You are here: Home / Forum / XTC – I assume we have discussed them before. Just rediscovered them…wow!
by Uncle Wheaty 38 Comments
What a great band they were.
Andy Partridge is now 70.
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Uncle Wheaty saysMy favourite track here
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- Pajp says
It’s my favourite XTC track too.
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- Rigid Digit says
Thirded
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- Freddy Steady says
It’s my favourite XTC bass line.
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- Pajp says
XTC is one of those bands whose singles I really like (the Fossil Fuel singles collection is great IMO), but I need to spend more time with their albums. I have a fair few of them, but always seem to gravitate back to the singles.
I will make an effort!
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- Black Celebration says
Just as a sidebar here, I once said that Blur’s sound is heavily influenced by XTC but I had an aggressive ticking off by I forget who. I’m right though, eh?
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- Twang says
I ought to like them, and a few tracks I like a lot, but I find I got bored quite quickly.
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- Junior Wells says
I’m with you Twang. Just sold a couple of their records that I don’t even know how they ended up in my collection.
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- Jaygee says
Yours for about £25 per two-disc set, Steven Wilson’s stunning 5.1 mixes of
their albums set the gold standard for how to curate a back catalogue.If only they could find and allow SW to work his magic on the long-lost
Master tapes for English SettlementLog in to Reply
- Diddley Farquar says
It’s new wave with psychedelic, sixties stylings as I see it but there’s something irritating in that reality. Mannered or something. Making Plans For Nigel is a brilliant pop single but I think it annoys the fans if you say that.
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- hubert rawlinson says
Psychedelia to the fore with The Dukes of Stratosphear
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- moseleymoles says
I’m a ‘first flusher’ really.
Post-punk lightning bolts yes.
Pastoral pastiches of English psychedelia not so much.Log in to Reply
- Lodestone of Wrongness says
Ditto
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- eddie g says
I’m almost completely the opposite. Quite like the spiky pop spurtings of their early days but, for me, they became something quite special when they mixed classic pop structures with elements of folk and psychedelia as on English Settlement and Mummer. My favourite XTC album is Wasp Star. Sold nothing of course.
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- moseleymoles says
English Settlement is where all these elements are in perfect balance. From then on too much folk and psychedelia pastiche for me.
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- johnw says
I’m with you, they almost lost me completely with Mummer but I was firmly back on board with Oranges & Lemons and Nonesuch.
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- eddie g says
I once had the pleasure of interviewing Partridge and I told him that my favourite XTC album (up to that point) was Mummer. He looked overjoyed, patted me on the back rather forcefully and declared me to be a good man. I still think it’s one of their finest. ‘Ladybird’ alone is worth the price of admission in my book…
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- retropath2 says
They are a great concept and, on their track record, should be amazing. But, give or take, usually, the singles, they pall. I want to love them but indifference is the most they actually inspire.
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- Rigid Digit says
Fossil Fuel is perhaps the best album (granted it is the singles).
Each album has moments of greatness, but I believe their best and most complete albums are The Dukes of Stratosphear.
There was a great documentary on Sky Arts a couple of years ago which re-ignited my interest.Log in to Reply
- Rigid Digit says
Please tell me I’m not alone here. On first hearing, I was sure that The Kaiser Chiefs Everyday I Love You Less And Less was XTC in disguise
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- Lodestone of Wrongness says
You are not alone, you are in a vast crowded stadium
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- Jaygee says
Very early XTC, but XTC nonetheless
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- bang em in bingham says
Skylarking (1986)
Nonsuch (1992)
Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999)
are very good indeed
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- dai says
I think they are generally brilliant, but I can’t get on with Andy Partridge’s voice
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- Bejesus says
Black Sea closely followed by English Settlement are my favourite albums. They are one of those bands whose tracks I mostly love but the ones I don’t I really don’t.
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- thecheshirecat says
Just 100% fanboi love from here.
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- Guiri says
The very definition of a compilation band. It’s a good compilation though.
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- Thegp says
Not keen on the early albums as Partridges voice is far too yelpy
Better when he singsSome great albums but never has a band needed some quality control than XTC. Nonesuch a prime example, if you removed the filler would be a magnificent 10 track album. No coincidence the one album ceded control to Todd Rundgren, Skylarking, is the best as there was a bit of editing, even if Andy Partridge hated it
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- Pajp says
On the subject of bands that need editing, I have always put the Manic Street Preachers in that category. I reckon that a lot of Nicky Wire’s lyrics would benefit from a good editor and, as for albums, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, for example, could do with losing a few tracks, especially from the second half.
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- dai says
Too many songs or too many lyrics? I think James Dean Bradfield often does an initial edit of the lyric that Wire gives him
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- Pajp says
@dai Both, but the lyrics especially. It seems to me that lines fail to scan/fit within the melody line because there are too many words crammed in.
I am a fan of “dum-de-dum de-dum”, so maybe it’s my issue, not the MSP’s.
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- dai says
I thought that was more a fault of Richey lyrics. Nearly all 90s albums were too long, CD era.
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- Thegp says
I take your point completely but not on that album, second half of This is my truth is superb IMO
Albums should be 12 tracks tops. There has NEVER been an album improved by having more. Always some filler
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- Gardener says
They were one of my fave bands in my teens but I only got to see them live once at Hammersmith Odeon on the Black Sea tour. They stopped touring soon afterwards but that night was very memorable and they did a lot of then yet to be released English Settlement album that night too.
I bought these bird – mast – moon badges on the night – here in their place on the album sleeve.
I wore them on my jacket when I saw TC&I (Terry Chambers & Colin Moulding) live in Swindon a few years ago, I could have sold them a hundred times over, haha
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- Bamber says
I like them in small doses and can see the appeal. I think their aversion to just writing a simple song and letting their talent for melodies, arrangements and lyrics shine is what wears thin. Having said that, their best stuff is also sometimes “complicated” and all the better for it. Mentally I have them filed under “English Eccentrics”, alongside the likes of Robyn Hitchco*ck and Kate Bush.
I can see their influence on Blur as mentioned earlier but I think the current band most like them in their output and musical approach would be Field Music who I much prefer.
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- TrypF says
I bloody love XTC. After discovering them through Fossil Fuel, I’ve spent more time and money on them than most bands. Not so much a fan of the earlier yelps stuff, I agree with Andy Partridge’s pronouncement in the documentary that they got better as they went on. Favourite album is a toss-up between Nonsuch and Skylarking but, really, I love great swathes of their music. When cover band Fossil Fools (RIP) played Wrapped in Grey at their Dublin Castle show, I cried like a baby. I never thought I’d see it performed, the way it should. It’s in my will that the Nonsuch version be played at my funeral.
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- Hot Shot Hamish says
Another fan here. I enjoy all their albums , Black Sea probably my favourite. Andy Partridge described the disco style drums on this record as sounding like ‘pea soup, pea soup’ which is a great description.
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- Pessoa says
I like English Settlement and assorted songs, but for some reason they haven’t lodged in my music collection. Time to investigate perhaps.They were sort of out of fashion in the 90s/2000s weren’t they? Not cited enough as an influence on Brit indie for some reason. And didn’t Damon Albarn have an unhappy encounter with Andy Partridge at one point?
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