XTC C/D S/D

um, basically the first two albums (white music and go2) are period pieces of early newwave/p-punk with rinkydink keyboards and iffy songs. drums & wires is just that (big, echo-y drums & twangin not-quite-"angular" guitars and better songcraft by and large). black sea stretches out a bit, but its a little too hamfisted "political" in places. english settlement is probably their masterpiece (with skylarking close behind), soukous meets kinks meets the knack, or whatever. havent really heard anything past skylarking and i dont think i want to.

Anyway, Drums & Wires was the first record I bought and prolly remains my favorite, altough Black Sea, Skylarking, English Settlement and the Dukes album aren't far behind. Didn't have the energy/desire to buy that Coat of Many Cupboards box set but while Apple Venus was very nice.

My favorite story is how Blur got Partridge to produce their album but sacked him for making it sound too much like XTC... then they go on and release Country House.

"Country House" doesn't sound much like XTC, it sounds more like Madness. There are other Blur songs ("For Tomorrow", "End Of a Century", "Tracy Jacks", "It Could Be You") that are obviously influenced by XTC, but I wouldn't say "Country House" is among them.

However, "The Great Escape" would probably have been an even better album if it had been produced by Partridge rather than Stephen Street.

1. Skylarking
2. Nonsuch
3. Oranges And Lemons
4. Wasp Star
5. Apple Venus
6. Psonic Sunspot

(Those six are all undoubtable classics and I would rank them considerably above the rest)

7. Mummer (Best from their pre-"Skylarking" era - and also sounding a lot like "Skylarking" in places)
8. Black Sea
9. The Big Express
10.English Settlement (Nice attempt, but didn't quite work out, partly because Hugh Padgam did an unusually bad producer's job, but also because some of the tracks are just too weird)
11.Drums And Wires
12.Go 2 (possibly the greatest sleeve ever though!)
13.White Music

Even from the start, they were a great singles band though.

D: nothing really; Drums and Wires and The Big Express are probably the most patchy ones I have heard, yet both have saving graces.

Funny though, while you've all gone all out on the album tipping, nobody's mentioned any songs! So I still can't name one, even if someone puts a gun to my head right now! Gah...

There are other Blur songs ("For Tomorrow", "End Of a Century", "Tracy Jacks", "It Could Be You") that are obviously influenced by XTC

Three of my favourite Blur songs. Things are looking up and up.

XTC are swell. For me, their release of choice is the Transister Blast box set. Nearly everything on it (its all BBC sessions and live shows) bests the album versions as far as I'm concerned.

And the two Dukes of Stratosphear records are fun, addictive workouts of the 60s psych-pop form.

and then two albums circa 2000, seemingly presenting a lush pastoral band app. ven. in vol 1 and a jagged punk band with vol. 2, and the lush pastoral stuff seemingly sounding better

it's like the songwriting well ran dry some time ago -- an excuse to present endless different retrospectives of alternative takes -- this band has made an industry out of issuing the same songs in multiple incarnations -- most bands release one take, two takes at the most of each song, but every XTC song, multiple takes, all these sessions ? do the songs stand up to or deserve so many readings ?

XTC aren't jazz, so i don't see any need for all these different versions -- do the band think everybody is that interested in those songs ? most posters here have referred to the original songs/albums in both threads -- reading them you'd barely know of the existence of all the alternatives, and given that the posters are enthusiastic about the regular albums, you can't help wondering who is interested in all these archives

XTC aren't The Beatles -- their songwriting is good, but not so fantasticly engaging as to deserve this sort of scrutiny -- and they don't play live much less tour -- have the band taken to flogging off their back catalogue in this other way instead ? and doesn't it beg the question of whether the songwriting has dried up ? 1992->2000 results in two new albums followed by more rehashing ? where is the new XTC material ? would XTC rather not admit they've pretty much retired ?

