As if you really need a guide on how to buy the Swindon babes' catalogue - surely you could just buy them all!
The following round-up isn't intended to be taken too seriously - I am, to paraphrase one of XTC's songs, merely a fan.
White Music - 6/10
A competent, energetic, hiccoughing, gobby little yob of a debut-album that showed early signs of accomplished songwriting and a penchant for retro-rock and futuristic sci-fi. Statue of Liberty is a fine single and still sounds wonderfully anarchic today and it's still hilarious to think that the ever-watchful BBC banned the song in 1978 for having the line, "sail beneath your skirt". This is Pop eventually benefited from being retweaked as a single and Set Myself on Fire is one of Colin Moulding's key songs from the earlier years. Add in Radios in Motion and Spinning Top and you have a solid, if occasionally chaotic, debut-album. Arguably, if you had this in your collection back in the day, you were pretty cool.
Go2 - 7/10
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Go2 achieved the third-highest chart position for XTC, not least because there were no accompanying singles contained within its Hipgnosis-designed texty sleeve. In other territories, scampish belter Are You Receiving Me was included as an extra track - not so in the UK. In truth, Virgin could have taken a few potential singles from Go2 - The Rhythm and Meccanik Dancing might have been great bed-partners with Radio 1, although given their future treatment by the station, this might seem a little optimistic. Running Order aside - quite how they missed a trick of not placing Battery Brides as the album's opener is beyond me - Go2 is XTC growing up and slimming down - keyboardist Barry Andrews left soon after the sessions ended having contributed seven songs and only succeeding in having two in the final tracklist, Super Tuff being the better of the pair. If Andrews had stayed, he might have tasted some success of later albums, although in turn they may have also sounded completely different. Instead, he formed the artful Shriekback. Overall, Go2 is the natural stepping-stone from White Music to their next LP. And chart success.
Drums and Wires - 8/10
Album number three and probably the right time to score a hit. Making Plans for Nigel was that hit, a cautionary tale about over-bearing parents pointing their beloved spawn away from adolescent freedom and into a 'future in British Steel'. In the late '70s, this unique single struck a chord and gave XTC their first thoroughly deserved Top 20 hit. No more songs were selected from D&W, but they could have been - it's choc-full of great potential singles, some understated such as Ten Feet Tall and That is the Way from Moulding and the more boisterous Helicopter, Real By Reel and Outside World from Andy. Much of the album shows XTC becoming serious contenders with exploratory musicians to boot. Just choose When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty (ear-marked for a single remix at one point) for an example of bright bouncy rhythms and deftly-delivered hooks. Drums and Wires is a good place to start and heralds the beginning of a faultless run of albums.
Black Sea - 10/10
A band at their creative peak, both in the studio and live in concert. Should proof ever be required to proclaim Terry Chambers' drumming capabilities, Black Sea is the album to thrust in any doubters' direction. A huge rumbustious production from Steve Lillywhite is an unlikely foil for a band not previously known for packing so much into the volume department. From Respectable Street's deceiving vintage-style intro and subsequent crash of bully-boy snares to the tribal rumble of the closing Travels of Nihilon, the album is a relentless but thoroughly engaging and listenable example of British new-wave at its best. The hits were plentiful, if not exactly huge, with Generals and Majors, Sgt Rock (Is Going To Help Me) and Towers of London all earning radio brownie-points. The BBC shied away from the fourth single from the album (Respectable Street), forcing the perplexed Partridge to rewrite lyrics such as 'wretching' for 'stretching', 'abortion' for 'absorption' and a few others to protect the 'innocent' minds of Radio 1's young impressionable listeners. After altering the lyrics and pressing the remixed single, the BBC ignored it anyway. It's hard to single out a best track from the rest of the album - the entire set is essential - but a favourite has to be Living Through Another Cuba, a punky, angsty little skank with an arse-wiggling rhythm of considerable repute.
English Settlement - 10/10
A striking cover of Uffington's white horse painted on a dark-green background, parchment-style inner-sleeves and a great title - what's not to like about XTC's first double-album? In fact, very little, if anything at all. Although drummer Terry Chambers was to make his last full appearance for the band (he left for Australia soon afterwards, citing musical direction and lack of live concerts), his dexterity and work on here rarely sounded better and that's comparing this with the stunning Black Sea. With English Settlement, they cracked the Top 5 on the Album Chart, the Top 10 on the Singles Chart (with the superb Senses Working Overtime) and later took the decision to never tour again. That's another long story - meanwhile savour a more restrained, acoustic, nearly-folk array of songs that don't disappoint in the slightest. Runaways, Ball and Chain and Fly on the Wall rank as a few of Moulding's most revered songs, while the irresistible shuffle of It's Nearly Africa, Knuckle Down and Snowman showed just how much Partridge seemed to be enjoying himself with the English language. Pure class.
