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

actually Smashmouth can be pretty pretentious too, just these guys got pretentious in a more baroque way. I guess the equasion is XTC - "Sgt. Peppers is the best album ever" + rasp = Smashmouth

I would never consider XTC alongside Gabriel or Bush -- completely different aesthetics going on there. I can never imagine XTC giving off the same air of gravity, seriousness, artiness, or self-importance (note: I love Gabriel and Bush, too) as these two. If you're going to say that Gabriel and Bush are better at being prog (which in your definition seems only to mean being complex and intricate), then there are surely a WHOLE SHITLOAD of artists better than G and B! Same argument defeats your second point about eccentricity, too.

I realize that you're just trying to work out why you don't like them and I respect that, but you're pigeonholing them somewhere they just don't belong. I'd say your second characterization of them (as UK psych-pop/etc.) is much more on-point, but as far as them not being especially energetic or hooky... I can't reach into your ears and take the cotton out from over here! Seriously, though, you should get Black Sea if you want to give them a second chance. That was the album that completely and totally sold me on them, and their other records are easier to understand once you have a basis from which to appreciate their sound and approach.

Basically, what I'm asking is whether or not a part of what XTC fans like about their music is some sense of a perceived prog-ness. By this, I'm referring specifically to complexity in the songwriting, playing, studio arrangements and production, etc. (plus a general sense of eccentricity), as opposed to the prog elements that you bring up (gravity, seriousness, artiness, or self-importance).

No, really...my guess is that it's not the complexity that people like about XTC, but rather their melodicism and sound. The complexity is some sort of icing on the cake?

Explanations of their appeal? Incredible songwriting, gorgeous lyricism, unmatched consistency.

I don't think they're prog (and I like Yes and Floyd, and I don't see any common ground). I like Andy Partridge because he's a fantastic lyricist and writes direct, extremely effective pop songs.

In reference to "Senses Working Overtime" sounding cute: I see your point, and some people I've played XTC for hear an "oompa-loompa" quality in it. I attribute that to a willingness to be totally innocent, even naive, about their subject matter - spring, family, hallucinations, destroying civilization and reverting back to nature - and then giving themselves to it with total exuberance. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush don't seem like good points of reference for XTC, and even next to a lot of post-punk they're a lot more giddy/innocent sounding.

I'd start with Drums and Wires ('specially "Helicopter," "Real by Reel" and "Scissor Man") or, as mentioned above, Black Sea. English Settlement took a while to settle in with me - now it's about my favorite record ever.

Again, I'm only familiar with XTC from their songs that have been played on alternative rock/cutting edge radio since the beginning of the format (early-'80s, where I live--they've had a decent amount of songs on there, obvioulsy), plus hearing ES now and, I don't know...I remember hearing 25 O'Clock once and I heard part of Apple Venus a few years ago. I understand the impulse to call them Beatle-esque, but how accurate is that, ultimately? How much is a given XTC album really and truly equivalent to Sgt. Pepper or Magical Mystery Tour? Or how much is it equivalent to, say, the Kinks' Something Else (from the Kinks era that I am presuming you're talking about)?

Where does the XTC-Yes comparison come from? I've seen the parallel drawn loads of times, but the two bands are utterly mutually exclusive.

Also, a lot of prog fans happen to like XTC.

Best thing about XTC that people tend not to talk about: the performances tend to be amazing. Particularly around Drums and Wires: not only is Partridge a distinctive and engaging vocalist (the stutters and snorts on like “Scissor Man” and “Outside World” come out so well you almost don’t notice how odd they are), but as a band they just tear and swing, all casual, through some pretty acrobatic shifts (again, “Scissor Man”). (If they’d been playing something dark and heavy, my guess is that rock fans would look back at them as gods; but when you play giddy pop, people tend to read skill as just a given, or even a detriment.) The instrumental hot-performances faded away when they went into their pastoral studio-pop phase, obviously, but Partridge’s vox stayed as keen as ever.

