Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen / Two Wheels Good poll

"desire as" vs "moving the river" vs "goodbye lucille" vs "appetite" vs "bonny" vs

Talk about impossible! Going with my first instinct - Appetite.

yeah, first instinct is good principle, so Desire As. But already regretting not voting Appetite, which, well, there's clarity and tenderness and it's elliptical and just slides along. Man, the older I get the more I love them.

A tough one, but "Bonny" it is. One of the greatest side ones ever

guys..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1A5Bh1FM88

"Bonnie" in a heartbeat

"Bonniy" in a heartbeat

Bonny in a heartbeat

Whoops

This poll closes in a year and a half

Bonet in a heartbeat

Gave some love to WLBD

xps
well it's not my fault they shouldn't put 6 and 8 right next to each other on the keyboard. And then maybe if there were a bit more standardisation on dates, it's all very confusing.

Anyway, I think this will still be a good album in 2018.

(whoops, sorry, was aiming for 29 Dec 2016)

If the re-recorded acoustic versions were included from the 2007 remaster, then 'Desire As', but since they're not, it's going to be 'Goodbye Lucille'.

This one requires some serious deliberation.

Voting "When Love Breaks Down" because it's the underdog and I love love love it

"Appetite" would be so much better without the 'call and response' synth line. Always reminds me of the scene where Billy teaches Gizmo to talk

can we do a 4-way vote between "bonny" -> "goodbye lucille"

Voting Moving the River

but I think their song about chess on Swoon is their best track

the bonus tracks kinda spoil this album for me if I forget to program them out. it's hard to believe 'The Yearning Loins' and 'Bonny' came out of the same sessions/era.

Should also poll Steve vs Jordan

what other albums besides swoon, steve, and jordan are essential?

protest songs is great. let's change the world with music is a great lost post-jordan demo. crimson/red is great. everything else is a bit patchier/goopier

I feel like this is an album where just about every track will get a vote.

calstars -- not an album, unfortunately, but the b-sides are a must have

Protest Songs is indeed a hidden masterpiece. Of their (or rather, his) post-Jordan works, I think Crimson/Red is probably the best, at least
until he dies and we discover the dozens of complete albums he's stashed away

Oh! I Trawl the Megaherz is fascinating, too-wish it was out on vinyl,or in print at all, actually

From Langley Park to Memphis is good too though not as great as Steve or Jordan

pretty difficult to choose but Appetite was my first instinct so I went with that

When Love Breaks Down

From Langley Park to Memphis is good too though not as great as Steve or Jordan

oh i didn't notice this one wasn't mentioned. it's nearly as great as those two imo

Went with "Forgive me Faron Young/For in the morning".

From Langley Park to Memphis doesn't get mentioned anytime there's Sprout-talk on here. It's a great album, not a bad track on it.

I'm going to vote for "Desire As"

voted "Appetite", because it's the one that shocks the most in its frankness. this comes through even better on the acoustic version.

for just the original recordings would vote "Goodbye Lucille #1"

yeah, Langley Park is great. It doesn't feel as coherent as Jordan, and some of the mystery – the cryptic elliptical compressed language, the musical unpredictability – of the first two is missing, but it's maybe his best set of wordy songs. & agree, search Protest Songs, Crimson/Red and I Trawl the Megahertz. I wasn't keen on Let's Change the World with Music, but should give it another chance. And there's a truly amazing odds & sods album that you could compile.

I wasn't too keen on Crimson/Red but "The Best Jewel Thief in the World" is one of Paddy's finest tunes imo

can we do a 4-way vote between "bonny" -> "goodbye lucille"

― josh, Tuesday, 20 December 2016 01:46 (eleven hours ago)

Yeah this is so tough.

Always tough but Bonny is my go to cut.

Shame the world is ending in 2017 we'll never get to see the results of this poll.

when love breaks down

Just found US version of this LP (Two Wheels Good) in the dollar bin at Stereo Jack's. I haven't had time to fully digest it, but I can already tell this one's going to get played a lot. It feels like it wants to sit on the shelf somewhere between "High Land, Hard Rain" and "Don't Stand Me Down".

