Steve McQueen | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 1985 | |||
Recorded | 1984–1985 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | Sophisti-pop [1] | |||
Length | 45:18 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Thomas Dolby (except for track 4, which was produced by Phil Thornalley) | |||
Prefab Sprout chronology | ||||
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Singles from Steve McQueen | ||||
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Steve McQueen is the second studio album by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released in June 1985 by Kitchenware Records. The album was released by Epic Records in the United States as Two Wheels Good in anticipation of legal conflict with the estate of American actor Steve McQueen. [2] [3] The album cover references Steve McQueen's lifelong passion for Triumph motorcycles and the 1963 film The Great Escape .
The album released to highly positive reviews from critics and was a modest commercial success, reaching number 21 in the United Kingdom. Four singles from the album entered top 100 of the UK Singles Chart, with "When Love Breaks Down" reaching the top 30. Retrospectively, Steve McQueen has received lasting critical acclaim, widely credited as an indie pop benchmark and ranked by many British publications among the greatest albums of all time. On 2 April 2007, it was reissued as a "legacy edition" double CD, featuring a remastered version of the original album and a bonus disc featuring acoustic versions of the songs recorded in 2006 by the band's frontman, Paddy McAloon.
On an episode of the BBC Radio 1 programme Roundtable, musician and producer Thomas Dolby, a panelist on the programme, spoke favourably of Prefab Sprout's "Don't Sing", a track from their 1984 album Swoon . [4] The band subsequently contacted Dolby, who met with frontman and songwriter Paddy McAloon in the latter's County Durham home. [4] McAloon presented Dolby with a number of songs he had written, "probably 40 or 50" by Dolby's estimate, [5] some written as far back as 10 to 12 years prior. [4] Dolby then picked his favourites and asked McAloon to make demo recordings of them; these recordings served as the basis for Dolby's initial process of planning the album's recording. [5]
In the autumn of 1984, Dolby and Prefab Sprout began working on the album's songs in rehearsals at Nomis Studios in West London, after which they moved to Marcus Studios for proper recording. [6] The sessions were amicable, with the band being respectful of Dolby's edge over them in recording and musical experience, and Dolby keeping into account the band's wishes, knowing that McAloon "wouldn't want to be diluted" by Dolby's additions to the album. [6] Subsequent mixing was carried out at Farmyard Studios in Buckinghamshire. [6]
Musically, Steve McQueen is informed by Dolby's lush, jazz-tinged production. [7] [8] McAloon's lyrics on Steve McQueen touch on a number of themes, including love, infidelity, regret, and heartbreak. [7] Alex Robertson of Sputnikmusic described the album's songs as lyrically "literate and humorous without being condescending in the slightest". [9]
"When Love Breaks Down" was first released as a single in October 1984, before the album was released, but failed to chart in the top 40, peaking at No. 89 on the UK Singles Chart. It was reissued as a new single in March 1985, but again failed to chart, peaking at No. 88. It was only after the album's release, and on the single's third issue in October 1985, that it finally broke through the top 40 and peaked at No. 25 for two weeks in November and December 1985. [10] [11]
Between the second and third releases of "When Love Breaks Down", two further singles were released: "Faron Young" (referencing the country music singer of the same name) in July 1985, peaking at No. 74, [10] and "Appetite" in August 1985, peaking at No. 92. [10]
"Goodbye Lucille #1" was renamed "Johnny Johnny" for the final single release from the album in January 1986, peaking at No. 64. [10]
Steve McQueen was critically acclaimed at the time of its release. Record Mirror 's Graham K. Smith awarded it a score of five out of five, championing it as "the finest album you will hear this year" and Paddy McAloon as "the country's best (by a mile) songwriter". [12] Rating the album nine out of ten in Smash Hits , Chris Heath praised McAloon as one of the best writers of "depressingly precise songs about the joys, fears and disappointments of love" and lamented that listeners might be put off by the "obscurity and complexity" of Prefab Sprout's music. [13]
Spin critic Richard Gehr cited Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Lennon–McCartney, and Elvis Costello, among other figures, as some of the various "ghosts lurking" in McAloon's lyrics, and wrote: "I confess that the usual sensitive singer-songwriter crap almost always makes me squeal with boredom, but McAloon delivers the bacon here." [14] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice , giving the album a "B+" grade, called McAloon "a type we've met many times before—the well-meaning cad", and was reminded of "the justly obscure, unjustly forgotten Jo Mama—or of Aztec Camera if Roddy Frame were a cad." [15] In a less enthusiastic review for NME , Danny Kelly found Steve McQueen "both brilliant and flawed", complimenting McAloon's songwriting but criticising the album's "clipped, parchment-dry jazz" sound. [16]
