XTC : Classic or Dud.

I don't know much of their very early stuff and I have a certain knowledge dip in the late Virgin years, but I would consider Black Sea, English Settlement, Nonsuch and Skylarking to be classic. No question whatsoever. Apple Venus Volume One is a loveable museum piece, Wasp Star fizzes but somehow isn't as likeable as it could be. For the range of their music alone, though (I don't feel the need to choose, although "Making Plans For Nigel" was always awful new wavy Kinksiness), classic.

I don't like/get "Oranges and Lemons" -too session slick.

Mark, it's funny how your "left-behind 60s" sentence *is* Skylarking in a nutshell for me, but you say something as perceptive about it from the perspective of someone left unmoved, as I think I ever have from the perspective of someone who's moved by it endlessly, constantly, wonderfully. Interesting.

"Oranges and Lemons" is the only relative dud IMHO.

I guess I should get volume 2.

Skylarking: Best Beatles influenced album ever, by anybody, past or future

Black Sea: So classic

First album: Also classic. Especially with the extra tracks on the CD.
Of special note is the cover of "All Along The Watchtower". Hilarious, unforgettable, and wonderfully funky. Beats the crap out of the original.

There is no need to ask if they were classic or not.

Here's a query: What is the correlation between XTC positivity and Olivia Tremor Control fandom? It seem to me each act reinterpreted 60s pop singles in a different, though sorta similar way.

NEITHER CLASSIC NOR DUD
Nonesvch
Drums and Wires

DUD
Oranges and Lemons
Wasp Star

D: Mummer; Oranges and Lemons; Nonsuch (or whatever that's called)

Also C: Lots of their singles, like "Heaven Is Paved with Broken Glass"; "Blame the Weather"; etc.

Weren't as good after Terry Chambers left, I don't think. Not a band I listen to any more, but always glad to hear individual tracks like "It's Nearly Africa" and esp. "Jason and the Argonauts."

That's the weird thing about XTC.

In 1992 I bought The Compact XTC, listened to it a few times, hated it, and put it away. Over the ensuing weeks, I forced myself to listen to it again and again [usually in the background whilst doing homework], and one day something snapped: I understood the depth of the music, and couldn't stop listening to it.

Having decided this was one of the best albums I'd ever heard, I spent the next couple of years building up my collection. Here's the crucial bit: Every album had the same effect. On the first listen of every album, I hated it, and it took a good 20+ listens before I 'got' each one; but once each album hit that threshold, I couldn't put it down for literally months on end.

Thinking I was nuts, I introduced XTC to several friends, all of whom didn't like it. Months later, most of them had done an about face and were raving about XTC, just as I had done.

So, it's urgent and key to bear this in mind: Repeated listening of XTC will reap rewards. I've not known any other band to produce work of such consistently high quality and enormous depth. It's music that grows and grows and grows, and -- most importantly -- it rewards effort in ways you cannot imagine.

Oranges and Lemons sux, but King For A Day still gets me every time, and Garden Of Earthly Delights isn't so bad.

The live version of Battery Brides on the Transister Blast box set OWNZ.

Oranges & Lemons is fantastic. King for a Day irritates the hell out of me, but there are sooo many gems on that album, and as a piece it works beautifully. Easily one of my favourites. Fox and Thacker are gods.

That's interesting... Why can't music come with a "Guaranteed that you will ultimately twig" sticker, rather than some daft parental advisory thing.

I did buy Waxworks/Beeswax on compact cassette about 1986 based on loving "Making plans for Nigel" and "Senses working overtime", so I have tried pretty hard; maybe it's a bit of concentrated listening I need. As I say though, I love Apple Venus volume 1 now, so perhaps the rest will click.

with the appearance of bands like dogs die in hot cars and the futureheads, maybe we're getting an xtc revival?

Fave track on Oranges & Lemons (their last decent album) = "Across this Antheap".

And you may not like Apple Venus Vol. 1, Alex, but it's at least "decent."

"King for a Day" doesn't remind me of the Police either. It's a fine, pleasant song, but just a little too overproduced for my taste (like much of the Orange & Lemons album, I think).

I listened to Oranges and Lemons for the first time in years recently -- I found a used CD copy for $2, and it's easily worth that. While the production is annoying, what I found interesting is that the track I used to blow past are the only ones I really enjoyed. If you can get past the bad lyrics that infect the entire record, there are a few gems: "The Loving," "One of the Millions," and "Hold Me My Daddy" stand out.

Whatever. It's still all about English Settlement.

Big Express? Ehhhhh......with the exception of a few tracks, it's not their finest. Never cared for Mummer so much, either.

Then, of course....there are THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR,.....who quite thoroughly rock.

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. :)

"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.

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!"

BLASPHEMY.. Oh hahahahahahaha. irony.

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.

Living Through Another CUE
BAH!

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.

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.

I really need to hear The Big Express.

From some years back:

Anyone heard the Fuzzy Warbles stuff? It's some of the best Partridge has ever done, and it's not overproduced. :)

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.

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.

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)

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.

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-.

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.

I think you'd like "Fuzzy Warbles" then, it's closer to the Dukes spirit than XTC, I'd say.

DD, so you're saying XTC's more (imo still pretty thinly) veiled references to 60s pop is the deciding factor in your hatred?

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?

Yes. Also many of the DoS songs are just really really good with less opportunity for "cleverness" and fannying about

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, 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.

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.

No, "Drums and Wires" is the one

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.

Yes, but it's the first album where the Beatles/60s influences and "classic moves" that Drew mentioned begin to appear

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.

white music is funky.

it makes me sad that dd doesn't like xtc

some days they may be my favorite rock band. which occasionally makes me go O_o when i think on it

see also "Wonder Annual"

^^^ x 283764923876548923

As (I think) I mentioned upthread somewhere, XTC takes effort. You can't just chuck on an album and expect to be all over it in 32 minutes. Each one requires at least 15 plays. Without that perseverence you won't get anywhere.

I was all over Black Sea on my first listen when I was 8 years old. Sure I didn't understand all the meanings of the lyrics then and all that.

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-.

I'm not sure it'd go up to A- but certainly a solid B. _Wasp Star_ is the only XTC album I ever was utterly disappointed with, especially after the great _Apple Venus_. It does have a great Colin song for the first time in a decade ("Boarded Up").

Which two tracks would you replace? "I'm The Man Who Murdered Love" for sure, god that's such a wimpy song. What else?

"You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful", for the reason that it is SO, SO, SO CLOSE to being absolutely superb, but somehow falls short, with the consequence that I am terrifically disappointed every time I hear it.

Oh, and Drew, if it helps, the album that got me into XTC was Nonsuch, which actually gets some flak on these boards.

from all indications, every XTC fan has a completely different set of criteria and favorites when it comes to this band (I think Nonsuch is mostly crap btw)

Nonsuch is superb. (xpost)

"You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful", for the reason that it is SO, SO, SO CLOSE to being absolutely superb, but somehow falls short, with the consequence that I am terrifically disappointed every time I hear it.

The 'Homegrown' demo of this song retains that beauty.

Nonsuch is a frankly brilliant album full of brilliant songs that came out at exactly the wrong time. Quite sad, really.

I really really tried to like Wasp Star, really I did. Still a fair few gems on it, but maaaaaan. Way too much dross. Considering the incredible quality of the post-1992 Fuzzy Warbles cut-outs, this doesn't make any sense at all.

The Wheel and the Maypole is the best ever official XTC song, however.

"Nonsuch" is surely superb.

I even like "The Wasp Star". I cannot get myself to like "White Music" or "Go 2" though.

Mekkanikk dancing!! OH WE GO!!!

Something I was thinking about during the Sasha thread: the period of XTC's career that's probably most associated with whitebread Beatles / Beach Boys 60s-ism is actually the period where they were ... funkiest, at least in the sense that upscale 80s soul-boys were funky. "That's Really Super, Supergirl" has some funk. Bits of Oranges and Lemons and Skylarking both seem to be taking off after Scritti Politti, or something ("Another Satellite"), and some of the pop tracks (like "King for a Day") are total 80s cheery-Englishman r&b. The idea that they're 60-obsessed or regressive isn't completely off the wall, or anything -- I can understand where the impression comes from -- but digging in and considering the context keeps providing challenges to that idea. They had at least as wide a streak of studio blue-eyed soul going on, I think, just without the synths that usually announced it.

"Wasp Star" is pretty poopy, but that's the only XTC record I can say that about. "Apple Venus" took me about five years to get into, but it is beauty itself.

xpost - In fact, much as this might cause genre-category errors for some people, I can imagine any number of upscale-studio 80s black pop/soul singers doing most of the songs on those two albums, in the same way it's possible to imagine any number of such singers doing Scritti songs from around the same period.

nabisco I agree with yr point but yr examples are kinda befuddling (I wouldn't consider Supergirl or King for a Day remotely soul/funk, altho they do *bounce* a bit) - but Andy's always gone out of his way to incorporate non-white Euro stuff, he's had many flirtations with various "world music" tropes, both early and later in their career ("Poor Skeleton Steps Out", "Its Nearly Africa", etc.) Bonafide funk though? I don't hear it.

also 80s soul/r&b is really fucking dire in general ugh

It's somehow counter to our genre intuition, I know, but go back and listen to those tracks! And hold them up against the context of the shiny/sparkly upscale soul and r&b that were ... not uncommon during the decade. "Supergirl" doesn't have a deep groove, or anything, but with squishier synths and a black singer it might come off like some kind of cartoon Cameo. (Think of the rhythm interplay during the verses!) And "King for a Day" is exactly the kind of vaguely soulful chart-pop that was equally black and white, soul and rock, at the time (though to be honest, stuff like this tended to be a white English soul-singer kind of thing) -- think of the "the way that (we're living)" vocal organization on that one.

white music and go 2 are sweet geir! u crazy.

nonesuch suxxx wang.

i like 'em up through around drums and wires or black sea i can't remember which came first.

i have english settlement but i don't remember it too well.

