Crowded House v XTC

'fore anyone trolls, picked because Partridge's and N Finn's lyrical styles are the same, and because they seem to occupy the same melodic pop space, especially from the late '80s on.

terry chambers was a great drummer
i never liked crowded house at all, split enz were ok

Gah maybe Split Enz was a better comparison to XTC, oh well.

this might have well been a Crowded House vs. Steely Dan poll.

Partridge's and N Finn's lyrical styles are the same

plz to explain with examples

also, crowded house = really really boring. i understand the love for them in the 12 cd owning crowd, but not here.

I love Crowded House, but there's ABSOLUTELY NO COMPETITION here. XTC all the way.

Good and very difficult poll. I think I'll go for XTC, but this is seriously difficult. "Skylarking" is ever so slightly better than "Woodface". Although "Temple Of Low Men" and "Together Alone" are both better than anything else by XTC.

OK. Going for Crowded House because they probably need the votes more. This is ILM after alkl, and ILM loves XTC ;)

XTC are more trad and conservative than their critics were wont to admit at the time, so I'll take N. Finn's naked pining to join the Rock Canon. "Don't Dream It's Over" is unspoiled by overplay.

great camel tail you're sporting, sir

naked pining to join the Rock Canon

HI DERE
http://chalkhills.org/images/non/Chips.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Forgetting to contribute to one's own poll C/D

xtc vs split enz might have been a better competition

XTC - zero contest.

I expect this to be a landslide for XTC. Which is kind of unfair because both were absolutely amazing.

I'm voting for the band who didn't start sucking until after their first three or four albums.

Crowded House sucks.

crowded house was formed after a secret NRP committee spent 10,000 vaguely new englandy upper middle class white man hours searching the world to find the perfect show filler music between their fruity shows. this was their result.

I mean really, who listens to this stuff for real? XTC A+

lol @ deluded hipster

and if any of you dicks at pfork steals that line for the upcoming review of Crowded House's new box set retrospective, It's Only Natural, I'm going to eat your skin. ssssssssss!

Crowded House by a long, long way. Apart from their mid-period (English Settlment/Mummer/Big Express) XTC are one of the most overrated bands in existence. Crowded House do melancholic English pastoral much better than them.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Expected result. And those who go for XTC also have no idea what is their best stuff.

The fact is these two bands were both amazing, and at their artistic prime at the same time. That is, Crowded House were for their entire existence, while XTC were from 1986 to 1992. The early XTC stuff is overrated whereas "Oranges And Lemons" and "Nonsuch" are terribly underrated. 1986 to 1993 was generally a horrible time for music, but these two bands - along with Jellyfish, Depeche Mode and Prefab Sprout - made the best music in the world during that otherwise bad period.

Would love to wake up in 200 years time and find XTC, Crowded House, Jellyfish, Depeche Mode, and Prefab Sprout to be the only surviving relics of 20th century pop culture.

Oh no. Beatles and Genesis would be in there, for starters ;)

Time on Earth was rubbish though, Geir.

No, not at all. It was an excellent album. Actually better than their debut.

I mean, maybe rubbish in the eyes of those who wanted some musical development, but Crowded House was never about that. They were a classist band from day one, and will of course remain classist in their reunited guise too.

Suprised Crowded House got any votes

i missed this poll but I would have voted for Crowded House. I recently realised that I just don't like about 80% of XTC's output. 20% of it is amazing but the rest just washes over me, or worse, annoys me.

Next up: Spacemen 3 v. Simply Red. or John Cale v. Michael Bolton.

To Crowded House fans: do you also similarly appreciate Kenny G? I just don't understand the appeal.

It's more of a hardcore XTC fan box set, but wow, "Sleepyheads" is one of XTC's finest tracks ever, maybe Moulding's best? Why "Sleepyheads" didn't make the cut for Drums & Wires but "Day in Day out" or "That is the Way" did, ?????

all respect to Crowded House, but they couldn't come up with a song as awesome as "Sleepyheads" ever, which was the only basis on which I voted XTC, in a long line of 'em.

sorry box set = Coat Of Many Cupboards

XTC have too many horrible songs to vote for them. In the late 80s and 90s they came across like some sickening cross between Smithereens and They Might Be Giants.

I told my professor that he looked like Andy Partridge. He made this imploded kind of expression and said, "That's better than last night when my nephew told me I looked like Kermit the Frog."