At the end of 1985, Steve McQueen was named the fourth best album of the year by NME, [17] and placed 28th in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll. [18]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [7] |
Classic Pop | [19] |
The Irish Times | [20] |
Mojo | [21] |
Pitchfork | 8.6/10 [22] |
Q | [23] |
Record Collector | [24] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [25] |
Spin | [26] |
Uncut | [27] |
Subsequent retrospective reviews of Steve McQueen have also been highly favourable. AllMusic's Jason Ankeny appraised it as "a minor classic, a shimmering jazz-pop masterpiece sparked by Paddy McAloon's witty and inventive songwriting." [7] Reviewing the 2007 legacy edition for Record Collector , Terry Staunton wrote that "more than 20 years on, his dissertations on love, loss and uncertainty are just as affecting, the intelligence of the lyrics matched by the sophistication of the chord structures and the musical arrangements." [24]
The Sunday Times labelled the legacy edition as revealing McAloon's "genius" and described the record as being "buttressed by a phenomenal rhythm section and fairy-dusted with Wendy Smith's breathy harmonies". [28] In Spin, Will Hermes deemed Steve McQueen Dolby's "supreme achievement" as a producer. [26] Pitchfork reviewer Stephen Troussé highlighted Dolby's "profoundly 80s sonic palette", which Troussé said reflected "one of the defining qualities of the record... its pop ambition, its willingness to engage with its times, precisely by not being a sullen singer-songwriter would-be timeless classic." [22]
Noel Murray of The A.V. Club wrote that Steve McQueen and its predecessor Swoon "are considered classics of the mid-'80s post-punk/new-wave era, even though they don't sound like they belong to any particular movement." [29] Russ Slater of PopMatters described them as "two albums of great indie-pop" that established Prefab Sprout in the 1980s as "one of Britain's brightest lights". [30] Steve McQueen was featured in Treble's 2014 list of 10 essential sophisti-pop albums; [31] in his review for Pitchfork, Troussé cited it as "the defining record of 1985 sophisto-pop". [22]
Steve McQueen has been included in several professional lists of the greatest albums of all time. The album placed at No. 47 in a 1993 poll by The Times , [32] No. 90 in a 1995 poll by Mojo , [33] and No. 61 in a 1997 poll by The Guardian . [34] It was also selected for inclusion in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [35]
All tracks are written by Paddy McAloon, except where noted
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Faron Young" (retitled "Faron" on US edition) | 3:50 |
2. | "Bonny" | 3:45 |
3. | "Appetite" | 3:56 |
4. | "When Love Breaks Down" (UK and US editions feature different mixes of the song) | 4:08 |
5. | "Goodbye Lucille #1" (retitled "Johnny Johnny" for single release) | 4:31 |
6. | "Hallelujah" | 4:20 |
7. | "Moving the River" | 3:57 |
8. | "Horsin' Around" | 4:39 |
9. | "Desire As" | 5:19 |
10. | "Blueberry Pies" | 2:24 |
11. | "When the Angels" | 4:29 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
12. | "The Yearning Loins" | 3:38 | |
13. | "He'll Have to Go" |
| 3:06 |
14. | "Faron" (Truckin' mix) | 4:45 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Appetite" (acoustic version) | 3:57 |
2. | "Bonny" (acoustic version) | 5:58 |
3. | "Desire As" (acoustic version) | 7:08 |
4. | "When Love Breaks Down" (acoustic version) | 4:24 |
5. | "Goodbye Lucille #1" (acoustic version) | 3:54 |
6. | "Moving the River" (acoustic version) | 3:39 |
7. | "Faron Young" (acoustic version) | 3:47 |
8. | "When the Angels" (acoustic version) | 4:08 |
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. [36]
Prefab Sprout
Additional personnel
Chart (1985) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [37] | 48 |
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [38] | 47 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [39] | 34 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [40] | 33 |
UK Albums (OCC) [41] | 21 |
US Billboard 200 [42] | 178 |
Prefab Sprout are an English pop/rock band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham who rose to fame during the 1980s. Formed in 1978 by brothers Paddy and Martin McAloon and joined by vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Wendy Smith in 1982, they released their debut album Swoon to critical acclaim in 1984. Their subsequent albums, including 1985's Steve McQueen and 1990's Jordan: The Comeback, have been described by Paul Lester of The Guardian as "some of the most beautiful and intelligent records of their era". Frontman Paddy McAloon is regarded as one of the great songwriters of his time and the band have been credited with producing some of the "most beloved" pop music of the 1980s and 1990s.
Jordan: The Comeback is the fifth studio album by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released by Kitchenware Records and CBS on 28 August 1990. A 19-track album encompassing a variety of musical styles and themes, Jordan has been considered by the band and critics alike to be Prefab Sprout's most ambitious project. The album was produced by Thomas Dolby, who had helmed the band's acclaimed 1985 album Steve McQueen but had been unable to commit to the entirety of its 1988 follow-up From Langley Park to Memphis.
