I was wondering how people on this forum viewed this album. I finally got it into itunes and have been able to really listen to it recently. I've read some reviews that make it seem like this album was a bit of a misstep while others consider it to be the second great album released by the band.

I love the fact that Paddy sort of took he band in a few different directions on this album.

Venus of the Soup Kitchen is arguably one of Paddy's greatest songs - the end section comes from nowhere and is breathtaking. The album is about surface gloss, but strip that away and you have some great stuff - even the King of Rock N Roll has a lot more depth than you might expect from the chorus, and is very prescient.

It was the first Sprout album I ever bought, back in spring 1988. I've always loved it: it reminds me of hopeful summer, halcyon days.

I'd say the album is full of really great songs. The arrangements are lush although somewhat 80's tarnished. But as BR said: there's more depth to the songs than meets the ear on the first listening. It's powerful stuff, with surface gloss. ;)

Really a great album, i bought it when it was released in 1988 and i remember very well that i liked it very much, it confirmed the exceptional paddy's talent as a songwriter. My favourite songs are the king of rock'n'roll, i remember that, venus of the soup kitchen, Nightingales. Maybe a little too mainstream pop and less personal, but at that time i thought that prefab sprout could do everything they want with an author like paddy and that was confirmed two years later when Jordan the comeback was released.

While I agree it has great songs and in time I've gotten past the glossy, saccharine production. I have no doubt, that by releasing that album after TWG in the U.S. any further indie/college radio interest that was created by TWG was derailed if not completely eliminated.

I hated it's slickness and US stereotypes when it came out. It was too desperate for a radio friendly hit and then I saw the video for King of Rock and Roll, Jesus what happened? As a good friend at the time said...

"If I wanted to listen to ABC I would get the real thing."

That was then and it has held up pretty well over time and I do appreciate it much more now.

am sure I heard or read an interview with Paddy at thetime ( not about this album though) saying people will look back poorly on the 80's music and regret the sounds of the production and all the drum amchines and other baggage that comes with eighties music.

i think a lot of great songs would have sounded much better if recorded ten years earlier or ten years later.

But this is a great album...

I'm forming a bigger appreciation for Golden Calf. I feel like it's the most "rocking" thing that PS has ever done.

Their best album by a long stretch. Best songs and performanes. Steve McQueen is for bedsits, Langley Park belongs to a much wider world.

In the confines of Paddy's head and for those fans avid enough to discern something of his master plan or just desperate to avoid obviousness, you're quite right. For the wider world not so much.

Good album though.

Despite my admiration for Paddy, I don’t agree with this at all. I see 80’s as an era in which musicians were trying to make good records, they were on the look out for melodies (in the traditional sense at least) and applying the-state-of-art production devices. Yes, some were overindulging in those machines and synth stuff, but still most songs sound inviting almost thirty years later. Every now and then I’m coming back to them and sometimes I get wistful (or not so). I’m digressing a bit, this has been discussed somewhere else in the forum. I remember that interview that went “Paddy, are you back to compete in the market?”; “Yes (+ tongue-in-cheek laughter)” and then his rant about the 80’s. However, I assure you that I enjoy some Mike and the Mechanics’ songs and even Billy Idol’s Eyes Without a Face, just to toss a couple of tracks; all mainstream, but good!

Cars and Girls was the first song I listened to back in ‘88 /’ 89, I had no idea it was the same band of Johnny, Johnny, which I had captured in a cassette from the radio. Had I known more about the Sprouts surely I would have followed them since then, but I had to wait until the mid naughties to fully learn about Paddy, thanks to the internet. This way I was spared the long absences though. Anyway, Cars and Girls is irresistible, dreamy. Nightingales: who else could have written an alluring melody with this line: "God's a proud thundercloud, we are cartoon cats/With a fear that is biblical under our hats"

I must say that I let myself be influenced by someone here who said that The Golden Calf was out of step, so I have skipped it many times. But estranged songs then grow stronger . The same with Enchanted and knock On Wood. A great album, all i all. Ideal to play it at night, don’t ask me why.

