Mike Thorne

Mike Thorne has collaborated with and produced countless artists, but Sprawl, a collection of cover versions, is his first album. Having made a name for himself in the '70s producing Wire, the Soft Machine, and others, he achieved broader acclaim in the '80s for work on music that became part of that decade's soundtrack. Although Thorne had an ear for hits, he gravitated toward artists who stood out from the '80s crowd, and his records with the likes of Soft Cell, The The, and Bronski Beat are pop classics. Sprawl is a sort of musical homage to that period, not because it reworks '80s material -- most of the songs date from the '70s and '90s -- but because of its dance-pop groove. While Thorne's keyboards give this album his trademark techno-pop flavor, the arrangements are expanded by the Uptown Horns, drummer Allan Schwartzberg, and a bevy of female vocalists (Sarah Jane Morris, Kit Hain, Lene Lovich, and the members of Betty) performing songs previously recorded by everyone from the Sex Pistols to Celine Dion. Some of the better material features Morris, who brings her big voice to bear on two unrecorded Marianne Faithfull tracks: "Self-Imposed Exile," with its mechanical beat, and the chugging "Sexual Terrorist." Betty stands out on a lilting version of Celine Dion's "Le Ballet." In places, Sprawl's retro sensibility recalls the dream pop sound embodied by This Mortal Coil, most notably on the atmospheric rendering of Tim Hardin's "First Love Song." Sprawl is rather offbeat and hard to categorize, but Mike Thorne has never taken the path of least resistance. Indeed, an upbeat, easy listening version of "Pretty Vacant" might sound like a man destroying his own legacy (Thorne was instrumental in signing the Sex Pistols to EMI in 1976) -- but maybe it's the consummate punk gesture. ~ Wilson Neate, All Music Guide