XTC / TEARS FOR FEARS / TALK TALK / ABC / etc. C/D

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I'm really enjoying this kind of music - 80s synth pop that tackles "proper" songwriting etc. Some of the bands (Talk Talk) have been discussed to death on ILM while others like XTC and TfF haven't exactly had buckets of praise. So here's a thread for 80s synth pop and whether you like it or not. Any other bands I should really check out?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

XTC???????????????????????????????????

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

Wogan, put down the crack pipe.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

XTC C/D S/D

POO/OPO: X T C

Thoughts on mid period XTC?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:40 (nineteen years ago)

XTC? Synth pop???!!?? Is this a different XTC we're talking about?

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

oh delete it then go on.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

Barry Adamson's synth went pop.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

I think you meant Barry Andrews there.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:43 (nineteen years ago)

"Rossmore Road"/"Win A Night Out With A Well-Known Paranoiac" - what a single!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:43 (nineteen years ago)

i see it's pedant's hour on ilm.

again.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

That's a great noize thread title.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

I thought Barry Andrews fiddled with his organ - see "My Weapon" for proof

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

Other great synth bands of the eighties: the Pogues, Bogshed, Tracy Chapman, Joe Dolce Music Theatre.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

OH I ALWAYS DO THAT!!!

(fine single indeed! Happy day = "found one in Record/Tape Exchange")

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

OK, I'll take the bait:

Modern English (the entire much-underrated After the Snow album sounds like it would be your thing)
Erasure
Human League
Depeche Mode (duh)

But if you haven't heard of these groups, you must be 16-y-o.

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

i see it's pedant's hour on ilm.

If drawing any distinction whatsoever is pedantry, yes.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:52 (nineteen years ago)

Or Lex (xpost).

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:55 (nineteen years ago)

Oh and

Ssss
Aaaa
Ffff
Eeee
Tttt
Yyyy

Safety
Dancedancedancedance

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah but what else did they do?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

Ummm, I don't think that Dog Latin is being weird at all in grouping all these bands together. Early XTC has some post-punk cred, sure, but what I like about Skylarking is not too different from what I like about Songs From the Big Chair. "Synth pop" is the wrong name for this: it's ambitious, highly arranged, unabashedly passionate (heart-on-its-sleeve) pop that happens to use synths only because it happens to use pretty much everything else (French horns, xylophones, etc.).

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:02 (nineteen years ago)

yeah I listened to this stuff onna walkman in my wee teens

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

They are not, however, "synth pop" as such.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

That other definition is useless since otherwise you might as well be talking about Macarthur Park.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

Or the Arcade Fire.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

Okay, fuck a synth-pop. What Jaymc said. I'm mostly listening to "Dear God", "The Disappointed", "Peter Pumpkinhead" etc which is very close to what Tears For Fears did.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

I wouldn't say Arcade Fire is "highly arranged" in the same way. I get way more of a kitchen-sink sense from the bands on this thread: rhythmically weird sometimes, with a synth sparkle here and a sax solo there. Perhaps Dog Latin said "synth pop" because they were all active in the early-to-mid 1980s -- I don't think "new pop" or whatever term was actually being used back then is descriptive enough.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

they just called it "college" back then

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

But XTC didn't even use a lot of synths, just occasionally, somewhat of a guitar band i think you'll find

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe it's the West Country connection you're picking up on DL. Tried the Wurzels yet?

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

they just called it "college" back then

My associations with "college" = REM, Talking Heads, 10,000 Maniacs

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:17 (nineteen years ago)

i guess they didn't use synths okay? dear god almighty i wish i'd not said "synth-pop". Please please if I could reverse time I'd have not written it. But I did. I did it and there's nothing I can do about it now short of perhaps going on the mod request forum and asking them to change it which they probably wouldn't do and even if they did, it would completely recontextualise 99% of the posts made so far. So I'm sorry. Okay? Sorry. Sorry I wrote "synth-pop". Happy? Can we continue?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:17 (nineteen years ago)

i guess the odd one out is ABC since they're a little more polished (and yes ~~synth~~-y) than the others.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

LOLz (xpost)

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

As some critics have noted, "King for a Day" sounds an awful lot like Tears for Fears; but XTC were too herky-jerky, less inclined to miserabilism (sentimentality, yes) to lump with TFF.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

I think XTC at their shittiest did sound a bit like TFF

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

Vice versa surely?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

Vice Versa was ABC was it not?

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

Much more synths in Vice Versa than there were in ABC!

I am appreciative that failed prog-rockers Jones H and Kershaw N have yet to be eulogised on this thread.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:23 (nineteen years ago)

Where is Geir nutcase?

― Tom D. (Dada), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:23 (nineteen years ago)

Because of course the greatest thoughtful synthpop album of the eighties was Invisible Touch!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

All of these bands also have yelping, keening vocals.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:25 (nineteen years ago)

Hey, I heard Invisible Touch last night! "DOMINO"!

