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

A thousand pardons on Summer's Cauldron, yo. And I certainly don't forget "Sacrificial Bonfire"; I just always get distracted by "Dying" first. Colin's songs have an especially Muppetty quality that's sometimes just wrong (by the Apple Venuses he was turning into the High Llamas in a really bad way) and sometimes sweet -- Bonfire's on the way-good side.

...And PLEASE, don't let's start that old "Bob Seger, funky or not?" farce again! There's no convincing anyone who hasn't heard his old stuff, it's a futile argument.

Oh yeah, wait, wasn't XTC's second album a dub record? I'd totally forgotten about that. Did they ever pick up on that, or did they just abandon it? I guess I think of them as getting way LESS fun over the years, just like the Police (whose first three albums hit me as even more fun than the first three XTCs, which it may surprise people to hear that I actually DO like regardless.) Anyway, their career progressions seem very similar to me. As they got older and more pretentious, they retreated from energy and rhythm and boucing around... Either way, why did both bands decide as they got older that their experimentation would involve melodies more than rhythm, and would have more in common with, say, Yes (or, I dunno, Gershwin or somebody -- you tell me) than with Lee Perry? Or is that only my imagination? And if not, am I the only person here bugged by it??

* Runs for cover *

* Adds disclaimer that he is not an XTC expert *

there are "vague jamaicanisms" spread throughout all their early work.

Don't make me start writing lists!!!

Is the first one? (Oddly, for a long time the main commercial new wave radio show in Detroit was called "Radios in Motion"!) I haven't listened to the first or second one for ages, and now I kinda want to (maybe even the fourth; I liked "Generals and Majors" okay.) Anyway, I could have sworn that one of those early records had a bunch of dub versions on it. But, though I'm sure Shakey will think I'm just being falsely modest and shticky again (hey, it's FUN shtick! and hardly my only one!!), maybe my memory's just wrong. It's been a while.

Scott, I think I frequently *equate* "whimsy" with "pretension." (I have really never been a huge whimsy fan, I have to admit.)

It did. You're thinking of this:

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70406171620380159&sql=A2ju67ub070jk

Yeah, I actually remember that album having fairly pretty melodies when it came out, but then I forgot about it. I should play it back to back with the first Stackridge album sometime and see what happens. (But first I have to track down a copy of Stackridge!) (Plus, obviously I don't think "pretentious" equals "bad" per se'. And I LIKE Yes and lots of prog rock. Maybe even more than Lee Perry, when you get down to it. But Yes had a better rhythm section and a better singer than XTC, I think.)

Well, it seems to me that, on Synchronicity and Ghost in the Machine, Sting was really doing the former at least as much as the latter. But of course there's no way to know anybody's intentions.

there's a whole cult thing
built around partridge bad luck,
battles with stage fright--

I just like the songs,
some are funny some are not,
too many lyrics

You're related to Emperor Joseph, aren't you.

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! *