English Settlement is gentle and very long, and thoroughly enjoyable.

nabisco - I don't hear it in the rhythm section, which is (ostensibly) where it would count most. Sure in the 80s they had a LinnDrum and a fretless bass but Prince they were not.

If you are searching for a groove or funk, then why search in XTC's catalog in the first place? Sure, there may be some of it there, but the main point about XTC's music lies in considerably different musical values.

I .... sorta agree with Geir.

Influences can happen by accident, though, e.g. Partridge never intended Green Man to sound even vaguely middle eastern. For him it was all pagan pastoral Britishness to the core.

Umm I think my relationship with music hopefully involves less "searching" artists' catalogs for things I'm looking for, and more trying to take note of what's actually there

Did anyone buy the remasters when they came out in, what, 2001? Was it that much of an improvement over the original CDs?

In the case of the Steve Lillywhite productions, they sound considerably better.

Plus having all those bonus tracks at the end of the album is a lot better than having them in the middle.

They were in the middle? Sheesh!

Yeah, Virgin put them in the middle of everything from White Music to Big Express.

the CD versions I have of the Dukes, Mummer, and English Settlement are like half as loud as most of the other CDs in my collection. its really odd.

My English Settlement (Virgin, 72 min) is definitely louder, but heavy on the midrange. I had to manually bring it down a couple of decibels for my ipod.

Sorry to just jump in, but this is an unmissable opportunity for me to moan about the fact that the booklets in the remasters print the lyrics in such tiny type as to be, for all intents and purposes, illegible. why? did no-one bother to try reading what they'd just designed? i find this annoying because i know the lyrics are likely to be good, but some are very hard to decipher.

you could try listening to what he is singing

the booklets in the remasters print the lyrics in such tiny type as to be, for all intents and purposes, illegible. why?

Are they reprints of the LP packaging?

the nonsuch remaster, admittedly, has tiny reprints of the original lyric-sheets, but hey, the words are there IN YOUR EARS

Which is the Raft reissue with the back cover printed all wonky? Is it Nonsuch?

It is not like Andy Partridge of Colin Moulding have cookie-monster vocals.

*digs out copy* YES IT IS. Absolute idiocy.

It is not like Andy Partridge of Colin Moulding have cookie-monster vocals.

he really shake you donkey up
he really make you donkey up
he really shake you donkey up quite a packet

me lost me cookie at the disco
me lost me cookie in the booooo-gie muuuu-sic
me lost me cookie at the disco
me want it back he want it back me want it back again

MARK THE DIFFERENCE FOR ME MARK IT PLEASE

Come to think of it, the last verse of 'Complicated Game' is fairly larynx-shredding.

Have been on my regular semi-decade XTC non-stop rampage of late. Am somewhat befuddled by the general lack of love for them on these boards (and, well, pretty much everywhere, but it is extra-surprising here, since they bridge rock & pop perfectly; also the visceral and the cerebral) - Am I the only person here who considers them hands down the best British band since the Beatles? Because I do. Maybe that's the rarest opinion I actually possess...

>Black Sea is distilled fun.
Oh yeah, Almanac: "Travels in Nihilon" is a cotton-candy paradise! :)

White Music and Go 2 are good but not stellar - great singles, as others have noted - I generally get all I need of this period from the Transistor Blast and Coat of Many Cupboards sets. Drums & Wires & Black Sea are front-to-back brilliant. I mean, really, just everybody should own them. English Settlement loses me a little bit; it could be that a better mastering job would reclaim it for me, but the sonic oomph just isn't there (compare the version of "No Thugs" on ES to the one on Transistor Blast). Still, more brilliance packed into that album than most anything you'd want to name. Mummer and Big Express lose me - Andy gets precious and lots of lyrical lapses, middling-poor production on both records, a sense of trying to find their way after deciding not to tour anymore. The Dukes, Skylarking, Oranges & Lemons, and even the maligned Nonsuch are virtually unimpeachable for me - the soggy bits are more than mopped up by the towering greatness of the better material. And, of course, there's a nostalgia factor (the music you heard when you were 15 years old, yadda yadda), but I'd consider about 90% of those albums essential.

Nonsuch is a frankly brilliant album full of brilliant songs that came out at exactly the wrong time. Quite sad, really.― Just got offed OTM.

The final pair of albums promised so much for their next phase. I even love Wasp Star (it's better on vinyl, if you can get hold of it - the mastering is so much less brassy and compressy). They extended both sides of the XTC that I loved: perfect pop songs ("The Man Who Murdered Love" is an example of Andy allowing himself to get simple, with I think great results, despite its sounding as though someone besides Andy could have written it [his earlier songs are utterly idiosyncratic - which, by the way, I think is a better descriptor for the band than "quirky" is]) alongside more complex material (the rondelle of "River of Orchids", the multipart cobbled-together structure of "Maypole", the "Snowman"-esque polyrhythm of "You & the Clouds"). These albums contain Moulding's finest bass playing, if not his finest songs. Had the critical and (especially) commercial reception not been so miserable XTC might have squeezed out another couple of records, and who knows, they might even have been very good ones. But all good bands must come to an end. I continue to listen, and to bore folks silly banging on about them to anyone who'll indulge me.

So, um, dud, obv.

I actually was ripping all my XTC discs the other week, but I wasn't compelled to listen to any of them. Then again there's a lot of stuff that I got into around that time (specifically late eighties/early nineties) which falls into that category.

Watch yo ass homies coz gangsta andy partridge is gonna pop a cap in it.

haha love gangsta andy partridge

i just listened to black sea yesterday

I thought there was hella XTC love on ILM, not quite sure where you're getting this vibe from, staggerlee...lord knows I'll sing their praises to anyone who'll listen.

Think it totally says something about Andy that the cruelest, most harrowing post-divorce sentiment he could etch into song was an extended metaphor about spelling.

xpost

I guess I was expecting MASSIVE WAVES of love, not a high percentage of "ehr, I liked their early stuff OK but I totally lost track after Skylarking" and the like. Though I should have known better since ILM generally seems to have trouble with sincerity in lyrics (yes, I cringe when I hear "The Loving." I also wish I were brave enough to write something as plainspoken as that, or as "Melt the Guns." And let's not get into the thorny issue of "Dear God".) When I made that post I also only had seen the first page of the search results, so I mistakenly thought that there were only 5 XTC threads on ILM. Whoop. I've spent the intervening 2 hours reading the rest of them...

Heartened to see that there are a number of obsessives here (hi, all! Were any of you denizens of the now defunct xtcidearecords forum? I lost years of my life there.)

I love Bimble's talk of XTC "trips". This is absolutely the case; there are times when no other music seems right for me. For weeks and months at a time.

Am I alone in unreservedly loving Oranges and Lemons (although I recognize there are lesser songs on it) and Wasp Star? Alzo: has their star fallen dramatically in the past few years and is it time for a mini-revival? There was talk of another round of remasters to have been released starting this April, but that seems to have fallen (as so many putative XTC projects) by the wayside. (I want them to do a mono box set, just to see Geir's reaction.)

l0u1s jagg3r loved some of the later albums

wasp star is horrible imo, the shitty production is part of it but the songs aren't so hot either. apple venus was mostly great, so it was a bad way to end.

I like Mummer, Colin's throwaway songs aside. I really really like Apple Venus, Colin's throwaway songs aside.

Oranges and Lemons was always one of my faves too, so no, you're not alone.

Phil, have you lost GAP's password?

Er, I didn't mean Mummer, I meant Nonsuch. So I am going mad.

I can't really bust out the GAP material while posting from work (xp)

FREE GANGSTA ANDY PARTRIDGE

I too love a good deal of Oranges & Lemons, except for say Pink Thing and Hold Me My Daddy. I find that even weaker XTC songs tend to have at least one section that is great. Totaly misleading cover artwork though, I remember people buying it at the time expecting some top hat wearing, twirly moustached psychedelic extravaganza then got hit with total kitchen sink production and lost heart a third of the way in.
There are moments on songs like Across This Antheap, Chalkhills & Children and One Of The Millions that for me, are up there with their finest work.

l0u1s jagg3r loved some of the later albums

What happened to L0u1s, anyway?

he's on tour with the vacuum

Skylarking and Oranges and Lemons feel like the same one-two punch to me that Drums and Wires and Black Sea were: undoubtedly my four favorite albums in their catalog (and four of my favorite albums ever). Most days I'd call O&L the best of the four. I second that comment that even the weak songs on that album have something interesting about them.

But Wasp Star... yeah, I can't rep for it. :( I've given it a lot of listens, but the simplicity always comes across as laziness, or maybe weariness. "Clouds" and "Maypole" have a little more to them, and those are keepers. Some of the other songs are not bad, but I think it's probably their worst album overall.

In-case anyone is interested there's some weapons-grade XTC internet nerdery on the XTC Fans Myspace, some chap has been interviewing Andy, Colin or Dave about the writing of specific songs and putting up the transcriptions.

http://blogs.myspace.com/xtcfans

Time to take an XTC trip, indeed.

This band's b-sides and castoffs are all worth exploring and are often just more damn FUN than their LPs.

Don't you dare call me chickenhead!

