TS: XTC's Black Sea vs. English Settlement

Thinking about my criticism of "Leisure" etc.:

On certain songs on their first three albums, they got aggressive, unmelodic and rhythmically disjunctive (as well as singing in silly voices), there was enough power in the music to put it over. When they try to do pursue that same mode on Black Sea or English Settlement, there's been a loss of energy and an increase in production gloss, and those songs are irritating instead of bracing. They were better off at that point in their career in going for Beatles instead of Beefheart.

― Halfway there but for you, Monday, February 14, 2022 6:33 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is a good point, definitely a big part of the problem with Leisure for me is that sort of waddling gait it has, it just sounds so bumptious.

The Sparks comparison is interesting – obv. both bands were produced by Todd Rundgren.

relistening to English Settlement now and noticing some things

1) there are a lot of awesome bass lines on this thing
2) Partridge is a total weirdo, I can see why he puts people off. he doesn't really have the voice to do all those sing-songy bits and his phrasing is so bizarre sometimes. he does the Zappa thing a bunch where he writes these rapid melodies and tries to sing every note of them
3) regardless, dude spins some great tunes. Yacht Dance is so damn beautiful. as is All of the Sudden. he's a brilliant lyricist...sometimes
4) No Thugs riff is immense
5) this album sounds dated in a way I never really noticed before. I think Hugh Padgham has a pretty signature style. where he puts the reverb and such.
6) album's theme seems to be anti-progress, sorta like Village Green Preservation Society. feel like Andy saw the world hurtling towards something bad and felt like we'd gone too far. well, can't imagine you'd like how things are now buddy
7) Leisure is the worst track I've always felt, but lately it kinda wins me over until the sax part...what the fuck!!!! Dont do that!!
8) English Roundabout = one of Colin's best tracks? his singing on it is incredible.
9) Fly on the Wall is almost like a throwback to their first two albums. were they trying to replicate Barry's sound or something?
10) bridge on Senses is amazing: "And birds might fall from black skies/And bullies might give you black eyes/And buses might skid on black ice"...brilliant
11) also really love that "we will skid across the surface of the ocean as though we're really seabirds" line on Yacht Dance
12) can't think of anything else

I think it's "wheeling seabirds," isn't it?

1) there are a lot of awesome bass lines on this thing

OTM

Terry Chambers is a hero and i think people who came to xtc in the post TC era don't really understand how massive the guy's sound was in the context of the time. he was also a prog fan and was totally blown away at learning the Bill Bruford had name checked him as a drummer to listen to i guess in the early 80s

TB: I think every drummer is a soup of all their influences -- I mean, that's the whole point, you put all that stuff in, mix it up, and you come up with something that tastes a little different. But you can still taste all the ingredients. I mean, it was good for me to play along with you, to hear those holes and the discipline, because I grew up listening to prog drummers -- Bill Bruford, Carl Palmer, early Phil Collins...

TC: Yeah. In the end, I stopped listening to them. I thought, "Well, I'm never going to be this fucking good, so I'm just going to go me own way now." "I've learned all I can learn off of these guys," I could just never kind of catch up with them, because every time I'd think, "Well, I'm sort of getting on top of this," they'd bring another album out and take it to a new level. So I could never win!

TB: Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Well, if it's any consolation, I remember seeing an interview with Bruford back in 1980 -- it was right when King Crimson had gotten back together and put out Discipline, and they had asked him for the five albums he was listening to at the time. One of them was Drums and Wires.

TC: You're kidding.

TB: Nope.

TC: Well mate, that really is a jug handle, if I may use such a term! I mean, that's unbelievable!

TB: Yeah, so, a bit of a turnaround there, huh?

TC: Well, I mean ... I'm not even worthy to talk of the man! The man is a living god! I mean, if he was a Greek, he would be a god for sure!

Awww

Now I'm obsessing over the phrase 'that really is a jug handle', I wonder what it means exactly?

It was a different time; the masses still had an occasional ear for arty sui generis pop. My go-to example is that Laurie Anderson made it to no. 2 in the British charts in 1981.

That is the big one... but funny then how XTC had so few proper hits. Towers Of London at the very least should have been done better.

When they were getting in the charts and on the radio in the UK I was between 7-10 years old.