If you think Crowded House sound anything like Kenny G you need your ears syringed.

o/~ It's only natural / for you to fall asleep / listening to this o/~

Ah I'm just bored, they're all right

In the late 80s and 90s they came across like some sickening cross between Smithereens and They Might Be Giants.

ok wtf

i mean, the first TMBG album is basically a Three Wise Men B-side ("Countdown to Christmas Party Time") rewritten 19 times with more nasal vocals. Not that this is bad, I sorta like the first TMBG, but calling XTC a sickening cross of TMBG and something else in the late 80s is just LOLsy.

To Crowded House fans: do you also similarly appreciate Kenny G?

Neil Finn has more musical sophistication in his little finger than Kenny G does in his entire body.

But surely if you cannot appreciate the greatness of Paul McCartney or Brian Wilson (their ballads in particular), then you will not understand Neil Finn either. Because he is about much of the same as those two.

not a crowded house fan, but i do love several songs off the few albums i've heard. (kind of the same way i felt about split enz, really.) kenny g comparison seems cheap, lazy and way off base

that said, i'm very happy to see xtc walk away with this one

Even during the time both were active, and XTC were IMO at their best, XTC were obviously slightly more leftfield musically than Crowded House. And, in fact, I prefer XTC. But I love both, and the reason why I voted Crowded House here is that I knew XTC would walk it.

xxxxxxxp Neil Finn's ability to marry emotive tunes with appropriate lyrics is terrifyingly effective. Just listen to Into Temptation if you fucking don't believe me.

In fact the motivation for this thread was Partridge's similar ability, which was particularly strong from Mummer onward.

Would I like Crowded House? Bear in mind I am absolutely head-over-heels with XTC

Best examples:

Let's Make a Den (also off that ace box set)
Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
That Wave
Wounded Horse
Greenman
River of Fucking Orchids
Train Running Low on Soul Coal
Broomstick Rhythm
The Bland Leading the Bland
Living in a Haunted Heart
Ballet for a Rainy Day

xp Probably. Start with Recurring Dream.

Probably not, unless you like weary and populist songsmiths with a knack for half-clever lyricisms and predictable melodies.

Cheers, both of you, for stating your cases! ;)

Best lyrical/musical interplay in a post-Mummer XTC song? Will have to think about it...stock answer to any XTC superlative is generally "Wrapped In Grey"

I love "Don't Dream It's Over" and "She Goes On" more than anything XTC's ever recorded, so I pick them. But Crowded House haven't recorded any albums with the cumulative impact of Drums and Wires and Skylarking.

Too harsh on Crowded House, ledge. No I will not talk you down btw.

Sorry but they've really only ever sounded like bog standard MOR to me. To Louis I would answer Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her... Wrapped in Grey actually doesn't sound too far from Crowded House though!

Would I like Crowded House? Bear in mind I am absolutely head-over-heels with XTC

If you consider "Skylarking", "Nonsuch" and "Oranges And Lemons" among the best XTC albums, and are not too keen on the early new-wave-ish stuff, then you may very well like Crowded House.

i missed this poll but I would have voted for Crowded House. I recently realised that I just don't like about 80% of XTC's output. 20% of it is amazing but the rest just washes over me, or worse, annoys me.

Sadly OTM.

Geir, I consider Nonsuch to be possibly THE best, Skylarking to be "pretty good" and O&L to be a bit duff, but then again I am utterly insane.

Drums and Wires through English Settlement is in my opinion super, super, brilliant music.

The only album I can't get into is Wasp Star. All the others are brilliant in some way. The tracks on Mummer are in the wrong order, though.

Drums and Wires through English Settlement is in my opinion super, super, brilliant music.

They are nothing like Crowded House though. Crowded House were always very much about classic Byrds/Beatles/Beach Boys influenced pop, a bit like latter day XTC, but not much like earlier XTC. As I said, XTC were always slightly more musically leftfield, but Crowded House were leftfield enough themselves to know exactly when to put in a chord change or a surprising change from major to minor to spice the song up just that little bit harmonically. Neil Finn is a fantastic songwriter, first and foremost, but there were was never intended to be anything revolutionary about his music, and it wasn't.

Yep, ok, cheers Geir! :) I might give 'em a go. As I say, I do love late-period XTC as well as early. Apple Venus 1 is also a particularly brilliant and underrated album. Wasp Star has a handful of brilliant songs (The Wheel And The Maypole, anyone?)

YES

It's annoying how Wasp Star meanders through electric gardens (hur, geddit) for ~42 minutes and suddenly delivers the one-two PUNCH that is the Wheel and the Maypole. Top five.