XTC fans (or non-): possible explanations of their appeal???

I think they could sound sorta fat. There is some stuff I remember from Mummer that is kinda big and fat.

2. Being eccentric--Are they as enjoyably and interestingly eccentric as either Kate Bush or Peter Gabriel?

Peter Gabriel = interestingly eccentric?

If by "interestingly eccentric" you mean "dull as dishwater," then perhaps I see what you're saying. On the other hand I'd be just as confused since Kate Bush is called the same thing in that statement.

I [heart] XTC, though I don't think there's much I could say that hasn't already been said on this thread.

Right, IMO the Police achieved a very tricky balance of eclecticism and well-crafted pop songwriting on GitM, but from there the band (and later, Sting solo) got progressively middlebrow and "tasteful". Sting also got progressively more popular, at least for a while. XTC on the other hand, at about the same time, somewhere between Black Sea and English Settlement, got near the same balance, but ended up getting progressively less popular, emphasizing their idiosyncrasies and eventually settling into some kind of insular, baroque anglo-pop. Personally, I like latter day XTC, but there was a fork in the road circa 1981, and they took the path less traveled (and consequently, less followed).

all people with a soft spot for the Beatles and the Kinks type of music will migrate to XTC with little pain.

Many things can be said about XTC, but for me to simplify it as much as is humanly possible: well-written, hoppy-boppy, finger-snappin', sing-along, quality, tap-your-foot POP SONGS, which 99 times out of a 100 are written by British artists. XTC fall well in line with this. Tim, have you heard "Life Begins at The Hop"? If you tell me you can sit still to that, then you might as well forget about XTC altogether.

In another XTC thread, I said Skylarking is the best Beatles-influenced album that has ever or will ever be made. Period.

English Settlement was honestly THE most difficult XTC album for me. I bought it a long time ago, sold it, and only tried to get into it again years later after I'd already gotten into ALL their other albums, and I still found it difficult. It frankly pains me to think an XTC novice would be using it as a starting point.

Ned, thanks so very much for clearing up the 'dub experiments' confusion without me having to explain it. I came across that CD quite innocently while on my XTC fanatic phase and was totally floored by that CD. I do NOT think it sounds "dub" in the sense of "reggae", nor do I believe it was even meant to imply as such. I also think this CD ["Explode Together: The Dub Experiments 78-80"] should NOT even be thought of next to the rest of XTC's stuff. For me it was a totally different thing, nearly a different band, but as I said, my jaw dropped nonetheless. Anyone who likes obscure weird post-punk stuff like me should check this CD out regardless of what you might think of XTC. It's a whole different ballgame!

arrgh ILMers sending me on a mini-XTC trip when I've got so much other new music to listen to...arrggghhh do you people never quit?

Actually, Guided By Voices and Elephant 6 bands might be even better examples. {And honestly, I don't believe any of this music (including XTC) really sounds much like the Kinks --who I often love -- at all.}

or XTC and Peter Gabriel

or XTC and Kate Bush.

Though I love Gabriel and Bush in their own ways.

Damn, man. It's not like we're talking about Marshall Crenshaw. Did Fuzzy Warbles make you that bitter?

Fruit Nut
the Affiliated (Dukes of Stratosphear)
Earn Enough For Us
Respectable Street
Love on a Farmboys Wages

Dude, where do you think they recorded Apple Venus? ;)

* still remaining open-minded! *

xpost

The Kingsmen sounded like the Kinks sometimes. So did Slade. Even AC/DC. But I don't think anybody sounds like them very often. I think they're an easy crutch used by people who want to describe so-called "pop" bands who sound "British" and "vaguely '60s" and, um, "ornate." (So are the Beatles.) I've never heard an XTC song as pretty as "Waterloo Sunset." (I guess part of it is, it seems bizarre to me to act like the Kinks or Beatles sounded just ONE way.)

Actually, Guided By Voices and Elephant 6 bands might be even better examples. {And honestly, I don't believe any of this music (including
XTC) really sounds much like the Kinks --who I often love -- at all.}

-- chuck (cedd...), June 28th, 2004.

Yeah, but a lot of these bands weren't very good at it. I think XTC were pretty good at it. That's the difference for me.

xtc:kinks::whitesnake:led zeppelin, maybe

I just realized that REM is totally XTC now in that no-drummer-lets-get-crazy-with-the-Sgt.-Pepper-bullshit way.

(x-post!)

well, they were two late '70s, early '80s bands who were very enamored of the kinks and wished they could be just like them. so it makes total sense that those two bands would end up having more in common with each other than either one had with the kinks.

xpost

i like the jam quite a bit, but paul weller couldn't hold a candle to ray davies as a lyricist. paul weller was one of the clunkiest lyricists britain ever produced as far as i can tell. he sort of got away with it because the lyrics sort of matched his clunky cockney singing voice, but i think they might sound truly awful coming out of the mouth of a good singer like ray davies.

(and i repeat: i actually like the jam.)