Andy picked the name XTC while watching a skit in which Jimmy Durante was looking for “the lost chord” (have you heard, Pete Townshend??). At one point, the American performer exclaimed “Dat’s, it, I’m in eks-tee-see!”. Andy failed to understand the phrase the first time around, and he only got what Durante was saying when he transcribed it phonetically. It was then he also realized what a cool name XTC would be for a band – a name that is all in capitals lends itself to cooler posters and puns. Thus, “XTC” replaced the band’s old moniker (the gimmicky “The Helium Kidz”) right away.

Just for the record, the name XTC had nothing to do with the drug ecstasy. The drug was introduced a good couple of years down the line. The Swindon band amply preceded it.

Read the introduction to this review here.

“English Settlement” was released in 1982, and as opposed to “Black Sea” (the album that preceded it, and an album that was devised as a vehicle for live performances) the double LP hinted at the more pastoral sound the band was to adopt in earnest shortly. Of course, the embracement of such a tone was precipitated by the events that took place while they were touring “English Settlement” – first, Andy breaking down onstage and declaring the band would play live no more, and then the loss of Terry Chambers (the most level-headed member of the band, and someone who basically was in a group because he enjoyed playing live).

As I explained at the end of yesterday’s introduction, it was on “English Settlement” that Andy realized there was nothing wrong with exploring the capabilities that studios offer in terms of instrumentation. He no longer wanted to record only songs that could be replicated live exactly as they had gone down into tape. The record was then freed from a conceptual straightjacket and the results were to be the first true sampler of XTC as most of us love them: zany, daft, zany, wildly unpredictable, and zany. And utterly brilliant.

Each song is a true universe in itself. I think that there are not that many albums in which every note that you are hearing is germane to the actual constituency of a song as in the vast majority of the cuts featured on this double LP. With the exception of “Down In The Cockpit” and “Melt The Guns”, the extended duration of most of the songs is warranted – “Jason And The Argonauts” has an hypnotic instrumental passage that is not really a solo but rather a sagacious way to sustain the tension of the middle eight until the song comes back on track for its conclusion, and “Leisure” has some dissident breaks that amplify the tedium of the lyrics fabulously. Besides “All Of A Sudden” had to run that long if only because that was the only way the music could truly represent the inability to grasp the reality which is expressed in the song.

Discrimination based on race (“No Thugs In Our House” and “Knuckle Down”) and on gender (“Down In The Cockpit “) is a recurrent theme on English Settlement, and Colin sings about modernization in “Ball And Chain”, a song that precedes “Boarded Up” by two decades. The difference is that in “Ball And Chain” something was still standing up and could be ostensibly saved; by the time he wrote “Boarded Up” there was not such a chance.

Romantic disillusion is the common denominator of songs like “All Of A Sudden (It’s Too Late)” and “Snowman”, both excellent songs. You can almost feel the snow falling as the latter begins, and the chanted vocals are up there with the ones boasted by the percussion-heavy “It’s Nearly Africa”. Terry’s advancement as a musician is appreciated in that song as in no other. The question of how far would his inventiveness have gone was sadly never to be answered.

Personally, I am not that partial to Colin’s songs on the album, although “English Roundabout” is quite noticeable with its 5/4 time signature, and “Fly On The Wall” has a fuzzy synth that is as clever as any of Andy’s innumerable breaks and gimmicks throughout the whole album. I will never, ever understand why “Blame The Weather” was relegated to a mere b-side – it was one of the best songs Colin ever penned. Something similar was to happen many years down the line to “Didn’t Hurt A Bit”, a song recorded for “Nonsuch” but left off the album while stuff like “War Dance” was included.

And something that is quite peculiar: Andy plays the sax twice (in “Leisure” and “It’s Nearly Africa”). The way he plays the instrument is quite reminiscent of how he played the drums for Pete Blegvad. The instrument begins playing, you say “What the…?” and then you grin as you finish “Ah, it’s Andy”.

