I Trawl the Megahertz: Paddy McAloon: Amazon.co.uk: Music

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Track Listings

1. I Trawl the Megahertz

2. Esprit de Corps

3. Fall from Grace

4. We Were Poor

5. Orchid 7

6. I'm 49

7. Sleeping Rough

8. Ineffable

9. ... But We're Happy

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

I Trawl the Megahertz is the first solo album by Prefab Sprout singer-songwriter Paddy McAloon. With characteristic perversity, McAloon has chosen the moment of striking out under his own name to make the most self-effacing record of his career--his own voice only graces one track, "Sleeping Rough", and that doesn't appear until the album is almost over. In fact, all but three of the tracks are instrumentals: lush, ornate orchestrations of the sort that McAloon has previously alchemised into the gorgeous balladry of Prefab Sprout's Jordan: The Comeback and Andromeda Heights, but here allowed to stand alone, without a word of lyrical elaboration from their creator.

I Trawl the Megahertz is dominated by the title track, a 22-minute symphony with a spoken narration by a female vocalist whose deadpan, disappointed manner suggests Black Box Recorder's Sarah Nixey with an American accent. It is a beautiful and extraordinarily ambitious piece--one that no other songwriter working would have contemplated, much less attempted, much less realised as spectacularly as McAloon does here. --Andrew Mueller

Review

Paddy McAloon's name is usually whispered in the same breath as other practitioners of the elusive beast known as Perfect Pop. People such as Todd Rundgren and Brian Wilson: sophisticates who know as much about George Gershwin's role in the evolution of modern popular song as that of Busted. Yet aficionados know that the increasingly sporadic releases by his band Prefab Sprout have displayed a wilful eccentricity. For example, their last songcycle the Gunman And Other Stories was a western-themed extravaganza. Yet nothing will have prepared his fans for this.

McAloon recently suffered a temporary blindness that left him house-bound. Finding solace in short wave radio transmissions he began recording and transcribing the snippets of conversation and ephemera. The result is I Trawl The Megahertz: a nine track project so personal and removed from his previous work that it's been released under his own name. Aided by arranger, David McGuinness and classical crossover ensemble Mr McFall's Chamber, Paddy has fashioned a work of troubling beauty.

The album is dominated by its opening title track: A 22-minute orchestral piece with a recurring motif, overlaid by the soft American voice of Yvonne Connors intoning poetry formed from McAloon's random dips into the ether. If on first listen it sounds pretentious, fear not. Once contextualized this becomes a deeply moving autobiographical ode to isolation, loss and heartache. It's as if McAloon's well-proven gift for aching melody and erudite love songs has, due to his enforced immobility, been subsumed into a purer and more abstract medium. The phrase that strikes home again and again is: 'I said: your Daddy loves you very much, he just doesn't want to live with us any more.' This is the sound of one man thinking about dark stuff...

The rest of I Trawl consists of instrumentals that veer from lush reiterations of the main theme ("We Were Poor" and its companion piece "...But We Were Happy"), jazzy vamps ("Fall From Grace") and almost Zappaesque technical exercises ("Esprit De Corps"). Yet you are never far from reminders of the sadness and regret that suffuses the mind of the composer. "I'm 49" contains samples from McAloon's radio explorations with the underlying theme of separation and loneliness ('What's wrong? I'm 49 and I'm divorced') while the only vocal track, "Sleeping Rough" ruminates on the ageing process ("I shall grow a long silver beard...").

Such a deeply personal project will probably never recapture those people that bought Steve Mcqueen the first time around. But for all of us at a particular stage in life this is a poignant reminder of the healing power of music. One can only hope that it worked for McAloon himself. Gorgeous. --Chris Jones

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

Love on the lonely airwaves 10 Mar 2004

By Timothy Hooper

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is truly something else, the title track is a piece of music theatre that is haunting beyond measure. Paddy McAloon has created a unique soundscape and a musical language of yearning emotion, it is quite unlike anything else you’ll have heard. Prefab Sprout fans will recognise the lushness and melodic sweep but the timescale has been stretched to encompass a 22 minute spoken drama detailing one woman's roller-coaster ride through loss, new found love, and further loss leading towards an uncertain resolution. Narrated by the mellifluous tones of Yvonne Connor, the sweeping, highly romantic backing conveys an enormous emotional weight.

