if you can afford it.

Paddy McAloon’s “I Trawl the MEGAHERTZ”

then find a copy of the Paddy McAloon album that went on sale Monday. it’s called I Trawl The MEGAHERTZ (all-caps on “megahertz” is how it’s labelled).

there are two versions, one which has that player-eating “copy-protection” on it. it’ll say so on the back somewhere. avoid that version and find the other version. it’s only a UK/EU release (the UK one is not “copy-protected”), and it’ll cost you if you’re buying it as an import, but it’s worth every penny.

it’s been years since i put on an album and just left it in the player on non-stop repeat. and sure, while i’ve always been biased to anything Prefab Sprout or Paddy McAloon-related, the last two Sprout albums have been pretty disappointing, to put it mildly.

this is where Paddy wanted to go for a long time. it’s a composition project, heavily more classical than pop. it’s absolutely gorgeous, intimate and very personal. i feel chill bumps throughout it, as the story feels like it’s about to drop a revelation on you every couple of minutes. the anticipation in there, and the spoken word samples are unusually dark compared to Paddy’s previous work.

Martin McAloon sent me this copy (along with a copy of the 2001 Sprout CD, The Gunman and Other Stories) in exchange for the brand new La Musique Popularie CD, Love Conquers Alda (along with the 2001 and 2002 LMP EP CDs, all three which i directed the sleeve art and design), which doesn’t officially get released until later this month.

he’s been looking after me ever since i went to the Sprouts’ Leeds performance in April 2000. i didn’t learn this until the end of 2000, when he wrote me, quite out of the blue, wishing me the best wishes for the holiday season. it stunned me, really.

anyhow, he wrote me recently, after i invited him to join in on something i was setting up online. we got to talking, and we agreed to this exchange, since i get antsy about being just given something.

i haven’t heard from him on whether he’s gotten the LMP discs or not just yet. i’m kinda curious what he’ll think of Love Conquers Alda, which i unreservedly consider a pop masterpiece. and i’m a cynical one, so. more so, i’m hoping he’ll like it enough to let his brother borrow it and give it a listen.

that’d be, like, wow, to put it mildly.

anyhow, this album still mesmerizing me. i’m sleepy, and it’s almost 5am. i should go to sleep, but it’s got a hold on me until the end, coming up soon here.

8 Responses to "if you can afford it."

steven says:
Saturday, 7 June 2003 at 04:57:33
Love Prefab Sprout. They lost me somewhere around “Andromeda Heights” because it felt like they were scoring for Disney films or something. Way too delicate. Anything before that, though, is quite nice.
1. Astrid says:
  Saturday, 7 June 2003 at 05:14:21
  to me, this album picks up where Jordan, “The Sound of Crying” and “If You Don’t Love Me” left off.
  Andromeda Heights and The Gunman feel more like him having pop burnout, cos the major labels weren’t letting him pursue the projects by which he felt most impassioned (like the unreleased Earth: The Story So Far, which was meant for a 1994 release, but never happened, and Let’s Change The World With Music, which was demoed in 1992/93 but never fully recorded. he still has several albums that have been penned and in some cases demoed, but are likely to never be released).
  this new album is the first time which i think he’s gotten to move in the direction that he wasn’t previously able to exercise before. if anything, many of the songs sound more like an effort to get them out of the way, as many songs on The Gunman were written by him, but recorded by other artists first, such as Jimmy Nail and Cher (yeah, i’m serious).
  if you can swing it, grab a copy. and be sure that it’s the copy with this stick number on the back: 583 9102 (the UK printing). if it’s 583 9112 (the EU printing), then you may have problems reading it on your media player. plus, you won’t be able to import and listen to it on your iPod, provided you own one of those.
2. Astrid says:
  Saturday, 7 June 2003 at 05:19:05
  if anything, many of the songs sound more like an effort to get them out of the way,
  i wasn’t being clear here. this was in reference to this 1997 and 2001 albums, Andromeda Heights and The Gunman. I Trawl The MEGAHERTZ sounds notably more genuine with a definite punctuation of sincereity.
3. steven says:
  Saturday, 7 June 2003 at 05:40:17
  Shit. I could have had Paul get the CD for me when he was in the UK a few weeks ago. I’m going to see if I can get someone there to send me a copy; certainly it would be cheaper than buying a Prefab Sprout import here. I remember paying something like $26 for Andromeda Heights!
4. Astrid says:
  Saturday, 7 June 2003 at 13:48:12
  actually, he wouldn’t have been able to snag it. the release date was June 2nd. i’d check amazon.co.uk and hmv.co.uk first to see which edition they’re selling and how much they’re charging. otherwise, yeah, if you know people in the UK, then see if you can’t have them grab a UK pressing for you.
typenik says:
Saturday, 7 June 2003 at 10:05:51
Wow, what a great story. It’s so nice to hear a hero/idol story where the idol actually turns out to be a real person and a nice one on top of it.
Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to see if I can find his album to complete the experience. :)
1. Astrid says:
  Saturday, 7 June 2003 at 14:00:37
  see, here’s the thing: i’m not big in the idolatry of people in any way, shape or form. in a way that dehumanises people. i speak this from experience — on both sides of the fence.
  manfiested in how i make decisions, this is why other music collectors look at me funny when i tell them how i met do-and-so backstage somewhere, but i didn’t even think to ask for their autograph. to me, talking with someone and shaking their hand, introducing each other by name and all, is a lot more personable and approachable than getting them to sign a memento. this is also why i’m not intimidated by people with notoriety were i to run into them somewhere.
  granted, i wasn’t always like that, but between Alan Alda on the Tonight Show in 1992 talking about why he doesn’t give autographs (sam reason i don’t ask for them) and having myself twice pedestalled for something i never wanted to be pedestalled for (different things, but related to the same source), i learned how to unlearn the rule one learns young of being taught that stardom in any form is something worth prostrating oneself at the feet of the idolized.
  actually, maybe i’ll get into a LJ posting about the whole Prefab Sprout/Paddy McAloon/Martin McAloon (brother of Paddy and bassist for the Sprouts)/Dave Brewis (producer of the Sprouts’ first album, guitarist of The Kane Gang and longtime friend of the McAloons)/Ketih Armstrong (founder of Kitchenware Records) thing sometime and how i ended up involved in the whole mess.
  it’s been a long, storied thirteen years. i’ll own up to that.
2. typenik says:
  Saturday, 7 June 2003 at 16:51:35
  You really should. The snippets you’ve shared are really great reading. :)
  I always like hearing about musicians/artists that are moderately successful and real and nice on top of it. Most of the people I “idolized” when I was younger turned out to be unapproachable egomanaical control freaks behind it all, which I was rather disillusioned by, ultimately. I’d like to believe that one can be successful and still be a real and approachable person at the same time.
  I do agree with what you’ve said about idolizing too–I was just not totally awake when I wrote my reply and couldn’t find the right word there.

Comments are closed.

April 2026
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Feb
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30