Tupelo, Mississippi (“Jesse James Symphony”), all building to his long-awaited comeback (“Moon Dog”), while offering parallels between Elvis and the outlaw Jesse James (clue 2). (“Jesse James Symphony”/ ”Jesse James Bolero”). The songs build to a climax and I particularly like the Jesse James segment with its killer melodies and layered vocal harmonies, Production and arrangements.
Lyrics are stand out and I love McAloon’s turn of phrase, this, from Jesse James Symphony;
Jesse James is running and he'll never be at rest
'Til the day they fold his arms across his chest
He's a long way from the cradle
And his Ma's authority
But it only seems a minute
Since she stood over his bed
And she tried to tell him something
Now what the hell was it she said?
Jesse James is thinking of the breaks he never had
And the gene that cursed his blood group rhesus-bad
Brilliant :-)
The second of the conceptual suites focuses on love and its various effects, both good and bad. “All the World Loves Lovers” is sung by a romantic innocent whereas the duo of “All Boys Believe Anything” and “The Ice Maiden” signal a sexual awakening , the latter paying particular attention to the object of his dreamworld infatuation, the “blonde with disheveled hair” (who was inspired by Abba’s Agnetha Fältskog).
Before he became a pop star McAloon trained to be a Priest. (Clue 3)
The last songs of the album, and the final song cycle sees him addressing Redemption, religion and worship. Sounds a bit heavy man? It’s not. It is possibly the most ambitious sixteen minutes of music Prefab Sprout ever recorded.
“One of the Broken” is simply lovely and seems to represent a conversation between McLoon and his maker. You don’t really have to be in any way religious to admire the song writing, the vocals and melody and production......
Sing me no psalm you're not King David
Sing me no high hushed Glory Be
Sing it to one, one of the broken
And brother you're singing, singing to me
It’s my favourite part of the album and all of the songs stand out especially “Michael” and “Doo wop in Harlem”. I don’t really want to say too much about this section as everyone has different reactions to anything to do with religion and I don’t want to put anyone of listening to the songs for what they are. Stunning in terms of melody, vocals and production.
The album flows as well as any that I know, one song into the next just fitting perfectly, themes disappear and reappear, so that by the end you do feel you have been on a musical journey.
Paddy continued to make music in to the 2000s, under the Prefab Sprout banner but increasingly just him. Always uncomfortable with fame, reluctant to embrace its trappings, he stayed in his native Durham and suffered some pretty serious health problems that restricted his output and made touring impossible. He continues to be revered by those that know his music as an unsung genius.
if you get just 1% of the pleasure this album brought me I’ll be happy. More than that will be a bonus.
