Apologies if my nostalgia’s working overtime, but jeez, what a landmark double album! XTC [if they had a motto today, it could be “the most inexplicable omission from the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, bar none”] had by that time already established themselves as being no slouches, certainly, but probably no one was expecting this explosion of acoustic instruments, expanded (and uncommercially extra-long) song structures, and the ever-unpredictable lyricism of Andy Partridge’s and Colin Moulding’s flights of fancy. It’s saying a lot, given XTC’s LP output from 1977 to 2000, that many of their fans pick ES as their overall favorite.
If anyone’s ever written a song that better captures some of the psychological complexities of being young and trying to come to grips with the world (black ice and all) than “Senses Working Overtime,” I’d like to hear it. Or the snappy sarcastic put-downs of complacent “see no evil” parents of “No Thugs in Our House”… or the keening regret of “All of a Sudden (It’s Too Late)”… or the compulsively danceable odes to pacifism and the prospects of the African continent, of all things (“Melt the Guns” and “It’s Nearly Africa”), or the zippy dismissal of commuting-hell conformism in “English Roundabout”…
And “Yacht Dance” holds up as perhaps the loveliest song I’ve ever heard, period, buoyed along on the superlative musical chops of the now-veteran musicians and captured with some interesting production choices.
Outstanding work for the most part. Trust me, Robert Christgau was a putz for giving it a B-.
This is a melancholy time for XTC fans, given Andy Partidge’s admission in last week’s Onion that the band is for all purposes disbanded, with communications between him and sole remaining member (and fellow songwriter) Colin Moulding severed.
At least we’ll always have XTC’s wonderful albums. If you haven’t heard English Settlement yet, try to give it a spin someday soon – preferably in the audiophile-vinyl three-disc version, or the Japanese digital remastered CD. You won’t regret it.