Iis it the end? No more Sprout records?

Paddy's image is shit during that period, unless sexless and limp wristed are desirable, in which case he nailed it. Morrissey managed to pull limp wristed off, but in a masculine way-stick some gladioli up your backside and we're talkin, or talking, but it's not a look everyone can pull off.

Absolutely, he went from a cocky young leather jacketed kid to a sort of effete and amiable nice guy in a silly waistcoat. The edge went. Oddly enough the Golden Calf came from the 1977/8 period where he was calling Zappa a cunt for "stealing" his riffs, but by the 1988 KCRW period he was telling Deidre O'Donoghue that he couldn't connect himself with that period, he didn't understand where he had come from. In other words he had distanced himself from where he had come from, he had closed the doors to the past.

"Saw my young face on a picture. Would he recognize me now? Oh but I doubt it. He was so fierce. Fierce and unforgiving".

I can hypothesise that a lot of Paddy's wrong steps come from a sort of almost autistic second guessing of what might make him more popular and get him accepted on a commercial level. He's always at his best when a bit edgy. I was listening to the Cambridge first half last night, and there's a bit where he breaks into the riff from "get it on", someone shouts that out, and he sarcastically shoots back "not with you pal". I suspect that's a lot closer to what he's really like than the saccharine coated front cover of Langley.

For all that, there are shafts of genius in that album. I pretty much agree with JJ that if you ground it in an external context it's not something that's going to trouble the scorers of the "great" albums, but I can go back to it much more willingly than I can to say Steve McQueen.

Who are these 'scorers of the great albums' ? My ears will tell me what is and isn't a good album. And who decides what an 'edge' is ? Who would allow a pop/rock stars image to impress them or influence them. Not me, i couldn't give a fuck.
Why should anyone care about his image on album covers, or off, it's all about the music on those albums.
I've not stopped listening to FLPTM & Steve McQueen since the 80s. Both masterpieces that i adore. Much rather listen to them than Rumours or Thriller or Bat Out Of Hell or Led Zep 2 & 4 or Q magazine's highly recommeneded ;The Bends. The only album i've bought and binned .
Bisonrav, has Paddy refused a meeting/interview with you ?

Back to this 'edginess' , i was there at the Cambridge gig and all the banter between Paddy and ' members of the audience' was sooo staged as were his crews attempts to get us all dancing !!
That bollocks and Paddy whingeing about fag smoke spoilt the evening a tad but the music was great and that's all i went for

Well obviously I'm still listening to it too. The point is that it's not a "great" album in an externalised context. I've said quite a number of times on ""classic album" threads that I don't give a stuff about what people think about what I like, and I'm far more interested in finding my own path. I don't own or listen to a lot of "great" albums, and I don't make lists.

The best way of putting this is to draw a parallel between being a fan and being married. Unless you're Jacques Chirac, you're not married to Carla Bruni, you're married to someone with human failings. Not an ideal. And that's not a problem unless you start scoring against measures of an ideal. You wouldn't expect Jacques Chirac to rate your your own wife higher than Carla Bruni. So unless either you or he or someone else forces the comparison, everyone is happy.

I think the transition to nice guy Paddy was forced and false. I've listened to all but about 4 hours of the 2000 tour repeatedly over the past two months and yes, the vast bulk of the banter was scripted and predictible, if amusing enough on a one off basis. The "Get it on" gag wasn't, it was a sharp witted and pointed throwaway that was much quicker than most of the audience could notice. If you read many of the accounts around what went on on tours, you'll see hints of a far more visceral nature than is apparent in the public image. Ultimately that's what those who are fans connect to, not the nice guy image, you're pretty much saying that yourself when you say you're more connected to the music than the image.

That's what Paddy never seemed quite able to understand. In playing his part as the amiable pop star and focusing on form and PR to try and wring out a hit single from the record buying masses, he forgot that what people signed up for was the music. What is durable about Langley - even in unusual places like KORR - is the songwriting and linking vision and obsessions. Arguably KORR links more closely to the Presley cycle from Jordan, Venus links to the Diana cycle, these links are not nailed to specific albums.