as a fan i'm pissed off with all this dithering with the old songs i already know, when there are the resources to produce new cds, cds that could have been full of new songs from 1992/2000 onwards, unless of course songwriting has stopped (and i hope it hasn't)

Let me defend "The Big Express" here. Surely, those huge drum sounds unfortunately date the album, but there are some significant songs on this record.. Colin's "Wake Up!" and "I Remember The Sun" are just terrifyingly good. "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her", "You're The Wish You Are I Had", "I Bought Myself A Liarbird", "The Reign Of Blows", "The Everyday Story of Smalltown" and "Train Running Low on Soul Coal" are all really turgent and amazing. A lot of bent guitar noises and Beefhearty sounding stuff going on, which is a bit underrecognized here. I'm still kinda baffled why this record is so universally balked and hated.

Another record that seems overlooked or bashed too often is "Nonsuch". Sure, it has a few non-spectacular moments ("BUUUUUUUUUUUN-GALOW" haw haw), but it's far more solid than "Oranges and Lemons" which sounds so fruity and L.A.

"Apple Venus" is possibly my favorite XTC record actually, and a testament to their arrangement skills. I'm a little disappointed they had to follow this up with their "rock" album.

Otherwise, XTC are best when they indulge in their glam/psych pop costumes, a la Dukes Of Stratosphear and their deleted project which spawned the better songs on "Wasp Star".

"White Music", "Go 2", "Drums and Wires", "Black Sea" all own you, of course.

*groan*

are they still in a bad deal now with TVT ? all those songs up to 1992, then barely two albums worth of new songs to mark ten years, almost immediately heavily re-hashed ? and it seemed that XTC had already decided that volume one and volume two were very different records

i still don't get why they aren't trying to fill that enormous gap suggested by both time and apparatus-for-churning-out-cds to give us some new songs

OK freaking out and not being able to tour anymore must have screwed up a few band obligations and cut off the typical band bread and butter -- maybe what i read a reviewer refer to as a "strike by the band" '93-2000 prevents any songs written from then getting released to any great fiscal advantage to the band, but you don't stop writing songs do you ? in mojo recently Partridge bought into their presentation of him as a songwriter

the prolific '80s, the baren '90s, the now-you-see-them and now-you-don't of this band well into their new deal with a new record label, it's all a great mystery -- anybody read that book "chalkhills and chidren" ? shed any light ?

and Oranges and Lemons the double album should have been a single (but we would have heard all those other songs in some other format anyway, rght ?)

and if Oranges and Lemons .. sounds so fruity then The Big Express runs out of steam

(1) English Settlement
(2) Drums & Wires
(3) Black Sea

I agree with Jess that none of their albums are flawless. I haven't followed them since Oranges and Lemons. I liked that album at the time, but I grew to dislike it. Can't comment much since I haven't heard it in its entirety for years. I would like to hear their newer material but will not take a chance buying it without hearing some of it first. I never heard what others apparently hear in Skylarking. I liked Mummer a bit more, and it always seemed as though it could become a favorite, but I never quite got into it. The Dukes of the Stratosphere stuff left me cold.

Favorites songs (in no order): Making Plans for Nigel [the first one I ever heard, before I really was aware of the group], It's Nearly Africa, Yacht Dance, Senss Working Overtime, English Roundabout, Burning with Optimism's Flames, Towers of London, Json and the Argonauts, Snowman, Ten Feet Tall, When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty, Outside World, Scissor Man, Heaven is Paved with Broken Glass, Down in the Cockpit [I don't care if it's preachy, I still like it], and [dear God!] Dear God [which I don't think anyone else here likes]. But Ball and Chain, No Thugs in Our House, All of a Sudden (It's Too Late), and Complicated Game [which I used to like to fall around to] are also pretty good. (And Generals and Majors is good, too, thanks to Tom's new message--and I like his description!).