Of course, the album also included the intricate “Senses Working Overtime”, a song that speaks of sheer amazement and wonder at life’s potential, but which has a true undercurrent of sadness to it. The song insinuates that the inability to grasp and comprehend all that information leads to self-imposed alienation, both for your own sake and for the sake of others. Sadly, Andy was to become the living example of that. “English Settlement” was to be the final album that XTC would release while they were a touring unit; Andy decided to retire from performing as he broke down in a show at Paris, and the second phase of the band’s career would commence there and then.

As I explained when introducing the album yesterday, “English Settlement” is not something to dive into at breakneck speed. Give it time, give it room to grow. The vocals are distracting, and the length of some compositions is off-putting at first too. But everything clicks eventually, and when it does you will be able to enjoy what some of the most talented caretakers of music assembled at their prime. You will also feel the despondency of knowing that it was at that very same point that they could have cracked it. If you are a lover of XTC, you are used to living with that. But that doesn’t make it any less aggravating.  Stories can’t be rewritten, but they can be shared until the end of time. That is the ultimate duty that every fan of the band auto-imposes upon himself. And in the end, it is the most rewarding task you could ever imagine.

Rating: 8.5/10

Released In 1982, “English Settlemenet” Was To Be XTC’s Final Album Before They Became A Studio-only Band

Upon discovering XTC and reading every single article and clipping I could find about them, I intended to make “English Settlement” one of my first purchases. But chance and coincidence determined that the album would be one of the last I would actually buy. And I can frankly tell you that was not a bad thing.

XTC’s first (and only) double album ever, “English Settlement” (1982) is not for those who are just getting acquainted with the band, let alone the uninitiated. The rewards that the album yields are incommensurable, but you have to be patient in order to get to the point in which everything starts clicking divinely.

I must admit that this is the one and only XTC album in which I have a problem with Andy’s voice. Songs which are astonishingly good like “All Of A Sudden (It’s Too Late Now)” and the great album closer “Snowman” are hard to be appreciated at first because his delivery can’t fully accommodate the new styles that he began broaching by this point, and which are a clear step in a divergent direction from XTC’s previous high-powered period. (Something similar happened to Joe Strummer when The Clash began aiming for styles far removed from punk, most notably on the triple album “Sandinista!”)

Besides, almost every composition clocks at over five or six minutes. That is a common issue as far as double albums go, of course. It happens when there are enough songs to fit three sides, but not four. That is not a problem as far as “Jason And The Argonauts” or “All Of A Sudden” go, but songs like “Down In The Cockpit” and even “Melt The Guns” end up vulnerating your resistance.

If you combine these two aspects together (lengthy running times with vocals that are not that enticing) then you are facing the one stumbling block of the album. But once you have gotten over that, and you begin exploring the depth and width of each composition you will realize that as far as making a statement of artistic vitality and originality went this was the album for the band. It was no coincidence that “English Settlement” gave them their sole Top Ten hit in “Senses Working Overtime”, and that this time (contrary to what had happened previously with “Sgt. Rock“) Andy couldn’t feel prouder. The band had matured, and a big difference was made by Andy finally agreeing to record songs the way they felt like recording them, with entire naturalness, and without worrying to create only arrangements that could be replicated live (as he had always previously demanded). Ultimately, that made for their most diverse album at a point in which the concept of world music was starting to become a well-assayed genre.

Proceed to the second part of the review: an analysis of the songs in “English Settlement”.

Don’t forget to read part 1 of this review where the “25 O’Clock” songs are analyzed.

"Psonic Psunspot" (The Dukes Of Stratosphear's Second Disc) Was Issued In 1987, Right Between "Skylarking" And "Oranges & Lemons".

Things were different the second time the Dukes grabbed their instruments and donned their Paisley shirts. The record company was really interested in what could come out of it, and the budget had been doubled. And the sound was not to be the pastiche that characterized “25 O’Clock” – this time around it was an homage to most 60s bands, regardless of the fact that they had anything to do with pyschedelia or not. The leadoff single exemplified that perfectly, as “You’re A Good Man Albert Brown” was a buoyant sing-along in the vein of the Small Faces. While it didn’t hit as hard as “The Mole From The Ministry”, it was successful enough to warrant this new excursion in the eyes of the record company.

