prefab sprout- "steve mcqueen" (1985)
this album has been in my life for as long as i can remember, in fact some of my earliest memories are of riding in the car with my dad listening to prefab sprout or the beautiful south. it took me a long time to understand this album, i always thought i did, but after having gone through some shit when i was 18 i started to really dig into mcalloon's lyrics and they made so much more sense to me. "orfoe" came from this album, actually, the first line of " horsin' around" goes "it's me again, your worthless friend, or foe?". orfoe was this persona i created in high school, in fact i think it was the first manifestation of louis that i can remember, and i would just go around spray painting meaningless shit around town. at that time it was just a way to break out, do something weird or different because that's what i craved at the time. As i got older the name orfoe started to mean different things to me, it started to beome a symbol of this hyper-focussed but and hopelessly self-centered artist that louis is, someone that would hurt others just to further his own agenda for greatness, which in and of itself is so distorted and impossible. anyway, i love this album. it's such a perfect collection of songs, a little more produced than some of their other stuff which is okay, some of their other albums feel a little bit more human than this one. in 2007 i think mcalloon released an acoustic version of this album and "moving the river" off of that is so beautiful, it was certainly meant to be played that way.
best tracks
moving the river
blueberry pies
desire as
bonny