A long time ago,in a Cork sixty miles down the road, there was multi-channel. Multi-channel was finely tuned cable system that allowed us parity with our cousins in the pale. It brought us access to the glorious BBC. More importantly, back in the 80's , it gave us local TV.It also gave us Trevor Welch's sports programme. It gave us a quasi local news programme. But Glory of glories it gave us Tony O'Donoghue's Music programme. Tony has since become known as the Trappatoni-baiting sisdeline reporter on RTE sport. Back then he was for us teenagers in 1980's Cork, what John Peel was for the English or what Dave Fanning was for the Dubs. Tony played all the local bands, Cypress, Mine!, notice the beautifully pretentious punctuation, singing about The SugarBeet God down at the Lee open air swimming pool, Belsonic Sound grooving madly in Sir Henrys and even Burning Embers, yes even Burning Embers.
Tony played lots of good music but he played one song nearly every week. "My Love and I, we work well together........" Paddy McAloon and the lead single from the second Prefab Sprout album was on constant rotation and I loved it. I bought Steve McQueen and played it and played it and played it. It's an album I return to again and again. It is a beautiful thing. But this is not about Steve McQueen. This is about Crimson/Red, their newest album. It is a beautiful thing.
All is well from the outset. Opener ‘The Best Jewel Thief in the World’ starts with sirens and develops into one of those effortless pop gems that McAloon sings as if a week has barely passed since 1985. His voice is truly remarkable. Listen to the gorgeous and wistful ‘List of impossible things’ where only a lyricist as gifted as him could fit in Abstract Expression into its word play. The bubbling ‘Adolescence’ is jam packed with hooks and melody, and many will note the similarly between ‘Devil came a calling’ with the urgent drive of ‘Faron Young’ . In it McAloon has a tryst with Old Nick and wittily observes that “The Devil came a-calling, no brimstone fire and rain/In fact, I found him charming, articulate, urbane”. A clear stand out on Crimson/Red is the harmonica driven ‘Billy’ a song which sees McAloon at his joyous best. The excellent acoustic driven country sounding ‘Old Magician’ tells of a fading talent and regrets that “death is a lousy disappearing act”, while the concluding ‘Mysterious’ is a lush gently rolling ballad. This is topped however by the longest song on the album the beautiful ‘The Dreamer’ which will melt the hearts of those it touches. Finally the ‘Songs of Danny Galway’ is plain great.
McAloon recently admitted in a detailed interview with the Scotsman that Crimson/Red is essentially a cherry pick from his long awaited unfinished projects such as Earth – The story so far accumulated over the last 15 years. It is a sort of greatest hits collection of unreleased material the oldest of which is 1997s dramatic ‘Grief built the Taj Mahal. Everyone is aware that a range of health problems not least severe tinnitus has in turn compounded McAloon’s obsessive perfectionism. Whether the gap to the next Prefab Sprout album will again be a matter of years is a matter for conjecture. It is great to hear that McAloon’s health has improved more recently and he is actively promoting this album. Music so badly needs this ‘Old Magician’ particularly if he has more albums quite this good up his sleeve.
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