Best/Favourite XTC album

Does Nonsuch really deserve a 0?

Nope. But I voted for "Skylarking" instead, thus my second favourite XTC album didn't get my vote.

"Nonsuch" is very much underrated.

let's just assume that one person wanted to vote for it and accidentally picked Drums and Wires instead

Does Nonsuch really deserve a 0?

It was the album that killed XTC for me, altough "That Wave" is alright, I suppose.

Give me the clangy, angry, jittery, hiccupy early stuff.

I love Nonsuch, and have even described it here as my very favourite XTC record. I'd have probably voted for it ahead of Drums And Wires/Black Sea purely on grounds of predicted neglect.

I'll tell you what also doesn't deserve a 0: Apple Venus 1. Probably my 4th-favourite XTC record after the three mentioned. In previous times it's probably been number 1.

It's Kick Colin night is it? :P

I love both of those songs (especially TSM, which has so many awesome things happen in it) but then I was exposed to the album aged 7 or 8 so it's pretty entrenched

xpost

Somebody in this thread or another said something like "some of XTC's very best moments are by Moulding, but when he writes a bad song it is BAAAAD."

Black Sea
Nonsuch
Skylarking
Chips From The Chocolate Fireball
Apple Venus
Drums & Wires
The Big Express
Mummer
Go 2
White Music
English Settlement
Oranges & Lemons
Wasp Star

I fucking love 'The Smartest Monkeys'. 'War Dance' much, much less so.

Fuck, I forgot the Dukes.

Black Sea > Skylarking > Apple Venus > Chips From The Chocolate Fireball > Mummer > Nonsuch > Oranges & Lemons > English Settlement > Drums & Wires > White Music >The Big Express >Wasp Star > Go 2

Nonsuch
English Settlement
Black Sea
Apple Venus
Chips From The Chocolate Fireball
Drums & Wires
Skylarking
Go 2
Wasp Star
Mummer
Oranges & Lemons
The Big Express
White Music

The last 4 or 5 are more or less interchangeable though. There's great stuff on all of them. Mummer is the one I need to reevaluate/listen to much at all, really

I'm listening to Mummer right now. The guitars on 'Love On A Farmboy's Wages' are so fucking beautiful.

THIS.

I might've said that about Colin, and I can't stand his post-O&L songs aside from one or two. Just awful. Having said that, the worst thing bearing the XTC name is "I'm The Man Who Murdered Love". So wimpy! Gah!

My favorite album changes from time to time. The last time I listened to English Settlement I found it just sublime, even the songs thst people often dump on like "Melt The Guns". Then Black Sea steamrolled me, then Drums And Wires, and Apple Venus is incredibly gorgeous. The Dukes material just gets better the more I listen to the 60s sources of inspiraton. I'm getting ready to go on a Fuzzy Warbles listening spree, detritus and all.

This band means so much to me, there's always something to revisit or dig into with each listen.

That Is The Way might be my least favourite XTC song tbh

This band means so much to me, there's always something to revisit or dig into with each listen.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, March 15, 2014 2:40 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Completely agree, those studio-era records (with the exception of Wasp Star) are so loaded with detail that I always find something new to discover somewhere in the mix. I must have listened to Skylarking alone hundreds of times and I still find something new to get enthused about.

Worst XTC song? I've never liked 'Blue Overall'.

Oh c'mon, "Blue Overall" is a trifle but hardly in the same league as "Smartest Monkeys". But I don't want to keep harping on the negative, we should do a poll of just Colin's song but I'd be afraid we'd get only 5 voters. Colin couldn't write a bad song from Drums through Skylarking, really.

Mummer: INSANELY underrated, I have no idea with this and TBE are always lumped together as some sort of wilderness years

^^^^^^^ My XTC mantra

Standing In For Joe and Fruit Nut are particular low points imo

good shouts aye :/

oh, and Colin Moulding Poll

But, but, but... 'Smartest Monkeys' has the echoing guitar riff, and great synth solo! I can't see any merit in 'Blue Overall' at all!

I'm on deck to run an XTC tracks poll in a couple months. Just FYI

In Loving Memory Of A Name, that lovely quiet section halfway through with the one dramatic chord seems to say so much about middle England, I'm not even sure how.

I've always wanted to cut together all of XTC's middle eights in chronological order, one day I will sharpen my axe and do it.

I think Chips should be counted as two records; 25 O'Clock and Psonic Psunspot were recorded, and originally released, two years apart.

I prefer the former, at least in part because it gets the production style eerily spot-on. You could easily convince someone this was some lost 60s band, whereas Psonic has relatively contemporary-sounding production.