Protest Songs is the fourth studio album by English pop band Prefab Sprout. Recorded quickly and self-produced, the album features a minimal production style at odds with most of the band's work. Originally planned to be released in December 1985 as a quickfire follow-up to the band's critically acclaimed second album Steve McQueen, it was put on hold for commercial reasons and the band moved on to record 1988's From Langley Park to Memphis. The album was finally released by Kitchenware Records and CBS on 19 June 1989. Despite the band undertaking no promotional activities, the album peaked at number 18 on the UK Albums Chart.
Patrick Joseph McAloon is an English singer-songwriter and a founder of the band Prefab Sprout.
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Swoon is the debut studio album by the English pop band Prefab Sprout, released in March 1984 by Kitchenware Records. Written over a period of seven years, the record was produced with David Brewis on a low budget. The group mostly chose to avoid recording the material they had played live over the years, preferring to make a more intricate record of mostly recent material.
Andromeda Heights is the sixth studio album by the English pop group Prefab Sprout. It was released by Kitchenware Records on 2 May 1997. It peaked at number 7 in the UK Albums Chart. "A Prisoner of the Past" and "Electric Guitars" were also released as singles, peaking at number 30 and number 53, respectively, in the UK singles chart.
I Trawl the Megahertz is an album originally released as a Paddy McAloon solo album in May 2003 on Liberty Records. It was later reissued in February 2019 on Sony Music under the Prefab Sprout name, as originally intended, with new artwork, and retroactively considered the eighth Prefab Sprout album.
"The King of Rock 'n' Roll" is a single by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released by Kitchenware Records in March 1988. It was the second single taken from their album of that year, From Langley Park to Memphis. It remains the band's biggest chart success in their native UK, reaching number 7 on the UK Singles Chart, where it spent 11 weeks.
The Gunman and Other Stories is the seventh studio album by the English pop band Prefab Sprout. Released in June 2001, the album was the band's only release for the EMI Liberty label.
"Cars and Girls" is a single by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released by Kitchenware Records in February 1988. It was the first single taken from their album of that year, From Langley Park to Memphis. The single failed to reach the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, reaching a peak of number 44 over five weeks on the chart. It has nevertheless become one of Prefab Sprout's most popular songs.
Let's Change the World with Music is the ninth studio album by the English pop group Prefab Sprout. It was released on 7 September 2009 by Kitchenware Records. It was the band's first album of new material since 2001's The Gunman and Other Stories and marked a return to Sony Music, Kitchenware's parent label. The album reached No. 39 in the UK Albums Chart at the end of the week of its release. Although no singles were technically released, "Let There Be Music" was sent to radio stations, and "Sweet Gospel Music" was due to be a one-track digital release to highlight the album, but received no airplay and therefore was pulled.
"When Love Breaks Down" is a single by English pop band Prefab Sprout, first released by Kitchenware Records in October 1984. It was the first single taken from their album of the following year, Steve McQueen. In its first release, the single did not chart on the UK Singles Chart, but a reissue the following year in 1985 reached No. 25. The song was also the group's first chart appearance in the United States, peaking at No. 42 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart in October 1985.
Crimson/Red is the tenth studio album by English pop band Prefab Sprout, although for this album "Prefab Sprout" consists entirely of singer/songwriter Paddy McAloon, who writes, sings and plays every note on the album. Crimson/Red was released in the United Kingdom by Icebreaker Records and Kitchenware Records on 7 October 2013. The album title is a reference to artist Mark Rothko.
"A Prisoner of the Past" is a single by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released by Kitchenware Records on 21 April 1997. It was the lead single from Andromeda Heights, the band's first studio album in seven years. Frontman Paddy McAloon wrote the song in 1989, inspired by the work of Phil Spector. Upon release, the song received critical acclaim and reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart. It remains the band's final top 40 hit to date.
"The Sound of Crying" is a single by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released by Kitchenware Records in June 1992. It was one of two new songs included on their compilation album A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout. It was one of the band's biggest hits, reaching No. 23 on the UK Singles Chart.
Wendy Smith is an English musician. She was a singer, guitarist and keyboardist in the band Prefab Sprout from 1983 until 2001. In 2015, she became the director of creative learning at The Sage in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England.
"Lions in My Own Garden (Exit Someone)", rendered "Lions in My Own Garden: Exit Someone" on its initial release, is the first single by English pop band Prefab Sprout. It was first released on the band's own Candle Records in 1982, and reissued in 1983 after the band were signed by Kitchenware Records.
"Goodbye Lucille #1" is a song by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released as a single under the title "Johnny Johnny" by Kitchenware Records in January 1986. It was the final single taken from their album Steve McQueen. The single failed to reach the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, reaching a peak of number 64 over three weeks on the chart.
"Appetite" is a song by English pop band Prefab Sprout from their album Steve McQueen. Released as the album's third single by Kitchenware Records in August 1985, it reached number 92 on the UK Singles Chart. Despite its disappointing chart performance, the song has been singled out as one of the highlights of Steve McQueen.
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