'38 CARAT COLLECTION' may sound like a pretentious title for a greatest hits record. If that's what you think, then you have obviously never heard any of Prefab Sprout's six albums. If you are one of those people who think they are just that neat British band that did the famous pop song about cars and girls, then you're in for a heavenly surprise. Lucky you.

This two-CD set gathers 38 songs carved in marble and dressed in velvet, only few of which are not essential. We could do without 'Life Of Surprises' and 'Life's A Miracle', and where the hell are 'Hallelujah' and 'The Ice Maiden'? Some of the songs have that unmistakable sound that was typical of the eighties, with those cheap keyboards and effects, but strangely enough it only underlines the beauty of the melodies and the warmth of Paddy McAloon's voice.

Blessed are those who have never heard their albums, for they will be introduced to one of the most ambitious songwriters of the past decades - and one of the most gifted ones too. Prefab Sprout is a band in which each member has an important role to play - brothers Paddy and Martin McAloon, Paddy's girlfriend Wendy Smith, drummer Neil Conti and even producer Thomas Dolby, the band's virtual fifth member. But the songwriting has always been Paddy's. Think of him as a kind of mad scientist: if a genius must have a few bats in the belfry, then Paddy probably has an army of friendly bats dwelling under his skull. Even the stories behind the songs are delightfully insane. He is the kind of man who will suddenly decide to write a song about year 2000 while it's still time, just because he has never done that before ('Carnival 2000'). He will wonder what it would feel like to write for Elvis Presley and end up with two songs about Jesse James - one a symphony, the other a bolero. He is the kind of man who whose long-time projects include an album about the history of the world. As far as we know, 'Earth: The History So Far' has never been completed, but who knows - you can expect about anything from Paddy McAloon's twisted brain.

'38 Carat' is a good introduction to Prefab Sprout if you don't know where to start. The first CD contains all the hits and the singles, whereas the second one is a collection of 'classic album tracks', as advertised in the press. Singles collections are rarely representative of a band's albums as a whole, but strangely enough, the first CD is the one that holds most of the magic. It's the one that makes you realise what the band have achieved through their six albums. They wrote the sweetest melodies and they didn't even sound corny ('We Let The Stars Go', 'When Love Breaks Down'). They did huge FM hits that were on everyone's lips and that were still earnest and genuine ('Cars & Girls', 'The King Of Rock'n'Roll' and its famous nonsensical chorus - "Hot-dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque"). '38 Carat Collection' is an invitation to follow Paddy McAloon on his quest for the Holy Grail of pop: the ultimate pop song, the perfect album. Entertaining and emotional, with strong melodies and clever lyrics. Paddy's quest might be compared to that of Björk, in the sense that they try to create music that is both popular and experimental. Only Paddy experiments in a more subtle way.

And it works, because his talent as a songwriter matches his ambition. Paddy McAloon writes with his head in the clouds and his gaze wandering among the stars. There is something totally unearthly about his music, almost ethereal. There are times when his songs will give you the same thrill as when you hear Jeff Buckley singing 'Grace', the lovely feeling that this cannot be human. It probably has a lot to do with Thomas Dolby's contribution as a producer, a subtle touch that might change the result utterly. The albums he did not produce - 'Protest Songs, 'Andromeda Heights' - were by far the least convincing, despite pure moments of bliss.

Wendy Smith is another essential element of their unique sound. She only ever did the vocals, remaining in Paddy's shadow, but the songs would never have been the same without her. There is something truly magical in the way her soft, exquisite voice mingles with Paddy's warm timbre. At the beginning of 'The Ice Maiden', for the first time in the history of Prefab Sprout, she sings exactly the same lines as Paddy, as an equal - and this is one of the sweetest things you could hear on a record. Something like a chorus of fairies or angels. If you think the comparison is tacky, listen to 'The Ice Maiden' and then think again.

"Stars" may well be the keyword to this record, in all its different meanings. It was the obvious thematic of the sixth album 'Andromeda Heights'. It was clearly expressed in the lyrics from 'Hey Manhattan': "These myths we can't undo/They lie in wait for you/We live them till they're true". Record after record, Paddy McAloon has explored all kinds of myths, referred to dozens of figures and characters. He wrote about Elvis, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Gerschwin, Jesse James, Michael the Archangel and Agneta from ABBA. And all this time, it was as if he were creating his own myth.

Each album was one step further in that direction. The intimate first album 'Swoon' and the classic 'Steve McQueen' led to the somewhat overproduced 'From Langley Park To Memphis', and each time Paddy McAloon seemed to gain self-confidence and ambition, both as a lyricist and a composer. 'Langley Park', in its turn, led to the band's masterpiece in 1989. 'Jordan: The Comeback' was an impossible dream, an epic book divided into four chapters. One that seemed to have no real theme; one about Elvis and Jesse James; one about love and relationships; and one that had many religious elements, with Paddy playing the parts of God and Lucifer. An album so dense and ambitious that you would think they could never fit so many elements into one single album. They did it, and it was pure bliss. The lyrics were intriguing and clever, the music bold and heart-warming. Naive as any pop song should be, sophisticated as a musical.

'Jordan' was their most ambitious album, the perfect record Paddy had tried to write during all those years. And then they remained silent for seven years. Some thought that Prefab Sprout were no more. But Paddy had never given up - like he sang of Jesse James, "He'll never be at rest/Till the day they fold his arms across his chest". In 1997 he gave birth to 'Andromeda Heights', but the magic was not quite the same, as if there could be no follow-up to 'Jordan'. Still, every Prefab Sprout album has its gems, and this was no exception. The two singles that appear on the first CD of '38 Carat Collection', 'A Prisoner Of The Past' and 'Electric Guitars', were wonderful enough to convince us that we had not waited in vain.

Surely there must still be a lot to expect from Paddy McAloon. Not the kind of person who would lose his mojo overnight. There has been a rumour that the next Prefab Sprout album is due for 2000. In the meantime, '38 Carat Collection' will help us wait. It may also convince the sceptics that there is genius involved there. Paddy is probably the one person who could teach the Gallagher brothers and all the Beatles copycats what real ambition is all about. It has nothing to do with money or fame. The path that leads to the perfect pop song may well be tortuous, but the key lies somewhere in Prefab Sprout's records.