I've done this before, but I'm gonna list everything that's good about The Smartest Monkeys

- echoey guitar riff
- intriguingly distant keyboards
- moulding being a sardonic fucker
- in addition, a sardonically cheesy prechorus
- chorus contains echoey riff with cleaner tone
- subtle keychange into second verse
- arresting synth orchestration
- SIREN
- fucking beautiful countermelody from guitar in first part of middle eight
- SYNTH SOLO over a gorgeous organ chord
- all of the bassline
- fretboard squeak into chorus reprise
- SYNCOPATED BIT
- by the end it's pretty much a bass solo
- SYNCOPATED BIT AGAIN IN FADEOUT
- BOOM BING BOOM BOM CHA oh wait that's the next song

It's all good apart from the Omar Hakim drumbeat and 'Quick! call the GBOR'

Where's the love for Rag & Bone Buffet? Extrovert! Tissue Tigers! Looking For Footprints!

Recrrrrrds.

I've got Drums & Wires on now, and one track on there which astounds me is 'Millions'... just recently I realised that I've actually been listening to this song "wrong" for years. It took me a long time to find where the "one" was.

Oh yeah, that happens every time to me. I loved hearing that Go 2 outtake with the guitar line from Millions for the first time.

Even now, right at the beginning of 'Millions', it throws me off as to where the "one" is, it usually takes a few bars before my brain adjusts to where it is. It plays tricks on my brain, that damn song.

(The "we" at the beginning of the first line falls on the second beat of the bar).

Shakey Mo, if you're planning on doing graphics for the XTC poll, everything you need can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/sets/

Just looking at that Colin Moulding poll. Along with some obvious masterpieces (Nigel, Generals & Majors, Grass etc.) He did some brilliant album tracks that I kind of forget about. Dying, My Bird Performs and Cynical Days are all understated and beautiful songs.

Trying to think of a worst XTC song. I only really know their albums and a few of the B-sides I've heard as bonus tracks. I've always hated Across the Antheap. War Dance and Melt the Guns would be up there too.

btw I just found this, posted only 3 or 4 days ago :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T11vkHm2f8

et encore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T11vkHm2f8

Just looking at that Colin Moulding poll. Along with some obvious masterpieces (Nigel, Generals & Majors, Grass etc.) He did some brilliant album tracks that I kind of forget about. Dying, My Bird Performs and Cynical Days are all understated and beautiful songs.

Trying to think of a worst XTC song. I only really know their albums and a few of the B-sides I've heard as bonus tracks. I've always hated Across the Antheap. War Dance and Melt the Guns would be up there too.

― Kitchen Person, Saturday, March 15, 2014 12:15 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He has most of the best moments on their best record ("Dying," "Grass," "Sacrificial Bonfire," "The Meeting Place"). And I always loved "Nigel" and "Wake Up." At his worst, he's nondescript; whereas, Partridge at his worst is actively annoying ("Across This Antheap").

'Across This Antheap' is one of my highlights of Oranges & Lemons, though! That's a great set of lyrics.

I love 'Across This Antheap', the chorus where most of the instruments drop out near the end leaving Partridge sounding kinda lost is very affecting.

I would love to hear a de-kitchen-sink'd version of O+L with maybe Kronos Quartet on some songs.

I guess it's because "Antheap" reminds me of two things I never liked: Frank Zappa, and the Ferris Bueller racing-home-scene music (which I just learned was The English Beat, whom I otherwise love).

But that's a great English Beat song!

I love 'Across This Antheap', the chorus where most of the instruments drop out near the end leaving Partridge sounding kinda lost is very affecting.

― MaresNest, Saturday, March 15, 2014 9:03 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The part where the entire drum track feels like its going around in a circle at the end in the stereo field is one of my favourite parts when I'm listening on headphones!

Worst XTC song is 'Dear God', a) because it sucks b) because it struck the template for all the overly thetical Andy songs to come.

it does suck but haranguing humanity is and always has been a big part of Andy's deal

It doesn't suck, it's just overrated.

Dear God is probably my favourite XTC song. It's not a cool choice but it gets me every time.

I love Dear God despite its heavy handedneas. I played Melt The Guns in my high school senior lounge in 1985 and the other kids says "what's this jungle music"? Morons.

I hope you said "That's not jungle music!" and then played It's Nearly Africa.

So if I've heard all of Skylarking a hundred times (big favorite of mine in hs) as well as bits and pieces of the earlier post-punk-y "good" albums and my favorite stuff is still songs like "King For A Day" and "Mayor of Simpleton," what XTC album do I need to buy after Oranges and Lemons?

Nonsuch and Apple Venus should be easy for you to like

also the dukes albums, especially '25 o'clock' but both really

thanks!