Mummer - 8/10
Their sixth album brought XTC back to Earth with something of a bump. Hampered by line-up changes (Chambers made it to the sessions but baulked at the acoustic direction the band were taking), a queue of different producers, no hits and no more live shows, save for a few promotional appearances, Swindon's cherished sons weren't being cherished anymore and it was all starting to spiral out of control rather quickly. Mummer possesses some of the band's finest songs - the strident middle-Eastern flavoured Beating of Hearts, the languid summer jazz-vibe of Ladybird and Moulding's powerful weather-beaten Deliver Us From The Elements being prime examples of just how far the songwriters had progressed from the gnarly youthful yelps found on White Music and Go2. Virgin Records seemed determine to recoup whatever losses were incurred, what with the variety of producers and delays in its release, by issuing three singles. Great Fire proved to be an odd lead-off choice, Wonderland was perhaps too subtle and the far more obvious Love On a Farmboy's Wages just too late to capture the imagination of the casual listener, although it was the most successful choice, reaching #50. Despite an array of producers having a hand in the album's sessions, Mummer is an accomplished listen with an organic slant that still holds sway with XTC fans.
The Big Express - 7/10
Perhaps less warm, welcoming and certainly more machine-like is the band's seventh studio set. Dressed in an eye-catching circular sleeve that pays homage to their home-town's industrial, railway heritage and the bygone age of steam, graft and toil, The Big Express clearly misses having a regular drummer (Chambers now long-gone) and eschews their most recent dabblings in acoustic folkisms for a more robust electric-rock feel and beat-heavy arrangements that sound unusually dated in places. Delightful songs are still plentiful, however - Wake Up is classic Moulding (mercifully with a real enough drummer), The Everyday Story of Smalltown is sheer Partridge poetry (it really should have been a single) and the slightly controversial (and probably just) dig at artistic management that is, I Bought Myself a Liarbird. The album's other high-points are the less bombastic and jazz-tinged I Remember The Sun, You're The Wish You Are I Had and the first two singles, All You Pretty Girls and This World Over, while the rest suffer from being a bit ham-fisted - Reign of Blows remains one of my least-liked XTC songs.
25 O'Clock - 8/10
recorded as The Dukes Of Stratosphear
The band's penchant for '60s Britpop and psychedelia finally came to the fore when, in 1986, they replaced jeans, shirts and acoustic-guitars for kaftans, beads and fuzzboxes and quickly recorded a glorious pastiche that proved to be one of XTC's most likeable and lucrative decisions. Dukes of Stratosphear brought together Partridge, Moulding, Dave Gregory and brother Ian for a six-track burst of feedback, wah-wah, mellotron and backwards-bits that, at the time, sounded as though an in-joke was being played out. More importantly, XTC sounded like they were finally having 'fun' and the humour extends into the nonsensical lyrics that pay homage to The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Creation and The Kinks without any direct plagiarism, just a friendly arm around the shoulder of worship. Bike Ride to the Moon, Your Gold Dress and Mole From The Ministry still raise smiles while the most straight-forward effort, What in the World, is one of Moulding's strongest compositions to this day. One can only imagine how brilliant a live show by the Dukes would have been.
Skylarking - 9/10
Not a cover of the charming roots-reggae anthem by Horace Andy, but more a quintessential reference to lazing about on a summer's day. Intrinsically, producer Todd Rundgren's influence on the recording and sequencing of the tracks on this superlative collection would be Skylarking's saving grace. The story behind the album initially overtook the completed article - wranglings between artist and producer and then the artists themselves, nearly terminated the album's progress, but Andy Partridge later admitted that Rundgren's arrangements were 'brilliant'. And they still are.