PS: I've never sought an interview or meeting with Paddy, that really doesn't interest me unless it provided a route to work he'd produced. I'd probably go along if asked on one, but ultimately you have to let people be. As a matter of fact I'd only have two questions anyway, what are the lyrics to Tin Can Pot, and what is Dandy of the Danube about.

I'd enjoy a night with Carla no more or less than one with Davina McCall :P .
I don't know the real Paddy, never met him. If his nice chap image is the real him or he's a right bastard doesn't concern me.
He's released different style albums for different peoples taste and different generations. My older mate ,who's into James Last, would probably like Andromeda Heights and hate Swoon . I love them all as my moods allow.
Hopefully, if we ever get a new album , Paddy does something unexpected.

fuck me TP -HOW OLD IS HE? Although he must be like a pig in shite looking through the second hand records at his local Oxfam... :rolleyes:
FLPTM is Paddy's 'Stephen Sondheim' record -with the concept of ambiguity very much at the centre of the lyrics.It's quite a short record and it seems to whizz past without any of the songs jarring too much -but it also leaves me feeling a bit unfulfilled...IT SHOULD OF BEEN A DOUBLE ALBUM!!!
Some classic Paddy songs right here:
I Remember That
Nightingales
Venus Of The Soup Kitchen
Hey Manhattan!
The Golden Calf (Deirdre O'Donoghue nails the brilliant lyrics in her KCRW interview, Paddy was maybe commenting on his own ambiguity to his past by recording The Golden Calf,a song that he claimed he could not even remember writing.. )

I'm a bit lost on this discussion of 'edginess'. My recollection is that Prefab Sprout may have had a certain 'art-house indie chic' after Swoon, but that was gone with the release of Steve McQueen (no self-respecting indie 'darling' was singing things like "when love breaks down..." back in the day). Ironically, Steve McQueen has gained 'indie chic' over recent years.

Paddy McAloon was always a nice guy...that's what appealed to me in the first place. Apart from the stupid name Prefab Sprout were the image of normality...a kind of anti-New Romantic image-is-everything-we-want-to-be-Bowie approach. So he grew his hair and started wearing a waistcoat, big deal (although funny that that bloke from Dream Academy started doing the same, ha ha).

Image wise I don't think Paddy McAloon was ever 'edgy', far too smart for that if you ask me. Musically (and in terms of production) Prefab Sprout circa 1988 were ahead of the competition, and in that sense (really, the only sense that matters), were at the cutting edge.

FLPTM? Brilliant. Cars & Girls is the best Sprouts single. KORR is fun. Enchanted, Venus, Nightingles, Nancy, I Remember That, are among the best Sprout songs.

The bloke from Dream Academy happened about 3 years before-Paddy stole his hair, his voice and his inability to be a consistent hit maker.
Isn't' normality an image? we're talking pop music here, not the ability to fit in at your local laundrette (those places are hives of social segregation, put too many clothes into a single wash and you become a social pariah).
Fucking missionary position is fine, but don't you get the urge to perv it up now and then?
What was wrong with New Romanticism-lipstick, hairspray and new technology in the form of the synth, making music easy for a generation, you know the decadence was really just a show.

PS had an album out before Dream Academy did and they don't sound that similiar.

King of Rock n Roll has started to make more sense to me after watching an interview in which Paddy explains the concept behind the song. I didn't really get it before and thought it was one of their weaker singles, but my opinion has changed after listening to it more and understanding the lyrics.

Was the song really one of their more popular ones back then?

Among the music-buying populace, yes. Not necessarily among Sprouts fans. It's Prefab Sprout's Hi Ho Silver Lining.

Thanks.

I wonder why that song was the one that became popular among the general crowd.

