Making Every Word Count4 Out Of 5 Stars
The mid to late 80's saw a resurgence in critically powerful lyric writing. While folks like Mark Knopfler, Roddy Frame (Aztec camera) and Morrissey may have been at the forefront, Paddy McAloon and his band, PreFab Sprout may have been the best of the poignant bands to emerge from that period. They have two albums that stay high on my desert island list, "Steve McQueen (Two Wheels Good)" and "Jordan The Comeback," and this 37(!!!) song double disc is a testament to just how stunning the Fab's collective output remains.
The band did two important things in their career; McAllon wrote like a folk singer but stayed with a modern sound, and Thomas Dolby produced these albums with an electronic lushness that would have beautified even a Joni Mitchel album. McAloon has a romantic's eye for images and tragedy, best exemplified in songs like "We Let The Stars Go Free" (which can still bring a tear to my eye) and "When Love Breaks Down." He also had an uncanny knack to look inside the human condition (the cheater's explanation "Horsin' Around") or "I Remember That." In the song "Carnival 2000," he may have set to music the finest prayer for mankind ever sung:
"We ask that any wrong we've done,
the years ahead forgive us.
We ask for any good we've done,
that all of it outlive us."
The collection spans Prefab Sprout's output from "Swoon" to "Andromeda Heights" in 1997, and leaves of some crucial early sings and a couple of post-Sony albums. But really, you can't go wrong with this collection other than buying the individual albums.
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