There are b-sides that are of high quality, that should never have been left off their parent albums. And then there is ‘The End of the Affair’, from Prefab Sprout. If forced to choose between the b-side ‘The End of the Affair’ and the entirety of its 1997 parent album, Andromeda Heights, I’m taking ‘The End of the Affair’. It’s one of Paddy McAloon’s best songs for his sophisti-pop band, and having it buried on a b-side is ridiculous.
Despite some members of the class sneaking in with punk and new wave, there was a new generation of English pop songwriters in the 1980s who adeptly juggled sophisticated chord structures and lyrics. Alongside McAloon, XTC’s Andy Partridge, Elvis Costello, and Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside were other members of the fancy chords club.
Prefab Sprout’s early work is indie guitar rock in style, but ambitious in structure; debut album Swoon is stuffed with crazy chord changes and cryptic lyrics. Their third album, 1988’s From Langley Park to Memphis, showed the group flirting with the show-tunes that were always part of McAloon’s musical vocabulary; it’s not hard to imagine him as a Tin Pan Alley writer if he’d been born in an earlier generation.
‘The End of the Affair’ comes from the show-tune end of McAloon’s repertoire. It’s easy to imagine it in a romantic comedy, with its weeping strings and piano, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great song. There’s a terrific middle eight, a feisty and beautiful vocal from McAloon, and the sophisticated chord changes make it fun to play on piano, although I have difficulty finding C#7sus4/G# quickly.
It’s not quite the end of the affair, but it makes sense to feature this song the week that our prime minister’s partner, famous for his work as a fishing show host, resolved to make an “honest woman” of her and proposed. Aphoristic Album Reviews offers New Zealand’s first couple our heartiest congratulations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxyEc_1LgzA
In bed beside you with the curtains drawn For an hour at least I can pretend we’re born To be together and fate alone is keeping me from you But there’s a price we pay when we live a lie And you find it hard to meet my eye When you start to dress as we kiss goodbye And I know we’re coming to
The end of the affair The end of the affair I could love you for eternity The fact remains you don’t belong to me (The end of the affair)
I could tell the story of my love for you With a detailed list of every rendez-vous Discreet hotels we’ve checked into How and when and where But a cold recital of the facts would miss The poetry, the way you kiss The sense of loss now as come to this The bitter sweet despair
The end of the affair The end of the affair I could love you for eternity But the fact remains you don’t belong to me (The end of the affair)
Well I’m old enough to know right from wrong So I tell myself I should be strong In time I’ll learn to get along Without you being near But I know I’m living when I’m by your side You’re a rollercoaster, a fairground ride My conscience and desires collide Like rockets in midair
The end of the affair The end of the affair I could love you till the stars don’t shine But I’m not yours and you’re not mine (The end of the affair)
It’s over, it’s over, it’s over
The end of the affair The end of the affair I could love you for eternity The fact remains you don’t belong to me (The end of the affair)
The first few days are gonna drag real slow I’m gonna think I see you everywhere I go These are routine symptoms ex-lovers show The battle scars they share I already miss your worried smile Guilty secrets weren’t your style But you had me fooled for a little while That makes it hard to bear
The end of the affair The end of the affair Now I could love you till the stars don’t shine But I’m not yours and you’re not mine (The end of the affair) It’s over, (it’s over), it’s over.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
19 Comments
I was very impressed by this. It’s very cleverly put together…good melody and good lyrics…ambitious is a perfect word to describe it. Are the rest of their songs like this?
Looks like I totally missed this comment from almost a year ago – I was looking back at this for another Prefab Sprout record. Their best-loved stuff is a bit more guitar-oriented – the first side of 1985’s Steve McQueen is a good place to start, with songs like ‘When Love Breaks Down’, ‘Appetite’, and ‘Bonny’.
You are right… I listened to some of that album briefly when I was looking for songs that contained the name…I just went back and listened to a few… also Faron Young is pretty cool. I do like that guitar.
Faron Young has a rockabilly thing going – something they didn’t really explore anywhere else but it works. Steve McQueen has they urgent performances from McAloon with detailed, sophisticated production from Thomas Dolby.
I looked up the vinyl side you were talking about. You are right…that was an interesting way of doing it. I’ll take a listen to the other side…
The lyrics are too schmaltzy for my taste but I like the production
His lyrics are often pretty interesting – lots of musing about God and celebrity, particularly on 1990’s Jordan: The Comeback. No idea if this particular song is personal or designed for a movie or something.
Thanks, didn’t know about this and lots to say about it… But I’ll restrict it to: great melody and not a line wasted. But I’d disagree with your point about the crazy chords – this is actually one of the simpler Paddy tunes! Fairly linear, repeated chords/melody, but no worse for that.
