The Gunman and Other Stories

The Gunman and Other Stories Artist: Prefab Sprout
Label: EMI
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 724353261320
EAN: 0724353261320
ASIN: B00005ARSV


Release Date: 2001-06-21

The Gunman and Other Stories


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Tracks:

  1. Cowboy Dreams
  2. Wild Card In The Park
  3. I'm A Troubled Man
  4. The Streets Of Laredo/Not Long For This World
  5. Love Will Find Someone For You
  6. Cornfield Ablaze
  7. When You Get To Know Me Better
  8. The Gunman
  9. Blue Roses
  10. Farmyard Cat

Similar Items:

  1. Andromeda Heights
  2. I Trawl the Megahertz
  3. Swoon
  4. Protest Songs
  5. From Langley Park to Memphis

Album Description

2001 album for the long-running and critically acclaimed UK sophisti-pop act featuring singer/songwriter Paddy McAloon. 10 tracks including 'Cowboy Dreams' & 'Cornfield Ablaze'.

Album Details

Paddy Mcaloon and Company Return with their EMI Label Debut. These Are their First New Recordings Since 1997's 'andromeda Heights'. Fresh off their Y2k Tour, They Recorded this Disc in New York with Legendary Producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T.rex). Paddy's Trademark Hushed Vocals Soar Here Along with Sweepingly Inventive Melodies and Strong Lyrics. Includes their Version of 'cowboy Dreams' which was Covered by Jimmy Nail in the Early Nineties.

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars biggest dissapointment to me.......2006-11-04

this was one i really couldnt wait for when i heard that PM and co got signed to liberty. what a letdown- both in songwriting quality and yes, even production. i know AH got slammed for its production, but i dont hear anyone like TV on this recording, it could have been anyone. the songs are just so mediocre, what happened to paddy. i agree with the minority that claim that AH is the peak of paddys craft..how then could we come to this so quickly?? PM would redeem with the totally bizarre ITTMH, but i wish this man would rise again. he is a king despite this misstep.

1 out of 5 stars Cowboy nightmares.......2004-09-06

Well, what a storm of dissent and argumentation on the Prefab website concerning the new album content, Paddy McAloon's continued infatuation with a snapshot in time of american culture, and his unrealistic romanticising of it.
Being one that lives on the west coast of the good ol US of A, I would have to say that after driving thorugh these areas a meeting the folks who live there, Paddy McAloon is deeply and irretrievably romantically enamored with everything south and west of the Rocky Mountains, which aside from rural places where cattle ranchers do still make their livings off the land (Wyoming is one such place), no longer exist. Aside from the landscape, and a few old rotting buildings, the people and places of the great american west have been replaced with usual Walmarts and Mcdonalds you see everywhere else. Hell, Billings Montana has a Triumph Motorcycle and Cooper Mini dealership, proving that we as americans have an unrealistic and often stereotyped view of England as do the Brits of us, which in the case of 'Cowboy Dreams' ,again rears it's ugly head and lowers itself to cheesy carnival tent sienna colored photos found at tourist attraction locations such as Calico ghost town, somewhere between Victorville and Vegas, but certainly not heaven.
Because of this, I have recently had a tendancy to lose respect for Paddy Mcalloon as a writer of serious endeavor becuase he has allowed himself to become the pantomime of what we all love about the past rather than continue to expound upon it through retrospective research and factual effaced narrative, which he did so well in tracks like Jesse James Bollero. Nor has he continued on his insightfuljourney of retrospective inquiry concerning the Human Condition (Appetite). Historical retrospect, to be believable, has to be accurate and the narrator should never make themselves the focal point of it(which is what tracks like 'Cowboy Dreams' does), unless you have done great research on your subject matter or lived the life and are truly telling YOUR OWN STORY because in the end, it just belittles you and the story (Kevin Costner...take note!) We as the reader and listener will come to love you for what you have said about it, rather than how well you can mimic it. The fine line seperating the difference in writing about something you love and becoming the focus of it is a fine one, and one that becomes the stuff of great narrative in song (listen to any of Johnny Cash's music and you will understand this), but the latter is far too obvious in this case and lends itself to kitch, which is both unfair to those of us that respect Paddy McAllons past endeavors and look forward to more of it, as well as Paddy Mcaloon in his quest to believe his own press hype.
What has happened here? Was this album forced by external controls? I wish Paddy McAloon could again be inspired of the stuff that made albums like 'Two Wheels Good' all time beautiful pieces of art and less concerned with being touted as a genious or press darling while simply resigning to the common denominator of making a living off one of the only things he knows how to do well. don't get me wrong. I love Prefab Sprout and everything they ever Represented, 'cause there have been just too few groups like them to ever come along, but at this junction, I have to conclude for lack of a better quote "we have been burned."

1 out of 5 stars There should be a law against records like this..........2004-03-10

Man oh man, ive been listening to music on a frantic basis due to working in record stores for over 10 years, and i can genuingly, positively and absolutely say this is one of the worst records i ever heard.

This is borderline criminal: first you have horror lyrics like "love is like a buller going through your heart, i want written on my tombstone we'll never part" or "we made love in the number one barn" (excuse me????????????) or "...i was the farmer's awkward son" (i can believe that).

In case you're not familiar with Prefab Sprout they're an english group, who, up to now have been making rather lame unorgasmic pop that's been widely (but extremely unsurprisingly)ignored... So, the way i'm seeing it, they probably thought: "hey, why be only half-way lame? Lets go all the way!!!"

All the way they did go in this album by making a grotesque mix of pseudocountry music with pop overtouches (so they can appeal to the whole spectrum of cluelessness out there) which they "dressed up" with the surreal country lyrics i described above.

Actually, i do think that in a massively perverse way it's worth owning this album for the sole reason that they don't come much worse than that. The farmer and his awkward son would agree...

4 out of 5 stars PEERLESS.......2003-07-15

Paddy McAloon is one of popular music's most underrated songwriters. Thank God that has never prevented him from producing one gem after another; this album is no exception.
"When You Get to Know Me Better" is a sly but beautiful delight.

4 out of 5 stars

Music Album:

  1. Kila Kila Kila ~ OOIOO
  2. Holly in the Hills / Giant ~ Buddy Holly
  3. Collection ~ Johnny Vanzant
  4. A Tribute to U2 ~ Various Artists
  5. I Love Rock & Roll, Vol. 9 ~ Various Artists
  6. House That Hate Built ~ Hate Dept.
  7. Poor Little Knitter On The Road: A Tribute To The Knitters ~ Various Artists
  8. Rocking Horse Head ~ Steve Forbert
  9. Future Legends ~ Fruupp
  10. Caught by the Window ~ Pilate

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

On Solid Ground ~ Larry Carlton

The Genius of Bud Powell ~ Bud Powell

Color of Love ~ Mark Winkler

Next Room ~ Various Artists

So Nice ~ Bruce Lofgren

Ivory Pyramid ~ Ramsey Lewis

Je Vais Encore Dormir ~ Elmer Food Beat

Glay Rare Collections V.2 ~ Glay

Yoko Minamino Nanno Box ~ Yoko Minamino

Sigue...La Fiesta Andina, Vol. 2 ~ Conjunto Fiesta Andina