From the nature-inspired intro of Summer's Cauldron, past the adjoined carefree strum of Grass, through the very-British gallop across the rain-drenched hillock of Ballet For a Rainy Day and 1000 Umbrellas, right up to the plaintive closing pair of Dying and Sacrificial Bonfire, Skylarking is pretty much faultless and is held together seemlessly by Rundgren's vision and XTC's unerring ability to craft a tune, fourteen of them in this case. It didn't matter that the album only clawed its way to #90 (a travesty), it didn't matter that they ignored a stone-wall trio of would-have-been blatant hit-singles (Season Cycle, Earn Enough For Us and Big Day) - Skylarking is the start of XTC's definitive second-half and a must-have. Attendant single Dear God incited hate mail and a few threats from across the pond, as well as respect from the college rock circuit - but it doesn't really belong here.
Psonic Psunspot - 8/10
recorded as The Dukes of Stratosphear
XTC continued their earnest dalliance into psychedelia with a return for The Dukes in 1987. Although not as highly-regarded by critics as 25 O'Clock, Psonic Psunspot is a rewarding listen with much to savour. The Byrds, Beach Boys, Small Faces and The Smoke were probably present on the studio hi-fi during the creation of the ten tracks present - check Vanishing Girl, Little Lighthouse, Collideascope and Pale and Precious for proof - and the mood of the album is perhaps closer to XTC than XTC. Spoken dialogue (a la Lewis Carroll) from the neighbour's daughter Lily Fraser gave the album loose continuity and You're a Good Man Albert Brown (Chas n Dave wearing Ray Davies' traahsers in an East End pub) sadly bombed as a single. This and 25 O'Clock were eventually paired up on a CD release, Chips From The Chocolate Fireball.
Oranges and Lemons - 8/10
XTC's final coquetry with psychedelia comes with 1989's revered double-album recorded with then-novice-but-keen American, Paul Fox. Sessions for O&L were easier, Fox was more malleable to his client's suggestions and the final results remain punchy, fresh with a much-needed lift at a time when the trio needed some serious financial return for their efforts. Where Skylarking oozed like honey from the speakers, Oranges and Lemons hollered and jangled with a newly-discovered exuberance that reinstalled XTC into the Top 30 Album Chart and nearly earned them a hit with the excellent lead-off single, Mayor of Simpleton. In fact, aside from Pink Thing and Hold Me My Daddy, every song on this album ranks as some of Partridge and Moulding's finest works. There is no denying that the former's Chalkhills and Children, Simpleton, The Loving and Scarecrow People and the latter's unassuming Cynical Days and One of the Millions are the album's highlights, although tomorrow it could be any one of the remaining songs in their place.
Nonsuch - 9/10
The '90s couldn't have been a more difficult age to release records when you weren't a drug-consuming techno-rave act, Grunge band or Right Said Fred, but XTC soldiered on with one last album for Virgin, the sprawling less poppy more thoughtful musical almanac Nonsuch, issued in 1992. The sleeve depicts Henry VIII's celebrated Cheam palace of the same name and the album contains XTC's first Top 40 hit since 1982's Senses Working Overtime. Though hardly a smash-hit, the plaintive sad-face shuffle-beat of The Disappointed was a welcome break from the norm of Radio One and earned a few hard-fought plays on prime-time shows, though not enough to help it better its peak of #33. Nonsuch had some similarities with the preceding Oranges and Lemons in that it still possessed the same chopping-and-slashing guitars, deft rhythms (this time from Fairport's Dave Mattacks) and perfectly-crafted song. But with added strings and pin-sharp arrangements, producer Gus Dudgeon proved to be another inspired choice, even if he was a tad eccentric. Sadly, Virgin followed opening single The Disappointed with the album's overlong opener The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, instead of Omnibus, Dear Madam Barnum or Wrapped in Grey. Initial pressings of a 7" and CD single of Wrapped In Grey left the pressing plant, only to be recalled and shelved. Colin Moulding hit new heights with his songs - My Bird Performs, The Smartest Monkeys, War Dance and the sublime Skellern-esque Bungalow are as good as it gets while Partridge's Humble Daisy continues on from where Chalkhills and Children and Ladybird kinda left off, all pastoral meadows hugged by fauna and flower.
