Collection [Original recording remastered]

Prefab Sprout | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 13, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000058T7I
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,497 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Lions in My Own Garden [#]

2. Don't Sing

3. Couldn't Bear to Be Special

4. When Love Breaks Down

5. Faron Young

6. Appetite

7. Johnny Johnny

8. Cars And Girls

9. King of Rock 'n' Roll

10. Hey Manhattan!

See all 19 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Cue Fanfare

2. Cruel

3. Bonny

4. Movin' the River

5. Desire As

6. Horsin' Around

7. Pearly Gates

8. Til the Cows Come Home

9. Enchanted

10. Nightingales

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The U.K. punk/new wave explosion of the early 1980s offered up a slate largely clean of both expectations and artistic preconceptions. A few young musicians were brave enough to use it for something other than constructing a new set of clichés, including Newcastle's Paddy McAloon and his band, Prefab Sprout, who became cult faves in the bargain. This generous double-CD set offers up a well-balanced chronicle of McAloon and company's endearingly quirky, ever-literate pop concoctions, dividing its discs between the band's singles (including the privately pressed debut "Lions in My Own Garden") and cuts from a decade's worth of iconoclastic albums. Freely using a delightfully unpredictable palette that included jazz (especially the spare, gorgeous "Couldn't Bear to Be Special"), cabaret, neo-skiffle ("Faron Young"), lounge, and even Broadway--sometimes all in the space of three minutes--Prefab Sprout might well have anticipated much of what became the alt-rock clichés of the '90s, though delivered with a sense of genuine wit and virtually no overweening irony. The Collection is a great way to (re)discover one of the great hidden musical treasures of the '80s. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better late than never - and eminently tasteful, February 14, 2001

By 

Kevin O'Conner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Collection (Audio CD)

The Collection is the US release of 1999's 38 Carat Collection with ever-so-slightly altered title and cover art. This two-disc set contains the band's 19 UK singles, and adds 19 key album tracks.

To a certain extent, The Collection effectively renders half the Prefab Sprout back catalog redundant. Steve McQueen and From Langley Park To Memphis are represented by eight and nine tracks, respectively. However, it's good to see that Epic/Legacy has kept the set intact; given the general lack of awareness of Prefab Sprout's existence in the U.S.,the label could have made a case for whittling things down to a single disc, or passing altogether on its release.

The usual highlights are present, from "When love breaks down" to "The sound of crying", with "Faron Young", "Appetite", "Cars and girls", "Hey Manhattan!", "Looking for Atlantis" and "We let the stars go", among others, in between. A bonus for the American enthusiast is the inclusion of five songs from 1997's Andromeda Heights, which Epic declined to release in the U.S.

The only real disappointments here are the absence of "Wild horses", which was included on 1992's best-of, Life Of Surprises, and "Jesse James symphony", without which "Jesse James bolero" sounds strangely incomplete, as if one had walked into the theatre halfway through the movie.

Still, this collection shouldn't be passed up. Prefab Sprout has consistently managed to combine tasteful arrangements and emotional content without coming across as either too restrained or too mushy. Hopefully, Epic will see fit to release their forthcoming album, The Gunman And Other Stories, in the States this time.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Pop From Prefab Sprout!, February 14, 2001

By 

Kevinduran (Indianapolis, Indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collection (Audio CD)

Prefab Sprout really never caught in the U.S. That may be an understatement! I would venture to say that a lot of people have never heard of them, which is truly unfortunate. They graced the pages of the 80's teen magazine STAR HITS constantly- it may be why that magazine closed down- it was just too hip for the room- at least in the U.S. Maybe that is a good description for Prefab Sprout. This hits collections contains 2 discs full of smartly crafted pop confections. I would not say that they are overtly British, but they are obviously not American. Disc one contains the "hits" (they were hits in the U.K.); Disc two contains "B-sides" (although some of the songs are just random album tracks that were used as B-sides- they aren't B-sides in the sense that they are hard to find.) A lot of the songs here were produced by Thomas Dolby- but be aware that Prefab Sprout were NOT blinded by science! (Their music does not sound like Mr. Dolby's!) Great retrospective from an overlooked 80's gem of a band.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and compact (but in a good way), February 13, 2001

By 

Heidi Tandy "Heidi8" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Collection (Audio CD)

It's much easier to put this into your car's cd changer and have space for other cds (maybe some Crowded House, an old EBTG, something from Roddy Frame) than it is to give up all 6 spaces to Sprout CDs, and since all the best songs are represented on this 2 disc set, you don't even feel like you're losing anything (unless you have a strong devotion to Nancy Let Your Hair Down for Me) in the process. It is identical to 38 Carat Collection, and as of this writing, is also a few dollars cheaper.