If anything, the second time around the line that separated XTC from the Dukes became indivisible, with songs like the impeccable “Vanishing Girl” and “Pale And Precious” being (needlessly?) sacrificed on the Dukes’ altar. “Vanishing Girl” (a song that trails the sound of The Hollies) was also used to promote the album, and I must admit it is my favorite song penned by Colin ever.

And “Pale And Precious” is one of the most honorable homages to the Beach Boys I have ever listened to along with R.E.M.’s “At My Most Beautiful”. The vocal harmonies are absolutely exhilarating all along, and the coda could go on for 10 minutes and not make you lose your interest for a single second.

Andy also contributed the orotund “Collideascope” (which had been around as a lyrical idea since the “Go 2” days), and the flipside to “That’s Really Super, Supergirl” – a song named “Brainiac’s Daughter” penned ostensibly because Brainiac (one of Superman’s arch enemies) was too bizarre a character not to touch on a psychdelized record. For its part, “You’re My Drug” recalled the West Coast sound of bands like The Byrds.

The disc also pays a clear debt to the Small Faces’ opus “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake”, as snippets of a narrative play between some songs. The protagonist is no other than Colin’s son Lee, and a sort of Alice In Wonderland story is narrated. Thankfully, these fragments are kept concise and fresh, and they never get in your nerves.

After the release of Psonic Psunspot, Andy announced that the Dukes’ career was over. They were resurrected occasionally – a sort of follow-up that focused on ‘70s bands was discussed but it never came to fruition. Neither was the projected film based on “25 O´Clock” and “The Great Royal Jelly Scandal” (a rock opera), or the glam-induced “The Stratosphear Band”.

Both “25 O’Clock” and “Psonic Psunspot” have recently been re-released on their own. (They are the first records within XTC’s oeuvre to which Virgin relinquished the rights.) These reissues are for completists only – “Chips From The Chocolate Fireball” has all the Dukes’ music you need to hear. And I frankly know few examples in which using the expression “music you need to hear” is so justified.

Rating: 10/10

The Dukes Of Stratosphear: Chips From The Chocolate Fireball

This CD-only anthology captures the original bouts of musical forgery that XTC undertook as The Dukes of Stratosphear. Both the EP “25 O’Clock” and the album “Psonic Psunspot” are included here in their entirety. And the anthology warrants all the laurels it is usually the recipient of.

The band (with Dave Gregory’s younger brother Ian on drums) showcases its coruscating pedigree, and the merits of its music become easier to apprehend in such a context. These recordings as their psychedelic alter egos were to lead to a phenomenal creative run and even a hit single at a time in which XTC had the rockiest relationship with the buying public. The song “The Mole From The Ministry” (a transparent nod to “I Am The Walrus”) outsold the singles from “The Big Express” so effortlessly that it was embarrassing.

It was also the most palpitating reminder for the Swindon rockers that having good fun on the studio fully translates into a finished piece of vinyl. Both “Mummer” and “The Big Express” suffered from a stiffness that was to vanish for “Skylarking” and “Oranges & Lemons”. “The Big Express” in particular had been labored at for a long time, leaving everybody but Andy jaded.

“25 O’Clock”, conversely, was assembled in little more than two weeks with Andy and John Leckie at the helm. Out of the six songs, only “The Mole From The Ministry” was new (Andy wrote it at the piano one morning). The remaining songs had been around for a long time, and the strongest the plagiarism the most effective the EP turned out to be. “Bike Ride To Te Moon” recalled the days of Pink Floyd under Barrett’ aegis so close to the mark that it was staggering. The title track was also intoxicatingly fun, a true testament to an age in which daftness was a virtue and a torch to bear. The same can be said about “Your Gold Dress”, with an unmatchable druggy guitar. And Colin’ songs on both Dukes’ albums were the truest revelation of all. He had never kept such an even keel of excellence to my ears. For the first and only time he and Andy were absolutely equalized.

The Cover Of “25 O’Clock” Pays An Obvious Homage To Cream’s “Disraeli Gears” Album. It Was The Work Of Andy With A Couple Of Scissors And A Few Photocopied Illustrations.