Liking them around “Skylarking,” like everyone says, is just about enjoying mildly “sophisticated” pop songwriting and arrangement, something they do quite well and quite interestingly. (On that level there’s maybe a lean toward the kind of English “adult” pop songwriting that Bush and Gabriel are maybe part of --- I could imagine later-era Bush singing, say, “Another Satellite” --- but it’s so less theatrical and much more just “pop.”) And yes, it helps if you like the sort of giddy imaginary-pop vibe they’ve picked up from psychedelia. Just like lots of bands, from the Beatles to the Ladybug Transistor: this is sort of stage-musical dreamyland pop, a very knowing Apollonian construction of pop conventionals, not some real-world Dionysian thing. Which is why the Dukes of Stratosphear make a good shortcut to what the band’s all about: these are three guys who happily made up a corny alter-ego just to do really superb and only occasionally goofy pastiches of psychedelic pop.

For what it’s worth, I like XTC quite a lot, and I wouldn’t recommend English Settlement as a starting point. I’d recommend Drums and Wires and Skylarking.

And 'funk' isn't really something I've ever associated with them, in any phase.

uh, yes somebody did. and i just quoted them in my previous post. (and again, sasha frere jones has defended xtc to me as a funky band as well. i don't really care whether you think funk has nothing to do with xtc; some people clearly disagree with you. and i answered them.) and ALL of the bands relate to the music being discussed, or I would not have mentioned them. (and my memory IS crappy sometimes. though apparently not as crappy as your reading comprehension.)

But hey, go nuts. You tell those people (all one of them on this thread) that XTC is NOT funky! YEAH!

Two of which I mentioned on this thread before anybody else had, but since I was obviously just picking random bands out my ass who have NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH XTC (even though ALL of the bands I named have a fairly similar aesthetic to XTC, i.e.: jagged or ornate artiste pop songs with wacky lyrics, more or less -- plus almost all of them are British, as I recall, oops fuck you), I guess that's just a coincidence. (Hell, if saying XTC isn't funky offends people 'cause nobody would ever think to call XTC funky in the first place, I'll just say XTC never seemed very SMART to me, either. But now I guess people will tell me nobody ever thought XTC were smart! I can't win.)

yeah, that's totally what I think of when I hear the names Molly Hatchet, SuperTramp, and Dead or Alive. (clue: this is sarcasm) Carry on...

I think this gets at a lot of what I like about the XTC songs I like. I love the brief guitar "solos," if you can call them that, on a song like "Ten Feet Tall." Actually, it kind of reminds me of the solos you get on the first side of the Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground.

Much of the time I like them in spite of their quirkiness, which probably makes me less than a true XTC fan. I like them primarily for narrowly musical reasons (and because the fun things they do musically also move me), and because I do like many of the lyrics, at least in bits and pieces. The lyrics usually make plenty of sense to me, and on English Settlement, I like the way, for instance, "Yacht Dance" picks up the same themes as "Sense Working Overtime."

I don't know if I'd called them funky (and I am less and less sure I even know what funky means--I think I go for a different type of rhythm than what funk is about), but I think they are very strong rhythmically at times. It's not just a matter of melody.

Finally!

I picked up Drums and Wires a few days ago, and I'm glad I made one more attempt with XTC. I don't know what happened in the 3 years between Drums and Wires and English Settlement, but if "Complicated Game" were to get into a schoolyard fight with a song like "Senses Working Overtime" (which I like, even), the latter would get bloodied and then have to watch his girlfriend make out with "Complicated Game".

Great song, great album. I also bought Black Sea, but I think I'm going to listen to Drums and Wires again first.

'Complicated Game' is one of my favourite XTC songs, and one of their most underrated, period. Does the quiet to loud thing better than just about anything else, has great lyrics, and sports some truly unhinged guitar work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9GIxfbfob0

the bonus tracks on the Black Sea CD are seriously incredible. "Smokeless Zone" sounds not just weird but utterly unique, unlike anything else I've ever heard, while remaining effortless and extremely fun; "Don't Lose Your Temper" has a guitar line that puts a smile on my face every time I hear it and is possibly better than anything on the album proper. especially after the rather dour "Travels in Nihilon", those tracks are like perfect little blobs of sunshine-flavored jello (wait, what the fuck?).

Actually, the best thing about the song is Partridge's delivery of the final, climactic 'God asked me...' verse. It's perfect, and I don't think vocal echo/multi-track has ever worked more splendidly. Repeat after me: RightRaRightRaRightRaRightRaRightRightRight!