Have long been mystified by XTC's relative lack of love. It seems they're one of those bands that if you don't love, you really don't even like, or don't get. I think part of this is down to Partridge's voice, which is an acquired taste-- and certainly his songwriting. He's super smart, and is a pretty amazing craftsman...but what he chooses to create is often so idiosyncratic, so of its own world, that unless you want to live in that world too, it might seem a bit uninviting, or even actively offputting.

Idiosyncratic makes him seem more interesting than he actually is, not that I don't like XTC, but they are irritating

... or rather, he is irritating

do you see?!?

See what?

It seems they're one of those bands that if you don't love, you really don't even like, or don't get.

I like XTC, I don't love them

you THINK you like them. you don't.

especially if you are using the word irritating to describe partridge

OK, are you being serious here, or you having a laugh? Hard to tell over the internet.

Comparing my likes of 20 yrs ago with my likes now, XTC have taken what might be the biggest plunge, and I wish it weren't so.

I still think that (excepting Robyn Hitchcock) they're the finest melodists and hook-merchants of the post-beatles school, and Black Sea is a kind of apotheosis of hooky-but-skronky pop guitar... but every year I age seems to make the schoolmasterish finish of Andy's lyrics more and more irritating. He comes off as a scold and a tightass and a know-it-all.

I guess as I get older and continue to see more and more subjectivity and circumstance and simple ignorance behind my own convictions/opinions, Andy's waterproof parquet theses get more alien to me.

Sorry if the above fails to make sense...

... makes sense to me!

An "acquired taste", really? I mean, Mark E Smith is most surely an acquired taste, but Andy's voice sounded golden to me the moment I heard him. Horses for courses and all that but sometimes I simply can't escape my own love for an artist to hear what others might dislike.

I have absolutely no problem with Andy or Colin's voices.

Jon - any specific lyrics you'd like to call out? I think many artists who write direct lyrics like Andy probably suffer from "gosh I wish I'd been more subtle or nuanced when I was younger".

I share your adoration of Mr. Hitchcock and he probabably escapes this by writing completely indirect lyrics, and the occasions when he is direct also might not sound so good 20 years later.

Man, now I have to do another traversal of the XTC catalog in order to back up my mouthing-off!

It's not really a prob for me when Andy's younger. I feel like it starts to worsen when they become studio-only and then more and more as he ages.

Robyn H, of course, has plenty of annoying lyrics himself, but with him it's a "really? You couldn't revise that couplet?" kind of thing. Or "really? You used someone's first name to pull off a rhyme AGAIN?"

Wow MaresNest that is a sweet link, thank you! When I was 19 I read probably every interview ever with XTC &/or its members, so it's fun to do that again but w/new stuff.

Jon, I hear you on Andy's lyrical tendencies-- tho I tend to associate them w/general insularity, and not necessarily that he thinks he knows it all. I actually suspect he's super humble, but awkward, and probably brainier than most of his friends. It's almost like he makes songs as toys (or "wishes", per that Emitt Rhodes interview from the other thread) for himself. OR PERHAPS I AM READING TOO MUCH INTO HIM :/

even if xtc never recorded another tune after "making plans for nigel", i'd still say wholly classic. got a Japanese reissue of English Settlement a few years ago - sound quality is v. nice on it...

I *get* that Andy's voice could be irritating, and especially that his lyrics might piss one off with their gee-whizness, but where it might bother me in other bands, it doesn't with XTC. (Some of his lyrics are nigh-unlistenable for me, esp. "Ladybird", "Toys" and "Books are Burning" but I can never hold their lapses against them somehow, and it doesn't feel like being indulgent, it feels like appreciating a band gestalt - like how "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Piggies" are part and parcel of the Beatles and you don't stop loving them because they have a few pisspoor moments.) (And you know what? I hear Andy's "waterproof parquet theses" exactly as an expression of a subjective viewpoint, not as a Bono-esque "we can all save the world if YOU change your misguided ways!" finger-wag [with a couple exceptions] which is probably why I can tolerate them - he sounds to me like a guy wrestling with his conscience instead of a flag-waver)

This thread will probably cause me to traverse the XTC discog yet again. I love picking away at things that give me problems.

Thread made me bust out "English Settlement." It's one of those albums that took me years to fully get into. I had the same thing with "Songs in the Key of Life" – they're both so BIG and so GOOD. Like by the time "Jason and the Argonauts" is over I'm just drained.

Looking, at the tracks after that, actually, I can't remember any of them except "Fly on the Wall." I usually have a break after "Jason" because it's so damn epic, and I guess I never pick it back up. How weird.

Snowman has always been a fav of mine, still blast it when it comes up on my iPod

"Melt the Guns" is really embarrassing.

wtf it's 6:34!!!!

english settlement is pretty amazing all the way through

i said it on a different XTC thread once, but the beginning of "melt the guns" sounds like animal collective

Andy in social commentary mode can get pretty insufferable. I can't stand stuff like Melt the Guns and Books Are Burning, etc.

why do you love guns, shakey

someone please share their thoughts on "complicated game" from drums and wires

and the genius of "meccanic dancing"

"complicated game" is the best song on d&w and it took me forever to notice it- tucked way back on what would be side two of the alblum. haven't heard it in a few months, that's all i got....

hi five!

best song on d&w besides nigel of course

"Snowman" is so, so good. One of my favorite AP lines: "People will always be tempted to wipe their feet on anything with 'welcome' written on it."

As a little kid, I loved Andy's voice because I thought all his vocal tics (the hiccups, snarls, etc.) were funny, so I guess I can see it being a turnoff for some.

the beginning of "melt the guns" sounds like animal collective Yeah, but what sounds like the end? I want a whole album of that. Rhythmic gurgling and spastic gibbering. Yet so catchy & memorable & not annoying at all. (Mrs. Staggerlee can take about 30 seconds of it before she says "Yeah, we get the point" and skips to the next track. And what's up with the bass playing on this song? It's insane. Like, Andy comes in with the chords and Colin's response is "I'm gonna play like Mike Watt." Altho there's no way he's heard The Minutemen at this point.

Funny, I adore "Melt The Guns" (just for the sound of it!) and "Books Are Burning" not to mention "Peter Pumpkinhead", "Dear God", etc. Maybe it helps that I agree with his point of view. Political songs don't have to dance around the issue.

I think I could totally dig "Melt the Guns" if it was in Portugese, and I'm as anti-gun as they come. Just the lyrics are so embarrassing. I relistened to it today and the bridge is pretty sweet. The chorus just makes me cover my face with my hands, tho.

the lyrics don't bug me because they are sorta nonsense-y and i don't pay much attention to them. dear god, on the other hand, i cannot listen to because it is anti-religion challops x infinity (plus it's boring musically)

xtc melt the guns >> the legend! melt the guns

someone please share their thoughts on "complicated game" from drums and wires

I'm not much of an XTC stan, I tried to get into Drums and Wires, Black Sea, and The Big Express as a youth but most of the songs left me meh. Complicated Game is incredible though. A bravura vocal performance of furious, frustrated, almost comically ridiculous anguish.

Oh God, 'Complicated Game' what a great song.

I actually suspect he's super humble, but awkward, and probably brainier than most of his friends

Andy Partridge? Humble? Really? I agree that he's brainy and awkward though!

last 3 songs on drums&wires just destroy

Yeah I think he's probably a humble guy! I think he's got a lot of opinions, and is compulsively "witty" about expressing them. However, he hardly strikes me as a guy who'd monopolize the dinner table w/tales of his own glory. More like, he'd monopolize the dinner table w/vaguely creepy tales of masturbating as a teen, and then having a dream wherein he was punished by giant toy robots for it. And then he'd immediately write a song about it, and send it to you the next week. And that's kinda endearing to me! I don't know, just general hyperactive dorkiness doesn't irritate me, so much as make me squirm sometimes.

Some more linkage, 4 podcasts featuring AP and John Leckie reminiscing about the making of the two Dukes records.

About 80 mins all in, scroll down.

http://apehouse.prevuz.com/

here comes presdient kiiilll agaaaiiinnn

"Wow!" @ English Settlement! Is it all this good?

drums and wires or skylarking next

this just in: Go 2 is excellent, AS excellent as White Music is underwhelming

please understand I've known about and loved the albums from D&W onwards for over 15 years now so this is a pretty momentous step

Welcome to enlightenment! "White Music" isn't so much underwhelming as an awkward coming-out album. But it still has it's moments.

all of White Music's good moments are also on The Compact XTC, whereas Go 2 is this strange and wondrous creation I'd not been aware of - it's a HUGE leap forwards

I concur, and "Compact XTC" has stuff like "Wait Til Your Boat Goes Down" that (I think) is unavailable elsewhere. But, yeah, "Go 2" is overlooked and wicked fun!

fave tracks, predictably, are Battery Brides, Beatown, Life Is Good In The Greenhouse and I Am the Audience - basically all the longer, stranger, more dementedly atonal ones

but it's all awesome (apart from "My Weapon" for fuck's sake - take that one off and the album's gonna be perceived in an ENTIRELY different light by EVERYONE)

Go 2 has always been my least favourite XTC album by a long way, I actually sold it earlier this year (along with Mummer and Wasp Star) but I'm thinking I might have to give it another chance. I really like White Music, Radios in Motion is one of my favourite opening tracks ever.

I've been listening to them a lot recently. I'd rate Skylarking as the best closely followed by Drums & Wires.

As is well-documented, I wouldn't rate Skylarking THAT highly - it's slick and flows well but even allowing for taste I think English Settlement is such an astounding monolith of brilliance that I can't imagine a persuasive argument for Skylarking.