The project began when McAloon – forced by illness induced insomnia – found himself drawn into the twilight world of late night phone-in shows. His writers ear began picking out stories and patterns of lost love and loneliness. Interpolating snippets of dialogue, he has woven a loosely-themed concept album around the tales of broken hearts that drift through the airwaves.

The remaining tracks form a loose suite, meditating on every aspect of loss and poverty (it's not as dour as that might sound) indeed, 'Esprit de Corps' is positively perky, a feast of thrilling pizzicato strings and sun-bright trumpet. The split bookends of 'We Were Poor…But We Were Happy' have a nostalgic pull, not dissimilar to the soundtracks for such 1960s classics like 'Cathy, Come Home'.

'I'm 49' features real quotes from phone-in shows and is simply heartbreaking without ever being prurient. McAloon brilliantly uses the shifting whistles of radio interference to create unearthly howls in the background.

Prefab fans will latch onto 'Sleeping Rough', the only track to feature Paddy singing, but it's all the more worthwhile waiting for as he intones an upbeat hymn to the benefits of withdrawing from society to 'sleep among the trees' 'away from duty's call'.

I cannot praise the beauty and profound emotional depth of this CD – a must for anyone with half a heart.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

The strength of Strings 10 Jan 2004

By russell clarke TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Crickey!...Where did this come from?...Well actually it came from Amazon, what i mean is, what inspired this...something this fascinating,inspired,mellifluous and well so damm moving. "Trawling the Megahertz" is Gavin Bryars vs The Blue Nile vs Ennio Morricone or something.and it,s ended up a score draw.
Prefab Sprout were a band i could take or leave. "Steve McQueen" is a good album but they were far too fey and winsome for consistent consumption. So when i heard that Paddy McAloon was releasing a solo album i was distinctly underwhelmed. Then i read the reviews and so gentle reader to bring this tale to it,s inevitable conclusion i bought it and...it,s ravishing, the unexpected treat of the year.
First bit of good news is that woman from Prefab Sprout is,nt on it. In fact the surprise is that there are hardly any vocals on this album at all. The title track has Yvonne Connors intoning collages of radio excerpts to an orchestral backing of subtle brass, twinkling harps and chimes and gorgeous stately strings.
The rest of the album continues with out the narration but the music maintains its liquid regal finesse. "Fall fom Grace" is like a chamber piece, all choppy strings and processional while "I,m 49" embraces a more modernist approach with flourishes of electronica.On the beautiful "Sleeping Rough" Mc Aloon provides plaintative understated vocals."I,m lost, yes i am lost" he sings over a string arrangement so poignant i,m sure my C.D. player shed tears.Final track "...but we were happy" is so cinematic it could have come from the soundtrack of "Wonderland".
Maybe thats what this is..the sound track to a film that has,nt been made yet, a film that only exists in Paddy McAloons head.I,ve heard he was suffering from temporary blindness when he wrote this.Maybe he was putting music to the pictures in his head.Whatever the inspiration behind this music it,s wonderful amd whats more it,s great to type to.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

Wow....how unexpected 23 Jun 2003

By Paul G

Format:Audio CD

Profoundly beautiful album. Ambitious, gentle, dark and beautiful. Like Craig Armstrong, Blue Nile, bits of Stephen Duffy, and lovely jazz influenced things going on too. The poetry inspired by the shortwave radio transmissions works wonderfully well. Hadn't bought a Paddy McAloon related record for over a decade.....but this justified the return :-))))

I Trawl the Megahertz

Amazon's Paddy McAloon Store

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