The Wheel and the MayPOLL: The XTC Poll Results Thread

^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).

18. Wrapped in Grey (1151 points, 13 votes, 1 No. 1 vote))
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/XTC%20ILM%20Top%2060/18-WrappedInGrey.jpg

a beauty, this one

o lol I even voted for this & forgot to predict it

the song that broke their relationship with Virgin

highest note ever sung by AP?

haha yeah maybe

TBE took me a long time to come round to. I don't know who thought "All You Pretty Girls" should have been a single; it's so murky and weird, with the ska-squeezebox carrying the instrumental load in the verses, the artificially harmonized submarine vocals in the chorus, the whistling solo (!) (?) (?!), the offkilter, oft unresolved Irish diddling in the outro... it's a mess. Kind of a glorious mess to my ears, but the pop audience could be predicted to run screaming. "Smalltown" would have been a better choice, IMO. The album as a whole is cluttery and clangy and deliberately rebarbative, but not as cohesive as it feels like it should be, and the highs aren't quite as high as the highs on their other records. This go-round I really grooved on its weirdness - the bizzare prog yee-haw vibe of "Shake You Donkey Up", the offbeat guitarplay in "Wake Up", the aggressive harmonica and in-your-face handclaps on "Reign of Blows". Definitely a "for fans only" kind of affair.

"Wrapped in Grey" one of those connoisseurs' picks that I have never warmed to (same for "Pale and Precious").

always liked "Wrapped in Grey" for the ending, and in very typical Partridge fashion, he lands on a minor 7th, only to go down to the 6th. I also happen to love "resolutions" like that (perhaps because of AP?), and the only other composer who comes to mind that does it a lot as well is Messiaen. Feeling-wise, it's like he ends the song on a confrontational question mark, but then resolves to utter uncertainty. Yay!

x-post

As I presumed, my taste in XTC differs greatly from the other folks who voted. Only 5 of my choices have shown up so far. Not much love for GO2 so far, and way to much for Nonsuch, imo.

best bit of wrapped in grey is the way the second chorus slams in, without that teasing bridge

I don't know who thought "All You Pretty Girls" should have been a single; it's so murky and weird, with the ska-squeezebox carrying the instrumental load in the verses, the artificially harmonized submarine vocals in the chorus, the whistling solo (!) (?) (?!), the offkilter, oft unresolved Irish diddling in the outro... it's a mess.

agree about all this - it sounds like 4 songs mashed together, and the changes are all jarring (isn't the chorus and its plagal cadence in another key altogether from the rest of the song?) It sounds like something from a bad musical about sailing ships.

my favorite on Big Express is actually probably This World Over

17. Summer's Cauldron (1225 points, 14 votes, 2 No. 1 votes))
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/XTC%20ILM%20Top%2060/17-SummersCauldron.jpg

first entry with more than 1 no. 1 vote, btw

hopefully not the last!

is this the only XTC song to feature a melodica

Drowning here in summers cauldREEEEEEEEEEEE (enter gorgeous string section)

my favorite on Big Express is actually probably This World Over

― Οὖτις,

Mine too – their attempt at Rush or Police-type arrangements.

I think it's a melodica and not a harmonica in "Smokeless Zone," but not 100% sure.

haha that is not exactly a connection I would have drawn given my loathing for both

xp

have no idea what gear Rundgren/the band used to program those insect sounds, totally hypnotized teenage me

yeah this is an astonishing soundscape above anything else