Swoon (Prefab Sprout album)

Swoon
Studio album by Prefab Sprout
Released	March 1984
Genre	Indie pop[1]
Length	40:46
Label	Kitchenware
Producer	David Brewis, Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout chronology
Swoon (1984) Steve McQueen (1985)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
Q	[4]
Select	4/5[5]

Swoon is the debut studio album by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released in March 1984. It has a markedly different, and less accessible, musical feel than their later works, featuring intricate guitar-based compositions that drew comparisons with Steely Dan and Aztec Camera.

Critical reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic felt that Paddy McAloon had not yet achieved the distinctiveness that marked Prefab Sprout's subsequent works on Swoon, writing that "the problem is that he does too many things at once — the lyrics are overstuffed, and the music has too many chord changes and weird juxtapositions, as he tries to put white-funk beats to carefully crafted melodies" and as a result the album is "primarily of interest as a historical item, since it only suggests the promise the band later filled."^[2] A review for Q was more positive, calling the album "one of the decade's great debuts" thanks to McAloon's "ingenuity and lyrical flight."^[4]

Track listing

All tracks written by Paddy McAloon.

1. "Don't Sing" – 3:53
2. "Cue Fanfare" – 4:06
3. "Green Isaac" – 3:31
4. "Here on the Eerie" – 4:00
5. "Cruel" – 4:20
6. "Couldn't Bear to Be Special" – 3:49
7. "I Never Play Basketball Now" – 3:40
8. "Ghost Town Blues" – 3:21
9. "Elegance" – 3:45
10. "Technique" – 4:38
11. "Green Isaac II" – 1:30

Personnel

Prefab Sprout

• Paddy McAloon
• Martin McAloon
• Wendy Smith

with:

• Graham Lant - drums

References

1. Slater, Russ (4 November 2010). "An Interview with Prefab Sprout". PopMatters. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
2. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Swoon – Prefab Sprout". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
3. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-857-12595-8.
4. "Prefab Sprout: Swoon". Q (81): 123. June 1993.
5. Maconie, Stuart (May 1993). "Prefab Sprout: Swoon". Select (35): 106.