But here's a short list:
Summer's Cauldron/Grass
Wrapped in Grey
Mayor of Simpleton
Braniac's Daughter
Pale and Precious
Are You Receiving Me?
Respectable Street
Love on a Farmboy's Wages
Harvest Festival
Your Dictionary
Maypole

...but man there's so many...

This Is Pop
No Language In Our Lungs
Melt the Guns
Snowman
Love on A Farmboy's Wages
Ladybird
Bought Myself A Liarbird
Wake Up
Grass
1000 Umbrellas
Ballet for A Rainyday
Here Comes President Kill Again
Humble Daisy
That Wave
Harvest Festival
I'd Like That

(Actually, that's not all that radical, as it's chronicled again and again in the Song Stories book. But it's more or less true nonetheless.)

My favorite songs are therefore the ones that everyone forgets, the bullshitty ones: "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul," "Rook," "I Bought Myself a Liarbird," etc. Except yeah, Jess and Sgt. Rockist are right: "Dear God" IS a good song, better than even Partridge knew.

i) the kid.

ii) "a big reduction in amount of tears" makes me wince for some reason.

iii) Bad things happen therefore there is no God seems to me a crass spiritual viewpoint ;)

Pretty tune though.

But now, it's really only critics and Internet goons without our finely-tuned sensibilities who hate on "Dear God." Maybe it's a British ("what are you yelling about?") vs. American ("subtlety my ass") thing.

I think this is compensated for by the "I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer" line, which is pretty funny.

Tom, I think the enormous amount of suffering that is built into the world is a very good reason for believing that there is no God of a certain sort (all powerful and all good or if "good" is too problematic than "all powerful and moderately merciful").

(I think I'm just going back to Rockist Scientist, since everyone seems to like that. But in many ways I'm not a rockist (though I do like John Lennon's solo work a lot more than most of you apparently), and I'm definitely not a scientist.)

Well clearly there's a god, it's just that it's a *totally insane and unpredictable* kinda god.

Cripes...there are SO MANY to choose from, but my faves:

"Respectable Street"
"Living Through Another Cuba" -- especially a live version recorded at Emerald City, Philadelphia courtesy of a bootleg
"Travels in Nihilon" - XTC practically covering Killing Joke
"Outside World"
"This Is Pop"
"Science Friction"
"No Thugs in Our House"
"Crowded Room"
"Radios in Motion"
"Vanishing Girl"
"25 O'Clock"
"Wake Up"
"Across This Ant Heap"
"Real By Reel"
"When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty"
"Crossed Wires"
....oh, fuck, and loads more.

And then if one were to add omniscience (which would include foreknowledge), that raises even more problems. (Why would God start this thing going, knowing that it would result in so much misery?)

This is Gnosticism, and there was an awful lot of it around when the Bible was being written, it's just that the stuff got excised and increasingly edited out as time went on.

I think the problem of evil is an excellent reason for not liking or trusting or worshipping God, I just don't think it's a good reason for not believing he exists.

In Gnosticism, or at least some forms of it, the Creator is a lesser entity than God. The creator isn't really God, and is seen in a negative light.

I like Isaac Luria's account of creation as a botched job, too, though I certainly don't believe in it. (Also, he wrenches a good deal of positive meaning out of it.)

(Tom I still think the problem of evil is a good reason for not thinking that a certain type of God exists, a God with certain specific qualities, including compassion. However, I agree that it's not an adequate reason for denying the existence of any God whatsoever. I'm agnostic about that.

Omniscience still matters, since God would know who is going to suffer eternally in the after life. He would know ahead of time that millions of souls will suffer eternally as a result of His creating Adam and Eve and so forth.)

wtf

can't really imagine what Andy would see in such a "collaboration"

hard for me to believe that the verve pipe clown would see andy partridge as his hero

I guess both of us need to suspend our disbelief

some factual errors btw ("Blue Array?" rmde)

Listened to a few Go 2 era tracks. Did the guy who torrented these really do the world a service by adding this noise reduction? The original Rapidshare downloads are taking an age to be downloaded, while the NR'd torrent sets took minutes.