This said, Ballet For A Rainy Day -> 10,000 Umbrellas is flat-out genius and easily the highlight of the album. Am also extremely partial to Another Satellite.

Have made an XTC Spotify playlist with the available tracks, avoiding the big singles: http://open.spotify.com/user/louisjagger/playlist/1pQrOPOIMkNQP6B7isLQHt

no wait FUCK that, Senses Working Overtime is a cornerstone of my musical imagination

thinking of songs that were unlucky to miss out on that playlist and they're all on English Settlement pretty much

"My Weapon" is fun Fun FUN! I forget what Barry says about it in the "Song Stories" book, maybe that it's about what you think it's about but entirely tongue-in-cheek.

hey - I'm giving Super-Tuff a break (it's not bad!) which is more than most people are willing to give

"My Weapon" is just a not-very-good song tbh, questionable lyrics aside

Beatown invents Cardiacs, however, and is consequently AWESOME - in fact the three longest tracks on the album are all superlative

English Settlement has some great moments but it could do with a bit of trimming, Knuckle down is probably my favourite song on there.

I listened to The Big Express recently, that has to be their most frustrating album as it has some songs I absolutely love like I Bought myself a Liarbird, Seagull Screaming kiss Her Kiss Her and You're the Wish You Are I Had then some really awful songs like Shake you Donkey up and Reign of Blows. I wish I could I could go back in time and beg them to put out Everyday Story of a Small Town as the first single instead of All You Pretty Girls, which is another one I really hate.

Would never give up Senses Working Overtime because

but to me it's very – very – beautiful

I think that line alone put four years of life back into me.

the whole song is absolutely burned onto my mind like few things

you will be pleased to hear I gave Mummer a bit of a listen-through and was completely freaking bowled over by Ladybird in an "oh my!! how have I not heard this" sort of a way

Also I can think of hardly any songs with more British-to-American lost in translations, which is great. Neither of these American things is shaped like the world:

biscuit
http://iwilcope.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/red-lobster-biscuits.jpg

foobaw
http://www.ncsucrusade.com/images/football.jpg

xp

My Mummer top 5:

1. <3 on a Farmboy's Wages (all time cosmic <3, one of the best XTC songs)
2. Deliver Us From the Elements
3. Me & the Wind
4. Human Alchemy
5. Wonderland

will give the whole album a full listen upon waking - never has there been a better time to rediscover XTC

No fucking kidding.

man an ordered XTC POX would be so very hard

Complicated Game <- this song has never not blown my mind
Senses Working Overtime <- already eulogised
No Language In Our Lungs <- there is no language in our DUH-NUH-NUH-NUH DUH-NUH-NUH WHOOOHAAAAAAA AAAAAAA AAAAAAAH
Travels In Nihilon <- the older I get, the more fucking astonished I am that XTC created something like this
English Roundabout <- Colin writes prettiest song ever, first half of one of the GREAT closing 1-2s
Wrapped In Grey <- AWAKEN YOOOOOOOOU DREAMERRRRRRRS
The Wheel And The Maypole <- this is how you go out in style, kids - STELLAR PROG SUITE ABOUT DEATH AND REGENERATION, MARRIAGE/LIFE METAPHOR, GENIUS ETC
That Wave <- All! I! Fell! In! To! Was! Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove!
Greenman <- if this had been written by ANYONE else it would be TRYING WAY TOO HARD. as it is, it's plain fucking heroic.

literally torn between about 9 songs (No Thugs In Our House, Battery Brides, Ladybird, Church Of Women, The Smartest Monkeys (really), Ballet For A Rainy Day, I Can't Own Her, River Of Orchids, Jason And The Argonauts) for tenth place - gonna make it a Pick 9 Only and proffer that ^ as a second 9. ok fine it's a Pick 18 Only. and I left off Snowman. damn I need to tighten this shit up

btw in 1 month I will have changed my mind probably

ok I also forgot Humble Daisy which I was meaning to include, fuck doing this

also there are 2 XTC POX threads, both of which I only found in a search for 'complicated game'

maybe bedtime?

Someday I have to give Nonsuch another chance. I find it to be too slick and dainty. Coming from me, this is really saying something. I think "Big Express" was their best tho, so lord knows I love my lonely XTC 'challops.'

Hey...while I'm thinking about it, as a U.S. type person, I am not up on much but the broadest strokes of Britishes history. Would anyone care to help explain the line in "Towers of London" about "a bridge that doesn't go in the direction of Dublin"?

big express is *way* underrated. one of the best produced albums I own, and some of those tunes (wake up, liarbird, you're the wish you are) are imo among the best xtc did. and what the heck about I remember the sun?

as far as a POX, I could go the easy route and just pick the time honored faves: no language in our lungs, farmboy's wages, liarbird, ballet for a rainy day, 1000 umbrellas, season cycle, humble daisy, snowman, harvest festival, wake up...but I should revist the entire catalog sometime soon. I think I've gone longer than I ever have since finding xtc w/out a major listening phase.

related aside: dinner party tonight where host is apparently good friend of prairie prince. will do all I can to pick his brain about recording skylarking and apple venus should I ever happen into the chance!

Ab:

The navvies that 'pound' were usually irish, and would often sing of their homeland in songs while working on the bridge. Often the songs would be about returning home to Ireland/Dublin, "over the seaaa"

So, it kinda conflates that.

Shaun Keaveny played "Are You Receiving Me?" on his 6music breakfast show yesterday morning & I've *still* got it rattling round my brain. It was a great moment to start the day with, and I've never really rated that number (or Shaun Keaveny) before.

Louis better watch out that gangsta andy partridge and tha easside swindon krew dont pop a cap in his cracka ass.

Second the love for Big Express and especially Mummer *and and* especially Ladybird

Go 2 is this strange and wondrous creation I'd not been aware of - it's a HUGE leap forwards.

Absolutely. I took a very circuitous route to XTC fandom: the first one I owned was Drums & Wires, which I liked but didn't love at the time and thus didn't pick up Black Sea. First one I loved was English Settlement, whereupon I went back and bought the rest. Was blown away by Black Sea, reappreciated Drums & Wires, and then discovered Go 2 as a "strange and wondrous creation" (which presages a lot of what happens on D&W.)

Listening chronologically they were progressing by leaps and bounds on those first five records.

hahahaha yeah every record is an amazing forward-leap into the barely-known (although I'd argue Drums & Wires, while great, is SLIGHTLY overrated in comparison to the others - it has classics like MPFN, Helicopter, Reel By Reel, Scissor Man and the almighty Complicated Game, but it also has WAY more filler than the albums around it IMO)

Always liked "Roads Girdle the Globe" a lot. Is that "Drums and Wires"?

yeah that one's good too. HAIL MOTHER MOTOR HAIL PISTON ROTOR HAIL WHEEL

it's like a slightly rickety predecessor to the plain-fucking-incredible No Language In Our Lungs

I prefer the silliness of "Roads", "Language" is slightly wanky, dare I say it

TBF haven't listened to XTC in yonks

still dumbfounded at prior post

I wish I could I could go back in time and beg them to put out Everyday Story of a Small Town as the first single instead of All You Pretty Girls, which is another one I really hate.

― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 12 August 2010 04:03 (10 hours ago) Bookmark

man i heard that for the first time recently and played it like five times

also lj i have spent a crapload of time listening to xtc since you put that playlist on the other thread

althooooooooooough! i feel like none of the album-listening options really get into what i want to get out of xtc, except maybe skylarking, which i kind of killed by listening to it ~8,000 times in my late teens

i mean what i like about them is about them as songwriters and as studio experimenters in search of sounds which make those songs work -- whenever i listen to a whole album their sounds sort of register more as sets of textures created for the sake of an album's particular, er, aesthetic

not that that's a bad thing, obviously

have you noticed that playlist doubling in size over the past day or so? I've been busy :D

would argue English Settlement delivers whole-album joy and Nonsuch, for me at least, never drops below 'good'.

your point is interesting though - I don't THINK that on their very best work they homogenise their sound around 'variations on a theme', but it's a criticism that can be fairly aimed at, say, Oranges And Lemons or White Music

Skylarking is one of their more homogenous albums*, but it gets away with it on the strength of the songwriting

*great curveball that is Another Satellite notwithstanding

Should listen to some XTC again. (All my albums are in my mum's house)

I don't think I've heard "English Settlement" in about 20 years!

I've just remembered, I used to be able to play all the basslines on "English Settlement" (probably skipped the more difficult ones tho), same with "Black Sea", remember being able to do a mean "Rocket From a Bottle"

I like that XTC album "White Music" also.

Disturbing lack of of the astonishing Big Express on your POX Louis.

Not mentioned yet: I'd Like That, one of the romantic songs I've ever heard.

Wake Up wasn't far off inclusion, and it's in my Spotify playlist

I need to give TBE more of a listen though

The problem is that I grew up with all the albums EXCEPT for the first two, Mummer and TBE, so have really had to work to jam those ones into my consciousness

I grew up with The Beatles, so discovering XTC when I was about 18 was like revisiting blissful musical-first love.

They're easy to compare to Cardiacs I guess, but I get a completely different vibe from each band. Like Cardiacs kind of frighten me.

OTM on Complicated Game (the 'darkest" XTC song?) and English Roundabout which is totally Fragile-era Yes.

english roundabout is one of those rare songs in a non-standard time signature (5/4) that sounds completely natural and not forced

Travels In Nihilon is darker than Complicated Game but the latter is more savage

XTC are excellent Muppet music, which is why I can't listen to them for more than 25 minutes: all that hiccuping and bleating.

Black Sea is my favorite, actually.