Instrumentally, the band used only vintage gear and production techniques that remained true to ‘60s psychedelia. Tape loops and effects were frequent all through the EP, and having had to operate within a shoestring budget also meant that the only way to smooth any mistake was by blurring it. Mostly everything was recorded in one take.

Ultimately, “25 O’Clock” was to be such an effective work because the whole thing was born out of a willingness to have some fun. Andy didn’t even expect it to be released – John Leckie remarked that Partridge was reluctant (even worried) to have it played to Simon Draper, the one founder of Virgin the band answered to. But having him listen to the disc at his office was a jubilant experience for everybody. It was at the (permanent) insistence of Draper and every other managerial figure from that point onwards that a second set of recordings were to materialize. That was to be the “Psonic Psunspot” album, and I invite you to read more about it in the second part of this review.

Continue to the second part of this review: the song on “Psonic Psunspot” scrutinized along with the aftermath of the Dukes.

Virgin Released "Fossil Fuel" As A Way Of Bidding Farewell To XTC. All The Singles Released Within Their Career Were Featured.

At roughly the same time that Geffen issued “Upsy Daisy Assortment” (a collection of hits and some noteworthy tunes from the Swindon’s outfit that was a bit whimsical to say the least) Virgin issued this 2-CD compilation. In the case of the British company, the focus was solely on singles. No track strayed from that conceit. The one exception was “Wrapped In Grey”, the song that caused the rift between XTC and Virgin way back in 1992, and which resulted in the band going on strike for the best part of the decade. Virgin decided to include it either as a way of burying the hatchet or as a final insult, a way of saying “there you go, take the goddamn song, it is now officially a ‘single’”. Which is which depends on the astute listener.

So, the album goes all the way from Andy’s much-despised “Science Friction” (from their debut EP) to Andy’s beloved “Wrapped In Grey” (from “Nonsuch“, their final album for Virgin).

The compilation is frankly phenomenal, and I don’t say that because I am a hardened fan. Over the course of the two CDs you get to see the band’s transformation from spiky new wavers (“This Is Pop”, “Are Your Receiving Me?”, “Making Plans For Nigel”) to pastoral tunecrafters (“Love On A Farmboy’s Wages”) who could still rock if they wanted to (“Wake Up”). The disc culminates with the best from both worlds, as the material from “Skylarking”, “Oranges & Lemons” and the aforementioned “Nonsuch” surfaces. This includes hits and quasi-hits like “Dear God”, “The Mayor Of Simpleton” and “The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead”.

The compilation has no true rarities to speak about, although you do get the reworked “This Is Pop” along with some non-album sides like the addictive “Are You Receiving Me?” and the egregiously noncommercial  “Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down”. In some cases, though, these non-albums cuts have been added to the remastered discs. Such is the case of “Are You Receiving Me?” (found on the remastered “Go 2”) and “Life Begins At The Hop” (included on the rerelease of “Drums And Wires”).

I can honestly tell you this is one of the most consistent compilations I have ever listened to. I have written so much about the band that I am bit at loss when it comes to using new words or images to explain why they music is so hard-hitting and (above everything else) so enduring. They made a true creative statement through the years, and those who were fortunate enough to listen to it are bound to remember it forever and pass it along. And if you have never heard it, here you have a précis with the main points. And I must say that in terms of emotional extensiveness and intellectual depth, it is truly one of the richest you can find in the annals of music.

Would I recommend purchase of this compilation: Yes
Do I feel like digging deeper into their catalog after listening to it: Yes

I found this clip yesterday, when looking for a suitable video to illustrate the review of “Upsy Daisy Assortment”. I must admit that watching it was quite unsettling, but I am glad I did. I must also say I had no idea that incident was tapped, thanks to the original uploader.

According to Chris Twomey (author of “Chalkhills & Children”) what happened next was that the band followed Andy backstage to find him doubled on the floor, retching. Terry seems to have had a go at him, while Colin and Dave realized that real trouble loomed ahead.

The title I have chosen for this post is actually a misnomer, because the band did play at least two more gigs (with Andy under extreme duress). But it was that night at Le Palace (Paris, 18th of march, 1982) that their days as a performing unit were finished.

