Music Banter - View Single Post - The Album Club: "Jordan: the Comeback" by Prefab Sprout

**Frownland** · 04-10-2018, 09:27 AM

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Originally Posted by Trollheart

EXACTLY how I felt when listening to TMR, or one of your albums. I'm not saying it's wrong, for you, not by any means. But it shows how sometimes, music one of us thinks is great is just not going to be accessible or enjoyable to the other of us. Musically, we should probably avoid each other, and see each other only at weddings and funerals.

I'm not going to congratulate myself here so this only applies to TMR, but you were unable to appreciate (note that I didn't say enjoy) the record because you genuinely didn't understand it. Further listens help you learn the language, so to speak. As far as I can tell, this record isn't a good comparison because it's still rooted in convention and I don't have to acclimate myself to the musical approach since it's already so present around me. Or is there something that I'm actually missing? This is why I like having musical discussions: they expand and develop perspective.

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Well all right, but it's hard to explain how I like something you haven't bothered to hear, and won't be listening to, but I'll try. I like the different themes in the lyrics: some are reflections from McAloon's childhood (real or imagined, I don't know, but to me he makes them sound like genuine memories, like in "We Let the Stars Go" where he sings about a girl he used to know who teased him by calling him Paddy-Jo. Is that real? I don't know, but it sounds like the kind of thing that could have happened, and it makes him, for me, more human and ordinary) and the heartbreaking "Doo-Wop in Harlem", some are totally out-of-left-field imaginings, like the "Jesse James Suite". The idea of taking the persona, first of God, then of the Devil, in "One of the Broken" and "Michael" respectively, show me that this guy knows how to write not only good songs, but really different ones.

I'll admit the music is nothing out of the ordinary, but he does use blues, sort of Samba/Latin rhythms, a tango/bolero thing: it's not all just sappy pop love songs. I could just refer you to my original review in my journal, but no doubt you'd call that lazy, and maybe it would be. I can't say why I love this album; I did not expect to, and it took me by surprise how good I found it to be. Maybe I'm just more open to this kind of pop/rock music, and you never will be. Who knows? But I see things here that you obviously don't, and never will. That's okay; I don't have a problem with that. Your opinion of the album won't change mine, but it's sad to hear you dismiss it so quickly and so glibly.

Right on. If it's well-done on a lyrical level, that's something that I can appreciate about the record but it's not enough to lift it to listenability. When I was listening to it, I was too distracted by how outrageously corny the music was to focus on the lyrics.