XTC and Cardiacs aren't very similar at all - there's different things at stake, different vibes for both bands, different levels of intensity - different TYPES of intensity. The key's in the lyrics - both ingenious but in different ways that get to the core of the respective pop titans' psyches (XTC = very literate, verse-chorus, ornate, snarky - Cardiacs = scattergun, often barely-comprehensible, edge-of-mind, sublime frenzy)

Seen that promo photo of the new Swans lineup LJ? Gira a deadringer for Tim on the cover of STG.

link?

http://new.assets.thequietus.com/images/articles/4724/swans_headshots_large_1280489291_crop_550x532.jpeg

Any love here for the song Red Brick Dream? A BE era b-side, the odd way they sequenced the pre-remaster CDs (smack in the middle of the record, after 'side 1') has rendered lots of odd stuff forever as part of the official tracklisting in my brain. Sometimes a bad thing (Desert Island/Procession Towards Learning Land) and sometimes a good thing (Red Brick Dream, Blue Overall, Jump, Limelight)

Oops, neglected to mention that I was talking about B-Sides being sequenced. Brain fried from Gym.

I only found out the other day that Limelight, Chain Of Command and Life Begins At The Hop aren't meant to be on D&W :/

that's FIFTEEN YEARS OF MISUNDERSTANDING

All three of the tracks they bunged in the middle of Black Sea are great, IMO, especially Smokeless Zone which is one of Colin's best

Really? Smokeless Zone always seemed a little slight to me.

nah I love how it sounds, and how it careens to a wheezy halt

Tissue Tigers tho' right?

you've lost me

English Settlement b-side, you've never heard it?

It's a crappy rip, from a flexidisc but I can't find better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ut5xh6ZGfA

Life Begins at the Hop is on my OG 80's LP, which contained a 7" of Chain of Command and Limelight, but looking online there were a few different configurations of Drums & Wires around the world.

Smokeless Zone, Tissue Tigers and the rest of the B-sides that comprise the Beeswax LP make that a very interesting compilation imo.

XTC are one of those "wish I liked them more" bands. Love the singles/well known tracks, love some of the out there stuff (Complicated Game ftw) but everything in between leaves me almost completely cold.

Maybe repeated exposure would help but I doubt it. Listened to a few albums quite heavily some years ago, and I can still recall all the tracks from e.g. Drums and Wires, but everything between Nigel and Scissor Man totally blurs together into one big pile of meh.

there are a few highlights but it's an overrated album as I've said - Complicated Game is the behemoth standing over the rest and the album's truest legacy

tissue tigers is neat! although not as weird and wacky and generally unique as smokeless zone, which is a singularity IMO

I recently listened to all my XTC b-sides and there almost all top quality tunes chock-a-block full of odd time changes, interesting sounds and great lyrics.

yeah this will grow on me I think

RFI: Who is the female singer at the beginning of Dear God?

i thought it was a boy...

it's the daughter of a local friend of Rundgren's.

They put a little boy lip syncing that part in the video.

yeah thats probably why then!

C/D? XTC are damn classic!! Better songwriters than the Beatles! Also agreed re: the quality of some of their B-sides. I realize that Mummer was not really a great album, so it's frustrating to see that there was practically an entire album of great B-sides/unreleased singles that didn't make it. "Tissue Tigers" is one of their all time greats. Ditto for "Punch and Judy" and "The World is Full of Angry Young Men"

I have the CDs with all the B-sides as extras and they're great! But it's weird how they decided to put all the B-sides in the middle of the album.

In some cases yes. White Music and Mummer are the two that do that if I recall correctly. White Music doesn't really depend on sequencing so I don't mind...whereas on Mummer the bonus tracks are better than most of the album material :)

My copies of Drums & Wires, Black Sea, and Big Express have them in the middle as well. The other XTC albums I own are from a different run (the ones that looked like fake LPS in the flat cardboard cases that don't fit on some shelves).

I've listened to them all like that for so long that it's weird when I play the records without the B-sides. The only B-side that really sticks out, thematically, from the album it got shoved in the middle of is "Somnabulist" on Black Sea.

According to Andy's Ape Records website, on Nov. 22 they are rereleasing Skylarking on vinyl as two 45 rpm discs, containing both "Dear God" and "Mermaid Smiled" for the first (?) time, in regular (expensive) and deluxe (really expensive) editions.

Also, "During the course of this beautiful remastering job by legendary mastering engineer John Dent it was discovered that an error in the original mix chain had imparted all previous CD's and vinyls of the album with the unfortunate flaw of being out of polarity. In a nutshell this means that sounds that should have been pushing from your speakers where actually pulling them in to play out of the back more than the front!?! John has thankfully corrected this undetected error and we can tell you that this stunning cut of the album is about 30% better sounding than any previously heard."

Also also, they will be using the unseen-until-now original artwork for the album which was summarily rejected by anyone not named Andy Partridge:

http://www.ape.uk.net/images/Skylarkingfinal200.jpg

Preordering now. I'll wait for the CD myself.

I read about that "error", which seems bizarre to me. a) that is an amazing sounding record as it is, and b) really, you didn't notice this apparently glaring error???

Whoa, I read about that album artwork before, but finally seeing it is crazy!

That must have been a pretty big phase issue for an already good sounding record a whole %30 better. I call BS.

Yeah, I still can't see why that originally proposed album artwork got rejected.

Additionally, the back catalogue was remastered a few years back, most likely by Abbey Road mastering engineers, would expect they might have uncovered any phase issue.

They might have thought it was out-of-phase intentionally.

Nah, they'd have picked up on anything that drastic.

But on the other hand trying not to be a buzzkill, I hope that it does sound 30% better, that'd be amazing!

OG cover art = AWESOME

don't care about this "out of polarity" nonsense, seems like clatprap to me

these days 'black sea' is my favourite. it's got the hooks and songsmarts of 'skylarking', but with a darker, more menacing edge and generally more balls. no matter how many times i play 'drums and wires' all the way through, i can only ever remember a handful of the tracks ('complicated game' is just incredible, however).

Drums & Wires is soooo goddamn classic, if only for "When You're Near Me," "Outside World," "Scissor Man," "Real by Reel," "Helicopter,"..... such a keeper.

you're forgetting XTC's best song, AINYC

oh it's ok, charlie mentioned it

for me, CG is one of those "where the fuck did that come from??" songs you hear every now and again.

well if everyone put it as high on their 20thC ballot as I did it'd be doing quite well :P

was introduced to it v young. distinctly remember having to turn the hi-fi volume right up to be able to hear the first bit. then being blown to smithereens.

Will never listen to the Smithereens in the same light again.

ayo 'the greenhouse' is the name of my dog [/xtc lolz]

"Black Sea" is maybe my favorite XTC album? "Towers of London" is probably my favorite track on it.

English Settlement above Black Sea for me but it isn't too much of a thing

Black Sea has motherfucken No Language In Our Lungs which is probably second to Complicated Game

I realize that Mummer was not really a great album

Tracks were in the wrong order. If you shuffle it so it doesn't end with Funk Pop a Roll it works better.

OT: In my first uni course I opened an essay with a lyric from Funk Pop a Roll and the lecturer 'corrected' a spelling error in the lyric. 'That should be "YOUR pegs", not "YOU pegs"!' etc. Was a shit essay anyway.

btw that rejected Skylarking cover is the worst piece of crap I have ever seen iirc.

Some of my favourite XTC moments come from the Transistor Blast boxset, which looks like a superfans-only item but was actually indispensable in acquainting me with the magic of some of their early material; also, contains ballsier, less fussed-over versions of many top tracks (including the definitive versions of "No Thugs in Our House" and "Life Begins at the Hop"). Dig it up!

^^Agreed, it's a great box (much better than Coat of many Cupboards).

btw that rejected Skylarking cover is the worst piece of crap I have ever seen iirc very bad

― aa (Schlafsack), Wednesday, December 1, 2010 6:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

plus can't imagine anyone going out of their way to buy an expensive copy with "dear god" on it when you can easily buy a nice one without for about five bucks. counterintuitive.

I have the Mermaid Smiled version and having not grown up with Dear God was kinda disappointed when I got round to hearing it

I'd possible name Dear God as my favourite XTC song but I never understood why they took off Mermaid Smiled it's such a great song, probably in my top five songs on Skylarking. I've only ever owned the 2001 reissue so I'm used to the album having both songs if I was to get rid of a track it would be Big Day or Another Satellite.

NO. Another Satellite is one of the best songs.

Taking off tracks to add the single always makes me grumpy.

We should have a thread for these...

That's so true! In the same year as Skylarking, no less a band than Cardiacs removed the splendid 'I'm Eating In Bed' from their debut wide-release record and stuck the kinda commercialised 'Is This The Life' on instead - it's easily the album's low-point

I mean, this shit was only really a thing in the pre-CD late 80s, right?

or rather, pre-CD-being-universal

Well, I don't know of any album that would have become untenably long with the added track.

I realize that Mummer was not really a great album

I will rep for Mummer till the end of time, but I know its reputation as a weak sister is not unfair. More so when you listen to the 80s/90s cd version with 5 B-Sides sequenced right in the middle. Throwaway shite like Desert Island and those two instrumentals throw the balance off greatly.

For me, the potentially gauche aspects of the record are also what make it unusual and loveable. Yes, the production and certain arrangement ideas do scream ‘1983 What Hi-Fi reader’s poll Album Of The Year’, in it’s pristine quality and execution but it’s very beautiful sounding and a lot more subtle than David Lord’s slightly dated ‘The Big Express’.