^
Heavy rotation of the nutty video that accompanied it. Bear in mind, that was when MTV etc actually played music videos primarily. I know several people that have no idea who PS are/were but show them that video and the lights come on, "Oh yes I remember that!... "

The irony that they mention another song on that CD in so mentioning it is lost entirely on them ;)

I don't think it's the video primarily. I think it's that monster, uber-catchy hook - hot dog, jumping frog - you know the rest.

Just remembered that in an interview Paddy once said that he'd been talking to Paul McCartney, the name-dropping bastard. And Macca had said unto him that King Of Rock'nRoll was "your Mull of Kintyre".

I like it myself. Not one of my favourite Sprouts tunes, no. But every time I hear it reminds me of the day I got hold of my freshly-released copy of Langley Park in 1988, and put it on my turntable. First track in, and I was pleased.

Fair play.

But for the record - when I met Paddy McAloon (anyone can name-drop y'know) by chance, he was a nice chap.

I think King of Rock N Roll is starting to rapidly grow on me. I just watched the full video for the first time. I'm so glad Paddy decided to just let go and push PS in a few different directions on the album. A song like that is truly unique.

I love the fact that it is followed by Cars and Girls.

Pretty sure he said it was Paddy's "My Ding-a-Ling".

I think its Paddy's farmyard cat.

I think it's Prefab's Birdie Song with a bit of Agadoo and Shaddupa You Face.

whatever it is -it's still better than Macca's 'Mull of Cuntyre'

As early as december 1985, Paddy knew what he wanted the next album to be, after the recording of the low-key Protest Songs: “The next record will be glossy and a big production because I like that as well – like Thriller and Two Tribes.” (Record Mirror December 14, 1985)

:)

Whazza madda you, hey! gotta no repec. whadda you tinkyou do, hey! why you looka so sad. Issa no so bad, is a nice a place. Ah shaduppa you face.

Brilliant. Quality songsmitherery. Now be honest, could Paddy come up with that?

Actually he probably could but he'd have to wait for Kenny G to be available to add some safe sax, Dolby to be available to add endless layers of 80s synths and then someone to cover in James Last style orchestral syrup.

Wouldn't be half as good as Joe Dolce.

For me, this album is becoming the epitome of "it grows on you". I'm now starting to get into Nancy, which I sort of blew off before.

I still don't really understand why some reviews made it seem like FLPTM was some big misstep for the band. The guy on allmusic who reviewed The Gunmen called it their worse album. I know there was some griping about the overindulgent 80s production, but if one actually listens popular modern music today, the complaining should stop. Plus, it's PS.

Same for me. I listened to Knock On Wood once then forgot about it. I few months later I really listened to it and realised just how amazing the production and feel is. And Nancy is the best thing on the album. You should track down the 12" extended version of Hey Manhattan (is it called the JFK version?)

It may be overproduced but I still regard it very highly. Brilliant songs but production of its overblown time

Ah, now you mention it .. that does ring a bell.

Listening to it right now and thinking the production, which is often called overblown, only really sounds out of step with the present because of the outdated synths. Other than certain noises that scream 80s, it's not that far off from much of today's music. At least in my opinion.

I've noticed a good amount of indie bands turning more to keyboards currently rather than guitars, like they may have during the 90s. Fun. is one band that comes to mind and they seem to be embracing the big production.

On a different subject, I've noticed that Cars and Girls seems to pop in my head every time I see some sort of tragic news coverage. Gotta love the way Paddy could put austere matters in pop tunes.

'The Sound Of Crying' maybe...but 'Cars & Girls'? I don't hear any connection to disaster, death and misery ,care to elaborate dean.I was thinking the other night that Paddy has really become the protagonist in the 'King Of Rock & Roll',but all these songs are weird aren't they? They came from left field somewhere,god awful but great at the same time..

I've only listened to Sound of Crying a couple of times. I'm aware of the issues it deals with but Cars and Girls is more familiar to me. I think it comes to mind becomes I've always interpreted as meaning there were bigger and deeper issues in the world than cars and chasing girls.