 Prefab Sprout Not being a huge Prefab fan, I tend to limit my CD choices from Paddy & Co. to the purely pretty ones (Jordan, Andromeda Heights). Call me a poseur, but the early albums just have way too much "let's play with time signatures and mile-long melodies" for my 80-year-old ears. Give it to me smooth, jimbo. Wait a minute, just what kind of "poseur" would possibly try to pass theyself off as a Prefab Sprout fan? What is to be gained? And by just listening to the band at all, am I not already classified as a fan? (Quickly donning blackface for wildly embarrassing Rodney King impersonation) Can't we all just get along? Er, righto. Perhaps I'll get to a point or two, who knows. I think I was trying to say that "If You Don't Love Me" qualifies as one of Paddy's all time best love songs, quite pretty and even a little dancey. This EP offers that song, an instrumental version of it (for the most improbable karaoke choice you could ever make), plus the Sprouts' '83 debut single "Lions in My Own Garden" and the "JFK Version" of "Hey Manhattan," which sounds something like MFSB doing Leonard Bernstein. Overall, even for a seasoned fan, this is kind of an irrelevant release (as it duplicates tracks otherwise easily available), but as an EP in and of itself, it's a satisfying 20 minutes of Paddy's more pleasant moments. I should point out that the Loud Bassoon's own AAA has listed "Lions in My Own Garden" as an all-time favorite, so it must be good. Personally it sort of makes me feel like I'm lost in a gigantic maze, but not in an exciting D&D kind of way. Ah well, one man's #58 song of all time is another man's #103 breath freshener of all time. Er, or something like that. I think reviewing Prefab Sprout has given me a contagious case of AAA-sized incoherence. Ah well. Say, what were we just talking about?
Review by Delaware Dino |