The songs that do it for me are Beating Of Hearts, Deliver Us From The Elements, Great Fire, Me & The Wind, In Loving Memory Of A Name, the B-Sides Jump and Gold and especially Ladybird, which always gives me a mental picture of AP, post-breakdown, sitting in a rickety bamboo lawn chair in his garden in Swindon decompressing from the whole touring/recording treadmill and writing touchingly about noticing the small things.

^^^every word OTM

Ladybird is my way into that album but it's also so good it almost overshadows the rest...

"Human Alchemy" totally gives my brain a meltdown.

listening now

I don't see how someone could like "Ladybird" more than "Love on a Farmboy's Wages".

okok I'll rescreen the whole album

There's a couple of Fuzzy Warbles tracks that never got through the Mummur selection process (or maybe they were rejected outright by Virgin) that I would love to have heard on the record, but annoyingly their names escape me :)

"Mummer" is great IMO, but it was more the beginning of even better things to come. It was probably the first album where they tried out the more pastoral style they'd perfect on "Skylarking" and the next two albums. Which for me represents XTC at their best. Their pinnacle remains "Skylarking".

Out of "Mummer"'s tracks, I particularly love "Wonderland". Yet another example of how Moulding is dwarfed by Partridge in quantity yet often trashes him in quality.

Human Alchemy will take a few listens to sink in properly, I think. Ladybird is an instant bolt of sunshine into the snowy scenery I see before me

Wonderland is good, aye - remember that one well off the Compact XTC collection (ditto Great Fire)

Geir, I have heard a demo of a bunch of Col's rejected songs, we were given second refusal on. We didn't like any of them (If Wonderland had been one of them, we'd have had that).

And before anyone asks, no I wasn't allowed to keep a copy.

Mummur>Mummer...tsk

Putting them side by side, I think the reason I'd take Ladybird over LOAFW has a lot to do with the sound of the recording, it's slightly gauzy and opaque and has this great repetitive piano which you don't notice till the fade.

LOAFW is a more akin to pastoral English Settlement style pop, which they were already adept at writing. Ladybird was something new and the sound of the band turning a corner.

Mark, in what capacity did you hear them if you don't mind me asking, did you work for Virgin>

No, a friend of mine worked at their rehearsal studio in Swindon (he's assistant producer on that demo version of "Making Plans" off Coat), and colin had gone in one day to demo a bunch of songs so used him and a bunch of his mates to add drums/bass/bvocals in a 'live to tape' situation.

Ah right, very cool!

That's so true! In the same year as Skylarking, no less a band than Cardiacs removed the splendid 'I'm Eating In Bed' from their debut wide-release record and stuck the kinda commercialised 'Is This The Life' on instead - it's easily the album's low-point

Dear LJ, "I'm Eating In Bed" is rad but once you have a job you will understand the joys of a Cardiacs song about hating yr job

please return to your regularly scheduled XTC chat now - think I shall look into this Transistor Blast box, if it is still available, because a more rocking, less fussy "At The Hop" sounds like something I need to hear ASAP

a Cardiacs song about hating yr job

That's, like, the rest of the album! At least the first track. Probably some of the others.

also I have a job ffs

I owe you at least two apologies because a) sorry / congrats re job and b) for some reason I was thinking of the lyrics to the first track and not Is This The Life anyway, and now I've realised that I can think of no reason to disagree that it's the weakest track

duh

hahaha PWN sorry I mean yeah it's ok :)

My version of A Little Man and a House has them both. "Eating in Bed" is track 3 and "Is This the Life?" track 4. I had no idea it was ever any different. Great album. Nice to see them mentioned in this thread.

For Skylarking; I still can't get over how god-awful that new cover is. I mean the old cover was bad but this is just grotesque. And I don't even think it's meant as a joke. Anyway I've always had the one with "Dear God" and to me it fit the album well. But it's not a really good song at all and I always found the lyrics kind of silly. "Mermaid Smiled" is amazing. Just a ridiculously great groove and a zillion hooks in about two minutes. Love it.

Re Ladybird: The last two seconds of that track is amazing. The song fades to silence, then you get a very very quiet vibrato organ chord. It wraps up the track beautifully.

SO many great songs on Mummer.

Anyone have MP3s of these oddities:
Beatown (live 7/20/79 @ Marconi Club)
Roads Girdle the Globe (live 7/20/79 @ Marconi Club)

I think they were on a compilation or maybe a foreign single.

Or how about the BBC sessions that didn't make it onto "Transistor Blast", anyone have those?

I have a pile of studio demos that didn't make it onto anything (Rip van Ruben, Raising a Family in a House Full of Mice &c.).

Gerald, I have that Marconi Club concert, if you mail me your deets I can send you a copy.

Got quite a nice Aus radio concert from the year after that too iirc.

I have a pile of studio demos that didn't make it onto anything (Rip van Ruben, Raising a Family in a House Full of Mice &c.).

gimme

um please

I listened to XTC on shuffle to & from work thx to this thread. "I Need Protection" came on and I don't feel like I'd ever really listened to it. A weird little song it is, but neat! It sounds vulnerable and invulnerable at the same time.

also second Shakey's request

I Need Protection is pretty cool, I like the way it goes boing.

k shakey & abbbb plz send me ilxmail (me = AA + working email addr), I will dispatch within 48 hrs

there are roughly 10 btw, may require a few emails

you have the same stuff Autumn Almanac has...?

(me = AA + working email addr)

Transistor Blast is indeed great btw. Beautifully packaged, too, with each disc in its own coloured jewel case, all in a cardboard sleeve that looks a bit like an old radio.

Drums & Wireless is a good album to have, too – more BBC sessions. I can't remember whether there's overlap between the two but I don't think there is.

btw I've just taken Abbbottt's lead and have chucked my XTC collection (354 tracks, excluding Dukes) on shuffle. I've not heard this stuff properly in years so having a ball iirc.

I really should grab Transistor BLast.

Webmailed you SchlAAfsack!

Got 'em.

sorry I am easily confused by the internets

[chucked my XTC collection (354 tracks, excluding Dukes) on shuffle

lol so I guess we are having a lil online XTC listening party eh

I am being reminded that Andy Partridge has written a fair amount of songs I actually find painful to listen to fwiw (Stinking Rich, That Wave)

ya me too. I don't know how email will work but will try that first off.

xp yeah, a few stinkbombs in there, although to be fair Stinking Rich was aimed at tiny kids so sucking was sort of a prerequisite.

ha, rip van ruben didnt make it onto any of the warbles? great tune! definitely one of the most maddening examples of songs that didn't make it onto a proper album when "wounded horse" and "standing in for joe" did

Most of Wasp Star too sadly....

xp I know, weird eh? It's a stonking Red Rocking Horse-style gallumping bouncefest, completely successful but totally forgotten. I don't get that either.

Looking back, Wasp Star was probably as good an indication as any that XTC had to stop. One more album might really have been quite embarrassing.

"Easter Theater" came up, too, and its lyrics had always slipped by me. "chocolate nipple brown"! Best song on the album tho, imo.

Kind of wish I hadn't looked up the lyrics just now, though – think I like "we don't need a new life" better (which is how it sounded to me).

I really wanted to like WS but it was scuppered by Gregory's absence (nlike AV oddly) and I'm guessing Moulding had all but lost interest judging by his descent into brown jumper MOR piffle.

aw I like the Easter Theater lyrics, the adult-reflecting-on-childhood-romance angle

Easter Theatre is awesome, and has one of his best middle eights.

oh wait I'm thinking of Harvest Festival

yeah the Easter Theater lyrics are sorta stupid

I'd say about half of Wasp Star is great, altho it would've been improved by Gregory's presence, no doubt. The stuff that's bad is REALLY bad tho.

"We'd applaud a new life" makes more sense. I just liked the weird outlierness of "we don't want a new life" in this pastoral fertility orgy. It's like finding out the person you're married to doesn't like peanut butter. you still love them, but you have to think about it for a moment.

I could never get what that line really was "we'd have bought a new wife"? what?

XP - Shakey, just realised so am I! Ha!

Easter Theatre sounds like one of those puppet pantos staged with a paper stage and paper puppets. I don't know what you call them.

xxxp ahaha I thought it was 'we uphold her new life'

Oh and Harvest Festival is lovely.

Oh man, another thing I wanted to bring up – XTC has to have the most instances, for me, of needing a Britishes to Americans dictionary. So, what means the line in "Respectable Street" about "the caravans that never move from their front gardens"?

That moment at the start with the chair sounds..

Abbbottt, just a dig at families buying a mobile home then never getting around to using it.

XTC has to have the most instances, for me, of needing a Britishes to Americans dictionary.

That's weird and slightly annoying, because AP confuses everything by singing in an American accent. You can't do pastoral Englishtry with a US accent.

Respectable Street is a genius song in retrospect. All about those sorts of people with a completely unfounded sense of entitlement. My parents are a lower-class version of that, complete with the expensive but dormant caravan in the backyard.

A Cmaj7/G Fmaj7 (addB)
And what a year when the exams and crops all failed
F# /E# E C# B
Of course you passed and you were never seen again
A Cmaj7/G Fmaj7
We all grew and we got screwed and cut and nailed
F# /E# E C#
Then out of nowhere invitation in gold pen

So the "caravan" is more like a Winnebago than one of the things that Mr. Toad hung out in?

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:wUPCMVFelgnFJM:http://www.ibspro.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/caravan.jpg&t=1

Basically one of these.

Yeah, motorless, towed by something.

