Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love on the lonely airwaves, 10 Mar 2004
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.
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The strength of Strings, 10 Jan 2004
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.
|
|
|
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Modern instrumental brilliance from classic songwriter, 4 Jun 2003
The artist is more known for his leadership of classic popular music band Prefab Sprout, a band writing emotional, classic songs for a largely ignoring public. On this album the artist writes an instrumental suite of quietly devastating music that continues the shimmering melodic themes of 'Andromeda Heights' but places them in a new and intriguing context. While his eyesight was temporarily impaired he would listen to the radio, moving the dial catching fragments of conversation. The key lead piece of the album records a number of these fragements placing them into a spoken word text next to each other seeming to possess some inner and unspoken meaning. The fourth track uses actual samples in a similar way to more direct impact and only on one track does he actually sing briefly. The music combines the structured ambience of Brian Eno (such as Music For Airports) with restrained strings, vibes and hushed trumpet reminding of The Blue Nile, Gavin Bryars 'Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet' with it's similar overlayed text, Gil Evans arrangements with Miles Davis or modern classical composer Marshall Ingram with his 'Gradual Requiem'. The album works in the fore ground for intense listening or as an ambient backdrop, each listen offering another take on the music. This is a highly individual and fascinating album that each listener will find a personal and treasured take on. It is very different from the artist's more song based work and deserves a wide audience. With the right support could have a similar impact to albums like Tubular Bells. Like David Holmes soundtrack work could result for the artist and with use in a sympathetic media context the work could resonate through the wider public consciousness.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
~ Prefab Sprout
~ Prefab Sprout
~ Prefab Sprout
~ Prefab Sprout
~ Prefab Sprout
