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.

Scritti Politti - Cupid & Pscyhe 85

On their second album, Scritti Politti essentially was Green Gartside, who directed drummer Fred Maher, keyboardist David Gamson, and a multitude of studio musicians through a state-of-the-art, immaculately constructed set of catchy synth pop on Cupid & Psyche 85. The results are as impressive as Songs to Remember and produced the hit singles "Perfect Way" and "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)."

One of the most brilliant synth-dance singles of all time, "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)" is a pinnacle of the form. The arrangement, by singer/songwriter Green Gartside and his co-conspirators David Gamson and Fred Maher, combines with Arif Mardin's seamless production into a textbook example of how to make a dance track that's so kinetic that it's impossible not to move to, but so clever and rich-sounding that it's equally fun to listen to alone on headphones with the lights off. Gartside's lyrics are among his most allusive and playful, mixing soul homage and his usual hyperactive wordplay, and his helium-pitched vocal style (imagine Boy George channeling the prepubescent Michael Jackson) is one of the most bizarre and wonderful musical personas of its era. Not a US chart hit, but a dancefloor classic, "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)" is a frothy, almost silly masterpiece.

(Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85)