Maybe 'Mobile Home' isn't the right phrase, more Mr Toad than RV :)

I was imagining someone squeezing through a yard full of these

http://gypsywaggons.co.uk/ukvardos/wooden/wd75.jpg

which always made me think 'wtf?"

^^^Andy Partridge's house

Dukes of Stratosphear HQ tbh

Check yo headz email. You will have to rename file 2 from .zig to .zip coz gmail thought it contained a terrorist (it does not contain a terrorist).

btw chipping in to say that Harvest Festival is one of Partridge's 5 greatest-ever lyrics

weird I haven't received anything yet...?

was looking forward to receiving a terrorist

I got it, thx so much AA!

whoa, what is the story behind "Candymine"?

that's on Fuzzy Warbles. it was part of Andy's half-baked "sequel" idea for the Dukes (ie, a bubblegum glam record with lots of stupidly obvious sexual innuendos. Other songs included "Visit to the Doctor" and I think one other...?)

"Cherry in your Tree" I think?

great songs obviously

haha I wish that whole thing happened. I want to get the Fuzzy Warbles "stamp box" so bad!

Sorry for Candymine fail. Shakey, do you have an incoming email limit? They're all under 10Mb so

Oh and I have the stamp box. It's ace but sits on a shelf unloved along with every other interesting CD pack I've ever bought.

I don't have a mail limit, I'm wondering if it went to my junk folder or something tho

I shall wait for you to check your etc etc

"Candymine" not a fail imo insofar as I had no idea this song existed until today + it is nutso.

Trivia: "Candymine" plus "Prince of Orange," "It's Snowing Angels" and "My Brown Guitar" (here called "Some Lovely (My Brown Guitar)") were originally released in 1994 as an EP through John Flansburgh's Hello CD of the Month Club subscription series. The first 3 songs were rereleased on Fuzzy Warbles; "My Brown Guitar" was later recorded by XTC for Wasp Star but the demo has never been rereleased.

Drums & Wireless is a good album to have, too – more BBC sessions. I can't remember whether there's overlap between the two but I don't think there is.

― Nmutua Canamla (Schlafsack), Thursday, December 2, 2010 10:51 PM (2 days ago)

I just cross-referenced the two, and every track first released on Drums & Wireless is included in the Transistor Blast box.

Ah, thanks.

"My Brown Guitar" was later recorded by XTC for Wasp Star but the demo has never been rereleased.

Correction: It was rereleased on the Homegrown demos collection. (Gads, a shameful mistake! Strip me of my XTC completist credentials!)

I agree that Wasp Star is probably one of their worst. To be fair though, it's probably their most immediate and accessible. There are some really catchy riffs on there but I kind of feel as though Moulding didn't really care anymore and Partridge was kind of losing his mind a bit. On the other hand Apple Venus is brilliant. It's not a fistpump five star album but the best parts of it are some of the most lush and beautiful music I've ever heard. I cannot believe that the same guy who was dicking around with "Statue of Liberty" would write something as amazing as "Greenman" two decades later. I mean "Statue" rules but that's quite a change of pace.

"Candymine" not a fail imo insofar as I had no idea this song existed until today + it is nutso.

My first time hearing this too! Like XTC doing 1910 Fruitgum Company, and therefore fabulous!!

I got divorced last week and forgot to listen to 'your dictionary' - correcting that now and forgot how awesome 'Apple Venus' is as a complete rekkid...

YES, that is the best post-break-up-catharsis song ever. Sorry/pleased (pick one) to hear about your divorce btw.

frogbs: Wasp Star ends with 'The Wheel and the Maypole' which almost completely redeems it imo, but yeah, Moulding absolutely phoning it in by then.

yeah the one-two punch of Church of Women/Wheel and Maypole is a very "whoah" moment given the rest of the album

Moulding's creepy song themes, married couples flirting/sex/talk with added swinger overtones applied to his brown music was a real let down on WS.

Agreed on the Wheel/Maypole. A great way to end their career if nothing else. Actually I found "You and the Clouds Will Still be Beautiful" to be pretty good as well (if a little dopey).

I wonder what Partridge is up to these days...is he doing production work now, or has he been recording at all over the last decade? I remember hearing he had writer's block, but somehow I don't think someone with his talent would go dry an entire decade...

Shakey, did you ever get those emails?

Partridge? Don't know. He's certainly stopped releasing good material, preferring to dick around with entire albums full of impro and mismanage a record label. Maybe he's just being a dad/grandad and enjoying himself.

I did not

but I didn't wanna seem too whiny about it

agh k. Do you have an incoming size limit per message?

Partridge and Gregory are talking again so I hear.

They've been talking for a while but nothing has happened. tbh I'm amazed Gregory's wasting his time with such a vicious serial backstabber.

I do not have an incoming size limit. however, I do have a rather unusual e-mail address (people usually assume it should be .com instead of .cc, but no it is a .cc address)

I did that. Weird. Let me check tonight when I get home.

While we're here I just want to prop 'The Bland Leading the Bland' (I know it's a warble but wotevz) for correctly representing everything I hate about modern life and the constant and overwhelming pressure to fall in line with it. Lyrically top five of all-time imo.

vicious serial backstabber

Elaborate, please...

I just had a silly thought that is probably only pleasurable to me, but:
if "Your Dictionary" was about how he divorced his wife because she was bad at spelling.
"F-I-T-E, is that how you spell fight in your dictionary?"

ahahahaha

xp He has a Gilliam-like habit of publicly blaming everyone within 500km for his own failures, and he's not nice about it. Evidenced in pretty much any of his interviews from the past 15 years.

Also this

Moulding's creepy song themes, married couples flirting/sex/talk with added swinger overtones applied to his brown music was a real let down on WS.

― Pottery Owls (MaresNest), Thursday, 9 December 2010 07:40 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

is the best ever description of Moulding's input to that record, especially the 'brown music' bit.

Yeah it's true that Partridge doesn't sound like the easiest person to work with but in his defense he has gotten dicked over a lot. I mean if you listen to an XTC singles comp it's just really hard to fathom how this band almost never got played on the radio. Maybe the whole "not touring" thing really bit them on the ass??

Dunno, I remember that documentary where they're recording "Towers of London", where APart is dicking around at the mic, and John Leckie quietly remarks "ah good, he's in a good mood today"...

Oops. Okay Shakey, I just checked the email address and it's fine. I did BCC you both though, so maybe something went wrong there.

Is the Fuzzy Warbles Collector's Album already out of print?

It looks like the big 9cd boxset is out of print but individual volumes are plentiful on AmazonUK.

http://ape.uk.net/acatalog/Andy_Partridge.html

^^^ all available apparently

(the box is great btw)

Am I reading correctly that the box is out of stock from Ape Records, tho?

Like yes I'd like all the individual volumes but that box looked cute & awesome plus Andy writes thoughtful & funny notes.

Oh god, I just realised there's no way to ~buy~ anything

I have had Generals and Majors stuck in my head since yesterday. I am going insane. That is all.

I was watching Ric Burns' New York documentary today and right around where they talk about the death of Walt Whitman, Frost Circus pops up.

i had a dream last night that i was watching a biopic about XTC. i don't really know anything about XTC so it was pretty much all made up. there was a scene where a guy with long rocker hair got a haircut so that he looked more cleancut and modern.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/3920749.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_uB-0D-gV8mY/Rp7M5xT0_HI/AAAAAAAAC3E/LdVzTX-xQVU/s400/xtc1980.jpg

have come to really wish Fuzzy Warbles was chronological

I reordered the tracks when I ripped them but there's some annoying cross-fades that broke.

well I would re-order them now but it would mean digging through all the liner notes. which appear to be the only place any reference is made to the dates of recordings.

Yeah, it's a bit challenging. I have a spreadsheet that I can send you if you're interested.

I wouldn't mind making a playlist of these, crossfades bedamned

lol wow yeah if you actually have a spreadsheet I totally want it!

Ok, this may not be quite what you're looking for but here you go: http://www.divshare.com/download/19202708-09f

It's a list of the previously unreleased full songs (not instrumentals, joke bits or demos of released songs) from various sources, primarily Fuzzy Warbles. I've listed the album session it was recorded for and approximate date. I've gleaned this information from the FW liner notes, the Chalkhills website and some other sources I can't recall. Let me know if you spot any errors or have further questions.

Hold on, technical difficulties, one moment...

Use this link: http://www.divshare.com/download/19202877-fa5

thanks, gerald, will consult

this is awesome - thanks so much!!!

that covered a lot of bases - if anyone has any idea for the years the following were recorded please speak up!

It's Snowing Angels
Blue Overall
The Bland Leading the Bland
I Gave My Suitcase Away
Rocket
Extrovert
Lightheaded
These Voices
Open a Can of Human Beans
I Defy You Gravity
Smalltown
Red Brick Dream

It's Snowing Angels: Recorded by Andy Partridge on 14 August 1990
Blue Overall: Recorded during sessions for The Big Express
The Bland Leading the Bland: recorded during Wasp Star
I Gave My Suitcase Away: ?
Rocket: guessing around O&L or before Nonsuch
Extrovert: recorded during Skylarking
Lightheaded: guessing around Wasp Star or later
These Voices: 2003
Open a Can of Human Beans: ?
I Defy You Gravity: mid 90s sometime, around same time as my brown guitar?
Smalltown: Black Sea?
Red Brick Dream: Black Sea sessions

http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/i_song.html

first time I am hearing Open A Can, apparently this was a Dukes production, but definitely sounds like later era XTC, maybe Wasp Star or later?

Is "Smalltown" different than "(The Everyday Story of) Smalltown"?

Ah, I see what you're asking, never mind.

