Found my way here via Robert Christgau's review of Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen, entitled Four Wheels Good on its American release due to a run in with the great man's estate, (McQueen not Christgau). Here's the review:
'Two Wheels Good [Epic, 1985]
Paddy McAloon is a type we've met many times before--the well-meaning cad. Expressing himself with a grace befitting an intimate of Faron Young and "Georgie" Gershwin, he's sweet enough to come out on the losing side sometimes, but in the end he'll probably "let that lovely creature down," because he can't resist a piece of ass. J.D. Considine calls this music "Steely Dan Lite," which suggests the crucial contribution of producer-sideman Thomas Dolby but misses its pop-folk roots. Reminds me more of the justly obscure, unjustly forgotten Jo Mama--or of Aztec Camera if Roddy Frame were a cad. B+'
Paddy McAloon is a type we've met many times before--the well-meaning cad. Expressing himself with a grace befitting an intimate of Faron Young and "Georgie" Gershwin, he's sweet enough to come out on the losing side sometimes, but in the end he'll probably "let that lovely creature down," because he can't resist a piece of ass. J.D. Considine calls this music "Steely Dan Lite," which suggests the crucial contribution of producer-sideman Thomas Dolby but misses its pop-folk roots. Reminds me more of the justly obscure, unjustly forgotten Jo Mama--or of Aztec Camera if Roddy Frame were a cad. B+'
As for Jo Mama, I know nothing more about them except that this was released in 1970. There's a great song at the heart of things here, then half way through they head off into a jazzy, funky jam that may not be to everybody's taste before wandering back eventually to the core of the track. Their audience might have nodded off however, in the meantime. As for their name, is this an early musical reference to the Yo Mama gags that gained so much currency, particular in Hip Hop in the decades that followed?
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