Apple Venus Vol 1 - 10/10
With Virgin out of the picture, the band settled royalty issues, built studio space and started their own Idea Records in partnership with Cooking Vinyl and a plan to release two very different albums within a year of each other. The results were two Top 50 albums' worth of material that ranged from stringed orchestral craftsmenship to a more familiar jagged electric-guitar driven follow-up. Apple Venus Volume 1 is, quite simply, XTC's best since English Settlement which, when you consider how fabulous the rest of the albums in between have been, is no mean feat. Every detail on the quieter cousin of this final pair of studio-albums is perfect - the descriptive Partridge has been let loose on lyrical pinnacles such as River of Orchids, I'd Like That, The Last Balloon and Easter Theatre, all packed to the hilt with lovely couplets such as "I'd smile so much my face would crack in two/then you could fix it with your kissing glue" (I'd Like That). Anybody who fails to feel at least a pang of elation or tremble-lip when that rears its sensitive head, needs surgery. There are only two Moulding songs on here, both examples of the unassuming Englishman who just wants to be left alone to enjoy the simple things in life such as social drinking (Frivolous Tonight) or gardening (Fruit Nut), both superb, even lightly humourous ("A man must have a shed to keep him sane"). But perhaps the most dazzling song on here is Andy's, the sparkling paean to one love leaving and a new love arriving that is I Can't Own Her. While not an immediate tune like other songs here, say Green Man or Harvest Festival, this one builds into a symphonic crescendo that builds up to that peak of piques - "I can't own her/and that's a bitter pill", says it all. The harmonies work a treat and the song hangs on a minor-key thread as it fades out - top stuff indeed. If you were fortunate enough to buy the Apple Box, you'll be familiar with the two sterling bonus tracks, Say It and Spiral (see below).
Wasp Star (Apple Venue Volume Two) - 7/10
And so to the end, the final curtain. 2000's Wasp Star is perhaps a let-down when compared to its perfectly-ordered predecessor but stick with it because, even amongst the gloom-blues and stricken emotions, messrs Partridge and Moulding can still bang out a pin-sharp tune, even if long-serving guitarist and arranger Dave Gregory left long before the Apple Venus sessions concluded. Stupidly Happy was an obvious choice for a single at the time but, perversely, The Man Who Murdered Love was picked instead, a decent enough choice but perhaps not the song to win new audiences. Other highlights include Standing In For Joe ('entertaining' your best mate's wife while he's away), Playground, We're All Light, Church of Women and the rousing roustabout, In Another Life, another of Colin Moulding's continuing series of witty suburban vignettes a la Frivolous Tonight, Washaway and One of the Millions.
Interestingly, the re-release of both albums as part of Apple Box in 2005, unearthed two superior download-only tracks, Spiral (which might have suited being on Wasp Star) and the truly lovely Say It (a contender for Apple Venus Volume 1). Both were recorded after the two accompanying albums and are certainly superior to much of Wasp Star - it's a pity the band didn't continue beyond these and the internet-only Where Do The Ordinary People Go?, but apparently Colin declared his detachment from writing and music in general, while Andy opted to park XTC and go it alone to continue with his adventurous Ape Records imprint and related (mostly ace) recording projects. It's doubtful that XTC will ever resurface as an active band, although the ongoing prospect of carefully curated reissues (at long last) through Andy's site does at least make for something to look forward to with regular HD and Blu-ray re-issues of the band's catalogue.
As for compilations? Perhaps the best ones are the quirky Rag and Bone Buffet (B-sides, outtakes and rarities), the definitive Dukes reissues on Ape, Apple Box and the neat Transistor Blast box-set of BBC sessions, live tracks and rarities issued in 1999 by Cooking Vinyl. Those after bite-sized morsels of hit-singles should head to Fossil Fuels, a double CD of their familiar Virgin moments. Or just buy everything!
For further information on XTC's activities, past present or future, head to Chalkhills here or APE here
The following round-up isn't intended to be taken too seriously - I am, to paraphrase one of XTC's songs, merely a fan.
White Music - 6/10
A competent, energetic, hiccoughing, gobby little yob of a debut-album that showed early signs of accomplished songwriting and a penchant for retro-rock and futuristic sci-fi. Statue of Liberty is a fine single and still sounds wonderfully anarchic today and it's still hilarious to think that the ever-watchful BBC banned the song in 1978 for having the line, "sail beneath your skirt". This is Pop eventually benefited from being retweaked as a single and Set Myself on Fire is one of Colin Moulding's key songs from the earlier years. Add in Radios in Motion and Spinning Top and you have a solid, if occasionally chaotic, debut-album. Arguably, if you had this in your collection back in the day, you were pretty cool.