Some corrections and clarifications:
It's Snowing Angels: Recorded by Andy Partridge on 14 August 1990 - the Nonsuch sessions
I Gave My Suitcase Away: ? - around 2005
Rocket: guessing around O&L or before Nonsuch - in 1991, the Nonsuch sessions
These Voices: 2003 - around the time of "Wonderfalls"
Open a Can of Human Beans: ? - for the Wish List comp in 2003
I Defy You Gravity: mid 90s sometime, around same time as my brown guitar? - around 2000
Smalltown: Black Sea? - no, this appears on Big Express
Red Brick Dream: Black Sea sessions - no, the Big Express sessions as it was a b-side from that album

y'know, this Martin Newell album that Andy did is pretty underrated

Greatest Living Englishman (the song) is one of his best collaborative works ever imo

Fucking hell, I love this band. I went away for the New Year to visit some friends and didn't actively listen to much music for the duration I was there. As soon as I got back home, I put Mummer in the stereo, put on the headphones and stuck on 'Love On A Farmboy's Wages'... as soon as the chorus had kicked in and those beautifully-recorded guitars tickled my eardrums, I felt like I was falling in love with this band all over again. Superb. Fucking superb.

Yep, Andy's a genius. Be sure to check out his two collaboration with Peter Blegvad!

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/3920749.jpg

dave mustaine played in XTC briefly before going on to form metallica.

I listened to their entire discography from Drums and Wires on a little while ago and it really is pretty breathtaking

i am complete awe of XTC and they might be most underrated/underacknowledged band of all time (except maybe some unnamed group of tribal aborigine musicians living in Papau New Guinea in the mid 1200s), but somehow only about 30% of their proper albums seem stunningly and unprecedentedly brilliant, while 70% is merely good or decent. as a singles band, they are hard to beat though.

they might be most underrated/underacknowledged band of all time

On the second count most definitely, on the first I don't know - I hear bands like Sparks and XTC referred to as "underrated" all the time and it seems that well, among *those who have heard them*, they're rated extremely highly - the question is why didn't XTC, who wrote some of the catchiest singles of the 80's, pick up more fans? Sure, their record company hated them, but it's still weird to think that bands like Midnight Oil are still known by your average Dad while it seems only music nerds really value XTC. When, as you mention, they've a good 20-some singles that are just undeniable. That's what strikes me about songs like "Life Begins at the Hop", or "Love on a Farmboy's Wages", or "Senses Working Overtime" - they do everything an amazing pop song should do, and then some. They're not even "weird" like Sparks. I don't get it.

it took me dozens of listens to like nearly every xtc album. it's quality music that takes time to digest. a few singles have immediate appeal, but on the whole the albums require work.

I've shifted on this point for XTC -- in that now, I think it's pretty amazing they became as popular as they did. Partridge really doesn't strike me as the kind of guy with enough patience or tact to be "famous". He kind of does what he wants, as far as songwriting, even when he's trying to be super "accessible". Despite the fact he's essentially a genius at melody, song structure, harmony, etc, he still seems incapable of writing something for "everyone", at least on purpose. So, if you like what he does -- well, you kind of have to *love* it.

yeah, he's been contracted to do heaps of writing for television/film, other artists, etc., but apart from the wonderfalls theme nothing really went anywhere

the amount of commissioned stuff on Fuzzy Warbles that got turned down is pretty incredible

a new rerelease campaign was announced that would involve their entire catalogue being mixed in 5.1 surround sound and released in expanded editions beginning with their 1992 album Nonsuch.

lol waht how much more crap could there possible be

oh god

at first I thought that meant they would be started chronologically with Nonsuch and then moving forward but duh that's only um three albums, two of which have already been repackaged and reissued in multiple formats. but maybe they're not going to go chronologically... either way, would rather just hear some new stuff at this point :(

otfm

Nonsuch one of their best obv

Haha at this thread being next to the Cure one. The two bands of my early youth! XTC got older more gracefully

I can't muster much enthusiasm for 5.1 mixes but maybe we'll get comprehensive non-lp collections with each album.

Little bit on O&L here:
http://thequietus.com/articles/14404-xtc-oranges-and-lemons

dunno if I agree that problem with O&L is "too many instruments" or overly busy arrangements. feel more like too many of the songs are lazy retreads of previous ideas.

Problem for me is that it's mixed like a record from 1989.

I don't think the abundance of instrumentation is necessarily a bad thing but the way it's mixed makes it hard to focus. I looked up John Fox's wiki page and his only other production I've heard is TMBG's John Henry which is kind of similar - good material stretched too thin and too many distractions in songs that didn't need them.

It always sounded to me like a jingle writer's overlong demo tape. It was a pretty huge disappointment at the time, as I loved Skylarking and couldn't wait to hear where they'd go next (Psonic Psunspot notwithstanding).

I don't think the abundance of instrumentation is necessarily a bad thing but the way it's mixed makes it hard to focus

Bingo. I adore this album, but the mixing could have been better. It's a glossy, tiring record that takes a lot of attention. Took me years to get past that and really get into it, but I love almost every song nowadays.

first song on that album is so great.

huh was unaware of this lil bit of "inspiration"

http://www.rare-posters.com/2354.jpg

"scarecrow people" is sucha great song.

as is generally the case w XTC, always funny to hear fans' different favorites. no one ever agrees. has to be the least-consensus-making band ever.

forgs otm - cluttered & lifeless arrangements/production killing songs that might have worked if delivered differently. i have in moments come to appreciate O&L, but it's still XTC & andy's big dropoff point afaic.

has to be the least-consensus-making band ever

I'm thinking Autechre is the poster child for this (or maybe Prince??) but I have definitely been shocked at the number of people who loved Nonsuch, which I found dull and lifeless, but have since come around to in a big way. Meanwhile I love White Music but you don't see anyone boosting for that one (granted, I love it for the same reasons that many can't stand it).

I do think they had plenty of good music left in 'em on O&L and beyond, but it definitely feels like the moment where the end was in sight. I would've loved to write about Apple Venus (turns 15 this year!); maybe the best "last gasp" album I've ever heard

I'm very keen to see how the eventual XTC poll shakes out, because yeah, I have no idea what consensus there is on this band if any. Among the albums, I often see Skylarking cited as their best, but a lot of fans have disdain for its most well-known song! Maybe everyone will vote for 20 songs with no absolutely overlap and we can call it a day

looks like it was done 6 years ago, here were the results:

Drums & Wires 13
Skylarking 10
English Settlement 9
Black Sea 4
The Big Express 2
Go 2 2
Oranges & Lemons 1
White Music 1
Mummer 1
Wasp Star 1
Nonsuch 0
Apple Venus Pt. 1 0

Very surprising - I figured both Skylarking and English Settlement would be Top 3, but no votes for Nonsuch or Apple Venus is odd, and I only know of one person who thinks D&W was their best overall. I'd picture D&W getting 0 votes before Nonsuch. Curious how the Dukes stuff would slot in there too

Meanwhile I love White Music but you don't see anyone boosting for that one (granted, I love it for the same reasons that many can't stand it).

― frogbs, Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:52 PM (22 minutes ago)

white music & go 2 tied for my favorite

25 O'Clock would be pretty high on my ballot.

I think I'm slated to run the XTC poll...? I expect the turnout to be small (20 voters tops probably) and the vote spread very wide, with next to no overlap. Dukes and other sundry spinoff stuff will be eligible.

at one point i had at one point every xtc album up to oranges and lemons including dukes stuff, but i've never owned or heard the rest, other than peter pumpkin head (i hated oranges and lemons that much).

listening to wasp star now. this seems pretty good!

the last two are really great capstones to their career

Wasp Star is probably their most immediate album, every song is just so obviously catchy, though it does feature "Wheel and the Maypole" which is such a great way to round out their career. Still, Apple Venus is the one you want - if not for Moulding's songs it would be practically a perfect album.

Haven't listened to Wasp Star in years, but only remember really liking "Church of Women" and "Wheel and the Maypole". In fact, I mostly remember how the version of "My Brown Guitar" paled in comparison to the more Dukes-y demo, and they didn't even include stuff like "Wonder Annual" or "Ship Trapped in Ice" but did include "Standing in for Joe" and "Wounded Horse", which is maybe the least essential XTC song ever. Ugh, and now I'm hopping mad just typing that >:(

Apple Venus has the biggest disparity between the Andy and Colin songs. Two decent songs that sound like they were written just so they could call it an XTC album vs. some of the most ambitious arrangements the band ever made. Not crazy about Colin's songs on Wasp Star either, but Andy's songs aren't a whole lot better. Not surprised Colin called it a day after that, seemed his presence was more obligatory. Kinda sad too, he wrote some of their best songs.

still listening- i did recognize the man who murdered love, don't know where i'd have heard it though.

Ship Trapped in the Ice is so good

Eek. I disagree with a couple of the premises (Partridge "maturing" from the barker or whatever).

Not surprised Colin called it a day after that, seemed his presence was more obligatory. Kinda sad too, he wrote some of their best songs.

My thoughts exactly - seems every album had something brilliant from him, "Generals and Majors", "Wake Up", "English Roundabout", "One of the Millions", "Sacrificial Bonfire", etc. - then on those last two he didn't seem interested at all. I still appreciate Wasp Star as a total crowd-pleaser, "Wounded Horse" or not

i just listened to ship trapped in the ice from wasp star demos, i guess? it's good, was there another version? xp

This is a long XTC thread, so my "Colin's songs" story is probably upthread someplace.

even better, now i'm listening to a version of "ship" purporting to be from a fuzzy warbles vol 2, it really just sounds like a much better rip of the same track. xpost