By Dan Cairns
Famously averse not only to live performing but also the demands and vapidities of fame, Paddy McAloon has spent much of the past decade as something of a hermit. Beset by ill-health, fine-tuning to the point of obsessiveness songs that were destined never to be heard, or issuing occasional musical missives that, either through impenetrability or substandard quality, did little to sate the appetites of Prefab Sprout fans, the songwriter even retired at one point. It was this decision that emboldened his label boss to suggest dusting down one of the famously plentiful “lost” albums in the vaults; hence this heartbreakingly good record, originally recorded in 1992 to follow Jordan: The Comeback, and now given a sympathetic and adroit makeover by Calum Malcolm. To hear McAloon namecheck Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers of Chic, Pierre Boulez and Irving Berlin on the song I Love Music, and sing “She’s richer than money/Bigger than fame/And love is the reason I played in the game”, is to witness both his raison d’être and the breadth of his affection; and to be aware of just how much he feared that he was losing by aiming for the charts. As a Prefab fanatic, part of me wants to mourn what might have been. But a far bigger part listens to songs as complex and instant as Music Is a Princess and Sweet Gospel Music — both classic additions to the canon — and swoons anew.
Source : http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/cd_reviews/article6810962.ece
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