OMG bryson strikes! "Smokeless Zone" is my favourite track off Black Sea (with the possible exception, and here's where you LOSE, of "Travels In Nihilon")! You forgot "The Somnambulist", btw, which still scares the living crap outta me.

I wasn't counting "The Somnambulist" because I'm still not sure what to make out of it. it's sort of like those bonus tracks at the end of the notwist's Neon Golden, in that it's good, but so distinct in sound and mood from the rest of the album that it almost feels more like commentary than music.

an old friend asked on fb which album his friends had owned the most copies of (in various formats), and my answer was XTC's Oranges & Lemons. i hadn't listened to it in a long time, so i pulled it out and listened to it in the car today.

to explain the appeal of XTC the first time they appealed to me is pretty easy: i was 12, they were weirder than anything i had heard before, they sang about politics and how horrible people are, they welcomed me into the garden of earthly delight, funny songs about love and genitals, their songs were catchy and not all the same, they weren't scary, and nobody else i knew had any idea who they were.

i vividly remember seeing them perform on MTV, which is what made me want to buy the album the first time. now that it's 2017, i remembered that i can see if that performance is on youtube and it is! i also found my 8th grade yearbook last week at my parents' house and i think XTC saved me from developing into a boring conformist.

all that from this performance of "scarecrow people", the song i remember liking when i saw this, probably sitting at home by myself bored and watching mtv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI8MalyCCGU

i calculated incorrectly -- i was 13 but the sentiment remains true

They're radio promo tour for O & L boots are pretty dope. Fun banter and slick guitar inter-play ...

Their - duh

man, wish I had a cool story like that. mine is I heard "Generals and Majors" on internet radio and then had to play it 10 more times, and eventually wondered what their other music was like

I honestly can't remember what my first exposure to them was. "Skylarking" was the first album I bought, but prior to that I was def familiar with Senses Working Overtime and a few other singles thanks to 91X airplay.

For me, it was just a case of knowing their two most well known tracks well ('Making Plans For Nigel' and 'Senses Working Overtime') and then checking out the albums to see if the rest of the stuff was any good. It was.

my memory of seeing that performance always made me doubt my sanity -- did it even happen? did i dream it up? i'm glad to realize i wasn't imagining it. such a great album all the way through.

at the time i was into INXS, REM, etc (lol) but also had one Cure album -- as a littler kid I loved The Beatles and XTC was the most appealing combo of modern humor and topical subject matter + well-crafted Beatley songs. i also hated Reagan and nuclear bombs so the political songs resonated a lot. i feel fortunate to have had nothing better to do that evening than watch tv by myself.

eventually i found Skylarking at the library.

Was 15, had seen them on Urgh! and then noticed cheap cassette of English Settlement at rockheads in downtown St. Paul (the version without Africa, cockpit, leisure etc on it-- I still don't like those songs being there). Loved it right away. The year after, Skylarking came out and became the huge album of my circle of high school friends.

I doubt I'm the only one that discovered them this way, but They Might Be Giants have a song called "XTC vs Adam Ant" and I was at the age where I was just starting to learn about music not on the radio and would check out literally any band I heard about. Also got into Adam Ant that way, but he is not as much a fave

about a year and a half ago a good friend of mine made a very passionate and long post on FB explaining why, "after 20 years of near constant music consumption," he'd concluded XTC was his favorite band ever, for all the reasons we know... i was in new york and about to go to Other Music so i picked up Mummer and The Big Express there. ended up being my last visit there before it closed.

the O&L radio tour is sweet. the way their guitars blend on Love on a Farmboy's Wages - oh man

https://youtu.be/cTtFTHI7Or0?t=20m13s

I doubt I'm sure I'm the only one that discovered them this way, but it was on the 1982 WOMAD benefit double album Music and Rhythm, which had a bunch of artists who played the first WOMAD festival and which I bought for the unreleased Peter Gabriel, Pete Townshend and Jon Hassell tracks. It also had "It's Nearly Africa," which I completely flipped out over.

Bought English Settlement a few weeks later and flipped out 14 more times (see, 'cause there's a total of 15 tracks). By the time Mummer came out a year later, I had bought every album and most of the singles, EPs and side projects (with a big thank you to the late lamented Venus Records on 8th St. in NYC).