Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen

Kitchenware Records - LP
Europe, 1985
Indie / Pop / Alternative

A quiet revolution produced by Thomas Dolby, Prefab Sprout's second long-play is a gentle and fun alternative to the rather bleak vision of indie rock offered by The Smiths in the mid-1980's. Featuring favorites Bonny, Hallelujah and, of course, Appetite. a heart-warming classic.

Just like Talk Talk, Prefab Sprout has always been an oddity in the 1980's pop star system, creating a sound of their own, that would eventually culminate with absurdly uncommercial and complex masterpieces: Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock, and , in the case of Prefab Sprout, the 22-min long I Trawl The Megahertz. But long before that, Prefab Sprout released a soulful take on British Pop songwriting, one of these records that stand at the junction of two decades, the synth-filled 1980's and the guitar-driven 1990's. I'd argue that both Blur and Sarah Record's acts like, say, The Field Mice are in germs in Prefab Sprout's 1985 Steve McQueen. To start to understand how fresh and ahead of its time this album was, just remember that 1985 was the year neon-lights coded hits like Into The Groove, 19 and There Must Be An Angel topped charts. 

Of course, Prefab Sprout was not the only band offering an alternative to the New Wave / High Energy sound that was dominating the charts at the time; I already mentioned on this site the mind-blowing 1983 Cherry Red compilation, "the eyes of Barbara Steele", and that's not the point I want to make anyway, stating that ONE band carries on its shoulder a whole new era of music. What Prefab Sprout and Cherry Red both illustrate, on the contrary, is the fact that there are some very contradictory streams within what seem like a clearly identified - sonically speaking - and coherent music decade, and that the major evolutions of mainstream music might emerge not only in reaction to the previous mainstream sound, but from a lineage that has always been there, but evolved far from the spotlights. In other words, the 1990's, or what we generally consider the sound of the 1990's was already on the airwaves in the 1980's. Now, your turn to prove me wrong (there's no comment section, sadly). Anyway, check this excellent sunny 1985 minor classic if you don't know it yet! (VG+ / VG+)

Tracklist

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