― andrew l. r. (allocryptic), Sunday, 20 June 2004 22:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Mummer would have been 10 times better had the same tracks been sequenced differently. It's chock full of top tunes, but the running order is just woeful.
O&L's high production really works in favour of the music, I reckon. Apart from King for a Day, which is agony to my ears. The raw power behind Antheap et al really pronounces the strengths in the songwriting. I agree on the relatively weak lyrics though; I think there were a few hassles with Virgin around that time, with the label wanting Partridge to produce hit singles and such.
Anyone heard the Fuzzy Warbles stuff? It's some of the best Partridge has ever done, and it's not overproduced. :)
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 20 June 2004 22:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― THOR, Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― j e r e m y (x Jeremy), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 20 June 2004 23:45 (nineteen years ago) link
"Black Sea": well, I do think, just to attempt to take down a peg an album I've always liked, that XTC did progress a bit like Yes. Thus, "Drums and Wires" is their undeniable "breakthrough" album much like "Fragile," and "Black Sea" is their undeniably "accomplished" yet overstated "improvement" upon their breakthrough, just as "Close to to the Edge" is similar for Yes. And to borrow a Meltzerian trope, it's their overstatement that is the point, on both LPs, overstatement as understatement as overstatement or something silly like that. I do like "Black Sea" much better than I do "Close to the Edge" (I have been somewhat obsessed, though, with "Siberian Khatru" lately, and find it very XTC-like). I never liked "Sgt. Rock" from "Black Sea" either, nor do I find the "Kinks-esque" "Respectable Street" all that great. But love "Towers of London," sure.
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 21 June 2004 01:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― mentalist (mentalist), Monday, 21 June 2004 02:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 21 June 2004 02:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 21 June 2004 02:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 21 June 2004 14:34 (nineteen years ago) link
A Mate of mine used to live in Swindon, and worked in a small recording/rehearsal studio there, that XTC used to use, back in the day. One fateful day, he was assistant producer when they worked on their first attempt to do "Making plans for Nigel". This was one of the tracks on the "cupboard/wardrobe/whatever it was called" rarities/anthology thing, which I managed to get via Kazaa. So, I added it to a compil CD for him, and said "Now you can play it to friends and say "Hey, this track, I rewound the original tape!"
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:54 (nineteen years ago) link
BLASPHEMY.. Oh hahahahahahaha. irony.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 21 June 2004 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― (I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and) Whittle Away My Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 21 June 2004 23:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― mentalist (mentalist), Monday, 21 June 2004 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link
I heard "Respectable Street" on my CD walkman Friday morning, totally by accident, I was only trying to re-experience the whole of the Rag & Bone Buffet CD and I was surprised that suddenly reality was shapeshifting underneath my feet while "Respectable Street" played and I teleported to another heavenly post-punk planet and couldn't stop toe tapping and singing and god, what a mess. Surely that song could keep pace with Gang of Four as far as clasic post-punk goes.
Which reminds me, anyone want to join a band? I could bloody use a drummer, me.
― Bimble, Sunday, 30 September 2007 04:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Living Through Another CUE BAH!
― Bimble, Sunday, 30 September 2007 09:12 (sixteen years ago) link
I listened to English Settlement all the way through again the other day, and as I get older, the more it becomes apparent to me that the last two tracks are 1) by a fair margin the best things on there and 2) utterly, utterly superb.
― Just got offed, Sunday, 30 September 2007 09:25 (sixteen years ago) link
I bet you're probably right. English Settlement was always their most difficult album for me (as opposed to Go2, which frankly goes in one ear and out the other for the most part). It has its place in their catalogue, though, and I respect it.
― Bimble, Sunday, 30 September 2007 18:14 (sixteen years ago) link
I really need to hear The Big Express.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 30 September 2007 18:18 (sixteen years ago) link
From some years back:
Hell yeah. The Fuzzy Warbles stuff can be broken down into the following categories:
1) Demos of stuff already released. And often these demos are VERY different (cf "Great Fire", "Me And The Wind") and better (cf anything from _Oranges & Lemons_ and _Nonesuch_)
2) Noodly bits and throw-away gags. Andy laughing uncontrollably, Andy doing imitations, Andy doing an answering machine message. These aren't even for diehards like me. Well, after the first few listens at least.
3) Instrumentals. I always liked XTC's instrumentals - the Homo Safari series is particularly cool. But these are inessential for the most part.
