Song of the Day 9/29: Prefab Sprout, “Looking for Atlantis”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

Would Cole Porter name his band Prefab Sprout? Probably not.

But Paddy McAloon, leader of that British pop-rock group, has drawn comparisons to Porter for the clever and sophisticated music his band made in the ’80s. Also to Stephen Sondheim.

Wait. Cole Porter’s a stretch, but Stephen Sondheim is ridiculous.

Prefab Sprout didn’t sound like your-run-of-the mill pop group, either. Critics loved them and some strained for a worthy comparison. Elvis Costello would be a better one.

Still, the critic who envisioned the entirety of their late double album “Jordan: The Comeback” playing on Broadway might have been onto something. In an era of jukebox musicals you don’t have to be, um, Cole Porter to succeed there. But I wouldn’t expect a long run.

Back in the regular pop world, Prefab Sprout is considered the most important band in a category critics call, awkwardly, sophisti-pop. A little fancy, a little smooth, a little jazzy, a little soulful, Or maybe that was the Style Council, or late Roxy Music, or Deacon Blue or Everything But the Girl. But Prefab Sprout is probably the consensus leader.

If sophisti-pop is all that, why have you probably not heard of Prefab Sprout? It’s the old story: well regraded in England but little known here except by those weirdos who craved music from the UK (ahem).

McAloon’s lyrics were a little off-center. You might say he was more Sondheim than Porter if you want to keep flogging that horse. Maybe his early flirtation with the priesthood had something to do with it. His lyrics sometimes touch on spirituality, but not the kind he would have learned in a seminary.

Oh yeah, the name. One theory is that McAloon misheard a lyric in Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood’s “Jackson”: “We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout.” McAloon, though, says he just “put two words together that didn’t mean anything because people would say, ‘What does it mean?’ “

Here are three songs from “Jordan: The Comeback.” The notable Thomas Dolby produced.

“Looking for Atlantis” is the first of the album’s 19 tracks. McAloon said the theme of this amiable tune is “stop wasting time, find someone to fall in love with.” It’s not their most complex writing, but it sets a mood. McAloon is playing an Ibanez guitar – nylon strings, made in Japan.

They venture into samba territory on “Carnival 2000.” It looks like fun.

The band goes arty in the video for “All the World Loves Lovers.”