Jordan: The Comeback

Background and recording

Following the release of the successful From Langley Park to Memphis (1988), frontman Paddy McAloon spent around a year writing and recording demos for Prefab Sprout's next album. He created home recordings more elaborate than those for previous albums and wished for the project to resemble a Disney movie soundtrack produced by Trevor Horn. McAloon kept in contact with collaborator Thomas Dolby, described by Giles Smith of The Independent as "a producer who works from a sound-library of other-wordly squeaks and shimmers". When Dolby received a demo tape, he considered many of the songs so complete that there was little he could do to improve them. McAloon, however, felt strongly that the album needed to be made in a professional recording studio. He ultimately considered Dolby's contribution in the studio so great that, barring a few tracks, he was a de facto band member on the album.

Recording commenced in June 1989, with the album title announced the same month in the press release for Protest Songs. The band – Paddy and Martin McAloon, Wendy Smith and Neil Conti – initially recorded at Ridge Farm Studio, Surrey. Paddy McAloon began the sessions having already carefully planned the album's running order in the demo stage. He intended the album to feature 24 songs but CBS were concerned about the commercial appeal of a double album. Compromising, Prefab Sprout took the standard advance for a single album and recorded 19 tracks. The subsequent budgetary issues placed a strain on recording; the sessions, intended to last three months, ultimately stretched to around a year and caused Dolby to be away from his wife Kathleen Beller. After six months, the band travelled to Los Angeles to continue recording the album, with the couple putting them up at their home. Dolby and McAloon mixed the completed album in a small L.A. studio.

Musical and lyrical style

Jordan: The Comeback has been described as "nineteen songs dipped in conceptual aspic". The album's tracklisting can be divided into four sections – straightforward pop songs, songs concerning Elvis Presley, love songs and songs about "death and fate". Common to all four sections is the theme of rebirth and renewal, the "comeback" of the album's title. McAloon felt most people "would like to be able to go back and do things differently". Several songs on the album contain references to God and religious imagery, a feature present in some of the band's earlier work. McAloon was inspired by the power of gospel music and concepts from his youth in a Catholic seminary. He felt his own agnosticism lent a tension to his work.

The album features a variety of genres, among them funk, disco, country and bolero. McAloon took inspiration from K-tel compilation albums, attracted to the idea of "the listener being inundated with all these musical styles coming at them one after another". The arrangements largely employ soft textures, something McAloon deemed "the most avant-garde thing you can do" amidst the rock music scene of 1990. According to the Gavin Report, "ever present are the rich chord changes with slices of sly sampling". Stuart Maconie of the NME considered the album's sound world "informed more by Pet Sounds and Phil Spector than punk rock or acid house" and felt its tracks exhibited "a tension between a love of the mainstream pop song tradition and McAloon's own unusual musical personality". Many of the compositions carry the influence of Broadway theatre and McAloon found inspiration in songwriters including Rodgers and Hart, Burt Bacharach and Rod Temperton. Writing in 2022, John Earls of Classic Pop considered the album to be Prefab Sprout's most "band-sounding", remarking "Martin McAloon and drummer Neil Conti's rhythm section were never so fluid."

Songs

Tracks 1–5

The first five tracks on the album are straightforward pop songs with no deliberate linking theme. "Looking for Atlantis" is based around McAloon's nylon string Ibanez guitar and atypically uses only two chords. McAloon has summarised the song's sentiment as "stop wasting time, find someone and fall in love with them". McAloon considered the hip hop-influenced "Wild Horses" to be one of the album's best songs. Lyrically, it is written from the point of view of "the older man longing for the younger girl, without it being seedy". He initially contemplated sending the song for Daryl Hall's consideration. The actress Jenny Agutter recorded the spoken words that accompany the song's instrumental section.

