Customer Reviews

Swoon

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

I recently dropped Swoon into the CD player in my car and was transported back in time. After ten or fifteen years it's great to find that Swoon still seems to capture colors and sounds which would go unnoticed if not for the work of Prefab Sprout. This album should be required listening for any dreamer. In a very real way, it clears the palate of much of today's weak pop music. Ah SWOON!!!!

I have everything Prefab Sprout has recorded and Paddy McAloon is amazing in his songwriting and lyrics in Swoon. It is not my favorite but it shows the talent of Paddy, again a talent that for some reason was not given his due and still isnt being noticed as a major player in his work with Prefab Sprout, that's a shame. I believe everyone should have the complete Prefab Sprout library and Swoon has some stand out songs, like Cruel, Couldn't Bear To Be Special,Don't Sing,and Green Isaac (I)& (II).
A must to complete the work of Paddy McAloon, Swoon.

This is an overlooked but brilliant album. Very off beat and original, its hard to trace any influences but my gut feeling would be Cole Porter or perhaps Steely Dan...however songwriter Paddy McAloon came up with this music it is top notch-filled with complex pop hooks and interesting lyrics- I prefer this LP to anything they did subsequently and I suggest listeners go back and check out this stellar debut...the only thing that could improve upon this album would be to re-release the CD with two other early Kitchenware tracks "Donna Summer" and "Diana"- this would be pure bliss!!

I picked it up used when I was 14 at a used shop cos I liked the band name. Today-it gives me goose bumps. Their best. Period. If you can PLEASE hear this.

In the 1980s, a lot synth music was a bunch of subtanceless goo-aided by the fact that you were judged more by your MTV video than your songs. Only a few bands-Human League, Cocteu Twins, Talk Talk-took the possibilities of this slick sound and made good music. Another was Prefab Sprout. Their Langly Park To Memphis was a hook-filled, silky masterpiece that showed how fufilling post-Steely Dan, high-end pop could be in an era of modern production.

Swoon, their first offering, shows this expert handed Steely mastery without the electronic production style. The album is filled with funky, medloic fair, the opening track, jazzy polish, "Cue Fanfare", and bossa nova balladry. These are just some of the styles this band-true music lovers and masters of their craft-tackle on Swoon. The album may have a late 70s-early 80s studio perfection, but how many pop groups--and Prefab Sprout is in the best sense of the term-- have songs about the 1972 Fishcer-Spasky chess match as the 2nd track of their debut album.

Prefab is Scottish, and the lead singer does not try to hide his accent. His voice lends a wonderful flavor to what is already music of the highest order.

If you think Brittney is talented or live in a remote cave, don't buy this. I reccomend Swoon highly for anyone else

I'd agree with the assessment of another reviewer that this album is like a mixture of Cole Porter, Steely Dan and Aztec Camera. The production sounds a bit thin and dated and not the most exciting ever. Two Wheels Good is more technically flawless with Thomas Dolby's sophisticated and lush production along with some good songwriting, but Swoon has charm in being real, not completely flawless, but even the flaws enhance the enjoyment.

I remember being confused by this album in the 80s and not instantly liking it. Even after coming back to it, I had to get accustomed to it again. It's like a quirky friend who is odd enough you're not quite what to think at first, but after getting used to his personality, you realize you wouldn't want things to be different.

The lyrics can be a bit obscure, pushing towards overly clever. Yet they don't fall into the trap that Prefab Sprout later fell into on "From Langley Park to Memphis" and subsequent albums featuring overly sugary production, overblown story frameworks, pretension and leveraging uninteresting and obvious straight-ahead pop sensibilities.

Then again, maybe you won't like it. Some think Jordan: The Comeback is perfect and can't understand how some people think it comes off homogenized, smarmy and overproduced. If that describes you, you might not like this album, since it's real, has a little guts and is a bit rough around the edges. For my money, I'd take this album any day, over "From Langley Park to Memphis" or any of their albums afterward. It takes chances and does something original without trying to fit into into some pretentious or inappropriate framework.

My uncle gave me a mix tape with some of tracks from this album on it back in the mid eighties. I was so impressed I went straight to the music store to buy the album. And subsequently I bought all of the albums by this wonderful and very little known band. I was living in Italy at the time, where hardly a soul knew of these guys- a part from my uncle obviously, who had excellent and refined musical taste. Twenty years on, I still play Swoon and Steve McQueen with some regularity and I am taken every time by how timeless this music is. The songs are deep, great lyrics, eclectic musical arrangements, many layers to each song. All to make an album that one does not get tired of listening to, time after time after time. This is truly classy music. A little jazz, a little 80s and lots of very original Paddy McAloon. There really was not a band like it during their time. These guys are as great as Everything but the Girl, probably even better, just for some reason they never became majorly successfull. Maybe they are to sophisticated for the mainstream to digest. One of my favorite bands of all time.