Swoon [Import]

Prefab Sprout | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 23, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Sony/Bmg Int'l
• ASIN: B000025TJ7
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,693 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fever of Purple Prose...., May 16, 2002

By 

Lypo Suck (Hades, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Swoon (Audio CD)

"Swoon" is my favorite Prefab album. It's endured its share of ambivalent reviews over the years, but to me it shows the band and songwriter/singer Paddy McAloon in their purest state, before outside hands and Top 20 chart prospects streamlined their approach. "Swoon" is a highly original record, melding various styles into one unique vision, resulting in a sophisticated sound the band could claim as its own.

It's an album that grew on me. At first, expecting some breezy jazz-pop a la early Aztec Camera, I was a bit put off by the convoluted song structures, the cheesy session-hack drum-fills, and the almost cocky swagger of McAloon's delivery. But I was soon hooked by the evocative, sophisticated, and pretty jazz-inspired chord progressions, and the slightly unusual but lovely melodies. Taken as a whole, I soon forgave what I initially perceived as shortcomings, and saw "Swoon" as an innovative and unconventional approach to pop.

"Swoon" bristles with angsty, early-20-something tension, but sometimes eases up with lush and airy atmosphere. "Technique" surges and pummels, reveling in a white-knuckled frenzy, while "Cruel" sways to a gentle bossa nova beat with a simple, catchy, jazzy chord progression.

"Swoon" takes risks that people with sights on the charts shouldn't consider in a million years. Take "I Never Play Basketball Now," which goes through about 10 completely different parts before ever repeating any of them.

Lyrically, McAloon consistently intrigues. "Cruel" brilliantly explores the mind of a "liberal guy" who finds himself as hopelessly jealous and possessive of the object of his love as any backwards provincial who's never heard of Joan Didion. Other songs prove more difficult to decipher; willfully obscure, yet always intelligent and witty.

Lush, gossamer, elegant, intimate, intense, seething, difficult, etc. - all words that aptly describe "Swoon." It has been sited as a strange fusion of Aztec Camera and Steely Dan, which makes sense, but ultimately "Swoon" proves too complicated for simple comparisons. Too rough and angsty to sit alongside Sade; too melodic, and richly complex to fit with most new wave or "new pop" of the era, "Swoon" is pure, untainted Prefab Sprout.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BOO BOO BA BA!, December 19, 1999

By 

Buzz (Milwaukee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Swoon (Audio CD)

Pleasantly suprised that there are other people out there who not only hold this album in high esteem but still listen to it. I really think this album is unique. Paddy McAloon treads a very thin line between cheesy cloying sentiment and urbane moodiness througout, but never falls on his face. The same cannot be said, for example, of Langley Park to Memphis. Who else could deliver this line with a straight passionate face: 'No I never, ever play basketball now//It's among the things I miss, like fencing foils and lovely girls I've never kissed"

I even find Swoon preferable to Two Wheels Good due to its rougher production, greater energy, and warm beauty.

I listened to this album in the car last summer on a thick night with the sun going down and I think it has never sounded better. Swoon has dated incredibly well--in spite of itself.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The gift that keeps on giving, July 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Swoon (Audio CD)

Twelve years ago when I was a sophomore in college I picked up the Sprouts' debut album. Long after I've outgrown and become bored with the silly simplicity of most all of the pop music I listened to back then I keep peeling back the layers of this succulent sonic onion. Paddy McAloon's later songwriting for Prefab Sprout often treads a thin line between the inspired and the maudlin/pretentious but this early stuff is spot on. Literate and evocative of landscapes comprising the human heart and the northern English countryside, these songs stick with you. They're musically and lyrically complex and stand the test of time. This is not your standard 4/4 pop album. The melodies are sometimes syncopated and the meters vary from 3/4 to 7/4. There's some dissonance in the melodies at times. If you want to rock, stay away from this album. If you want to think and be moved, turn it on. I wore out a vinyl LP and a cassette of this stuff before I splurged for the more durable CD format.