"Machine Gun Ibiza" utilises funk rhythms and wah-wah guitar in an arrangement Time Out compared to the work of Sly Stone. The song originated in a pub conversation referencing both Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" and Ibiza, and lyrically concerns a hero partly based on Hendrix and described by McAloon as "the coolest guy on the planet". The character is referred to as "a top rollmo star" – 'rollmo' being a word McAloon dreamt Michael Jackson taught him. The ballad "We Let the Stars Go" was composed on piano on the morning of 29 August 1988; McAloon had tickets to see Jackson in Leeds that day but ultimately didn't go. The song's features the name "Paddy Joe" in reference to McAloon's own given names Patrick Joseph. He has described it as "a boy-loses-girl song with a little bit of autobiographical detail thrown in". "Carnival 2000" is about the celebrating the turn of the Millennium. The song began as a simple piano piece before being worked up into a samba-inspired production at the insistence of Dolby.

Tracks 6–9 (Elvis)

"Jesse James Symphony" and "Jesse James Bolero" came from McAloon's desire to write something Presley might have chosen to record. He felt the singer might have identified with the American outlaw Jesse James and "the pathetic story of a young life wasted". The two songs draw a parallel between the lives and early deaths of the two figures; McAloon felt both "lived a certain kind of life, and maybe envisaged a better end to it than what happened". Jesse was the name of Elvis's stillborn twin brother, another link identified by McAloon. He considered the genre of bolero fitting as it is "a stately dance, but a stately dance going nowhere". "Moon Dog" imagines Colonel Tom Parker staging Presley's surprise comeback concert on the moon ("Guess who's on the moon / Up there a flag will fly for mom and apple pie"). The track samples applause from one of Presley's concerts.

Tracks 10–14 (Love songs)

Tracks ten through fourteen broadly make up a section of love songs. The upbeat "All the World Loves Lovers" concerns a new relationship with an ambiguous tone influenced by the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. McAloon spoke of a desire to hear the song covered by Frank Sinatra. The only lyric in "All Boys Believe Anything" is a repetition of the title, a backronym of ABBA. The song has been likened to those from musical theatre by several reviewers. Described as a "stop-start pop track with flourishes of brass", "The Ice Maiden" is about ABBA member Agnetha Fältskog. Having been struck by the Swedish pop group's "frosty glamour" as a teenager, McAloon sought to emulate ABBA's "stiff" lyrical style with lines including "welcome to the glow of high octane affairs" and "standing on the boulevard, you wish to know my name". "Paris Smith" was inspired by Wendy Smith's admission that, if she were to have a child, she'd give it an incongruous name to play against her surname. Wendy's choice for a girl was Paris. The song lyrically addresses a child in what McAloon described as "an attempt to exorcise my fears for the future". The music is sparse, with a Dimension D chorus effect on the lead vocal (a feature carried over from the demo). "The Wedding March" concerns marriage, with the lyrics declaring matrimony "one dance whose steps I never could learn". McAloon preferred the song's demo to the studio recording and described the song as "lyrically quite hard" despite the mellow musical backing and backing vocals he compared to Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Tracks 15–19 (Death and fate)

Dubbed "death and fate" in several interviews, McAloon described the album's last five tracks as "a section on the modern way of death" that deals with "fundamental questions". Stuart Maconie has described the suite as "a rosary of agnostic doubt and weirdly uplifting musings on death" that "may be the most intelligent take on spiritual matters that modern pop has produced." Three of the tracks – "One of the Broken", "Mercy" and "Doo Wop in Harlem" – were written by McAloon in a flash of inspiration whilst he was waiting for a reel-to-reel tape to rewind.

