The Wheel and the MayPOLL: The XTC Poll Results Thread

Maybe Vanishing Girl? Mole From the Ministry is my favourite but not sure how popular it is.

mole will surely

girl too

I bet My Love Explodes is yet to come.

The Graphics Bear knows, but he's not telling.

Little Lighthouse is my favorite.

Those of you who were around: what was XTC's college presence 1979-1986, i.e. between D&W and Skylarking? "Senses Working Overtime" was big, according to CMJ. I guess I'm most curious about reception and airplay.

I did a lot of my ballot from memory and already found the first casualty: "My Bird Performs". Not a big fan of Nonsuch, but you can mentally jump that song a few places up since it should have been on my ballot

Nice to see the appreciation for "My Bird Performs," since it's always seemed that all of Colin's songs on Nonsuch were commonly loathed on ILM.

"Bungalow," however, does suck.

I was familiar with "Senses" in '83-84 due to MTV airplay and "Respectable Street" thanks to the Urgh! soundtrack. Unfortunately, my university didn't really have a functioning radio station while I was there. Those two songs and some good press (in Spin? RS?) led me to buy Waxworks/Beeswax.

Nice to see the appreciation for "My Bird Performs," since it's always seemed that all of Colin's songs on Nonsuch were commonly loathed on ILM.

"Bungalow," however, does suck.

― Hideous Lump

I love Bungalow but Smartest Monkeys and War Dance are so bad. Up there with very worst XTC songs for me.

Random comments (since I couldn't comment during the actual rollout because I was wearing my "Travels in Nihilon"-brand Isolator Helmet):

- "Beating of Hearts" was my #1. I went into this with no idea what was going to be #1, but that floated to the top over the other contenders "Generals & Major," the equally-unlikely "It's Nearly Africa," "Earn Enough for Us" and "Wrapped in Grey."

- "Roads Girdle the Globe" (which I type as "Roads Girdle the Glove" every damn time) was a song that took me years to like, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's that weird deep voice Andy uses.

- I'm glad "River of Orchids" made the list, but there are two things that kept it out of my top 50:
1. There's such strange beauty and flow in this song, but that yelpy "I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus" melody just does not fit.
2. Synth horns! Grrrrr!!

The yelpy part is my favorite part of "River of Orchids"! On average, I'd say my favorite part of any given XTC song is the part that was most annoying the first time I heard it

Cool results far, my #1 hasn't placed yet but I've honestly no idea if it stands a chance. Brilliant work with the images too, they're all very XTC. No real consensus on eras or albums at all (although I don't think that surprised anyone!). Wonder if there'll even be a single song with more than one #1 vote?

I'm shocked Seagulls is so low, would have been in my top 5

A word in defence of "Dear God". It didn't place high on my ballot, but if I'd been voting as a teenager it would have. In terms of the lyrics, I think it works in the same way that Kurt Vonnegut's writing does: as an antidote to received notions. Vonnegut's a great author, but he's not really readable as adult literature. DG is a great YA song, and if the lyrics induce some eye-rolling later in life, it does their particular power a disservice to dismiss them completely. Disregarding the lyrics, it's got an amazing melody (and the melody is rhythmically wonderful bedsides) and a top-notch middle eight. Just as tune qua tune it's great pop and deserves better than it gets.

^

(altho even as a teenager I was like, "why does he want beer to remain expensive?")

would prefer reduction in the price of tea, I expect

ok top 20 coming up

gonna roll these out a little more slowly than yesterday

20. Love On A Farmboy's Wages (1116 points, 14 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/XTC%20ILM%20Top%2060/20-LoveOnAFarmboysWages.jpg

A last minute addition for me. I didn't mark it down after my relisten through Mummer but then I kept singing it to myself/in my head over the next few days...

^YAY "Earn Enough For Us" prequel. Such an awkward song, but it works despite some wrongfooted moves (the bridge is not one of Andy's best). It was my #69 (!) but I would have been disappointed if it hadn't placed.