"Upsy Daisy Assortment" Compiles Most Of XTC's True Classics WIth A Few Rarities Thrown In For Good Measure.

“Upsy Daisy Assortment” was released by Geffen (XTC’s American record company) in 1999, as the legal battle with Virgin was finally being dispelled and the band was to regain its freedom. It is a single CD that has some truly idiosyncratic cuts in addition to their indisputable classics.

Now, Andy says that the disc feels as if someone at Geffen had thrown darts at a chart with all their songs and assembled the compilation like that. Such a theory would explain why singles like “All You Pretty Girls” and “Wake Up” have been omitted, why “Funk Pop A Roll” found its way here instead of “Great Fire” and also why we have tracks such as “Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her” at the expense of others.

I have to be very honest with you. The disc does not feel as if someone had randomly thrown darts at a chart, it feels as if Andy had overseen the whole thing from start to finish.

Exhibit 1: The compilation omits both “White Music” and “Go 2”, albums that he actively dislikes (and even despises). The first track is “Life Begins At The Hop”.

Exhibit 2: “Sgt. Rock”, a track Andy reviles despite being one of the highest-charting singles of his is absent.

Exhibit 3: “Funk Pop A Roll”, a composition he is proud of, is in.

Exhibit 4: “Chalkhills & Children”, one of the most profound songs he wrote is featured.

Exhibit 5: The album has “Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her”, a song he named as a true source of pride related to the albums both sides of it.

The only thing that is missing is “Rook” (from “Nonsuch”), the song he regards as his biggest achievement as a composer for the album to be named “The Great Andy Album That Andy Claims He Did Not Compile”.

The end result, however, is as brilliant as only their best music can be. You have “Making Plans For Nigel”, “Senses Working Overtime”, “The Mayor Of Simpleton”, “King For A Day”, “The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead”… dear God, I could swear I am forgetting to mention a major track. What can it be?

Note, though, that you are missing the essential “This Is Pop” and that the versions of “Towers Of London” and “Respectable Street” are radio edits that are inexcusably sanitized and trimmed.

This was the second XTC album I bought after “Oranges & Lemons”. And it hit me like a ten ton truck where it counted, namely starting to turn me from a casual listener into someone willing to go all the way and beyond. Top kudos in that sense to Andy or whoever really compiled this.

Would I recommend purchase of this compilation: Yes

Do I feel like digging deeper into their catalog after listening to it: Yes

Read the introduction to this review here.

“Church Of Women” reminds me of Tears For Fears’ “Woman In Chains” lyrically, as the submissive state of the fair sex is somehow explored. In Andy’s case, though, the strong/weak roles are not just reversed but eventually coalesced as all that remains is a respect for life so profound that it is impossible to think of someone submitting himself so wholly without being incredible weak and incredibly strong at the same time. A really striking song, and the end chorus is just sublime.

“Church Of Women” would have worked excellently as an album closer, much in the same way that “Books Are Burning” closed “Nonsuch”. But…

…we have “The Wheel And The Maypole”. I have already talked a bit about the song when reviewing “Apple Venus”. Some quick facts: the song is made up of two different compositions that Andy glued together as neither was working individually. One deals with the creation of life, and the other with its finality. The first is “The Pot Won’t Hold Our Love”. The second is “Everything Decays”. I like the imagery, as a pot is something very small and fragile that isn’t really suited for holding something as valuable to begin with. I guess that is the idea, along with expressing that love can be kept everywhere, and even in places that one could create himself.  

On the other hand, a maypole is a very British symbol, and one that is associated with the countryside (Thomas Hardy often alluded to it at least once per book). Whole families used to gather round those, and children would play while young women tried to guess the names of their future husbands.

“What made me think we were any better”, Andy sings during the chorus. I can’t answer to that. He is the only one who knows the reason. But when he sings “And what made me think we’d last forever”, any person who came to the band knows exactly what to say. XTC was a work of love. Deep in your heart, you know that your love will go on as long as you live. Things don’t always work out like that, of course. The world imposes demands for making any love viable. A good musician makes his love thrive by adapting to what record companies and even his public demands from him. That ends up destroying what he originally had in his heart, and it makes his innermost gifts resemble the ones that artists since the dawn of time have given us.

