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Prefab Sprout: Andromeda Heights

Posted by Luminator (A) on April 21, 2015 at 15:03:13

Prefab Sprout's excellent 1990 album, Jordan: The Comeback was not well-known. But it was a favorite among a handful of my friends. As the years rolled by, we graduated from college, moved on with our lives. All along, we just assumed that Prefab Sprout had broken up, ceased to exist.

So imagine our surprise, when, in the summer of 1997, my friend Ken and I went to the Tower Records on Jones & Columbus, and spotted a Prefab Sprout CD called Andromeda Heights.

At the time, I had a fat-sounding Theta/Classe'/Thiel/Kimber stereo, which overloaded the room. But in a way, it sonically matched the warm, pallid, unfocused, and boring production of Andromeda Heights. Anyway, seven years after Jordan: The Comeback, the bucket of boring ballads on Andromeda Heights was disappointing. My friend Melissa bellowed, "We waited seven years for this?!"

After 2 years with ACS, I was back with my college gf, KJ. But it wasn't the same. Romantically, there was a lack of spark, kind of like Andromeda Heights. It was difficult to overcome the hangups of the past. Arguably, the best songs on Andromeda Heights are the first two tracks, "Electric Guitars" and "Prisoner Of The Past." However, they are songs which look back. So instead of making us feel mature, they made us feel, for the first time in our lives, old. So if we felt old in 1997, imagine how we feel in 2015.

Okay, I know that Record Store Day just passed. No, I did not go out and buy the BSCD2 of Andromeda Heights from a brick-and-mortar store. Rather, I ordered it. Tonally, not much has changed. However, the BSCD2 has a clarity, which is lacking in the original misty and flaccid CD. This sonic clarity, especially on the slow songs, crystallizes my memories of listening to Andromeda Heights in 1997-98.

For example, the BSCD2 reminded me that I would buy foreign hi-fi magazines from stores in Union Square and Japantown. A large part of me missed ACS' spunk and participation in sports. Similarly, instead of wasting thousands on the Theta/Classe'/Thiel/Kimber, I could have spent more time with ACS, less money on hi-fi, had I just gotten a Creek integrated amp, original Sonus Faber Concertino, and XLO Ultra, as she suggested. A Creek/Sonus Faber/XLO system would have been a better match for our small room(s), and in absolute terms, sounded better than what I had.

The BSCD2 of Andromeda Heights also brings back memories of KJ stating that Paddy McAloon "must have spent too much time watching X-Files."

And some of the jazzier ballads remind me of how KJ would accompany me on my newspaper route through Japantown. When going through some of the hotels, she and I could picture Prefab Sprout playing in one of the lounges. Hell, it would have been sweet, if they had opened for Swing Out Sister!

In all my years of being The Audiophiles' DJ, I have not recommended Andromeda Heights for parties, gatherings, shows, and other audiophile listening sessions. But if you like getting misty-eyed about the late-90s, Andromeda Heights stylistically fits the era. By having cleaner sonics, the BSCD2 of Andromeda Heights will do a better job of transporting you back to the late-90s.

The Audiophiles' DJ,
-Lummy The Loch Monster

Edits: 04/21/15 04/21/15

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

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