― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Sunday, 20 June 2004 21:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Sunday, 20 June 2004 21:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 20 June 2004 21:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― THOR HORSEMAN, Sunday, 20 June 2004 21:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 20 June 2004 21:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― mentalist (mentalist), Sunday, 20 June 2004 22:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― andrew l. r. (allocryptic), Sunday, 20 June 2004 22:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Mummer would have been 10 times better had the same tracks been sequenced differently. It's chock full of top tunes, but the running order is just woeful.
O&L's high production really works in favour of the music, I reckon. Apart from King for a Day, which is agony to my ears. The raw power behind Antheap et al really pronounces the strengths in the songwriting. I agree on the relatively weak lyrics though; I think there were a few hassles with Virgin around that time, with the label wanting Partridge to produce hit singles and such.
Anyone heard the Fuzzy Warbles stuff? It's some of the best Partridge has ever done, and it's not overproduced. :)
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 20 June 2004 22:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― THOR, Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:45 (nineteen years ago) link
"Black Sea": well, I do think, just to attempt to take down a peg an album I've always liked, that XTC did progress a bit like Yes. Thus, "Drums and Wires" is their undeniable "breakthrough" album much like "Fragile," and "Black Sea" is their undeniably "accomplished" yet overstated "improvement" upon their breakthrough, just as "Close to to the Edge" is similar for Yes. And to borrow a Meltzerian trope, it's their overstatement that is the point, on both LPs, overstatement as understatement as overstatement or something silly like that. I do like "Black Sea" much better than I do "Close to the Edge" (I have been somewhat obsessed, though, with "Siberian Khatru" lately, and find it very XTC-like). I never liked "Sgt. Rock" from "Black Sea" either, nor do I find the "Kinks-esque" "Respectable Street" all that great. But love "Towers of London," sure.
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 21 June 2004 01:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― mentalist (mentalist), Monday, 21 June 2004 02:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 21 June 2004 02:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 21 June 2004 02:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 21 June 2004 14:34 (nineteen years ago) link
A Mate of mine used to live in Swindon, and worked in a small recording/rehearsal studio there, that XTC used to use, back in the day. One fateful day, he was assistant producer when they worked on their first attempt to do "Making plans for Nigel". This was one of the tracks on the "cupboard/wardrobe/whatever it was called" rarities/anthology thing, which I managed to get via Kazaa. So, I added it to a compil CD for him, and said "Now you can play it to friends and say "Hey, this track, I rewound the original tape!"
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:54 (nineteen years ago) link
BLASPHEMY.. Oh hahahahahahaha. irony.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 June 2004 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 21 June 2004 23:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― mentalist (mentalist), Monday, 21 June 2004 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link
I heard "Respectable Street" on my CD walkman Friday morning, totally by accident, I was only trying to re-experience the whole of the Rag & Bone Buffet CD and I was surprised that suddenly reality was shapeshifting underneath my feet while "Respectable Street" played and I teleported to another heavenly post-punk planet and couldn't stop toe tapping and singing and god, what a mess. Surely that song could keep pace with Gang of Four as far as clasic post-punk goes.
Which reminds me, anyone want to join a band? I could bloody use a drummer, me.
― Bimble, Sunday, 30 September 2007 04:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Living Through Another CUE BAH!
― Bimble, Sunday, 30 September 2007 09:12 (sixteen years ago) link
I listened to English Settlement all the way through again the other day, and as I get older, the more it becomes apparent to me that the last two tracks are 1) by a fair margin the best things on there and 2) utterly, utterly superb.
― Just got offed, Sunday, 30 September 2007 09:25 (sixteen years ago) link
I bet you're probably right. English Settlement was always their most difficult album for me (as opposed to Go2, which frankly goes in one ear and out the other for the most part). It has its place in their catalogue, though, and I respect it.
― Bimble, Sunday, 30 September 2007 18:14 (sixteen years ago) link
I really need to hear The Big Express.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 30 September 2007 18:18 (sixteen years ago) link
From some years back:
Hell yeah. The Fuzzy Warbles stuff can be broken down into the following categories:
1) Demos of stuff already released. And often these demos are VERY different (cf "Great Fire", "Me And The Wind") and better (cf anything from _Oranges & Lemons_ and _Nonesuch_)
2) Noodly bits and throw-away gags. Andy laughing uncontrollably, Andy doing imitations, Andy doing an answering machine message. These aren't even for diehards like me. Well, after the first few listens at least.
3) Instrumentals. I always liked XTC's instrumentals - the Homo Safari series is particularly cool. But these are inessential for the most part.
4) Complete, new, unreleased songs. This is the MEAT! And it's soooo tasty. "Sonic Boom" is amazing, "When We Get To England" is gorgeous, "My Land Is Burning" is powerful and politically relevant today, "End Of The Pier" is evocative of an England I never knew in a palpable way. That these songs were in Andy's shoebox for years is a crime, but at least they've seen the light of day.
Classic to the nth degree. XTC is one of the very few bands whose demos are worth hearing.
― Mr. Odd, Monday, 1 October 2007 23:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Thanks for helping me understand it better. I played the first Fuzzy Warbles CD and quit, so I will have go back and try to experience some more of it.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 02:22 (sixteen years ago) link
I've muddled my way through volumes 1-7 over the past year and Mr. Odds summation is pretty much OTM - the best stuff is the fully formed, unreleased songs, the rest ranges from interesting to completely unnecessary.
