Senses Working Poll-vertime: The XTC Poll Nominations and Discussions thread

Οὖτις, is there any chance you would accept an unweighted ballot from me (e.g. in a ballot of 21 tracks each vote would get 40 points and so forth)? I can just about manage to make a list of favourites but trying to rank them is making me sad. If this will screw up the system I'll try and work something out.

My first pass was exactly 50 songs. I think its a sign.

I pretty much used my iTunes "most played" list and then shuffled some things around

is there any chance you would accept an unweighted ballot from me (e.g. in a ballot of 21 tracks each vote would get 40 points and so forth)?

I think in that case I would add up what the max available amount of points for the ballot would be (for example, a 50 song ballot with the number one song getting 50 points and the number 50 song getting 1 point would have a total point count of 1,275) and then divide that evenly across how ever many tracks were submitted. In the 50 ballot example that would mean each song would get 25.5 points. Where this gets messy is where there's fractions/decimals left over cuz I'm not going to get into that hairsplitting level of detail on the results, so I'd have to do some rounding.

I dunno - it would be sort of annoying but not impossible.

oh no, that's why I picked 21- because it would be 840 points altogether, divided by 21 for 40 per song, unless I've screwed up the maths. If it's any trouble just allocate points based on the order they're listed since it will be as good as any other ordering. I'm excited about the poll!

well that will all work out then

I am really finding it difficult to predict what tracks will show up in the results with the exception of one or two things, I kind of get the impression that there is going to be less overlap on people's choices than most ilm polls? I guess it depends as well on the extent to which people who take part favour the earlier or later incarnation of the band, Fuzzy Warbles are another wildcard.

main reason I wanted to do this poll is that opinions about their catalog are all over the map. Unlike a lot of other artist-polls I expect this to be pretty unpredictable.

like people were saying, they do seem somewhat unusual for a band who released so many albums over so long a period of time that the last third of their catalogue is not post peak mediocre stuff that gets described as 'surprising good' in reviews, REM in the '00s type stuff

I felt I maybe shouldn't vote for any Fuzzy Warbles stuff because I still haven't actually heard all of them (I wanted to! but, god, he just kept releasing those things and I ran out of money), there are a couple of songs from the early volumes that I'm going to have to include though. For those who have heard all of the Fuzzy Warbles albums, did the quality stay consistent or were they front loaded with the good stuff in your opinion?

I got them all (eventually) and then there's gems scattered throughout. The way the volumes are assembled with no rhyme or reason, no chronology, etc. is kind of irritating. These days I just have them all as a single album and sort them by year recorded in iTunes.

11. REM Producer Enquiry – 2:36

^intrigued by this track title from vol 8

Best/recommended listening Fuzzy Warbles tracks that are not demos of officially released songs:

Ship Trapped in the Ice
Young Marrieds
Young Cleopatra (maybe Partridge's most er troubling lyric but damn what a tune)
Wonder Annual
Dame Fortune
Everything'll Be Allright (ridiculous but great children's song)
It's Snowing Angels
This is the End
I Don't Want to Be Here
Sonic Boom
I'm Unbecome
Autumn Comes Around

REM Producer Enquiry is a clattery mostly-instrumental track (there's some chattering about REM from Andy that sounds like its from a phone message or something) with a bunch of overdubbed jangly guitar parts

oo forgot When We Get to England from Fuzzy Warbles

Fuzzy Warbles is definitely worth it for fans of Andy's songwriting. I'd say each volume has about 5 or 6 great completely unreleased songs. The demos are fun but admittedly not something I listen to often.

X-post
Also the Bland Leading the Bland, Obscene Procession, Through Electric Gardens, Tiny Circus of Life, lots more...

yeah I'm not particularly fond of any of those (Obscene Procession has its virtues)

Also "The End", "The End Of The Pier" and "My Land Is Burning".

And the b-sides like "Chain Of Command", holy crap. Or "Extrovert". Or "Red Brick Dreams". Or or or...

main reason I wanted to do this poll is that opinions about their catalog are all over the map. Unlike a lot of other artist-polls I expect this to be pretty unpredictable.

― Οὖτις

I was really active on the XTC forum while it lasted and I was always amazed by the diversity of the forumites. People who came from the punk/indie underground world, people who came from the 10CC/Steely Dan muso axis, pop fans, rock fans... even people who weren't much into music but were really into XTC.

Senses might make my ballot, but it won't be near the top.

Yeah, I never understood the adoration of "Senses", it's not even in top songs on English Settlement. It's so much more restrained.

two
three
four
five

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, September 29, 2014

I don't really like 'Senses' very much at all.

I'd like to stan for 'Wrapped In Grey' though. Beautiful song that just manages to rescue itself from mawkish sentiment via sublime execution.

Think I'll end up with a 20 or 25 song ballot - no 'Senses' for me
Probably end up repping for the goofy numbers

per Senses non-voters, I rest my case re: total lack of consensus

Jason is the Big Pop moment for me on English Settlement

I like Senses, but I can't imagine Nigel not being at least top 2.

I've always been meh on nigel

Hey I voted!

5 ballots in already, would seem to indicate this is gonna be a p high turnout

Just sent you number 6; this was the hardest artist poll to sort by far. 3 of my top 5 songs sound like completely different bands and it's so hard to compare - I've never before thought about which one I liked best. I could have spent all day shifting rankings around but I'm pretty happy with what I landed on.

if anyone votes for "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" you'll make an enemy of me.

aaaaany kind of love is alllriiiight

dw soto its like the worst track on nonsuch

there's competition

u dissing nonsuch!! o lord

I literally don't think I've heard PP in about a decade, I always just skip straight to My Bird Performs. I remember it felt like it had about 12 verses

'omnibus' has more ham on its fist than mike tyson but i can't think of any other disasters

there are things I like about it but it's def not their best. terrible video too

worst on Nonsuch is an unpleasant battle. The hamfisted bookends are both contenders.

booksareburningepicguitarsolo.wav, also gasface

it's the 90's' answer to hotel california

but there was no question asked

I like "Dear Madam Barnum"

yh apart from PP and omnibus it's a gr8 album & I will vote for loads of its trax

I do wonder if other people have a de facto 15 track Nonsuch that begins with MBP and ends with Bungalow

did gangsta andy partridge really just give me the gasface

my version of Nonsuch is 11 tracks - sorry Omnnibus, That Wave, Books are Burning, Bungalow and whatever else I've forgotten and didn't like

that was pato haha

the one I get into big trouble with is The Smartest Monkeys aka Colin's Best Song *fucking flees*

you hate That Wave????!

hopefully this is not too much of a spoiler but it is pretty clear most voters didn't bother much w Fuzzy Warbles

:(

my thoughts exactly

AND ALL THE POLLS ARE FOOTBALL SHAPED

I think the best one was the first one, myself... 'The Wheel and The MayPOLL'

Sorry I couldn't get it together for an entry. I would've rep'd for a mess of Fuzzy Warbles.

ok Hideous Lump is gettin the graphics together, should start the roll out either later today or tomorrow, depending

Graphics are ready, let the Funk Pop a Rollout begin! (Well, in about 12 hours or so, seeing as you sensible people are all asleep right now.)