***

The only choice on the list so far that mystifies me is "You're The Wish". I never woulda pegged it to place at all, much less scraping the top 20. It's one of the few XTC songs I actively loathe. Such an unctuous chorus.

let's play god

certs

senses
nigel
game
lungs
thugs
children
street
majors
towers
earn
cauldron
grass
mole
hop
real

which leaves 4. theatre? girls? sudden? scissor?

oh, girl, obv (of the vanishing kind)

Totally agree about Dear God's melody, was listening to it the other day and wishing that the lyrics weren't so r/atheism, cause it's one of the best conventional melodies they wrote.

oh, MAYPOLE, lol

Red Brick Dream, duh

agree w hardcore dilletante that the middle 8 in LOAFW is a bit awkward, while not bad in isolation it sounds like it's flown in from another track/song entirely, like it was punched in. the rest of this song though... damn, so perfect. an obvious precursor to the Apple Venus stuff, the first real flowering of Andy's Brit pastoral psych side.

Is it too much to hope that Rook gets a place?

friction
affiliated
liberty
hop sha la la la la
R-O-T-A-R-Y..
"gather round..."
decency's jigsaw
"this must be make-believe.." oh that's the same song never mind
And win a night out.. with a FAMOUS paranoiac..

That's why I couldn't do a ballot: So many songs would end up with one vote..

I used to live on Rossmore Rd

Always loved this song, agree it was one of the first great examples of him writing in the psych-ish, pastoral mode. Just a pretty song, with a pretty sentiment.

i was a bit so-so on XTC's whole pastoral/madrigal vibe but I've since embraced it as something that's really quite original and unlike anything else a pop band has really done before or since.

oh there's precedents - Macca's Mother Nature's Son for ex.

"Love on a Farmboy's Wage" is one of the few of the pastoral songs for which I voted.

19. Complicated Game (1124 points, 13 votes)
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/XTC%20ILM%20Top%2060/19-ComplicatedGame.jpg

that game looks awesome

oh there's precedents - Macca's Mother Nature's Son for ex.

― Οὖτις, Thursday, October 16, 2014 4:49 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Musically I don't really hear it. Mother Nature's Son is a nice fingerstyle pop tune, but it in no way resembles the pre-industrial folk vibe as 'Farmboys', 'Pretty Girls', 'Cauldron' or 'Maypole'. They have a distinct aesthetic, like late-medieval folk songs filtered through big, wet eighties pop production. It's quite unique AFAIK.

imo XTC were definitely more "English" sounding than the Beatles. I can't really think of other songs that sound like "Farmboy's Wages" either, and am not familiar enough with bands like Pentangle or Fairport Convention to say if they were precendents. Maybe something like the solo acoustic guitar songs on Yes records? Ha, pretty sure that's NOT what AP was going for...

My #2, was so nearly my #1 but someone else came along and moved it (my other cranial hemisphere)

but like

like

graaaaaaaaaaaaaggghhhhh

Maybe something like the solo acoustic guitar songs on Yes records? Ha, pretty sure that's NOT what AP was going for...

Xgau's early reviews of XTC suggest a Yes influence on the band.

xtc could make the most gorgeous, ornate English pastoral pop that had existed

they could also fire the most soul-searing, vicious, primal, hollow post-punk exocets into the sun of hypocrisy and spite

thus is xtc's glory

oh there's precedents - Macca's Mother Nature's Son for ex.

Muswell Hillbillies and Village Green sorta do this

theatre, girl, girls, maypole rounds off my prediction. if 'brides' gets in I will be surprised and ecstatic

and it would appear even The Big Express has its defenders.

This baffles me -- is TBE not thought highly of by XTC fans? I always loved it, except for "All You Pretty Girls" and "Seagulls" -- the stiffness of the drum machine programming ruins those.

it's kind of an ugly sounding album imo

which seems to have been the goal so ok fair enough but it's clangor is kind of a grind to get through for me

I like Big Express, but it took a few years, especially because it was the second XTC record I heard, after Skylarking. Now, I think it's one of their most interesting records (both on songwriting and production fronts), and has some of my favorite songs (voted for 4).