So I’ve been on this huge XTC kick lately. I’ve been listening to anything I can get my hands on, and it’s starting to drive my friends insane that I won’t shut up about it. So I turn to you, strangers: Do you love XTC?
Before my XTC love kicked into overdrive I would have said that my favorite album is Skylarking, but now I’m not so sure. The great thing about XTC is that every album is a huge, dense chunk of music that just peels back into layers of genius pop, and as I become better acquainted with the rest of their catalogue it becomes more difficult for me to pick a “favorite.” I would definitely say that Black Sea is the album I would use to introduce people to the band.
So what do you love about XTC? And will my obsession ever end
Hey, I’ve been on an XTC kick, too! Great timing for this thread!
I’m currently fixated on “My Bird Performs” and “We’re All Light” – such pretty, sweet songs. All of their songs, with only a few exceptions (like, off the top of my head, “Dear God,” “Here Comes President Kill Again” and “Making Plans for Nigel”), are full of joy and just…I don’t know, life. What other band could write a song of praise for one’s penis and make it adorable?
My username may be your first clue as to my feelings about this band.
It’s very hard to pick a single favorite album. My favorite album from the “live” XTC lineup is Black Sea, but my favorite from the studio years is roughly a four-way tie between Chips from the Chocolate Fireball (yes, the Dukes count), Skylarking, Oranges & Lemons and Apple Venus.
I agree with pulykamell* that only the Beatles did pure, melodic (& harmonic) pop music better, and few other bands match XTC’s relentless drive to explore new territory with each album. How sad to think there will be no more XTC albums. At least we (supposedly) have a solo project by Andy to look forward to.
Aside from their varied, innovative and beautiful musical work, the album cover art for “GO TO” was one of the most interesting works from the whole “New Wave” period… Clever , fun and thoughful…
I came in to mention that also. That is perhaps my favorite album cover of all time. I didnt discover XTC until about 1983 when I heard Senses Working Overtime which is still perhaps my favorite. Its harder to think of a song by them that I dont like (and none comes to mind at the moment) - always a sign of a great band.
I love XTC on a casual basis - they are entirely worthy of a deep dive, but I have not invested the time.
Add to my way-too-long list of music to dive into! I am checking out Radiohead, but have the new Steve Malkmus, some Sun Kil Moon, Against Me! and Yell County to check out before then…
Seconding Dukes of Stratosphear! They are often overlooked, but very good.
XTC is one of those bands I wish I’d have discovered years sooner (and that’s saying something, as Im not even 30!) They always remind me a bit of Monty Python - extremely talented, and with the ability to do diverse things, but rarely taken seriously.
Yes, they are brilliant. The greatest cult band of all time. Partridge never seemed to be in step with the times, and his refusal to tour after English Settlement, I think, meant that they never moved beyond cult status.
I think my favorite albums are (in no particular order): English Settlement, Black Sea, Drums and Wires, and Oranges and Lemons. The Apple Venus albums are good as well, but they missed Dave Gregory.
I also have to put in a word of praise for Terry Chambers, the original drummer. He had some of the loudest, stupidest, but apt drum sounds of the 80s. (Likely much to do with working with Hugh Padgham, who invented the “gated drum” sound.) He also did a nice job of integrating electronic drums into his percussion.
My 8 month old loves hearing me play along to “Respectable Street.”
Although Partridge was the major engine behind XTC’s creative output, I had a soft spot for almost all of Colin Moulding’s compositions: Making Plans for Nigel, Ten Feet Tall, Smokeless Zone, Cynical Days, Wonderland, Fly on the Wall… If you go to their official website (idearecords.co.uk) Andy says XTC is no more because Colin disappeared and doesn’t want to make music anymore… if only they can patch things up and give us a proper final album, with Chambers and Gregory on board, and tour some small venues (think MTV Unplugged-type settings), it would be an awesome coda to this amazing band.
NB: I don’t much care for the Barry Andrews - pre Dave Gregory stuff… but interestingly enough, Andy Partridge is working with Barry Andrews again.
XTC deserved to be way more popular and commercially successful than they were. I never even heard of them until they guy who lived down the hall from me in college got Oranges & Lemons.
Careful, people – XTC has a way of taking over your brain with a febrile intensity that manifests itself in serial album obsessions, myriad XTC earworms, and an Ahab-like pursuit of increasingly esoteric rarities. Sure, now it’s just can’t-miss catalogue picks like Black Sea, Skylarking, and a **Dukes of Stratosphear ** compilation; but a couple of years from now you’ll be snapping up the full Fuzzy Warbles * series of demos and rarities; sundry concert bootlegs; the Mobile Fidelity gold-disc digital remasters (both of 'em); the full catalogue Japanese digital remasters; albums by other artists that boast minimal XTC involvement [Dave Gregory played guitars on two songs!, etc.], albums by fly-by-night pop bands whom a fan swore are XTC-like in their playful inventiveness and energetic drum patterns; scouring garage sales for multicolored vinyl and the 45s with extraordinary novelty packaging; and, most devastatingly, contemplating a daytrip to Swindon on one’s real or hypothetical vacation in the U.K. (The latter is particularly ill-advised given this fixture of the Swindon roadways.)
Not to mention working in XTC references on message boards like The Straight Dope, and visiting the nonsuch fanboy site for the band.
Spoken as the proud owner** of excellent/mint-cond. copies of the “This World Over” single (with all the post-nuclear-war postcards still attached) and of the “No Thugs In Our House” single (with the full proscenium, yay!). Oh, and the multicolored 45 single of “You’re a Good Man, Albert Brown”. [Cheers!]
** Although a Zen master would probably observe that I’m not owning the holy relics so much as the artifacts own me. You have been duly warned…
I’ve got all 8 discs - I’d say it’s definitely for fans only, but they could easily come out with a single (or double)-disc compilation worthy of your time. A lot of it is alternate takes and demos, but there’s a bunch of stuff that never made it onto any XTC or Dukes discs as well. I’d say download some songs from the Fuzzy Warble series from iTunes or Amazon and see if you like them.
As for me, I’d go with Drums And Wires, Black Sea or Skylarking for a favorite, with Black Sea maybe narrowly edging out the other two if I absolutely had to pick one.
Andy Partridge did the fantastic theme song for the short-lived, but excellent Fox show “Wonderfalls.” You can purchase it on ITunes or listen to it here.