4) Complete, new, unreleased songs. This is the MEAT! And it's soooo tasty. "Sonic Boom" is amazing, "When We Get To England" is gorgeous, "My Land Is Burning" is powerful and politically relevant today, "End Of The Pier" is evocative of an England I never knew in a palpable way. That these songs were in Andy's shoebox for years is a crime, but at least they've seen the light of day.
Classic to the nth degree. XTC is one of the very few bands whose demos are worth hearing.
― Mr. Odd, Monday, 1 October 2007 23:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Thanks for helping me understand it better. I played the first Fuzzy Warbles CD and quit, so I will have go back and try to experience some more of it.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 02:22 (sixteen years ago) link
I've muddled my way through volumes 1-7 over the past year and Mr. Odds summation is pretty much OTM - the best stuff is the fully formed, unreleased songs, the rest ranges from interesting to completely unnecessary.
Thread here: S/D: Fuzzy Warbles (an XTC thread)
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
4) Complete, new, unreleased songs. This is the MEAT! And it's soooo tasty. "Sonic Boom" is amazing
Isn't it though?
I've created an iPod playlist of this MEAT of which you speak. It's 46 tracks and it's bliss.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 06:27 (sixteen years ago) link
see also "Wonder Annual", "Ship Trapped In Ice". If you took off the worst two songs on Wasp Star, and replaced them w/these, that album goes from C+ to A-.
― Dominique, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 14:37 (sixteen years ago) link
I dunno, I totally love the Dukes of the Stratosphear stuff, but I can't stand XTC. In fact I kinda hate them. Am I a hypocrite for digging "Chips from the Chocolate Fireball" when I just cannot abide the "real" band? It just seems like the Dukes are openly derivative so that changes the valence completely.
― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 14:47 (sixteen years ago) link
I think you'd like "Fuzzy Warbles" then, it's closer to the Dukes spirit than XTC, I'd say.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 14:48 (sixteen years ago) link
DD, so you're saying XTC's more (imo still pretty thinly) veiled references to 60s pop is the deciding factor in your hatred?
― Dominique, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 15:06 (sixteen years ago) link
It's hard to put into words. I suppose it is that the sheer anachronism of the Dukes becomes kind of critical, like a gesture of defiance against what is current. Whereas the mixture of "classic" moves and au courant stuff in XTC feels kind of reactionary in a bad way; a kind of after punk return to Real Musical Values that is just reactionary enough to be annoying to me, but isn't so reactionary that it goes over the edge and becomes camp, like the Dukes. Does that make sense?
― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 15:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes. Also many of the DoS songs are just really really good with less opportunity for "cleverness" and fannying about
― Tom D., Tuesday, 23 October 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link
ic -- tho I fear for my own reception in the Drew house based on that criteria...:/
also wonder if there are particular albums/songs that rub you the wrong way. I definitely see A.Partridge in particular as having a pretty unique hangup of being obsessed w/both pop forms of Beatles/Beach Boys/Kinks and (basically modernist) notions of progress and tech in pop, via bands like Can, Capt Beefheart -- seems like this would easily end in many trainwrecks for songs, tho for me anyway, also ends in songs that no one else has ever written (+ I like em!)
― Dominique, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 15:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Dominique, you know yer always gettin' a warm reception in my house . . .
I honestly must also confess that my childhood friend's annoying older brother *loved* XTC (and Wings!) in a smug way that really bummed me out, and so perhaps I am simply prejudiced and it's not really rational or worth sharing with ILM.
― Drew Daniel, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:10 (sixteen years ago) link
There is a lot in XTC that is fairly forward-thinking. 'Black Sea' is probably the album to listen to if it's pure innovation you want. Most of it I regard as pretty timeless, mind.
― Just got offed, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:11 (sixteen years ago) link
No, "Drums and Wires" is the one
― Tom D., Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, it was a close-run thing, but although D&W has 'Complicated Game' and 'Millions' in the weirdness stakes, 'Living Through Another Cuba' and 'Travels In Nihilon' are genuinely out-there.
― Just got offed, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Yes, but it's the first album where the Beatles/60s influences and "classic moves" that Drew mentioned begin to appear
― Tom D., Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Hmm, maybe. I don't like to think of that music as more reactionary, though. More ornate, certainly, but it has, I believe, a timeless charm.
