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

that should say 'brother of Charlotte Raven', obv

Iain Lee played bass in a Cardiacs-y band called Magnilda so no surprise there.

Οὖτις am I right in thinking we are just voting tracks, not tracks and albums?

i have an mp3 somewhere of Iain Lee interviewing Partridge and Moulding on his xfm show around the time Wasp Star came out, he is surprisingly bearable when not doing his comedy persona/talking about something he's enthusiastic about

Count me in with the Moulding-lost-it group. Yes, Andy's lyrics can be more than a bit silly but I can forgive him almost anything in the face of "Smartest Monkeys", "War Dance" and the godawful "Bungalow".

But "The Man Who Murdered Love" is absolutely, positively the worst thing XTC put their name on.

Andy's plain-spoken heart-on-sleeve approach to stuff like "Melt The Guns", "Omnibus" and "Dear God" works for me only because I share his sentiments.

oh shit, dear god is fucking abysmal lol

that's the worst one

About 3 years ago a friend of the band and rather infamous taper called H@ns D3 V3nt3 leaked a lot of really nice bootleg stuff.

He obviously used good taping equipment, but as well as live stuff he also leaked a lot of demo material, possibly all of which is now legally available. I remember getting a thing that was an unused AP soundtrack to some short film from the mid-eighties, will dig it out.

Trouble with the leaks, they were just big side-long files with no separation, so I'm not sure what's there exactly.

Οὖτις am I right in thinking we are just voting tracks, not tracks and albums?

I wasn't planning on an albums tally (we have button polls for that)

I think one ballot came with albums so far, but yeah I was only asking for tracks

I have a vague feeling that there might be a UK/US divide on the question whether Bungalow is fantastic or mot, but I may be totally wrong

Everybody listen to Red Brick Dream if they haven't heard it for a while, plz

The Big Express has the biggest stretch between good and whack tracks imo.

feelin like I should have asked for "worst" votes too

then I could've posted both "best" and "worst" results and let people guess which was which

I don't hate Dear God but I prefer Skylarking with Mermaid Smiled, mostly because the boy's vocal on DG seems out of place.

I'm wondering how people feel about GO2?

I shall revisit before I submit, I think it was a shame that the two Barry tracks they left off were miles better than the ones that made the cut.

XP - I Think that's a girl on DG.

go2 has a couple of really brilliant weird/slow numbers

I haven't listened to the entirety of Go2 or White Music in at least 20 years. Felt obligated to check them out but couldn't find them readily downloadable for free so said fuck it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3cw9h2AQX4

LOL, rip themselves off much?

Just found a really good German language cover of Things Fall To Bits on YT, how random!

Du bist mein Lieblings-Liebling (Wie wahr, wahr)
Mag die Parfum-Duftschwade, kommst du an die Bar
Mag deine Glanzfassade und dein saubres Haar
Ich träum, mit dir die Esplanaden langzufahrn, ist es nicht schade, dass

And he has a German cover of Pulsing Pulsing on his channel, dude!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRrzGNxzbT8&index=11&list=UUlXbwRHskRiljzxsJIxWrog

I Think that's a girl on DG.

So it is; I may have been misled by the video!

The first verse and closing line are sung by the then eight-year-old Jasmine Veillette, the daughter of a friend of producer Todd Rundgren. In the video a boy lip-syncs her vocals. (Wikipedia)

This is the soundtrack thing I was talking about, it's really good, kinda like AP does 'Olias Of Sunhillow'.

I'll make a link to it for the 10th.

http://i61.tinypic.com/aff28x.jpg

Ooh tantalizing!

Dear God is indeed my personal worst XTC track, in the same sense that Fight Club is my personal worst movie ever made.

Thinking about what to put together for my ballot now... probably won't be voting for 'Senses Working Overtime', 'Making Plans For Nigel' and 'Dear God', although I love all three.

Is "Funk Pop a Roll" their lamest major period single?

Is it too late to tack on a worst tracks poll? It would be pretty interesting, even if it might be harder to reach consensus. Though it sounds like a lot of you hate Ballad of PP, so that would probably win, so screw y'all

yeah people have already turned in ballots I'm not gonna change the rules at this point

Is "Funk Pop a Roll" their lamest major period single?

Not a single.

I'm wondering how people feel about GO2?

I was waiting for this. It's an very good record that seems to be misunderstood by many. It's shares a certain frantic nature with White Music but it also was a bridge to the more poppier XTC that was evident in Drums and Wires, which follows it.

"OH WE GO dmm dmm dmmm dm!"

Not a single.

― Mark G,

Weird. It's included on Upsy Daisy Assortment.

It is perhaps their first compilation to be considered a Best of as it includes album tracks "Funk Pop a Roll", "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her", "Earn Enough for Us" and "Chalkhills and Children" in addition to their better-known singles.

Not being smartie, went to the Wiki to see about this album, didn't know it.

Go 2 has "Battery Brides" which would be my #1 if I vote in this; I've just engaged so shallowly with the xtc oeuvre that I don't know if I will vote

the more the merrier sez I

IMO, a poll benefits from a broad range of engagements.

In the spirit of advocacy, I'd suggest everyone who hasn't done so check out the "Transistor Blast" boxed set, which frees a lot of the early material from the shackles of its production and releases Muh-Muh-Muh-MAGIC.

The brits who engage in the early stuff will balance the yanks that engage with the 'dear pumpkinhead' era

zero ballots received today get on it people

I'm listening.

I'm trying to put a ballot together, but finding it superfuckingdifficult!

afraid to vote coz I like Peter Pumpkinhead

peter pumpkinhead was too good

hooray for Peter Pumpkinhead

For what it's worth, I like 'The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead' a fair amount... unsure at this stage as to whether it'll appear in my ballot, though.

did Partridge ever write a more literal set of lyrics -- ick.

when i found out you'd been riding another man