So far, the tracks that jump out are "Horsin' Around" and "Faron"

For me, the two weaker albums are 'Andromeda Heights' and 'The Gunman', and the two essential ones are 'Steve McQueen' and 'Jordan'. I like 'Swoon' more than I used to, but it's just so dense that it's a tough listen at first.

^^ otm

I feel like this is an album where just about every track will get a vote.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing

Even Horsin' Around?

So far, the tracks that jump out are "Horsin' Around" and "Faron"

― enochroot, Tuesday, 20 December 2016 15:40 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

From Langley Park to Memphis doesn't get mentioned anytime there's Sprout-talk on here. It's a great album, not a bad track on it.

Truly. "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" gets the unresearched 'novelty song' tag, but "I Remember That", "Nancy (Let Your Hair Down For Me)", and The Venus of the Soup Kitchen" all equal the impact of "The Golden Calf" for me.

Andromeda Heights, "The End of the Affair" is a favorite PS b-side, and "Life's a Miracle" is a lovely song, uplifting without being saccharine.

Here, really hard choice, but "Appetite" and "Desire As" are the two that randomly pop in my head often, so choosing the former.

This is a weird band for me because when I discovered them I OD'd on them so hard, and now every few years I'll play these records and that sates me for several more years. In a way, my binge was such that these songs all--without exception--sound better in my brain and memory than they do when I play them. I can't think of too many other examples of this (possibly Odessey and Oracle)

I feel like this is an album where just about every track will get a vote.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing

Even Horsin' Around?
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, December 20, 2016 2:51 PM (fifty minutes ago)

Guilty! I actually did vote for Horsin' Around

Iago, what are the good b-sides? I'll hit up sseek later

Recently converted to the cult of Sproutism. What a wonderful feeling.

it's good stuff

I enjoy some similar acts like Danny Wilson, but there's still something elusive in the appeal of this record for me. "Bonny" is probably my favourite.

For example, some of the synthesizer/sampler overdubs seem gauche and awkward, and make it hard for me to see this as a work of impeccable taste and class.

Took me quite a while to take to this iirc

idk i understand those as complaints about other ps albums but steve mcqueen is so perfectly smooth

Yes that’s true

some of the synthesizer/sampler overdubs seem gauche and awkward

Maybe that's why I latched onto Swoon more easily. At least the awkwardness (bizarre 'bo-be-bo' vocal embellishments, dense lyrics, weird rhythms) was awkward in a way that didn't bring to mind many of their contemporaries. (Kinda superficial though. In the wake of that poll last year I struggle to find all that much from any part of McAloon's oeuvre that I can easily dismiss.)

My conclusion after listening to about half their albums in the past couple years: confounding. Steve McQueen and Jordan are incredible, Langely Park very good, Swoon intriguing but too hard to get my head around, Megahertz nearly unlistenable. And all those albums have their defenders on ILM. Hard to think of a band that swings in that quality that wildly

Alright, hyperbolic on that last line, but this band really does go all over the place

Woah, hard disagree on Megahertz

megahertz is all about that title track

title track is mesmerizing, can wreck me on the right day

Completely agree. Hard to listen to at work, risking watering eyes.

These days Megahertz and Swoon are my two go to PS albums...although SM and JTC are both up there too!

You offer infrared
Instead of sun

My love and I, we are boxing clever

This album is the best when driving singing along loudly with other people in the car less familiar.

At the time it didn't seem odd slotting PS into rotation with R.E.M. or the Cure but looking back they really stand alone. Reading Dolby's retelling of his time with the band was lovely as well, recommended.

I hear you've got a new girlfriend
How's the wife taking it?

This album is the best when driving singing along loudly with other people in the car less familiar.

lol very otm

acoustic steve coming to vinyl
https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/15660

NO YOU WON’T!

― ACABincalifornia (voodoo chili), Monday, June 22, 2020 10:24 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ooh voodoo chili ooh

one of the greatest moments in music

I count the hours since you slipped away
I count the hours that I lie awake
I count the minutes and the seconds too
All I stole and I took from you
― omar little, Saturday, 12 May 2018 05:14 (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

hey guess what one of Bjork's favourite songs is?