McAloon considered "One of the Broken" among his best compositions. The country-influenced song is written from the perspective of God; its first verse begins "Hi, this is God here". Described by journalist Martin Townsend as a dreamy blues, "One of the Broken" has the creator urging the faithful to help others rather that sing any "hymn of devotion". In contrast, "Michael" is sung from the perspective of a regretful Satan wishing to get back into heaven and surprising the archangel Michael by requesting help on writing a letter to God. The song features a more modern and intense arrangement than "One of the Broken", creating an intentional sense of opposition between God and the Devil. According to Adam Mason of PopMatters, "Michael" is marked by a "gloriously sinister synth texture worthy of Depeche Mode". "Mercy" is the album's shortest track, performed solo by McAloon on acoustic guitar. It can be read as both a further plea from Satan or as a love song. The album's last two tracks directly concern death. "Scarlet Nights" is about someone waiting to die. Musically, the song combines a bouncy disco-influenced rhythm with a solemn church organ. "Doo Wop in Harlem" addresses a departed friend ("If there ain't a heaven that holds you tonight, they never sang doo wop in Harlem"). With its sparse arrangement utilising soul music-styled harmonies, McAloon considered the song "perfect for Ray Charles".

Release

Jordan: The Comeback was issued on 28 August 1990 by Kitchenware Records and CBS. Its liner notes dedicate the album to Dolby and manager Keith Armstrong and carry a lighthearted special thanks to "the staff of Rollmo Studios for their pioneering use of the Zorrophonic™ recording process". The album reached number 7 on the UK Albums Chart, ultimately spending a total of 17 weeks on the chart. It was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry in November 1990. On the European Top 100 Albums chart, it peaked at number 31. The album was extensively promoted in the UK, with features appearing in national newspapers including The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian and a profile of the band on BBC2's Rapido. In October, the band embarked on a UK tour in support of the album, breaking four years of live inactivity. The album was nominated for Brit Award for British Album of the Year at the 1991 Brit Awards, losing to George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1.

Two singles and an EP were released from the album. The band promoted the lead single "Looking for Atlantis" with a performance on the BBC1 talk show Wogan on 20 August 1990, but it failed make the top 40 on the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 51. "We Let the Stars Go" was issued as the album's second single; despite being BBC Radio 1's "Record of the Week" for the week beginning 8 October 1990, it peaked at number 50. Issued on 24 December 1990, Jordan: The EP – featuring "One of the Broken", "Jordan: The Comeback", "Carnival 2000" and "The Ice Maiden" – fared a little better than its predecessors, reaching number 35. In September 1992, a revised mix of "All the World Loves Lovers" received single release in support of A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout, peaking at number 61.

Critical reception

Jordan: The Comeback garnered widespread acclaim upon release. Stuart Maconie of NME described the album as "riding a thematic railroad from nuggets of pure pop philosophy to weighty matters of the soul". Comparing the album's ambition to "other great pop jamborees from Sign o' the Times to the White Album", Maconie commented "to say it's the pop triumph of the year is to damn it with faint praise". David Wild of Rolling Stone said, "If Brian Wilson at the height of his creative powers had spent a year in the studio working up a concept album about love, God and Elvis, the result might have sounded like Jordan: The Comeback. *The Washington Post'''s Joe Brown praised the album's "smart lyrics, buoyant melodies and a pure pop charm the likes of which we haven't heard since the Beatles, or at least Elton John". Q reviewer Lloyd Bradley was most impressed by how the album "fills every nook and cranny with sounds" without overshadowing its songs' core rhythms and melodies. Ira Robbins of Entertainment Weekly commented "Those accustomed to musical junk food may find *Jordan: The Comeback'' too subtle and complex at first, but this airy delicacy is a taste worth acquiring."

In lists of the year's best albums, Jordan: The Comeback was ranked third by Mark Woodruff of Spin and 23rd by NME. Ranking the album 27th, Melody Maker added: "If you aren't seduced by one of these 19 tracks, you don't like music". Among retrospective reviews, Jason Ankeny of AllMusic called it "Prefab Sprout's largely successful attempt to embrace the breadth of popular music", adding: "Over the course of no less than 19 tracks, McAloon chases his twin preoccupations of religion and celebrity, creating a loose thematic canvas perfect for his expanding musical palette". Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger ranked the record at number 77 in a 1999 list of his favourite albums of the 1990s.