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

he's not even listening to the best XTC

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 16:37 (nineteen years ago)

Not just a good collection of 12" versions, this might turn you on to a couple new bands.

The Lucy Show, you might enjoy. _Mania_ was reissued in the last year or two. I'm hoping a reissue of their first album will follow.

― lumberingwoodsman (Chris Hill), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 17:02 (nineteen years ago)

jesus, just go here:

The You Tube thread for late 70's/early 80's post punk new wave gems that will set your pants on fire!

and, yeah, none of this stuff gets talked about enough on ilm. sadly neglected era...

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

Hard to say what else to listen to, Wogan, given what you've given us to go on (and not knowing what you don't know, if you're just discovering XTC and Tears for Fears). I can almost but not quite see what you're getting at. Try the following:
- Split Enz - Time and Tide
- Robyn Hitchcock - Element of Light
- That Petrol Emotion - End of the Millenium Psychosis Blues
- World Party - Goodbye Jumbo

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

I'm tempted to recommend Johnny Hates Jazz's greatest hits package (because some of their greatest songs weren't on Turn Back The Clock) (indeed, my favorite song of theirs, "The Cage", was actually a b-side to a single), but I would be very surprised if that suggestion were taken seriously or would even be agreed with by anyone outside of the small fanbase that's still active. Though they do earn some cred points by having had Mike Nocito as a member, one of the engineers behind The Cure's Pornography and apparently close pals with ex-Cure bassist Phil Thornalley, who replaced Clark Datchler on lead vocals when Datchler left the group in 1991. But, um, yeah, still they only get recognized for "Shattered Dreams", if they get recognized at all.

(Sorry if all of that sounds apologetic. It isn't. I proclaim my love for Johnny Hates Jazz freely.)

― Phoenix Dancing (krushsister), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:27 (nineteen years ago)

oddly enough, I think XTC thank TFF for letting them use their synths on the Big Express

― Dominique (dleone), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

it's not 'oddly', XTC kinda mentored fellow Swindon boys TFF first right?

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

well oddly for parts of this thread anyway, as people calling out XTC being so far from TFF

I actually didn't know TFF were from Swindon!

― Dominique (dleone), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:53 (nineteen years ago)

"World Party - Goodbye Jumbo"

This album is SO GREAT - criminally criminally overlooked and underrated.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:53 (nineteen years ago)

no love for Howard Jones?

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

Plenty of love for Howard Jones here. Human's Lib and Dream Into Action were two classic albums from the '80s, and his "Hit Me Baby One More Time" appearance was perhaps the classiest of all on that program, if not one of (tied with Arrested Development, maybe).

― Phoenix Dancing (krushsister), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:03 (nineteen years ago)

Wogan Lenin, Go listen to The Associates.

― Bidfurd (Bidfurd), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

i think everyone should listen to the associates, but not because they like XTC or TFF

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

I'll take Johnny Hates Jazz over HoJo.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

I actually didn't know TFF were from Swindon!

I think TFF are actually from the somewhat posher town of Bath, which is about 30 miles away.

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 22:54 (nineteen years ago)

thomas dolby - the flat earth
surely thats worthy of a mention here, its classic stuff (except hyperactive which is overplayed ..), also, his final proper album astronauts and heretics revisits the whole moody/synth-ness and has some great tracks on it...

― mark e (mark e), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

yeah okay, bath, sure. still, they were hanging out a lot back then and they do the train on "train running low on soul coal" and 30 miles isn't that far and JE NE REGRETTEZ-MOI RIEN

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Thursday, 18 January 2007 01:09 (nineteen years ago)

Some obvious 80's shamelessly "synth-pop" titles would include:

Yas - Upstairs at Erics
Depeche Mode - Speak & Spell
Missing Persons - Spring Session M
Eurythmics - Touch
Tears for Fears - The Hurting
Thompson Twins - Quick Step & Side Kick
Berlin - Pleasure Victim

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Thursday, 18 January 2007 01:27 (nineteen years ago)

I'm getting ILM dejavu now.

and, yeah, none of this stuff gets talked about enough on ilm. sadly neglected era...

Really? I'dve thought at least Dee and Ned would fly the flag for it some times. I've brought up things like Japan and side projects, the Cocteaus etc before but got the impression no one was much interested as it'd been done to death.

Its odd, actually - the stuff that was common and everywhere to me, is now being spoken of in reverent tones by kids half me age as rare and amazing. I feel so old.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 18 January 2007 02:49 (nineteen years ago)

Howard Jones, Thompson Twins & early DM are OTM also.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 18 January 2007 02:50 (nineteen years ago)

I actually didn't know TFF were from Swindon!

They're not. They're from Bath, which is about 30-40 miles from Swindon according to my giant map of the UK on the wall and how far apart my fingers stretched between them.

