Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen [180g Vinyl LP]

Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen [180g Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: KWLP3-34
• Barcode: 190759583210
• Genre: Indie Pop / Sophisti-Pop / Alternative Rock / New Wave
• Label: Kitchenware Records / Sony Music
• Originally Released: 22 June 1985
• Reissue Released: 25 October 2019
• Pressing: 180 Gram Vinyl
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

Steve McQueen is the second studio album by Prefab Sprout — Paddy McAloon (vocals, guitar), Martin McAloon (bass), Wendy Smith (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Neil Conti (drums) — originally released on 22 June 1985 on Kitchenware Records. The album came about after Thomas Dolby, having praised the band's debut single on a BBC Radio 1 panel programme, sought out Paddy McAloon at his home in Witton Gilbert, County Durham. McAloon presented Dolby with a vast body of unreleased material — Dolby has estimated somewhere between forty and fifty songs — written across the preceding decade. From that selection, Dolby and the band developed and rehearsed the material at Nomis Studios in West London before recording the album proper at Marcus Studios in the Bayswater area of London over approximately five weeks. Mixing was completed at Farmyard Studios in Buckinghamshire. The resulting album reached number 21 on the UK Albums Chart and, released in the United States as Two Wheels Good following anticipated legal conflict with the estate of actor Steve McQueen, also entered the Billboard 200.

What Dolby brought to the album — alongside his Fairlight CMI and a studio sensibility honed across his own hit records — was discipline and sonic architecture. McAloon's songs, some written a decade prior, were dense with melodic invention and literary ambition; Dolby's production gave them warmth, space and commercial accessibility without diluting their idiosyncrasy. The result sits apart from almost everything else released in 1985: too sophisticated for the pop mainstream, too melodic and too warm for post-punk, too lyrically individual to be pigeon-holed alongside contemporaries. Critics at the time sensed they were hearing something exceptional — Record Mirror awarded it five out of five, calling it "the finest album you will hear this year" — and subsequent decades have only reinforced that initial verdict. The album appears in virtually every major British list of the greatest albums ever made, and has been cited by Pitchfork as "the defining record of 1985 sophisto-pop".

The album's singles traced an arc from modest chart success to enduring radio ubiquity. "When Love Breaks Down" — first released in October 1984, before the album, where it failed to chart — was remixed by Dolby for the album and re-released as a single on the album's success in October 1985, finally reaching number 25 on the UK Singles Chart on its third attempt. "Faron Young", with its Fairlight-generated banjo figure and country-inflected arrangement, peaked at number 74; "Appetite" followed at number 92. "Goodbye Lucille #1" was retitled "Johnny Johnny" for its January 1986 single release, reaching number 64. None of these chart positions tell the story of the songs' longevity: "When Love Breaks Down" in particular has become one of the most played British pop songs of its era, its reputation growing steadily for four decades.

This 2019 reissue on Kitchenware Records / Sony Music, remastered from the original masters, presents the complete 11-track album on 180 gram vinyl, pressed at GZ Media in the Czech Republic. The pressing includes a digital download voucher. Made in the EU.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Faron Young
2. Bonny
3. Appetite
4. When Love Breaks Down
5. Goodbye Lucille #1
6. Hallelujah

Side B

1. Moving the River
2. Horsin' Around
3. Desire As
4. Blueberry Pies
5. When the Angels

Credits

• Paddy McAloon – Vocals, Guitar, Instruments
• Martin McAloon – Bass, Instruments
• Wendy Smith – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Instruments
• Neil Conti – Drums, Percussion
• Thomas Dolby – Instruments
• Kevin Armstrong – Lead Guitar (A6, B3)
• Mark Lockhart – Saxophone (B3)
• Thomas Dolby – Producer, Mixed By (A1–A3, A5–B5)
• Phil Thornalley – Producer (A4)
• Mike Shipley – Mixed By (A1–A3, A5–B5)
• Label – Kitchenware Records / Sony Music