I know, I guess I'm going to have to pull them all down from the original site.

Paul, I asked the chap if he would consider uploading his next batch without NR and he kindly agreed, so lets see.

That's great, it's good how he's split the tracks up etc, but the noise reduction thing had me completely baffled.

Wow, I just googled the guy that runs the blog, crazy!

I did the same yesterday. Not the most well-liked dude on the internets, is he?

Hard to tell if he is as big a screwball or if it's some kind of tape-trader beef writ large, he is also credited on English Settlement for backing vocals!

To save me the bother - where are the juicy links, please?

yeah this dude has been around the 'net forever. seems to have some sort of paranoia disorder? lots of great tapes though.

Paul, Google his name and take yr pick of like the first five links.

Ignore the Fear of Music rough mixes d/l btw, it's just a cassette premaster of the finished thing, unless your stoked about hearing a 1/4 machine in rewind before Life During Wartime.

haha, yeah i was excited about that one, but could not discern any difference in the mix other than tape hiss.

Woah. So in what context is he "nearing the end of his life"?

Maybe none at-all?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sHL1l5xTOdM/SvhjolWnumI/AAAAAAAAAA0/nsWZheTCc6Y/s1600-h/LonelySurfer.jpg

ffs

I'll have to see if someone I know knows this dude...

I don't think I have the patience to download and process all those files. What's the most critical, previously unreleased stuff from it?

Oh, and if anyone's got these demos, please drop me some ILXmail:

Alan Burston Bop
Am I The Kind Of Girl?
Child's Night
Girl In Water Colours
Life Is Always
Little Lies
New Country Squire
Oh My Brittania
These Voices
Walking To Work
Wyborn Sign

Dude's site is gawn. :(

GAH. I hope all the content's been grabbed.

A lot of it filtered out onto DMND.

There was some really interesting-looking XTC stuff getting posted in the past few days, though. It would have required a real concentrated effort with a lot of spared time and patience spare to grab it all. I think.

I've been in contact with the guy that was bringing it to torrents, we've chatted about doing some mastering for him on the original files that he grabbed, mainly levels and maybe a touch of EQ here an there, nothing drastic.

Sounds promising...

Can anyone zap me the Go2 stuff? I managed to get the Dave Greg Sci-fi tape..

Hey Mark, I sent you an ilxmail the page is acting funny though, let me know if you didn't get anything.

Didn't get it:

I managed to send you one.

On it's way.

What is the Dave Gregory Sc-Fi thing?

Some bit of music that Dave Gregory and this Hans Devende guy 'jammed' in a studio somewhere, it was called 'Music For An Untitled Sci-Fi Film' haven't listened to it yet.

Cool, thanks, was having trouble searching for that

Youtube living-room cover dude nails it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGy1_cHQHcc

Aw, that is nice, I like that

"Dave Gregory is the new boy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MllXtIcq0

Ok I may have come around on Smartest Monkeys, aided by my newfound ability to mishear the chorus as some nonsense syllables. That choppy guitar is pretty damn good. Even most bad XTC songs are good (except for "My Weapon").

Listening to the Andy Partridge produced version of Blur's Sunday Sunday and it has a very strong Dukes/Good man Albert Brown feel, it's good!

Where?

Indeed! I've been absolutely dying to hear these sessions for years!

They're on the new Blur Box set, three tracks 'Coping' especially is really great.

So you have a review copy then? HMMMMMM.

a Hmmm Hmmmm?

Nah, nothing sinister, my other half is involved with the project.

ah, that's not sinister enough..

I'm a good scout generally, occasionally I really want to splurge about stuff that I'm told about but can't, not being able to talk about the Pink Floyd reissue stuff was *killing* me all last year.

Can you play it over the phone then?

Oh sure :)