Track Listing

1. Electric Guitars
2. Prisoner Of The Past
3. Mystery Of Love
4. Life's A Miracle
5. Anne Marie
6. Whoever You Are
7. Steal Your Thunder
8. Avenue Of Stars
9. Swans
10. Fifth Horseman
11. Weightless
12. Andromeda Heights

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28603 in Music
• Released on: 1999-08-30
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Customer Reviews

Well worth the wait
I'm a big fan of the Sprouts but when I first bought this album, years and years ago, I really detested it. I felt betrayed. There didn't seem to be one decent track on the entire piece of plastic, so it lay at the back of my collection gathering dust. I never entirely forgot it though. There's just something patently absurd in the thought that the sprouts could produce a totally rubbish album. Now and again I'd dig it out and give it a whirl. Very slowly (and I mean very, very, very slowly) odd bits began to filter through, slowly infecting the rest of the album with merit. I'm not sure what happened, (simple magic perhaps) but times change, attitudes shift, tastes mellow, ears evolve, expectations diminish, predjudice disipates - eventually, the album's true genius did materialize. Hopefully it will happen more quickly for you than it did for me, but if it doesn't...persevere.

Stars and magic...
The problem with Jordan the Comeback is that everything Prefab Sprout ever does again will be measured against it. But Andromeda Heights is best appreciated within its own lofty context and starry themes. Like all the Sprout's offerings the gems on this album are the tunes that you don't notice on your first listen but which subsequently grow on you. Electric Guitars and A Prisoner of the Past may have attracted the airplay but listen to Steal Your Thunder or Weightless to discover the essence of this album. Paddy McAloon's lyrical mastery and composition will never disappoint and Andromeda Heights is no exception. No, they have not surpassed Jordan on this occasion but as you begin to uncover the many musical layers in this offering you realise just how close they come.

Sumptous mood music
You need to be in the mood for this album, but is certainly one of the best. At first it seems too schmaltzy, all surface; tracks such as Electric Guitars, Prisoner of the Past and Love is the Fifth Horseman surface early on as Sprout classics. The melodies, arrangements and Paddy's voice are gorgeous.
There is a wonderful use of flutes and saxaphone on many tracks.
You can hear the American influence; certainly Bacharach, but I'm even reminded of Donal Fagan.
Swans is probably the weakest and most lyrically pedestrian of the tracks. I think he mentions "stars" in over half the tracks, but maybe the album title allows for that (he's got a thing about stars I think).
It twins well with Jordan, but I think the former has the edge.
As a Sprouts fan I actually find the earlier albums (up to Langley Park) weaken towards the end after sparkling beginnings. This is more consistent but not as obvious.