XTC : Classic or Dud.

smartest monkeys is gr8

yeah, I actually like the groove and the solo in that. Bungalow on the other hand...

Some of his stuff on O&L is my favorite on the record -- "I Remember the Sun" is such a weird song, and that Yes-ish keyboard stab comes out of nowhere and floors me every time. It's amazing to me that he went from stuff like that to what sound to me like give-ups on the final records.

boarded up is at least open about having given up, it works better than it has any right to. actually his wasp star songs >>> his apple venus ones

xpost

oops wrong album -- but same disappointment at later Colin songs

xpost -- Boarded Up is probably the song of his from those records I like most. It's so stark, final.

re: ES side 3, "It's Nearly Africa" is awesome, fuiud

Bungalow on the other hand

agreed on this one

And Standing In for Joe is a straight rip of Steely Dan's "Barrytown."

I love the ridiculous drawn-out ending of "Melt the Guns"! And the bassline throughout is frankly nuts.

Totes OK with "Dear God" and "The Man who Murdered Love."

"It's nearly Africa," "knuckle down," "Blue Overall" and "leisure" are his very worst ever, IMO.

leisure is brilliant, let's fight

I said it on another thread I think, the main problem with English Settlement is the sequencing, it opens with two CM songs and then you have 9 or 10 AP songs in a row, including some irksomely tendentious ones, I'm begging for mercy by the end of that run.

thread inspired me to play AP's Hello Selection tracks (basically a solo EP) -- Prince of Orange, a tune I never cared much for prior to not, sounding like a perfect encapsulation of what I like about his songwriting. Antsy rhythm, like an even more wound-up version of motorik, but paired with classic pop chorus, and of course an atonal piano solo.

I quite like all of Colin's songs on Nonsuch, and 'Boarded Up' is one of my favourites. I was going to mention the 'Standing In For Joe'/'Barrytown' thing but hardcore dilettante got there before me... 'Standing In For Joe' was already an old song by the time it appeared on Wasp Star, it was meant for that "bubblegum" side project which didn't come to fruition, which was meant to be another "XTC in another guise" things, like the Dukes...

glad someone else likes Boarded Up - was one of my favorites on the disc really

"Leisure" on the other hand I can't stand, probably the one song on the album I'd do without

If you take some of the B-sides and non-album singles into account - "Punch and Judy", "Tissue Tigers", "The World is Full of Angry Young Man", "Change the Weather" - you could definitely make a flawless double out of English Settlement

Two great XTC songs that hardly anyone ever talks about: 'Extrovert' and 'Happy Families', plus 'Spiral' which I think is wonderful.

"Leisure" on the other hand I can't stand, probably the one song on the album I'd do without

Yeah, I loathe 'Leisure' too, always have.

have never noticed the Barrytown/Standing in for Joe thing! will have to A/B them

Put it this way, it's so close that I'm surprised Becker/Fagen don't have songwriting credits on the thing!

hmm yeah those melodies are really close. there's some slight differences in the turnarounds/refrains at the end of each verse but man

Andy's voice is not nearly interesting enough to pull off what he's trying to pull off.

All that repetitious yelping and shrieking is what makes the song for me. I can't imagine what would make a voice "interesting enough" for "Melt the Guns." He's like a skapunk Urszula Dudziak.

I like the yelpiness - DOODLE ANG DANG!!

Yoko or (especially) Sainkho Namtchylak could've made that outro something special. Andy just sounds like he's aimlessly dicking around.

I love "Complicated Game" and "Travels in Nihilon" -- he was obviously capable of doing that sort of thing well. I think he misses the mark on "Guns."

'Melt the Guns' is my joint least-favourite Andy song along with 'All You Pretty Girls'

Colin's worst is 'War Dance'.

was wondering what Colin was up to recently, didn't realize he'd been progging out:
Moulding made vocal contributions to a Billy Sherwood Progressive Rock album (The Prog Collective, August 2012), combining forces with Rick Wakeman on "Check Point Karma". He performed a lead vocal for the song "The Man Who Died Two Times" from the album "In Extremis" by the Progressive Rock band Days Between Stations (released 15 May 2013) and appears in the video for the song, released in June 2014.[6]

I used to dance around my college radio station to "All You Pretty Girls", such a joyous racket.

