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| | Let's Change the World With Music | | | Music Artist : | | Prefab Sprout | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | 101 DISTRIBUTION | | Release Date : | | 2009-09-17 | | Store Price : | | $20.99 | | Artistopia's Price: $20.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Let There Be Music
2. Ride
3. I Love Music
4. God Watch Over You
5. Music Is A Princess
6. Earth The Story So Far
7. Last Of The Great Romantics
8. Falling In Love
9. Sweet Gospel Music
10. Meet The New Mozart
11. Angel Of Love
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 This CD has made my year!
Submitted on: 2009-11-20 |
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I've been a fan of Prefab Sprout since 1988, when, as a lover of vinyl and a frequent visitor of my local record store noticed FROM LANGLEY PARK TO MEMPHIS staring at me (this was when albums were cheaper and you could buy an album because it looked interesting). After that I found TWO WHEELS GOOD at a pawn shop on cassette (have since bought all their stuff on CD). But enough of my rambling...
I can't seem to play anything else other than this CD...I absolutely love it. True, it's just Paddy...no Neil, no Wendy, no Martin even. I love Paddy's passion, in his songwriting and his voice. I've never been disappointed in Paddy McAloon or Prefab Sprout. If you love Prefab Sprout you should love this one. It's great! |
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 A bit disappointed...
Submitted on: 2009-11-10 |
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| The music is still great but the lyrics suck... has Paddy joined a monastery ? |
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 Paddy Goes It Alone
Submitted on: 2009-10-25 |
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It was revealed about the time that Steve McQueen(UK)/Two Wheels Good(US) was remastered and re-released with added Paddy McAloon acoustic versions of some tracks that Paddy was coping with both blindness and deafness. So if he releases some older demos under the Prefab Sprout brand, give the man a break. Maybe his infirmities have brought him closer to his God as well. His is a remarkable legacy.
And I, like NME, believe that Steve McQueen IS one of the top 100 albums of all time. Thomas Dolby, who produced the album in 1985, and oversaw the remastering in 2006, states on his blog, "If you never heard this album, I urge you to seek it out. You won't regret it. And, if you like my music, please know that you don't have a complete overview unless you own this album and 1990's `Jordan: The Comeback'-because these two works are as close to my heart as anything I've ever put out under my own name." Enough said. |
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First listening and its great
Submitted on: 2009-10-02 |
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Soon as you listen to the first couple of tracks you realize how much you have missed Prefab Sprouts wonderful music.
This CD was never original released which is really hard to believe, but what a great surprise and treat it is to listen to some of best sounds out there.
Highly recommended. |
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 Will not change the world with music but might entertain it
Submitted on: 2009-10-01 |
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I want this review to be honest and also to place the Prefab Sprout in its proper context, without the hype (like the New Musical Express placing their Steve McQueen album ridiculously in the top 100 best albums of all time!). The reality is that the Prefab Sprout was never among the truly greats, those who changed the face of music, the way Soft Machine, The Doors, Nick Cave, or Tim Buckley, did. Like the Beatles, the Prefab Sprout produced masterful melodies, and their best albums were produced by Thomas Dolby, just as the Beatles relied on George Martin to give their songs those rich arrangements.
Let's Change The World With Music would not be the best album to start with, if you are new to this band. The best two to start with would be Jordan: The Comeback and Steve McQueen (Two Wheels Good in the United States). The songs on Let's Change The World were demoed by Paddy, who played all the instruments himself, including employing midi bass and drum sequences, after Jordan: The Comeback, in the hope of creating the latter's successor. However, the A&R department of his label thought these songs were not quite up to the usual Prefab Sprout standards and were too religious lyrically for mass appeal. This was devastating to a songwriter such as Paddy McAloon who has tended to write songs at such a furious pace that his greatest struggle is losing the inpiration and motivation to record them all. An A&R employee even encouraged him to write an album themed around the song Earth: The Story So Far, which appears on this album, and is indeed one of its brightest gems, so he went off and wrote 30 songs on that very theme - another album that has yet to see the light, if it ever does, given Paddy is now 52 years old and the Sprout are basically over as a band, Wendy Smith (breathy co-vocalist) and Martin McAloon (his bass playing brother) both holding down full-time jobs, and drummer Neil Conti residing and working in France.
Paddy McAloon produced an excellent solo album probably called I Trawl The Megahertz - its first lengthy track is one of Paddy's masterpieces. His best song is actually Pearly Gates, the last song on another compilation of demos that came out between Steve McQueen and Jordan: The Comeback. This new album is therefore not new - it was recorded around 1992, and so it still has that "80s" sound when Michael Jackson (about whom Paddy apparently wrote another album's worth of songs) and Prince were still riding the airwaves.
There are a few songs on this collection of demos that are almost as good as Paddy's best - Let There Be Music, Music Is A Princess, Earth: The Story So Far, and Sweet Gospel Music. The others are reminiscent of the poorer tracks on the Sprout's poorest album, From Langley Park to Memphis (whose King Of Rock'N'Roll, and Cars and Girls in particular, were hands-down McAloon treasures). The songs on this album are practically all about the magic of music, and the spiritual feelings it elicits. It is not exactly a religious album, in the sense of a Christian rock album that mentions Jesus in every breath. If this album is religious, it is non-denominational, with the power to appeal to, and in rare moments even move, most feeling beings.
But this album also makes one feel sad as a fan. One realizes that Paddy's frantic work style (which has apparently abated considerably in recent years in which he has become a family man raising three children) also led him to write songs that are so similar to the others, that approach a type of McAloon formula. My sadness is that which arises when contemplating unrealized potential. Could it be his obsessive personality interfered with his artistic ability? The Sprouts are not a Nico, a Syd Barrett, a Lisa Germano, a Jefferson Airplane, a Minutemen - they were not trying to stretch any envelopes, they were too in love with the pop music of a Sondheim or a Paul McCartney or a Chic (whose Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers he mentions in the song I Love Music) or a Michael Jackson. They aimed mostly at writing pop, and that is what we find on this album, and what you must expect if you are interested in trying it out.
Nonetheless, it sure is great to hear Paddy's voice once more, and eery to remember that it is him singing at the much younger age of 35! |
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