I agree it’s not a super complex composition by McAloon’s standards, but he’s still throwing in some tricky chords that a lot of songwriters wouldn’t use.
I’ve been listening to some late 90s Morrissey & Oasis B-sides lately – it seems like that was a thing in the era, leave some absolute gems of 1997 albums!
I read somewhere recently that 1990 was the end of the era for great b-sides – but clearly singles were still getting physical releases well after that. Any Morrissey b-side recommendations?
Swallow on My Neck from the Sunny (a non-album single) is a good starting point!
Never managed to get into the Sprout, I’m afraid. Just that bit too airy, effete. Always loved that album cover, though. Thanks for the reminder!
I was looking back at this article and realised I missed some comments. Have you heard McAloon’s I Trawl the Megahertz. Probably more your kind of thing.
I’ll have a listen. Cheers Graham.
I too am a fan of quality B-sides. The best of them opt for a more ambitious (less commercial) approach than the A-side. I go back to the Beatles’ “Yes It Is,” with beautiful three-part harmonies, and a better song than the poppier A-side “Ticket to Ride” (which isn’t so bad, either).
Prefab Sprout seemed a classier band than most of their synth-pop peers. I agree, McAloon would have succeeded well in an earlier era. It’s all about the writing.
I like Yes It Is a lot – I actually heard Don Henley’s version before The Beatles, on a Neil Young Bridge Street school fundraiser album. I’ve already covered Rain, but I have been thinking about breaking the one bside per artist rule as some clearly have more good ones.
I dropped a comment but it disappeared. I’ll try again. You keep bands like this on my spin list. Good tune.
Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
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I was very impressed by this. It’s very cleverly put together…good melody and good lyrics…ambitious is a perfect word to describe it. Are the rest of their songs like this?
Looks like I totally missed this comment from almost a year ago – I was looking back at this for another Prefab Sprout record. Their best-loved stuff is a bit more guitar-oriented – the first side of 1985’s Steve McQueen is a good place to start, with songs like ‘When Love Breaks Down’, ‘Appetite’, and ‘Bonny’.
You are right… I listened to some of that album briefly when I was looking for songs that contained the name…I just went back and listened to a few… also Faron Young is pretty cool. I do like that guitar.
Faron Young has a rockabilly thing going – something they didn’t really explore anywhere else but it works. Steve McQueen has they urgent performances from McAloon with detailed, sophisticated production from Thomas Dolby.
I looked up the vinyl side you were talking about. You are right…that was an interesting way of doing it. I’ll take a listen to the other side…
The lyrics are too schmaltzy for my taste but I like the production
His lyrics are often pretty interesting – lots of musing about God and celebrity, particularly on 1990’s Jordan: The Comeback. No idea if this particular song is personal or designed for a movie or something.
Thanks, didn’t know about this and lots to say about it… But I’ll restrict it to: great melody and not a line wasted. But I’d disagree with your point about the crazy chords – this is actually one of the simpler Paddy tunes! Fairly linear, repeated chords/melody, but no worse for that.
I agree it’s not a super complex composition by McAloon’s standards, but he’s still throwing in some tricky chords that a lot of songwriters wouldn’t use.
I’ve been listening to some late 90s Morrissey & Oasis B-sides lately – it seems like that was a thing in the era, leave some absolute gems of 1997 albums!
I read somewhere recently that 1990 was the end of the era for great b-sides – but clearly singles were still getting physical releases well after that. Any Morrissey b-side recommendations?
Swallow on My Neck from the Sunny (a non-album single) is a good starting point!
Never managed to get into the Sprout, I’m afraid. Just that bit too airy, effete. Always loved that album cover, though. Thanks for the reminder!
I was looking back at this article and realised I missed some comments. Have you heard McAloon’s I Trawl the Megahertz. Probably more your kind of thing.
I’ll have a listen. Cheers Graham.
I too am a fan of quality B-sides. The best of them opt for a more ambitious (less commercial) approach than the A-side. I go back to the Beatles’ “Yes It Is,” with beautiful three-part harmonies, and a better song than the poppier A-side “Ticket to Ride” (which isn’t so bad, either).
Prefab Sprout seemed a classier band than most of their synth-pop peers. I agree, McAloon would have succeeded well in an earlier era. It’s all about the writing.
I like Yes It Is a lot – I actually heard Don Henley’s version before The Beatles, on a Neil Young Bridge Street school fundraiser album. I’ve already covered Rain, but I have been thinking about breaking the one bside per artist rule as some clearly have more good ones.
I dropped a comment but it disappeared. I’ll try again. You keep bands like this on my spin list. Good tune.
Yes, McAloon is good at tunes.