A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout
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A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout is a compilation album by English pop band Prefab Sprout, released in July 1992 by Columbia Records in Europe and Epic Records in the United States.[1] The album reached No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart.[2]
Content
The compilation features selections from Prefab Sprout's first five albums and two new songs, "The Sound of Crying" and "If You Don't Love Me", both of which were issued as singles. Three canonical album tracks – "Life of Surprises" from Protest Songs (1989), "I Remember That" from From Langley Park to Memphis (1988) and "All the World Loves Lovers" from Jordan: The Comeback (1990) – were also released as singles to promote the compilation.[3]
Critical reception
In a review of the album for AllMusic, Michael Sutton said that Prefab Sprout created "gorgeously crafted pop songs" and that "A Life of Surprises is an engaging introduction to a group that is nowhere near as bizarre as its name." He described frontman Paddy McAloon as having a "warm, comforting voice [whose] soothing croon can sometimes hide some pretty depressing lyrics. Sutton went on to opine that despite this, "Prefab Sprout isn't one of those grim British raincoat bands", with the group having "a number of wonderfully upbeat moments".[4]
Track listing
All tracks composed by Paddy McAloon.[1] Script error: No such module "Track listing".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Personnel
Adapted from the album's liner notes.[5]
Prefab Sprout
- Paddy McAloon – lead vocals, various instruments
- Wendy Smith – backing vocals, guitar, keyboards
- Martin McAloon – bass guitar
- Neil Conti – drums
Additional musicians
- Stephen Lipson – additional instruments (tracks 3, 13)
- Peter-John Vettese – organ (track 13)
- Paul Harvey – guitar (track 13)
- Richard Cottle – keyboards (track 3)
- Wil Malone – strings arrangements (track 13)
- Gavyn Wright – strings leader (track 13)
Technical
- Thomas Dolby – producer (tracks 1, 4–7, 10, 12, 14, 16), remixer (track 2)
- Phil Thornalley – producer (track 2)
- Stephen Lipson – producer (tracks 3, 13), additional production (track 16), additional mixing (track 16)
- David Brewis – producer (track 8)
- Prefab Sprout – producer (tracks 8, 11)
- Jon Kelly – producer (track 9)
- Paddy McAloon – producer (track 9)
- Andy Richards – producer (track 15)
- Heff Moraes – engineer (tracks 3, 13, 16)
- Peter Barrett – sleeve design
- Andrew Biscomb – sleeve design
- Douglas Brothers – photographs
Charts
Template:Album chart| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
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Certifications
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Video selection
As well as the popular audio formats of the time (LP, CD and cassette), A Life of Surprises was also released as a 45-minute-long VHS video with a slightly different track listing. The video features only 11 songs and does not include the title track, "A Life of Surprises", "Faron Young", "Wild Horses", "All the World Loves Lovers", "Goodbye Lucille #1", "I Remember That" or "Cruel". However, it does feature videos for "The Golden Calf" and "Looking for Atlantis". Thus only nine songs are common to both audio and video releases.
Video track listing
- "The King of Rock 'n' Roll"
- "The Sound of Crying"
- "Cars and Girls"
- "We Let the Stars Go"
- "The Golden Calf"
- "Looking for Atlantis"
- "Hey Manhattan!"
- "If You Don't Love Me"
- "When Love Breaks Down"
- "Carnival 2000"
- "Appetite"
References
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