Thread here: S/D: Fuzzy Warbles (an XTC thread)
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
4) Complete, new, unreleased songs. This is the MEAT! And it's soooo tasty. "Sonic Boom" is amazing
Isn't it though?
I've created an iPod playlist of this MEAT of which you speak. It's 46 tracks and it's bliss.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 06:27 (sixteen years ago) link
see also "Wonder Annual", "Ship Trapped In Ice". If you took off the worst two songs on Wasp Star, and replaced them w/these, that album goes from C+ to A-.
― Dominique, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 14:37 (sixteen years ago) link
I dunno, I totally love the Dukes of the Stratosphear stuff, but I can't stand XTC. In fact I kinda hate them. Am I a hypocrite for digging "Chips from the Chocolate Fireball" when I just cannot abide the "real" band? It just seems like the Dukes are openly derivative so that changes the valence completely.
― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 14:47 (sixteen years ago) link
I think you'd like "Fuzzy Warbles" then, it's closer to the Dukes spirit than XTC, I'd say.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 14:48 (sixteen years ago) link
DD, so you're saying XTC's more (imo still pretty thinly) veiled references to 60s pop is the deciding factor in your hatred?
― Dominique, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 15:06 (sixteen years ago) link
It's hard to put into words. I suppose it is that the sheer anachronism of the Dukes becomes kind of critical, like a gesture of defiance against what is current. Whereas the mixture of "classic" moves and au courant stuff in XTC feels kind of reactionary in a bad way; a kind of after punk return to Real Musical Values that is just reactionary enough to be annoying to me, but isn't so reactionary that it goes over the edge and becomes camp, like the Dukes. Does that make sense?
― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 15:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes. Also many of the DoS songs are just really really good with less opportunity for "cleverness" and fannying about
― Tom D., Tuesday, 23 October 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link
ic -- tho I fear for my own reception in the Drew house based on that criteria...:/
also wonder if there are particular albums/songs that rub you the wrong way. I definitely see A.Partridge in particular as having a pretty unique hangup of being obsessed w/both pop forms of Beatles/Beach Boys/Kinks and (basically modernist) notions of progress and tech in pop, via bands like Can, Capt Beefheart -- seems like this would easily end in many trainwrecks for songs, tho for me anyway, also ends in songs that no one else has ever written (+ I like em!)
― Dominique, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 15:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Dominique, you know yer always gettin' a warm reception in my house . . .
I honestly must also confess that my childhood friend's annoying older brother *loved* XTC (and Wings!) in a smug way that really bummed me out, and so perhaps I am simply prejudiced and it's not really rational or worth sharing with ILM.
― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:10 (sixteen years ago) link
There is a lot in XTC that is fairly forward-thinking. 'Black Sea' is probably the album to listen to if it's pure innovation you want. Most of it I regard as pretty timeless, mind.
― Just got offed, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:11 (sixteen years ago) link
No, "Drums and Wires" is the one
― Tom D., Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, it was a close-run thing, but although D&W has 'Complicated Game' and 'Millions' in the weirdness stakes, 'Living Through Another Cuba' and 'Travels In Nihilon' are genuinely out-there.
― Just got offed, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes, but it's the first album where the Beatles/60s influences and "classic moves" that Drew mentioned begin to appear
― Tom D., Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Hmm, maybe. I don't like to think of that music as more reactionary, though. More ornate, certainly, but it has, I believe, a timeless charm.
― Just got offed, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:37 (sixteen years ago) link
white music is funky.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:41 (sixteen years ago) link
There's a really good, and very candid interview with Haydn Bendall on the XTC Podcast from a month or so ago, lots of info about Apple Venus.
― Maresn3st, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 09:00 (one month ago) link
"Stupidly Happy" def sounds like it was inspired by "Never Let You Go"
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 12:20 (one month ago) link
Although now I'm realizing they might have come out too close to each other to have one inspire the other
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 12:23 (one month ago) link
I think some of those late 90s bands loved XTC. The glasses guy from BNL imagine very much so. It's All Been Done sounds like his take on it
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 13:07 (one month ago) link
IRRC he had Wasp Star written, like Apple Venus, in the wake of Nonsuch, so early to mid 90s. His demo, as they tend to, sounds a lot like the final arrangement, released within months of the Third Eye Blind song in 2000https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2RhxrsZI2A
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 13:14 (one month ago) link
The Wheel and the Maypole is such a fitting and lovely end to the discography of the best band ever
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 13:20 (one month ago) link
And obviously let's not ruin things with facts obviously (e.g. the 2005 tunes)
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 13:22 (one month ago) link
otm
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 April 2024 13:28 (one month ago) link
according to Wikipedia, most of these songs were originally written between 1994-1996. they indeed are pretty close to the demos but there are certain touches - the vocal distortion on "Stupidly Happy", the drum fills on "We're All Light" - that sound very late-90s altrock.
The glasses guy from BNL imagine very much so. It's All Been Done sounds like his take on it
yes! always thought this song sounded like something on Nonsuch. a bit more obnoxious though.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 14:17 (one month ago) link
wonder if not having Dave Gregory on board caused them to farm out more of the process which made it sound more modern. I'm really curious what a follow up album would've sounded like.
also I kinda forgot about the 2005 tunes, they're not bad. the band didnt really make a big deal out of them so I still consider Wheel and the Maypole their 'last' song
― frogbs, Wednesday, 17 April 2024 14:23 (one month ago) link