At the age of 15 I bought a second-hand copy of Waxworks and soon realised that I knew all the songs from 'Life Begins...' onwards - and later found out that I knew 'Ten Feet Tall' very well but didn't know it was XTC -

So, hits or otherwise, they definitely penetrated our little household from casual kitchen-radio listening at the time.

"Making Plans For Nigel" was a hit, as was "Sgt. Rock". "Life Begins At the Hop" wasn't but they got on Top of the Pops!

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

a cool thing about the bridge on “senses” is that it secretly changes the key, and then when the pre-chorus comes back it’s a half step higher. cool effect, costello’s “oliver’s army” does a similar thing

My copy of ES (a beige cassette c. 1985 purchased at Rockhead’s in downtown St. Paul) had the aforementioned US tracklisting except with “Yacht Dance” replacing “It’s Nearly Africa”, resulting in an almost perfect album IMO. The only spare track I’d eagerly restore would be “Fly On The Wall”.

1. "Runaways"
2. "Ball and Chain"
3. "Senses Working Overtime"
4. "Jason and the Argonauts"
5. "Snowman"

1. "Melt the Guns"
2. "No Thugs in Our House"
3. "Yacht Dance"
4. "English Roundabout"
5. "All of a Sudden (It's Too Late)"

Wow, weird. That's on wiki: Some versions of the following track listing replace "It's Nearly Africa" with "Yacht Dance", resulting in a nearly identical runtime. Wonder what the reasoning for that was?

Stray thoughts:

- Is "Yacht Dance" XTC's version of acoustic Jethro Tull?
- I always liked Christgau's suggestion that "English Roundabout" is about the convoluted language, not just U.K. traffic.
- "All of a Sudden" sounds like cheery later McCartney mixed with the melancholy world-view of "Eleanor Rigby" or "For No One".

Too quirky, too brainy, too awkward, and just not good-looking enough (sorry, lads). There’s no louche legend to attach to them, no cool image; it’s all about the music, which is most definitely “music for music nerds.”

I've been thinking about this and it's definitely otm. in fact this is what deterred me from getting into the band in the first place. I remember seeing their CDs at the library and researching them online and they just came off so boring. the album covers, their photoshoots in pilgrim outfits, song titles like "Wrapped in Grey". everyone I know who's into them is a huge music dork. in that sense maybe they are more like They Might be Giants? yes, smart, profound, brilliant, all that...but they write music for music's sake and the people behind it are just sorta...normal dudes

moulding seems like a normal guy, idk if partridge fits by any stretch of the definition

Partridge is a normal dude in the sense that he’s a strong example of a “type” everybody knows: the abrasive know-it-all nerd.

Andy was interviewed a few years back for a podcast about Judee Sill. Her song "The Kiss" literally brought him to tears.

i thought it was interesting, watching the footage of the band's last day before they abruptly stopped playing live, that partridge seems together and with it, throughout. a little nervous and uptight but i certainly can understand that, and kind of a dick sometimes to people and a bit self-important, but also we don't see the months and years of touring and PR bullshit. anyway, he seemed perfectly fine, to me. and then, even the set itself when it happens, the songs leading up to it, the very song itself, even (i forget which one) -- to me i'm watching, thinking "when is the show where he walks off?", and then suddenly, he does.

just not at all the kind of "singer leaves set halfway through" kind of thing you're used to, you know?! very XTC in that way, i think. i think there's another xtc thread where every few years, for the last 15, i pop in and state my interest in getting into xtc but also that i've been unable to, or something. still true to this day, although every time i come back it's more familiar and i also hear a bunch of new things i didn't notice a few years earlier. that seems like an outstanding and uncommon quality in a pop band

yeah if you were in the crowd you'd think "wow, guess he had to piss huh?" its weird cuz you listen to those Black Sea era recordings and he was a total showman. however I have taken valium one time and a thought I had is "yes going from this world to that world must be pretty jarring". that said as the Quietus article mentions the bigger story is the insane pressure that was put on those bands back in the day. like I remember an article about TMBG where one of the Johns mentions 1990 as the band's most unhappy period because they spent basically every waking hour on the road or giving interviews getting asked the same 3 questions over and over. I'm surprised more of these folks didn't lose their marbles.