The Wheel and the MayPOLL: The XTC Poll Results Thread

quite glad it didn't make the top 10 tho as imo it's one of the least interesting songs on skylarking. that is the only negativity you'll see from me for the rest of the poll tho

earn enough will be in the top 10, absolute lock. didn't vote for it but 100% sure

There's a video for "Grass" ?! (rushes to youtube)

the one Skylarking video I *did* see at the time was Dear God, which is pretty stupid

Ha, yeah, I saw it around the time of release too, and it's pretty terrible. 120 Minutes also showed "Senses Working Overtime" once as a "cult classic" clip.

Still not sure what's going to make the top 10. A lot of songs I thought were certain to make it have already placed (Grass, Chalkhills, Wrapped In Grey and Summer's Cauldron) I think Black Sea is going to do very well, can see maybe five songs from it placing.

I'm concerned that my number one isn't going to sneak in there. There are lots of notable Black Sea songs to go.

10 of my predicted 'certs' left:

senses
nigel
lungs
street
majors
towers
earn
mole
hop
real

real by reel may be fanciful tho

My number one's from Apple Venus.....

easter theatre i guess

that was in my 'maybes' list

Battery Brides
Tissue Tigers
Take This Town

Easter Theatre will defiantly make it.

life begins at the hop isn't that good so maybe ilx has mercifully refrained (i was lying about no more negativity ;))

battery brides being top 10 would make my day

Would love 'Easter Theatre' to make the top 10. Given up hope of my #1 placing though.

Life Begins at the Hop is great. Is there any chance Senses is not that popular on here?

whoooooa

10. Towers of London (1426 points, 17 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/XTC%20ILM%20Top%2060/10-TowersOfLondon.jpg

good song, love the double-take middle-eight with those diddly keyboards contrasting the industrial thump of the rest of the song

I saw them on the Black Sea. Real highlight of my high school show going days. Towers was great, esp. Dave G's beautiful guitar fill just before the "Londinium" part. Still gives me chills.

strikes me as odd that Andy didn't insist on doing a more literal "construction"-sort of arrangement of this song, with parts being gradually added/accumulating, rather than the full barrel bang-n-clang from the first beat approach that they went with. It just seems like the kind of thing he would do.

too low. holy crap, I've never know anyone that saw them.

**Black Sea Tour***

ok wanna get this done before leaving for home so the top 10 are gonna come a little quicker

**Black Sea Tour***

!!!

I had a tape of their Cleveland show from that tour, and it was a blinder.

I also read that they were among the loudest bands of their era -- nearly Who-like in volume. Was that your experience?

Don't remember that Montgomery. It was at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago so the acoustics were shit anyway.

Oh haha, yeah, I've seen a few shows there, and I've never seen one that didn't sound completely awful.

The BBC Radio 1 live disc sounds great, lots of Black Sea and before songs

I was away and missed the bulk of the top 20. Vanishing Girl was my #1 simply due to the fact that it's spent a solid couple months lodged in my head. It is the mother of all earworms

it's been retrospectively ruined a bit by sounding like 'the lion sleeps tonight', but fuck disney so yeah #1 accepted

9. Easter Theatre (1444 points, 16 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/XTC%20ILM%20Top%2060/09-EasterTheatre.jpg

Towers my #1. Such a breathtaking middle-eight.

Vanishing Girl...It's one of the catchiest choruses of all time.

when i first heard av vol 1 aged, what, 12 or 13, this was the mindblower. i played it to all my classmates. they were all 'ew wtf chocolate nipple brown'. but it was such a song! having the guitar solo after the first chorus and getting all *intense* after the second was kinda genius

Easter Theatre is such an incredible and beautiful song. Very happy to see it so high.

tbf of Apple Venus' big orchestral blowouts I slightly favour Greenman but fully understand why Easter Theatre is 'the one'

Vanishing Girl...It's one of the catchiest choruses of all time.

Yeah, I'd say so. I haven't heard it since 1988, and I can still remember how it goes.

8. The Mayor of Simpleton (1448 points, 17 votes, 2 No. 1 votes))
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/XTC%20ILM%20Top%2060/08-MayorOfSimpleton.jpg

listening to this right now. it's pretty but wayyy too slick. or is that its appeal? will i yield in 15 listens' time

Sigh...

second listen and yeah that bassline is doing strange things to me

Had no idea this was so popular.

I batted around Street and Towers and Nigel as #1's for a minute, and then I realized 'oh wait, it's Simpleton'.

certs:

senses
nigel
lungs
street
majors
earn

surely, BUT...maybe not somehow?:

mole

WYAGM Albert Brown

What this is?

So many great songs that aren't even going to place!

That is how great they are

But yet so many marginal songs that did place...

it's all fairly uncontroversial bangerz from here on out tbf

x-post

yeah! I guess we should cover the also rans on the ILXTC song compilation

Didn't they release a single under the name The Fairly Uncontroversial Bangerz?

lol @ everyone who's surprised by this placing, even in the top 10. Mayor of Simpleton is one of the tentpoles of the XTC discog.

7. No Language in Our Lungs (1456 points, 17 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/XTC%20ILM%20Top%2060/07-NoLanguageInOurLungs.jpg

Photos have been brilliant throughout the countdown, but that one is absolutely killer.

^^

my #5

it's just... fucking enormous