Go2 - 7/10
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Go2 achieved the third-highest chart position for XTC, not least because there were no accompanying singles contained within its Hipgnosis-designed texty sleeve. In other territories, scampish belter Are You Receiving Me was included as an extra track - not so in the UK. In truth, Virgin could have taken a few potential singles from Go2 - The Rhythm and Meccanik Dancing might have been great bed-partners with Radio 1, although given their future treatment by the station, this might seem a little optimistic. Running Order aside - quite how they missed a trick of not placing Battery Brides as the album's opener is beyond me - Go2 is XTC growing up and slimming down - keyboardist Barry Andrews left soon after the sessions ended having contributed seven songs and only succeeding in having two in the final tracklist, Super Tuff being the better of the pair. If Andrews had stayed, he might have tasted some success of later albums, although in turn they may have also sounded completely different. Instead, he formed the artful Shriekback. Overall, Go2 is the natural stepping-stone from White Music to their next LP. And chart success.
Drums and Wires - 8/10
Album number three and probably the right time to score a hit. Making Plans for Nigel was that hit, a cautionary tale about over-bearing parents pointing their beloved spawn away from adolescent freedom and into a 'future in British Steel'. In the late '70s, this unique single struck a chord and gave XTC their first thoroughly deserved Top 20 hit. No more songs were selected from D&W, but they could have been - it's choc-full of great potential singles, some understated such as Ten Feet Tall and That is the Way from Moulding and the more boisterous Helicopter, Real By Reel and Outside World from Andy. Much of the album shows XTC becoming serious contenders with exploratory musicians to boot. Just choose When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty (ear-marked for a single remix at one point) for an example of bright bouncy rhythms and deftly-delivered hooks. Drums and Wires is a good place to start and heralds the beginning of a faultless run of albums.
Black Sea - 10/10
A band at their creative peak, both in the studio and live in concert. Should proof ever be required to proclaim Terry Chambers' drumming capabilities, Black Sea is the album to thrust in any doubters' direction. A huge rumbustious production from Steve Lillywhite is an unlikely foil for a band not previously known for packing so much into the volume department. From Respectable Street's deceiving vintage-style intro and subsequent crash of bully-boy snares to the tribal rumble of the closing Travels of Nihilon, the album is a relentless but thoroughly engaging and listenable example of British new-wave at its best. The hits were plentiful, if not exactly huge, with Generals and Majors, Sgt Rock (Is Going To Help Me) and Towers of London all earning radio brownie-points. The BBC shied away from the fourth single from the album (Respectable Street), forcing the perplexed Partridge to rewrite lyrics such as 'wretching' for 'stretching', 'abortion' for 'absorption' and a few others to protect the 'innocent' minds of Radio 1's young impressionable listeners. After altering the lyrics and pressing the remixed single, the BBC ignored it anyway. It's hard to single out a best track from the rest of the album - the entire set is essential - but a favourite has to be Living Through Another Cuba, a punky, angsty little skank with an arse-wiggling rhythm of considerable repute.
English Settlement - 10/10
A striking cover of Uffington's white horse painted on a dark-green background, parchment-style inner-sleeves and a great title - what's not to like about XTC's first double-album? In fact, very little, if anything at all. Although drummer Terry Chambers was to make his last full appearance for the band (he left for Australia soon afterwards, citing musical direction and lack of live concerts), his dexterity and work on here rarely sounded better and that's comparing this with the stunning Black Sea. With English Settlement, they cracked the Top 5 on the Album Chart, the Top 10 on the Singles Chart (with the superb Senses Working Overtime) and later took the decision to never tour again. That's another long story - meanwhile savour a more restrained, acoustic, nearly-folk array of songs that don't disappoint in the slightest. Runaways, Ball and Chain and Fly on the Wall rank as a few of Moulding's most revered songs, while the irresistible shuffle of It's Nearly Africa, Knuckle Down and Snowman showed just how much Partridge seemed to be enjoying himself with the English language. Pure class.
