38 Carat Collection

Prefab Sprout never connected with American audiences the way they did in with the U.K. pop market. Singer-songwriter Paddy McAloon turned out to be too subtle and quirky. Yet, he’s tendered a career as diverse and wild as any hard rocker with his deceptively sweet melodies and songs of love lost in the cosmos. This “Collection” was issued in the U.K. as 38 Carat Collection and in the U.S. a few years later as The Collection. It features a strong overview of the band’s unusual career. The first single, “Lions in My Own Garden (Exit Someone),” makes its first album appearance, while the band’s other captivating singles, “Don’t Sing,” “When Love Breaks Down,” “Cars and Girls,” “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Looking for Atlantis” and “Electric Guitars” exhibit a peerless string of shoulda-been hits for this college-radio cult favorite. The final 19 tracks are album cuts that explore the group’s quirky side with such idiosyncratic gems as “Moving the River,” “Doo-Wop In Harlem” and “Andromeda Heights.”