Here is something that Colin did recently, guesting on this guy's track, alright if you desperately miss The Mutton Birds I suppose.

https://vimeo.com/151338216

lol he looks v excited about being involved

Nice to see his old Epiphone Newport getting a dusting down

I mean, he's a great bassist and vocalist. He could easily back any number of adult pop acts along the Sting/Van Morrison/Bob Dylan/Springsteen axis -- and since he seems to have been keeping busy, I'm betting the only reason he isn't doing that stuff is because he doesn't have an "in" to those scenes.

he seems kind of cantankerous, I can't see him taking orders from any of those (mostly equally cantankerous) people

you can't deny the BAB bridge either!

wonder if MaresNest is still stitching all the XTC bridges together, that is one area in which they are the best band ever

― odysseus (imago), Wednesday, February 10, 2016 4:52 PM (4 hours ago)

If somebody were to supply me with a list of every XTC middle eight (exc Fuzzy Warbles) I'll happily bust out ProTools and edit together a mad chronological montage, I just can't really be arsed listening through *everything* beforehand, bad I know.

he's a great bassist

Andy might take issue with that:
http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20070107.html

AP: [chuckles] People do these survey things, and say, "Let's vote for Colin's best bass line" or something, and they don't realize that the two bass lines they vote for -- "Vanishing Girl" and "Mayor of Simpleton" -- it's me playing bass on "Vanishing Girl"...

TB: Oh, I didn't know that.

AP: Yeah. Or "What in the World?" -- that's me playing bass as well.

TB: Get out of here!

AP: That's me on bass -- Colin's on rhythm guitar.

TB: And you came up with that bass line?

AP: Yeah.

TB: That's funny -- I've always thought that was him channeling McCartney.

AP: No, we had to cut it live. He obviously couldn't play the bass and the rhythm guitar, and I didn't know how the chords went, so instead of him teaching me the chords, I said, "Look, you play the chords, I'll play the bass, and we'll get this thing done before lunchtime!"

But the one they mention is "Mayor," and Colin had to work very hard to get that bass line. It's very precise. It took me a long time to work it out, because I wanted to get into the J.S. Bach mode of each note being the perfect counterpoint to where the chords are and where the melody is. The bass is the third part in the puzzle.

The big falling out they had during Skylarking was over the note choices in the bassline for 'Earn Enough For Us'.

I can't say for sure but I had to learn the song once and I think it's in one or two of the little fills he puts in during the verses and I think Andy might have been right.

I don't think that Andy would deny Colin is a great bassist, come on.

No, I don't think Andy would flat-out deny that Colin's a great player, but he's obviously happy to point out that the most celebrated XTC basslines weren't Colin's.

i love that their big falling out was over a small musical detail

That says a lot about Andy, really -- and just because he wrote the basslines to particular songs, doesn't really say anything about Colin as a bassist at all. I have a feeling Andy would be telling people what he wrote even if Jaco was in the band.

Andy lucked out having Colin and Dave Gregory in the band. These were just Swindon people who happened to have the chops and versatility to play his music.

ah here's an Partridge XTC album track I really can't stand, "Human Alchemy". Everything about it feels mismatched - the stiff dub rhythm, the medieval chanting, the clumsy lyrics. I guess the synth sounds are allright. But I basically never want to listen to this song. And it's middle 8 is nothing special.

'The Mayor of Simpleton', 'Vanishing Girl' etc. aren't the only great XTC basslines, though!

Yeah, 'Human Alchemy' has always been the weak link on Mummer for me. In fact, I'd say that Mummer benefits incredibly from its bonus tracks on the CD. That's not to say that Mummer is in any way a bad record - far from it - I just think it could have been so much better with some of those B-sides/additional tracks included.

yeah, Gold and Jump especially

absolutely, I'm not big on Mummer but the B-sides from that 82-84 era were terrific

Desert Island is pants tho

Yeah, 'Jump' would be my favourite of all the Mummer-era B-sides, that one really should have been on the album itself. Possibly 'Gold' and 'Toys', too (which I'm sure is one of the last XTC tracks to feature Terry Chambers on drums) - I don't think 'Desert Island' is as good as the others, but I'd still take it over stuff like 'Blue Overall' or 'Wounded Horse' etc.

Dave Gregory on Facebook talking about English Settlement yesterday.

"Thanks you for all your generous comments. Coming soon - re-mastered double vinyl from Ape House (I have test pressings).
The existing CD release is shite. it may be next on Steven Wilson's re-mix agenda (after Skylarking), which should do full justice to the original album of his previous work is anything to go by, so hang in there."

So they've found the multitracks for ES?

Surprised by how little love "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her" gets itt

Strangely, I think "Seagull" is kind of grating, but I love "Shake You Donkey Up."

Surprised by how many people who don't realize that the last good XTC record was English Settlement.

That is...a harsh stance.

xp U mad

Strangely, I think "Seagull" is kind of grating, but I love "Shake You Donkey Up."

Nothing strange about that.