Perhaps the best songwriter you never heard before is a guy from Newcastle, England ranked by his peers in the same pantheon with Elvis Costello and Cole Porter. No kidding!
When Fountains of Wayne were in a few weeks ago, Adam, Chris and I talked about our mutual affection for frontman Paddy McAloon and his band PreFab Sprout.
Hardly known in the US, save for a few diehards like me, Paddy created some of the dreamiest, wittiest allegories of sweet pop songs…ever! The Sprouts turned out brilliant records I will never tire of. The last original Prefab Sprout record came out in 2001, but any future plans were put on hold given the sad news that Paddy was suffering from a rare form of hearing loss. Word is, he’s on the mend. Until Paddy, the Comeback, if you want to hear absolutley brilliant songwriting packaged in, ironically sugar coated romantic gems…check out two of the best albums of the 80’s and 90’s, respectively….TWO WHEELS GOOD (originally, STEVE MCQUEEN, but dropped here in the States for legal reasons) and the concept album, the Elvis-inspired JORDON THE COMEBACK. From TWO WHEELS, enjoy this video of Johnny Johnny.
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