XTC : Classic or Dud.

it's certainly not the perfection of the "pastoral" thing that everyone claims it is - that's Mummer.

I'm not sure how an album that contains Human Alchemy, Great Fire and Funk Pop A Roll always gets described as pastoral. The acoustic songs are lovely, but they're not the whole of Mummer.

I love some of the guitar sounds on Mummer, though... the guitars sound absolutely rich and beautiful on 'Beating of Hearts' and 'Love On A Farmboys Wages' in particular. Apparently Partridge found Steve Nye a bit of a grump to work with, but loved his work on the album. He was David Sylvian's producer of choice around that time.

Skylarking comes up around 83 minutes in.
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_691_-_todd_rundgren

Funk Pop a Roll is the one outlier. Great Fire and Human Alchemy fit nicely alongside songs like Beating of Hearts and Love on a Farmboy's Wages.

"Early XTC" for me is the first album up to Black Sea, where they perfected that sound.

Dan Peterson otm. 'Great Fire' would have fit snugly on English Settlement.

Up through Big Express, every album had one outlier like "Human Alchemy" that added to their charm. I love the odd experiments, it all works for me.

They smoothed off the edges starting with Skylarking, though you could argue "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" was thst albums outlier with it's very different rhythms.

'Another Satellite' is probs the outlier on Skylarking, not just sound-wise, but also it wasn't on Rundgren's initial draft for the tracklisting. Somehow it fits, though!

Rundgren was gonna leave out Another Satellite and include Dear God? Get your hands off my XTC, weirdo

Yes. Rundgren's preferred config for Skylarking was to have both 'Mermaid Smiled' and 'Dear God' on there, but no 'Another Satellite' ... I don't think he ever got his wish!

Another Satellite is a perfect mid-life crisis sort of song, fits fine in the cycle - Mermaid Smiled otoh feels like it's from a different universe.

XTC obvs perfected all pastoral rock ever on Senses Working Overtime and thereafter attempted to recapture its spirit with varying degrees of brilliance

'Little Lighthouse' was one of the songs destined for Skylarking, but Rundgren didn't choose it as part of his idea for the record, so they recorded it as the Dukes instead. If Andy had more control over the record, as he did with other XTC albums, I suspect that 'Little Lighthouse' would have made it onto the record, and there'd be less Colin songs. One of the things I always notice when Partridge discusses this is that he mentioned that Rundgren "picked all of Colin's songs" ... Also, 'That's Really Super, Supergirl' likely wouldn't have made it onto the record, and 'The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul' would have sounded completely different.

Shakey otm.

'Mermaid Smiled' is excellent, love it especially when the percussion comes in.

Oh yeah, 'Mermaid Smiled' wouldn't have made it onto the record without him urging Andy to finish the song, which I think was nothing more than just a riff. So, there's that too.

I dunno, man, I don't really hear much of a difference between the XTC of Skylarking and the XTC of Nonsuch.

The first has many good songs, the second has much garbage

Disputed

Nah, I don't agree... Nonsuch is one of their very best records, IMO. Only track that I'd drop from it would be 'War Dance'

There's the dumb song about the smart monkeys, "Peter Pumpkinhead" itself, "Then She Appeared, "Holly Up on Poppy" -- they give '60s pop a bad name.

My first XTC album by the way. I didn't get the appeal until I worked backwards.

'Then She Appeared' was supposed to be a Dukes song. I like 'The Smartest Monkeys', though... so many great musical moments in that track.

Agree: the bass and guitar interaction. But I have to endure Moulding's smartypants vocal.

I agree w Alfred that Nonsuch is burdened w a lot of not-great tracks (altho naturally we disagree on which ones). Wardance, Smartest Monkeys, Omnibus, Books Are Burning, probably some others I've forgotten because I never listen to them... but I think Holly and Then She Appeared are great lol >)

anyway, Andy about to go HAM it looks like

https://twitter.com/xtcfans/status/712392702986461188

when I listen to Nonsuch I usually skip 'Peter Pumpkinhead' and 'Books Are Burning' (easily done, since the band helpfully made them the first and last track respectively) (dropping those two makes the album 10 minutes shorter overall, which definitely helps) I like everything else, though. I love the synth-clarinets on 'War Dance', the song would probably be a bit dull without them.

I really like 'Omnibus', although maybe it could have done without the "make your Shakespeare hard and make your oyster pearl" lyric!

All I can stand on "Books Are Burning" are the two solos.

Rundgren shits all over Another Satellite in the Maron podcast, like a man bursting with WRONG

xxxx-post:

It was only a matter of time before Partridge picked up on it, to be honest. He's quite fond of setting the record straight on Twitter - I've enjoyed his "THE CORRECTOR" series!

oh I love Andy, the occasional misstep aside he is a lot of fun on twitter

It still amazes me that the starting point for 'Books Are Burning' was apparently 'I Get Around' by The Beach Boys! I can kinda hear it in the chord progression, but I wouldn't have known unless Partridge had pointed it out.

Partridge going into overload on Twitter now!

can't really blame him

@xtcfans

lol

he's being p reasonable considering

TR is a great arranger. Really talented, we were lucky to work with him. He is a mediocre engineer at best.

seems accurate

xp. aye, a pretty measured twitter rant

I tried to smooth over the waters and say nice things to be grown up but if the gloves are off, then they are off.

yo yo yo yo YO gangsta andy partridge in tha hizzouse straight from THE EASSIDE (of swindon)

now I hear this biatch todd gunsten talkin smack about tha xtc krew (shoutout to my homeboy c-money) about some remastering and shit well biatch I am gonna REMASTER YO ASS when I pop a glock up in yo area

homeboy yo gonna be saying "DEAR GOD GANGSTA ANDY I'M SORRY FOR BEING A BIATCH AND RUNNING MY BIATCH MOUTH"

^ hahahaha!!

never change

damn this is gettin' good

https://storify.com/scatterkeir/andy-partridge-responds-to-todd-rundgren

He is a mediocre engineer at best.

And yet somehow, miraculously, he gave XTC by far the best drum sound they ever had (or would ever have) on any of their records.

Hmm. Not quite sure I agree with that. The combination of Terry Chambers and Hugh Padgham was godlike.

Oh, I think the drums (and everything else) on Black Sea are fantastic, but Prairie Prince's ringing snare seals it for me.

Public beef by obscure musicians over 30 year old album that hardly anyone has heard. The internet really has created an interesting world.

Andy copping Trump's style here lol: https://twitter.com/xtcfans/status/712581780398809088

lmao

it was a more subdued, pastoral Sad

something something president kill