Andy wasn’t ready to make that compromise. He knew that there were things that could be unearthed only by shying from so many conventions and traditions. A world painted in grey is not a world at all. He colored his, and he colored ours in the process. He who grabs any album by XTC in the future will grab the brightest box of paints available.

I really don’t know what else could be said. I just want to thank the band in general and Andy in particular for what they did. I started writing the week I bought my first XTC album. I have just published my first book. If I inspire at least one person in the way that this band has inspired so many, then I would be the happiest guy around. It’s true, in the end we’re all light. But there are lights that are fated to shine forever in the hearts and eyes of people. I feel lucky and I feel blessed for having once discovered this band.

And the church bells softly chime.

Rating: 8.5/10

"Wasp Star" Was Released In The Year 2000, Roughly A Year After "Apple Venus" Was Issued

XTC’s swan song, and a very powerful moment even when taken separately from it companion album, the critically-lauded “Apple Venus”. As I explained when reviewing it, this is the one disc that was meant to “rock” a little from the pair. Hence, fans often call it “the disc that everybody was waiting for”.

“Playground” and “Stupidly Happy” are positioned at the forefront of this “return to form” or whatever you want to call it. The truth is the previous disc was not a departure but an assertion of the sound that was manifested on songs like “Wrapped In Grey”, and which had began insinuating itself as early as “Sacrificial Bonfire” from “Skylarking”.

“Playground” is another interesting look at childhood, and one that joins “Let’s Build A Den” in its theme of the world of children mirroring the world of adults more than we care to admit. It has the memorable line “You might leave school but it never leaves you”, and Andy’s daughter Holly (yep, she from “Holly Up On Poppy”) supplies backup. “Stupidly Happy” is defined by Andy as “The great Keef Richard riff that never was”, and it was derived from the “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” riff. It is catchy like little else, with that simple but engrossing riff being gradually fortified by bass, tambourine, drums, handclaps…  Andy alliterates a lot on the lyrics, echoing the narrowness of thought he wishes to convey, and the effect when taken as a whole with the instrumentation is fabulous.

Colin has three songs on the disc; the first comes after “Stupidly Happy”. It is called “In Another Life”, and it has some good lyrics that deal with mid-life romance with his tongue firmly on his cheek. He also takes a somehow humorous approach on “Boarded Up”, a composition about recession hitting his hometown that is rendered on acoustic guitar with some percussion that comes across very vividly. His final song is “Standing In For Joe”, an adulterous tale that shows he could still write after his lapse of skills on the previous CD. Still, it is clear now why he threw the towel soon afterwards – his voice was shot, he couldn’t really be enjoying himself any longer. And he later said he had had it with songwriting. A long, long time before he cited the lack of live performances as something which was damaging him as a writer.

The other seven tracks by Andy I haven’t mentioned yet are mostly good, although the bluesy “Wounded Horse” gets on my nerves (Andy admitted he was just having fun. Good for him, but the plodding melody does not come across as that entertaining to most people I know) and I don’t really dig the reggae of “You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful”.

A song that has a nice built-up a la “Stupidly Happy” is “My Brown Guitar”, yet another penis-inspired tune, and yet another fine one even though “Pink Thing” is unbeatable. And “I’m The Man Who Murdered Love” is one of the most accessible songs Andy wrote in a long time as far as melodies are concerned.

Leaving aside “The Wheel And The Maypole” and “Stupidly Happy”, the tune I like best from the album is “We’re All Light”. It has one the most outrageously absurd sets of lyrics for a composition who is saying “kiss me now, while there is still time”. And that is the charm of it. And once you learn about the rhymes Andy wrote and didn’t use (they are listed on the collection of demos named “Homegrown”), then you are going to be in hysterics for a day or two.

The final two songs deserve a page of their own. They are “Church Of Women” and “The Wheel And The Maypole”. What a way to close a disc they are. And they also stand as the obvious way their career was to end, even if they didn’t know this disc was to be their last release.

Continue to the second part of the review.