― White Dopes on Punk (Bimble...), Thursday, 18 January 2007 05:01 (nineteen years ago)

thomas dolby - the flat earth
surely thats worthy of a mention here, its classic stuff (except hyperactive which is overplayed ..), also, his final proper album astronauts and heretics revisits the whole moody/synth-ness and has some great tracks on it...

Oh my god don't get me started on that one...we'll be here all night.

― White Dopes on Punk (Bimble...), Thursday, 18 January 2007 05:04 (nineteen years ago)

This far into the thread and no mention yet of the Blue Nile who actually pwn it. So let's put that right.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 January 2007 08:28 (nineteen years ago)

XTC members work on new album
'Monstrance' will be released in April
XTC frontman Andy Partridge and keyboardist Barry Andrews have been working on an improvisational music project with drummer Martyn Barker.
Known simply as the Partridge-Andrews-Barker Project, the trio compiled more than eight hours of material during three live sessions in Swindon's Headroom Studio last November.
Engineer Merv Carswell and Future Sound Of London guitarist Stuart Rowe recently finished arranging the material into a two-disc set, 'Monstrance', to be released in the US on April 3 via Ape House.
According to a spokesperson, the album is "unusual but invigorating stuff."
The 'Monstrance' tracklisting is:
Disc 1:
'I Lovely Cosmonaut'
'Winterwerk'
'Black Swan Black'
'Mig'
'Oodoo'
'UR Tannoy'
'Little Field'

Disc 2:
'Pagoda Tailfin'
'Chain Gang'
'Torturetainment'
'The Floating World'
'Priapple'

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 18 January 2007 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

I suspect this is likely to be amelodic and rhythm dominate.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

Could be interesting.

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

Doesn't exactly set one's pulse racing.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 January 2007 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

I still don't quite see why XTC belong here (except they are excellent).

Anyway, a-ha's excellent "Scoundrel Days" album deserves a mention. Way better than "Hunting High & Low". Also, Thomas Dolby's debut album is way more essential than "The Flat Earth" is.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:27 (nineteen years ago)

Though they do earn some cred points by having had Mike Nocito as a member, one of the engineers behind The Cure's Pornography and apparently close pals with ex-Cure bassist Phil Thornalley, who replaced Clark Datchler on lead vocals when Datchler left the group in 1991

I believe Thornalley produced their debut album. (Possibly as a replacement, as the production sounds a lot like Alex Sadkin, and there is a cryptic "To Alex: Thanks... and goodbye" message inside)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:29 (nineteen years ago)

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/3721/alps9sw.jpg

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

Perhaps not so cryptic; wasn't Sadkin killed in a car crash round about that time?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 18 January 2007 12:49 (nineteen years ago)

Re: Dolby, not just _The Flat Earth_, but _The Golden Age of Wireless_. That album cries for a 2cd 'remaster w/ bonus' treatment.

― lumberingwoodsman (Chris Hill), Thursday, 18 January 2007 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

re Dolby - well the whole catalogue is now part of EMI and i have read that there is indeed a campaign to get exactly that, and seeing as the man himself is out there plugging his songs again on stage (the shows are brilliant - the revised versions of the classics really work) then i do indeed wonder if we are coming to a time when Dolby gets his time again.

― mark e (mark e), Thursday, 18 January 2007 18:36 (nineteen years ago)

Doesn't exactly set one's pulse racing.

I agree. Where the hell's Colin these days?

― White Dopes on Punk (Bimble...), Thursday, 18 January 2007 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

please don't refer to XTC as "80's synth pop."

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 18 January 2007 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

Perhaps not so cryptic; wasn't Sadkin killed in a car crash round about that time?

Sure. About three or four months prior to their "Shattered Dreams" breakthrough, so it is not at all impossible he was set to produce them. Their sound had some Sadkin-like elements to them, notably the bass sound.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 19 January 2007 03:57 (eighteen years ago)

Colin's pretty much retired from music, I'm afraid.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 19 January 2007 09:48 (eighteen years ago)

I would check out Tuxedomoon, if you haven't already. I've been enjoying the heck out of "Desire" recently.

Also try out the Hosono/YMO/Sakamoto crowd of records if you're craving that 80s sound. They did some of the most interesting work. Selections of Virginia Astley's "Hope in a Darkened Heart" (produced by Sakamoto) are total brialliance.

― Tommy James (Tommy James), Friday, 19 January 2007 17:59 (eighteen years ago)

Look, just forget it. Can't we talk about XTC some more?

― White Dopes on Punk (Bimble...), Saturday, 20 January 2007 07:57 (eighteen years ago)

fourteen years pass...

Just discovered this thread, but I'm interested in this stuff currently.

Naked Eyes? I haven't heard a bad song by them.

Early stuff by Flowers / Icehouse - at least first two albums.

― Night of Olay: The Resurrection (I M Losted), Tuesday, 30 November 2021 14:12 (four years ago)

Also...how could people have missed Scritti Politti?

― Night of Olay: The Resurrection (I M Losted), Tuesday, 30 November 2021 14:24 (four years ago)

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