Writing in 2007, BBC Music's Chris Jones felt the album's richness left listeners "somewhat over-satiated" and considered "We Let the Stars Go" and "All the World Loves Lovers" to come "uncomfortably close to cloying". He concluded "like George Gershwin transported into Brian Wilson's sandbox, Jordan is equal parts passionate, philosophical and preposterous". Upon its reissue in 2019, Danny Eccleston of Mojo referred to Jordan as Prefab Sprout's "sprawling opus" and said that its "gospel moves sound even better" in light of the renewed popularity of "'80s soul productions" while Adam Mason of PopMatters praised McAloon's ability "to plunge into any musical genre he pleases and emerge with a stunning melody". *Pitchfork'''s Sam Sodomsky declared the album "a work so layered that, decades on, it still seems to hold new secrets" and singled out "Wild Horses" as "a romantic fantasy whose sleek arrangement still sounds fresh". In 2022, *Pitchfork'' ranked the album 131 in their list "The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s".

Aftermath and legacy

Following the album's release, McAloon worked on several similarly ambitious projects. He planned to follow up Jordan with Let's Change the World with Music, an album with religious themes that further reflected the influence of gospel music. After the completed demo tape received a muted reception from Sony in 1993, McAloon expanded the concept of one of its songs into Earth, the Story So Far, a concept album featuring songs about Adam and Eve and Neil Armstrong. McAloon worked on Earth for two years before abandoning it, fearing it would be too long and expensive for release. Other prospective Prefab Sprout projects devised during this period include Behind The Veil, based on the life of Michael Jackson, a romantic album named Knights in Armour and a collection of spiritual compositions titled The Atomic Hymn Book. The ultimate follow-up to Jordan became Andromeda Heights (1997), largely made up of songs written for previous conceptual projects. McAloon's Let's Change the World with Music demos were eventually released as Prefab Sprout's eighth studio album in 2009.

Jordan: The Comeback has continued to receive praise and has been described as Prefab Sprout's "ultimate fan favourite". "Jordan: The Comeback" and "One of the Broken" were among the ten tracks listed in *NME'''s "Alternative Best of Prefab Sprout" in 1992. In a 2019 interview for Pitchfork, Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip named "Wild Horses" the song he wished he'd written, considering the song's loop-based arrangement modern and likening it to Prince's *Diamonds and Pearls'' (1991). The song was sampled by Star Slinger for "Extra Time" in 2010 and covered by American singer-songwriter Natalie Prass in 2018.

A remastered edition of the album, overseen by Paddy and Martin McAloon, was issued by Sony Music on 27 September 2019. Originally released on vinyl as a single album, the 2019 vinyl issue afforded Jordan: The Comeback double album status with its sides corresponding to the four thematic sections. Paddy McAloon stated he was still proud of the album upon its reissue, describing it as "a solid piece of work".

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.

Prefab Sprout

• Paddy McAloon
• Martin McAloon
• Wendy Smith
• Neil Conti

Additional musicians

• Luís Jardim – percussion
• Judd Lander – harmonica (on "Looking for Atlantis")
• Jenny Agutter – spoken word (on "Wild Horses")
• The Phantom Horns – horns (on "Carnival 2000")

Technical personnel

• Thomas Dolby – production
• Paul Gomersall – recording
• Eric Calvi – mixing
• Paul Cuddeford – engineering assistance
• Karen White – engineering assistance
• Adrian Moore – engineering assistance
• Charlie Smith – engineering assistance
• Derek McCartney – engineering assistance
• Chris Puram – engineering assistance
• Mark Williams – engineering assistance
• Bernie Grundman – mastering
• Tim Young – mastering (on "Looking for Atlantis")
• Gerry Judah – cover concept, art direction
• Peter Barrett – cover design
• Andrew Biscomb – cover design
• Jonathan Lovekin – cover photography
• Trevor Hart – cover photography
• The Douglas Brothers – group portrait

Charts

Notes

References

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