A great comeback from Paddy McAloon, confirming himself as a well ageing genius, though unfortunately always more lonely: after Neil Conti, another member of the band is lost, and this time it's really an enormous waste. Angelic vocalist Wendy Smith does not appear on the album, so Paddy's brother Martin, who does a great job on bass, is the only member left. Luckily the songs are good enough and Paddy's voice is excellent enough to make this album surivive anyway. The album is country/western themed, though you can hear influence of country music only on Cowboy Dreams, which flows very well and is better than any modern alternative country artist, and on the supremely weird closing track Farmyard Cat, where there are also strong echoes of musical and opera, a funny and solemn miaowing at the same time, a shocking end for many.
The other songs are classic mature Prefab Sprout, divided into two groups: quiet and touching ballads following the path of the already good Andromeda Heights, only with a far better instrumentation and melodic intuition, and more solid and sophisticated tracks going back to the sound of Protest Songs and Jordan: The Comeback.
Some of the songs have already been released, mostly for other embarrassing artists like Jimmy Nail or Cher, and it wouldn't seem a good idea to make an album of them, and still the genius is on disc and you can't resist, how can you to the extremely simple but moving melody of I'm A Troubled Man, one of the songs of the first group, where Paddy asks forgiveness from his woman, son and God unbelievably without sounding bad taste. The same is valid for the even more beautiful Love Will Find Someone For You where, after an awesome dialogue between the voice and a synthtetic armonica Paddy sings "Love may do the cruelest things, may bruise those angel wings...". Melancholy and hope continuosly meet on this album, as in Blue Roses, where Paddy finally explains himself: "this nursery rhyme is corny, it is stranded out of time, yet it's simple and it's honest, and since when was that a crime?". Though's not so simple, you can find very comlpex composition on this only apparently simple songs.
And then come the solid songs like Wild Card In The Pack, with its piano chords and very clever ripetitions ("Where d'you learn to play this game / play this game") which enforce the impact of the song, and the absolutely lovely Cornfield Ablaze, that should have been the single and a sure hit, powerful rhythm and vocals.
And the two masterworks of this album: The Gunman is almost progressive (and yet so fantastic), divided into sections: a storming spoken beginning, a wonderful guitar duet, a great verse and an extremely emotional chorus, especially the change of melody between the first and last time he sings "Love is a gunman, and no mercy has he", a perfect guitar riff in the interlude... All this and more for eight minutes and forty seconds of pure genius. Hard to believe Cher did sing this song!
He reaches once again total perfection on the cover of a folk song, The Streets Of Laredo/Not Long For This World: after a very powerful beginning with the chorus, there's a major chord verse that eventually collapses to minor in its final with a wonderful guitar echo, making a big impact. The grand finale is the peak, with Paddy's trademark bass backing vocals making a comeback (there's a wonderful minimalism in the change from the two times he sings "scatter roses over the clay") and the song reaching its instrumental and melodic best.
Wether it's a folk cover, a country musical, a love ballad, or his sophisticated pop, Paddy always find the way to make music at his best on the album, so let's hope this time he came back for good. The pistolero is a hero.
Rating: 10/10
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