2 Dec 2009 by Chris     No Comments    Posted under: Entertainment

Albums of the Decade: No.19

I Trawl The Megahertz by Paddy McAloon

“I’ll grow a long and silver beard”

When Prefab Sprout released the “lost” 1992 set Let’s Change The World With Music in 2009, Paddy McAloon shuffled out of obscurity, complete with long silver beard, to do some compelling and erudite interviews. He was asked how these old songs sounded to him 17 years on, and replied that all he could hear was “a voice full of hope”. That hope has perhaps never been fulfilled, at least musically. Paddy – and Prefab Sprout – produced relatively little material in that long period, and the 2003 solo work I Trawl The Megahertz just about sums up this last decade for Paddy, who has had serious problems with both his eyesight and his hearing.

It’s not pop. Someone on Amazon once wrote that it sounds like “Gavin Bryars vs The Blue Nile vs Ennio Morricone or something …and it’s ended up a score draw”. Mainly instrumental, with loads of sweeping strings, but with odd found sounds and voiceovers, it couldn’t be much further from Cars And Girls. But it’s hauntingly, at times achingly, beautiful. If you like this sort of stuff, you’ll love this work of genius. But I can understand if you find it just slightly odd.

• Albums of the Decade: No.20

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