XTC : Classic or Dud.

link?

http://new.assets.thequietus.com/images/articles/4724/swans_headshots_large_1280489291_crop_550x532.jpeg

Any love here for the song Red Brick Dream? A BE era b-side, the odd way they sequenced the pre-remaster CDs (smack in the middle of the record, after 'side 1') has rendered lots of odd stuff forever as part of the official tracklisting in my brain. Sometimes a bad thing (Desert Island/Procession Towards Learning Land) and sometimes a good thing (Red Brick Dream, Blue Overall, Jump, Limelight)

Oops, neglected to mention that I was talking about B-Sides being sequenced. Brain fried from Gym.

I only found out the other day that Limelight, Chain Of Command and Life Begins At The Hop aren't meant to be on D&W :/

that's FIFTEEN YEARS OF MISUNDERSTANDING

All three of the tracks they bunged in the middle of Black Sea are great, IMO, especially Smokeless Zone which is one of Colin's best

Really? Smokeless Zone always seemed a little slight to me.

nah I love how it sounds, and how it careens to a wheezy halt

Tissue Tigers tho' right?

you've lost me

English Settlement b-side, you've never heard it?

It's a crappy rip, from a flexidisc but I can't find better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ut5xh6ZGfA

Life Begins at the Hop is on my OG 80's LP, which contained a 7" of Chain of Command and Limelight, but looking online there were a few different configurations of Drums & Wires around the world.

Smokeless Zone, Tissue Tigers and the rest of the B-sides that comprise the Beeswax LP make that a very interesting compilation imo.

XTC are one of those "wish I liked them more" bands. Love the singles/well known tracks, love some of the out there stuff (Complicated Game ftw) but everything in between leaves me almost completely cold.

Maybe repeated exposure would help but I doubt it. Listened to a few albums quite heavily some years ago, and I can still recall all the tracks from e.g. Drums and Wires, but everything between Nigel and Scissor Man totally blurs together into one big pile of meh.

there are a few highlights but it's an overrated album as I've said - Complicated Game is the behemoth standing over the rest and the album's truest legacy

tissue tigers is neat! although not as weird and wacky and generally unique as smokeless zone, which is a singularity IMO

I recently listened to all my XTC b-sides and there almost all top quality tunes chock-a-block full of odd time changes, interesting sounds and great lyrics.

yeah this will grow on me I think

RFI: Who is the female singer at the beginning of Dear God?

i thought it was a boy...

it's the daughter of a local friend of Rundgren's.

They put a little boy lip syncing that part in the video.

yeah thats probably why then!

C/D? XTC are damn classic!! Better songwriters than the Beatles! Also agreed re: the quality of some of their B-sides. I realize that Mummer was not really a great album, so it's frustrating to see that there was practically an entire album of great B-sides/unreleased singles that didn't make it. "Tissue Tigers" is one of their all time greats. Ditto for "Punch and Judy" and "The World is Full of Angry Young Men"

I have the CDs with all the B-sides as extras and they're great! But it's weird how they decided to put all the B-sides in the middle of the album.

In some cases yes. White Music and Mummer are the two that do that if I recall correctly. White Music doesn't really depend on sequencing so I don't mind...whereas on Mummer the bonus tracks are better than most of the album material :)

My copies of Drums & Wires, Black Sea, and Big Express have them in the middle as well. The other XTC albums I own are from a different run (the ones that looked like fake LPS in the flat cardboard cases that don't fit on some shelves).

I've listened to them all like that for so long that it's weird when I play the records without the B-sides. The only B-side that really sticks out, thematically, from the album it got shoved in the middle of is "Somnabulist" on Black Sea.

According to Andy's Ape Records website, on Nov. 22 they are rereleasing Skylarking on vinyl as two 45 rpm discs, containing both "Dear God" and "Mermaid Smiled" for the first (?) time, in regular (expensive) and deluxe (really expensive) editions.

Also, "During the course of this beautiful remastering job by legendary mastering engineer John Dent it was discovered that an error in the original mix chain had imparted all previous CD's and vinyls of the album with the unfortunate flaw of being out of polarity. In a nutshell this means that sounds that should have been pushing from your speakers where actually pulling them in to play out of the back more than the front!?! John has thankfully corrected this undetected error and we can tell you that this stunning cut of the album is about 30% better sounding than any previously heard."

Also also, they will be using the unseen-until-now original artwork for the album which was summarily rejected by anyone not named Andy Partridge:

http://www.ape.uk.net/images/Skylarkingfinal200.jpg

Preordering now. I'll wait for the CD myself.

I read about that "error", which seems bizarre to me. a) that is an amazing sounding record as it is, and b) really, you didn't notice this apparently glaring error???

Whoa, I read about that album artwork before, but finally seeing it is crazy!

That must have been a pretty big phase issue for an already good sounding record a whole %30 better. I call BS.

Yeah, I still can't see why that originally proposed album artwork got rejected.

Additionally, the back catalogue was remastered a few years back, most likely by Abbey Road mastering engineers, would expect they might have uncovered any phase issue.

They might have thought it was out-of-phase intentionally.

Nah, they'd have picked up on anything that drastic.

But on the other hand trying not to be a buzzkill, I hope that it does sound 30% better, that'd be amazing!

OG cover art = AWESOME

don't care about this "out of polarity" nonsense, seems like clatprap to me

these days 'black sea' is my favourite. it's got the hooks and songsmarts of 'skylarking', but with a darker, more menacing edge and generally more balls. no matter how many times i play 'drums and wires' all the way through, i can only ever remember a handful of the tracks ('complicated game' is just incredible, however).

Drums & Wires is soooo goddamn classic, if only for "When You're Near Me," "Outside World," "Scissor Man," "Real by Reel," "Helicopter,"..... such a keeper.

you're forgetting XTC's best song, AINYC

oh it's ok, charlie mentioned it

for me, CG is one of those "where the fuck did that come from??" songs you hear every now and again.

well if everyone put it as high on their 20thC ballot as I did it'd be doing quite well :P

was introduced to it v young. distinctly remember having to turn the hi-fi volume right up to be able to hear the first bit. then being blown to smithereens.

Will never listen to the Smithereens in the same light again.

ayo 'the greenhouse' is the name of my dog [/xtc lolz]

"Black Sea" is maybe my favorite XTC album? "Towers of London" is probably my favorite track on it.

English Settlement above Black Sea for me but it isn't too much of a thing

Black Sea has motherfucken No Language In Our Lungs which is probably second to Complicated Game

I realize that Mummer was not really a great album

Tracks were in the wrong order. If you shuffle it so it doesn't end with Funk Pop a Roll it works better.

OT: In my first uni course I opened an essay with a lyric from Funk Pop a Roll and the lecturer 'corrected' a spelling error in the lyric. 'That should be "YOUR pegs", not "YOU pegs"!' etc. Was a shit essay anyway.