Steve McQueen (album)

On an episode of the BBC Radio 1 programme Roundtable, musician and producer Thomas Dolby, a panelist on the programme, spoke favourably of Prefab Sprout's "Don't Sing", a track from their 1984 Swoon.[3] The band subsequently contacted Dolby, who met with frontman and songwriter McAloon in the latter's County Durham home.[3] McAloon presented Dolby with a number of songs he had written, "probably 40 or 50" by Dolby's estimate,[4] some written as far back as 10–12 years prior.[3] Dolby then picked his favourites and asked McAloon to make demo recordings of them; these recordings served as the basis for Dolby's initial process of planning the album's recording.[4]

In the autumn of 1984, Dolby and Prefab Sprout began working on the album's songs in rehearsals at Nomis Studios in West London; after these sessions had commenced, they moved to Marcus Studios for proper recording.[5] The sessions were mutually amicable, with the band being respectful of Dolby's edge over them in recording and musical experience, and Dolby himself keeping into account the band's wishes, knowing that McAloon "wouldn't want to be diluted" by Dolby's additions to the album.[5] Subsequent mixing was carried out at Farmyard Studios in Buckinghamshire.[5]

The bulk of Steve McQueen's sound is dominated by Dolby's lush, jazz-tinged production.[6][7] McAloon's songs touch on a number of themes, including love, infidelity, regret and heartbreak,[6] and are lyrically "literate and humorous without being condescending in the slightest."[8]

"When Love Breaks Down" was first released as a single in October 1984, before the album was released, but failed to chart in the top 40, peaking at No. 89 on the UK Singles Chart. It was reissued as a new single in March 1985, but again failed to chart, peaking at No. 88. It was only after the album's release, and on the single's third issue in October 1985, that it finally broke through the top 40 and peaked at No. 25 for two weeks in November–December 1985.[9][10]

Between the second and third releases of "When Love Breaks Down", two further singles were released: "Faron Young" (referencing the country music singer of the same name) in July 1985, peaking at No. 74,[11] and "Appetite" in August 1985, peaking at No. 92.[12]

"Goodbye Lucille #1" was renamed "Johnny Johnny" for the final single release from the album in January 1986, peaking at No. 64.[13]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[14]
The Irish Times	[15]
Mojo	[16]
Pitchfork	8.6/10[17]
Q	[18]
Record Collector	[19]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[20]
Spin	[21]
Uncut	[22]
The Village Voice	B+[23]

Critically acclaimed at the time of its release, Steve McQueen reached No. 4 in the 1985 NME end-of-year poll for best albums,[24] as well as No. 28 on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for best albums.[25]

Chris Heath of Smash Hits called McAloon one of the best songwriters of "depressingly precise song about the joys, fears and disappointments of love" to emerge in the wake of the Smiths' rise and lamented his suspicion that "too many people" would be put off by the obscurity and complexity of Prefab Sprout's songs.[26] Richard Gehr of Spin cited Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Lennon–McCartney and Elvis Costello, among other figures, as some of the "many ghosts lurking" in McAloon's lyrics, and wrote: "I confess that the usual sensitive singer-songwriter crap almost always makes me squeal with boredom, but McAloon delivers the bacon here".[27] Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, called McAloon "a type we've met many times before—the well-meaning cad," and was reminded of "the justly obscure, unjustly forgotten Jo Mama—or of Aztec Camera if Roddy Frame were a cad".[23]

Subsequent retrospective reviews of the album have also been highly favourable. Jason Ankeny of AllMusic described Steve McQueen as "a minor classic, a shimmering jazz-pop masterpiece sparked by Paddy McAloon's witty and inventive songwriting".[6] Alex Robertson of Sputnikmusic praised it as "a nearly flawless convergence of gorgeous, smart pop songwriting and immediately pleasurable production that divides itself into eleven songs that are both distinct and also separated by a common thread of excellence".[8] Q's Gareth Grundy called Steve McQueen the most succinct expression of McAloon's skills as a songwriter,[18] while Will Hermes, writing in Spin, described the album as "elegant" and found it to be Dolby's supreme achievement as a producer.[21]

The Times labelled the 2007 legacy edition as "revealing Paddy MacAloon's genius" and described the record as being "buttressed by a phenomenal rhythm section and fairy-dusted with Wendy Smith's breathy harmonies, tracks such as Goodbye Lucille #1, When Love Breaks Down and Bonny raised the hairs on the back of thousands of necks."[28]

Steve McQueen has subsequently featured in a number of all-time lists of greatest albums, including No. 47 in a 1993 poll by The Times, No. 90 in a 1995 poll by Mojo and No. 61 in a 1997 poll by The Guardian.[29][30][31] Stephen Troussé of Pitchfork cited it as "the defining record of 1985 sophisto-pop".[17] The A.V. Club's Noel Murray wrote that Steve McQueen and preceding album Swoon "are considered classics of the mid-'80s post-punk/new-wave era, even though they don't sound like they belong to any particular movement",[32] while PopMatters' Russ Slater described them as "great indie pop."[33] Terry Staunton of Record Collector wrote that "more than 20 years on, [McAloon's] dissertations on love, loss and uncertainty are just as affecting, the intelligence of the lyrics matched by the sophistication of the chord structures and the musical arrangements".[19] Steve McQueen was selected for inclusion in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[34] In 2014, it was named one of the "10 Essential Sophisti-pop Albums" by Treble.[35]

All tracks are written by Paddy McAloon, except where noted.

Credits adapted from the liner notes for Steve McQueen.[36]

Prefab Sprout

• Neil Conti – drums, percussion
• Martin McAloon – bass
• Paddy McAloon – composition, guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Wendy Smith – keyboards, backing vocals

Additional personnel