Commercial success failed to follow, yet today the album is considered a classic.When Prefab Sprout released their second album, Steve McQueen, on June the 14th 1985, music critics worldwide immediately set about falling over themselves in their efforts to outdo each other with effusive praise.Their 1984 debut, Swoon, had suggested top Sprout Paddy McAloon was a force to be reckoned with, potentially on a par with the likes of Morrissey and Elvis Costello.For Smash Hits it was terrifically good and Record Mirror raved that it was the finest album you will hear this year.
McAloons gifts were first recognised by famed AR executive Muff Winwood of CBS Records, London. It was clear to me right from the beginning that Paddy was one of the finest songwriters Id ever heard, he said in 1991, and correctly predicted that people are going to be hearing Paddys songs into the next century. Happily, when electronic pop pioneer Thomas Dolby had heard the track Dont Sing from Swoon on the BBC radio show Round Table, he hailed it enthusiastically. So much so that they got hold of me afterwards and asked if Id like to produce their second album. Dolby took a train up to the bands base in Consett, County Durham, and was delighted to find that, Paddy had this old-fashioned 60s muse about him. He slept on a bed piled high with old song sheets, and he would just pull them out, read the lyrics and strum on a guitar, going, OK, Thomas, just have a listen to this one. From over 40 songs that McAloon presented that night, Dolby chose an albums worth. And with Dolby on board by the autumn of 1984, they held rehearsals and made demos at Nomis Studios in West London, during which Dolbys role was largely to simplify McAloons often complex song arrangements. In the studio, Thomas would suggest something to me and it would take me an awful lot of time to digest it, remembered McAloon in 1985. To have somebody else say to me, Yes, its your song, but I think you ought to do this to it to make it better, I find very difficult. The Nomis sessions were followed by five weeks spent ensconced in Marcus Studios in Londons Bayswater, during which time Dolby picked out one more track while the band were sound checking. They played a little bit of Hallelujah which hadnt been one Id picked from Paddys demos. But when I heard the band playing that, I really liked it so I said, Oh, lets do this one as well. Thomas Dolbys influence is evident right from the albums opening track, Faron Young, where, says McAloon, he did a brilliant banjo impersonation on the Fairlight synthesiser. ![]() I thought, Why do they listen to all these things about cowboys and farmers and grain. ![]() The albums best-known track is, undeniably, When Love Breaks Down, which McAloon had written in the space of one night in his front room in Consett, with the guitar on my knee and the synthesizer sitting in front of me at the same time. Panasonic 4K OLED Battle of the VOD platforms Sony ZF9 UHD TV. Want to see your home cinema system featured in the pages of HCC Click here for more info.
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