Prefab Sprout - Two Wheels Good

I've been listening to this almost non-stop for weeks now. Seems like an appropriate fall-weather album. I suppose the closest thing that comes to mind is the Smiths, with a bit of the Mekons thrown in for fun on songs like "Faron". Very clean and polished, though. Thomas Dolby produced!

Two Wheels Good was known as Steve McQueen in the UK; the name was changed stateside due to a legal conflict with the McQueen estate. (Steve had died five years earlier; I never knew how he died--that is a story definitely worth Wiki'ing.)

I don't remember how I came across this one. It was probably searching 'sophisti-pop' on AllMusic, trying to find anything similar to Scritti Politti's Cupid & Psyche 85. So I may end up checking out some other Prefab Sprout albums, as well as other sophisit-pop albums.

XTC - Skylarking

Working with producer Todd Rundgren didn't necessarily bring XTC a sense of sonic cohesion -- after all, every record since English Settlement followed its own interior logic -- but it did help the group sharpen its focus, making Skylarking its tightest record since Drums and Wires. Ironically, Skylarking had little to do with new wave and everything to do with the lush, post-psychedelic pop of the Beatles and Beach Boys. Combining the charming pastoral feel of Mummer with the classicist English pop of The Big Express, XTC expand their signature sound by enhancing their intelligently melodic pop with graceful, lyrical arrangements and sweeping, detailed instrumentation. Rundgren may have devised the sequencing, helping the record feel like a song cycle even if it doesn't play like one, but what really impresses is the consistency and depth of Andy Partridge's and Colin Moulding's songs. Each song is a small gem, marrying sweet, catchy melodies to decidedly adult lyrical themes, from celebrations of love ("Grass") and marriage ("Big Day") to skepticism about maturation ("Earn Enough for Us") and religion ("Dear God"). Moulding's songs complement Partridge's songs better than before, and each writer is at a melodic and lyrical peak, which Rundgren helps convey with his supple production. The result is a pop masterpiece -- an album that has great ambitions and fulfills them with ease.

(XTC - Skylarking)

The Mekons - Rock 'n' Roll

Asking a Mekons fan to select a favorite Mekons record is crazy -- there isn't one; there are many. But, if the situation were such that a choice had to be made, this might be the record. Loud, unruly guitars, pissed-off vocals -- the Mekons have made an unregenerate, unapologetic punk rock record. This is a dark record, one that comfortably negotiates the dark recesses of rock & roll. They rip the messianic aspirations of U2's Bono ("Blow Your Tuneless Trumpet"), sing a tale of substance abuse that is both cautionary and parodic ("Cocaine Lil"), all the while cranking up a sonic tar pit of guitar noise. Bands this far on in a career, generally speaking, don't make records this good. But The Mekons Rock 'n' Roll is one of those cathartic records that only righteously indignant, justifiably pissed-off, grizzled veterans could make. Sadly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it sold next to nothing and precipitated the band's departure from A&M, who didn't want to release another record like this one.

(The Mekons - Rock 'n' Roll)