― Just got offed, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:37 (sixteen years ago) link
white music is funky.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 16:41 (sixteen years ago) link
it makes me sad that dd doesn't like xtc
some days they may be my favorite rock band. which occasionally makes me go O_o when i think on it
― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 18:09 (sixteen years ago) link
see also "Wonder Annual"
^^^ x 283764923876548923
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 23:11 (sixteen years ago) link
As (I think) I mentioned upthread somewhere, XTC takes effort. You can't just chuck on an album and expect to be all over it in 32 minutes. Each one requires at least 15 plays. Without that perseverence you won't get anywhere.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 23:13 (sixteen years ago) link
I was all over Black Sea on my first listen when I was 8 years old. Sure I didn't understand all the meanings of the lyrics then and all that.
― Mackro Mackro, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 23:27 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm not sure it'd go up to A- but certainly a solid B. _Wasp Star_ is the only XTC album I ever was utterly disappointed with, especially after the great _Apple Venus_. It does have a great Colin song for the first time in a decade ("Boarded Up").
Which two tracks would you replace? "I'm The Man Who Murdered Love" for sure, god that's such a wimpy song. What else?
― Mr. Odd, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 00:13 (sixteen years ago) link
"You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful", for the reason that it is SO, SO, SO CLOSE to being absolutely superb, but somehow falls short, with the consequence that I am terrifically disappointed every time I hear it.
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 24 October 2007 01:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Nice write-up (Join the Dots) - thanks for sharing!
I recently got the new "The Big Express" surround edition and totally agree with Vinnie's post. Steven Wilson did an excellent job here, smoothing out the jarring artificial bits while not diluting its rock moments, to the album that needed it the most. Also - in the liner notes, Andy wants to make it clear that not all the drums on the album are from a drum machine, which apparently was a common misconception. Just one quibble: for some reason, they didn't include the music videos for this one, like they did with the others.
Here's a good article about Wilson's process: https://www.soundonsound.com/people/steven-wilson-remixing-classic-albumsThis is key: "He sums up his approach as being devoutly faithful to the original mix when he's working in stereo, and creating something fresh when he's working in surround."
It explains why I was not really blown away by the stereo "Skylarking" remix (it sounds exactly like the mix I've heard 100+ times, but maybe just a little cleaner and without the crossfading between tracks) BUT the surround "Skylarking" remix is a whole different experience. I HIGHLY recommend hearing it in surround! Another "you MUST hear this in surround" recommendation for XTC fans is the Dukes of Stratosphear comp "Psurroundabout Ride" - he really goes for it, and it works! And back to "The Big Express," on "Wake Up" (where the intro guitars are hard-panned Left/Right on the stereo version), on the surround version, they bounce around on four speakers, making it even more disorienting.
I have all of the XTC surround editions and honestly love them all and will buy any more they put out - apparently they can't find the multi-tracks for all the songs on "English Settlement" and "Mummer," so that's the hold-up for those.
Audio nerd stuff (in case this is helpful for anyone Googling these issues):1) Listening to the surround "The Big Express," for some tracks, the first two seconds of some songs would get cut off. I changed the "Audio Format" setting on my player (Playstation 5) from "Bitstream" to "Linear PCM" and that fixed it.2) "Black Sea" would only play in stereo, not surround. I figured out that changing the "Audio" track setting on the player from "1. English" to "2. English" allowed it to play in surround. I had this exact same issue (and the fix is the same) for the King Crimson "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" surround DVD. (I didn't have this issue with other XTC or King Crimson surround discs, so I guess it's a disc mastering error?)
― ernestp, Tuesday, 2 January 2024 18:16 (two months ago) link
apparently they can't find the multi-tracks for all the songs on "English Settlement" and "Mummer," so that's the hold-up for those.
They have all but the single a-sides.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 3 January 2024 10:52 (two months ago) link
Listening to the surround "The Big Express," for some tracks, the first two seconds of some songs would get cut off. I changed the "Audio Format" setting on my player (Playstation 5) from "Bitstream" to "Linear PCM" and that fixed it.
Thanks so much for this tip--I have this issue when hooking my Mac up to my receiver for DTS .wav files in VLC, will try this trick to see if it sorts it out.
― blatherskite, Wednesday, 3 January 2024 16:22 (two months ago) link
xps glad you enjoyed the piece!
I haven't heard any of Wilson's mixes at home as I haven't any good setup for them. But TBE is the one I'm most eager to hear and I'm wondering if it will spotlight slightly buried things in the old mix, like the synth (electric piano?) in This World Over or the cannonballs in Seagulls. Still sad he omits the crossfades though.
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Friday, 5 January 2024 13:18 (two months ago) link