XTC : Classic or Dud.

Currently looking out for a more reasonably-priced copy of Transistor Blast, can't really justify spending ~£30 on it right now, no matter how nice a set it looks.

xpost:

It's the weakest side of vinyl they ever put out!

lol I also don't really care about "Senses"! English Settlement is a hard album for me to *love*, even tho I know it's a great, ambitious, very unique record. "Senses" is maybe one of the most "normal" sounding songs on it, and one that wouldn't sound out of place even on something as late as O&L (albeit '89-isized). Maybe too normal for me?

IMO if "Snowman" is the towering monolith of odd and magical greatness on that record, then "Senses" is the concession to someone's idea of a hit pop single.

Partridge's vocal choices on the verses doesn't strike me as a pop concession; they foil the conventional chime of the chorus. I love "Snowman" too.

yeah, my wife once described them as "whiney"

I find that most XTC albums I've heard are front-loaded to fuck on the whole

I like the pastoral verses and the Beano-comic pre-chorus of 'Senses' but not a huge fan of the chorus. As a whole, I don't think it's their greatest song and was surprised it did so well in the ILM poll

Sometimes I think I'm getting bored of 'Senses Working Overtime', but if I'm honest with myself I'm still not bored of it. Sure, it gets far more attention than many other XTC songs that should get just as much but it's still a great song - and it's not really what I would consider to be straightforward, aside from perhaps the choruses.

Snowman and Jason & the Argonauts are its equal if not superior, true

i love that madly cycling youmightbethegoldenfleecethehumanrichesarereleased buildup section

Yeah, 'Jason and the Argonauts' totally deserves to me that long... expert use of tape phasing, too. 'Melt the Guns', on the other hand...

rules

Jaaaason

and

the

Ar-go-naauuuuuuuughts

'Melt the Guns' is an over-inflated turd, IMO... and the obnoxious outro is a perfect example of padding.

Willfully, delightfully obnoxious IMO. It's like the repetitious, noisy, dub-influenced experiments of "Scissor Man" and "Complicated Game" (and the whole Explode Together album.)

'Complicated Game' rules, though!

w Melt the Guns, honestly I just love the chords and the bassline. Colin should've played fretless even more than he did! A ton of momentum in that song for me

Eh. Colin's intonation on English Settlement isn't the greatest.

I hate Funk Pop a Roll

Count me in as another Melt the Guns stan. The lyrics are kind of on the nose, but the music is ace. And I think the bludgeoning outro is fabbo.

I find that most XTC albums I've heard are front-loaded to fuck on the whole

― Shat Parp (dog latin), Thursday, September 21, 2017 2:52 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You couldn't have heard very many of 'em, then!

I can’t listen to Turrican in this thread cuz he hated on Melt The Guns

Mummer isn't the only XTC album that's enhanced by its bonus tracks - I think White Music would have been far stronger if 'Science Friction', 'She's So Square' and 'Instant Tunes' had been on there instead of a couple of the lesser tracks.

I had the "Take Away" album, I was quite mmmmm at the time.

Comparatively recently, I got the "Explode Together" CD, and thought "This is great!!"

Time...

I think White Music would have been far stronger if 'Science Friction', 'She's So Square' and 'Instant Tunes' had been on there instead of a couple of the lesser tracks.

otm, although there are so many regional variants & pressings for every XTC album before Skylarking. my copy of White Music has Science Friction on it. I have a copy of Drums & Wires that begins with Life Begins at the Hop and doesn't have Making Plans for Nigel.

I got so used to those original Virgin CD pressings with the B-Sides boneheadedly dropped right in the middle of the running order.

Yeah, 'Life Begins at the Hop' was on the US version ... differences between UK/US versions of LP's were still quite common in the late '70s... the first Clash album and a couple of Jam albums have the same kind of UK/US differences. Americans liked to have non-album singles on their versions of the album.

Of course, as is also the case of The Beatles/The Rolling Stones etc. the UK version is the correct one*.

*(with the exception of Magical Mystery Tour)

looks like the Black Sea reissue is coming out this year after all:

Great news. XTC BLACK SEA 5.1 set can be pre-ordered here for a November 10th release. Don't miss out divers.https://t.co/vsLcruHMDv

— XTC (@xtcfans) September 25, 2017

AP tweeting out recently about the original proposed running order for Mummer:

Beating Of Hearts
Wonderland
Love On A Farmboy's Wages
Jump
Young Cleopatra
The World Is Full Of Angry Young Men
Motorcycle Landscape
Ladybird
Gold
In Loving Memory Of A Name
Desert Island -or- Happy Families
Deliver Us From The Elements

Huh, that looks like a far more accessible config. No 'Human Alchemy' (yay!) but also no 'Me and the Wind', 'Great Fire' or 'Funk Pop a Roll'

so how good a guitarist is Partridge? I like his solo(s) in "Books are Burning."

He’s deceptively good, downplays it for sure... I mean he shreds on those earlier records, and his chord vocabulary is insane

The studio version of Motorcycle Landscape is pretty rubbish or unfinished sounding at least.

xpost Everyone on the band (incl. the session pros, obviously) is ridiculously talented. XTC is one of those bands that often gets slotted with plenty of prog bands despite its Beatles pop leanings, which is to say in its own way it has a surprising amount in common with '80s and '90s King Crimson (and not just longtime KC drummer Pat Mastelotto, who plays on Oranges and Lemons). In fact, the fussiness and complexity of XTC I frequently find kind of exhausting, which is why, despite liking tons of XTC, I can only take them in small doses. But yeah, good players.

He's not in Gregory's league as a guitarist, but he's far better than many think he is (including himself)

XTC are nowhere near a prog band.

Of course they are!

Near, that is.

For some reason just a few songs that pop to mind are on the first Apple Venus, like "Greenman" or "Easter Theatre" or "River or Orchids."

None of those are prog.

The studio version of Motorcycle Landscape is pretty rubbish or unfinished sounding at least.

― MaresNest, Sunday, October 22, 2017 2:34 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Mummer era 'Happy Families' sounds better to me than the final version... I prefer the more Rickenbacker-tastic arrangement.

Thanks for that O&L drummer fact, Josh - didn't know that - this thread always makes me go down the XTC 'play all a.m.' hole - some mornings the Virgin issued 'Compact XTC' is all I need, but it's nice to read this thread and occasionally give D&W or Black Sea my full attention. I gotta buddy in Central Illinois that is a great guitarist and used to cover 'Life Begins At The Hop,' & he could talk for hours on end on what a great guitarist Andy is through his career.

I once waited in a long line to hear Andy speak at a old Borders on Michigan Ave in Chicago. He was signing new copies of Apple Venus at the time, & I asked him when he signed my copy, "So who are you listening to these days that you're enjoying," and of course he responded "Charlie Christian, and other American blues & jazz."

Pat Mastelotto was in The Rembrandts and Mr. Mister too, and fuck if I'm gonna read XTC lumped in with those lot either.

So this EP by Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers has been released, I hear that one track, Comrades of Pop, is a pretty nasty dig at AP.

Damn, those two made an EP? I thought Colin was totally finished with music. I will probably check it out but I'm not hopeful

It'll all sound like Fruit Nut except with really barbed lyrics, lol

Love how it's all split down Partridge/Adamson / Moulding/Chambers lines

Bloody rhythm sections eh

https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/tc-and-i