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/2YQAAOSwpaljkEg2/s-l1600.jpg

NO YOU WON’T!

― ACABincalifornia (voodoo chili), Monday, June 22, 2020 10:24 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Friday, March 31, 2023 1:08 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

PM's highest bit on 'Goodbye Lucille #1' always makes me think of Prince's highest bit on 'Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)'.

Does he go higher on "Ice Maiden"?

XXXP: does anyone remember what "one of Bjork's favourite songs" was?

Goodbye Lucille #1 I think. HMV ‘my inspiration’ advert quoting a couple of lines

Ahhh! Thanks.

the too-cute-for-comfort vocal interjections on "Appetite" ("talks so well! pretty plain!") always make me imagine Gizmo trying to mimic Billy's speech patterns in Gremlins

Otherwise, a perfect record

aw that is my favorite part of “appetite”

yeah, the more Wendy Smith the better, I always thought

I love Wendy! It's just that part that bugs me, and I acknowledge it's a silly reason.

I will admit that the "bo bee" part takes Swoon down a notch or two

Love Bo Bee

turned 40 years old yesterday

NO YOU WON’T!

― ACABincalifornia (voodoo chili), Monday, June 22, 2020 10:24 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

― ludicrously capacious bag (voodoo chili), Friday, March 31, 2023 1:08 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

― gestures broadly at...everything (voodoo chili), Saturday, March 8, 2025 3:33 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Good piece

https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/steve-mcqueen-prefab-sprout-anniversary/

oh yeah that's great

received an old steve mcqueen t shirt for my birthday recently that i have been wearing w/ immense pride...

my pick is "appetite"

Great article. Fwiw, I think he's wrong about the cover? I can see how it might not have sold the thing on first run, but from this distance, it's perfect.

In his memoir, Dolby remembers watching Queen’s 6.40PM performance from a descending helicopter, next to a chain-smoking Thin White Duke.

this would make a cool painting

> received an old steve mcqueen t shirt for my birthday recently

Great gift!

I fell hard for this album during some years when I wasn't look at ILX much, but if I'd seen this poll I'd have gone for "Goodbye Lucille." One of many things that amazes me about this record is that it's full unbelievably great lyrical lines that totally disappear into the meaning of the songs around them. Most songwriters, coming up with something as good as "save your speeches, flowers are for funerals," would set it like the stone on an engagement ring, making sure you took note of how well it works. By the time McAloon gets there it feels weighty and cold and inevitable; it hits you in the context of the song, not the context of the songwriter pulling off a good line. "Lucille" has so much of that — the "why don't you join the foreign legion / you're still in love with Haley Mills" bit feels like cutting dialogue, not cutting writing.

one of the things i like about "moving the river" is that it's like clearinghouse for those kinds of lines lol

re the article in the Quietus...

wendy___smith
Don’t usually put head above parapet but written this

I’ve always enjoyed being in a supporting role but I’m a bit fucked off with being minimised now - even though I often choose to minimise myself.
To be clear, what I’m saying here has nothing to do with the people I love in and around the band, it’s only about what is written, and the erasure of women’s creative contributions.

In this article celebrating the 40th anniversary of Steve McQueen, 15 men are referenced by name before I get a passing mention. Not as a co-creator, creative equal or artist but as breathy raw material manipulated by men and machines.
“Dolby samples and manipulates Wendy Smith’s breathy backing vocals… to produce a vocal effect…”
Did only men and technology shape the sound of Prefab Sprout?

The fact that I’ve showed up for work in the music industry every day for the last 46 years counts as nothing, is erased.

As Rebecca Lucy Taylor said in her acceptance speech for The Ivors 2025 Visionary Award, “people fucking hate women, they really do …remember to protect them”

I’m not visionary or a genius music creator, but I am livid about the erasure of women in music.

I love and respect The Quietus, but expect better. It’s 2025 not 1985.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKwaBkhIObX/

I had never heard this 1986 NPR clip the piece mentions, where Arthur Russell talks about Prefab Sprout for a second

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFIlMWoNTZI

sorry, 1988