Mummer - 8/10
Their sixth album brought XTC back to Earth with something of a bump. Hampered by line-up changes (Chambers made it to the sessions but baulked at the acoustic direction the band were taking), a queue of different producers, no hits and no more live shows, save for a few promotional appearances, Swindon's cherished sons weren't being cherished anymore and it was all starting to spiral out of control rather quickly. Mummer possesses some of the band's finest songs - the strident middle-Eastern flavoured Beating of Hearts, the languid summer jazz-vibe of Ladybird and Moulding's powerful weather-beaten Deliver Us From The Elements being prime examples of just how far the songwriters had progressed from the gnarly youthful yelps found on White Music and Go2. Virgin Records seemed determine to recoup whatever losses were incurred, what with the variety of producers and delays in its release, by issuing three singles. Great Fire proved to be an odd lead-off choice, Wonderland was perhaps too subtle and the far more obvious Love On a Farmboy's Wages just too late to capture the imagination of the casual listener, although it was the most successful choice, reaching #50. Despite an array of producers having a hand in the album's sessions, Mummer is an accomplished listen with an organic slant that still holds sway with XTC fans.
The Big Express - 7/10
Perhaps less warm, welcoming and certainly more machine-like is the band's seventh studio set. Dressed in an eye-catching circular sleeve that pays homage to their home-town's industrial, railway heritage and the bygone age of steam, graft and toil, The Big Express clearly misses having a regular drummer (Chambers now long-gone) and eschews their most recent dabblings in acoustic folkisms for a more robust electric-rock feel and beat-heavy arrangements that sound unusually dated in places. Delightful songs are still plentiful, however - Wake Up is classic Moulding (mercifully with a real enough drummer), The Everyday Story of Smalltown is sheer Partridge poetry (it really should have been a single) and the slightly controversial (and probably just) dig at artistic management that is, I Bought Myself a Liarbird. The album's other high-points are the less bombastic and jazz-tinged I Remember The Sun, You're The Wish You Are I Had and the first two singles, All You Pretty Girls and This World Over, while the rest suffer from being a bit ham-fisted - Reign of Blows remains one of my least-liked XTC songs.
25 O'Clock - 8/10
recorded as The Dukes Of Stratosphear
The band's penchant for '60s Britpop and psychedelia finally came to the fore when, in 1986, they replaced jeans, shirts and acoustic-guitars for kaftans, beads and fuzzboxes and quickly recorded a glorious pastiche that proved to be one of XTC's most likeable and lucrative decisions. Dukes of Stratosphear brought together Partridge, Moulding, Dave Gregory and brother Ian for a six-track burst of feedback, wah-wah, mellotron and backwards-bits that, at the time, sounded as though an in-joke was being played out. More importantly, XTC sounded like they were finally having 'fun' and the humour extends into the nonsensical lyrics that pay homage to The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Creation and The Kinks without any direct plagiarism, just a friendly arm around the shoulder of worship. Bike Ride to the Moon, Your Gold Dress and Mole From The Ministry still raise smiles while the most straight-forward effort, What in the World, is one of Moulding's strongest compositions to this day. One can only imagine how brilliant a live show by the Dukes would have been.
Skylarking - 9/10
Not a cover of the charming roots-reggae anthem by Horace Andy, but more a quintessential reference to lazing about on a summer's day. Intrinsically, producer Todd Rundgren's influence on the recording and sequencing of the tracks on this superlative collection would be Skylarking's saving grace. The story behind the album initially overtook the completed article - wranglings between artist and producer and then the artists themselves, nearly terminated the album's progress, but Andy Partridge later admitted that Rundgren's arrangements were 'brilliant'. And they still are.
From the nature-inspired intro of Summer's Cauldron, past the adjoined carefree strum of Grass, through the very-British gallop across the rain-drenched hillock of Ballet For a Rainy Day and 1000 Umbrellas, right up to the plaintive closing pair of Dying and Sacrificial Bonfire, Skylarking is pretty much faultless and is held together seemlessly by Rundgren's vision and XTC's unerring ability to craft a tune, fourteen of them in this case. It didn't matter that the album only clawed its way to #90 (a travesty), it didn't matter that they ignored a stone-wall trio of would-have-been blatant hit-singles (Season Cycle, Earn Enough For Us and Big Day) - Skylarking is the start of XTC's definitive second-half and a must-have. Attendant single Dear God incited hate mail and a few threats from across the pond, as well as respect from the college rock circuit - but it doesn't really belong here.
Psonic Psunspot - 8/10
recorded as The Dukes of Stratosphear
XTC continued their earnest dalliance into psychedelia with a return for The Dukes in 1987. Although not as highly-regarded by critics as 25 O'Clock, Psonic Psunspot is a rewarding listen with much to savour. The Byrds, Beach Boys, Small Faces and The Smoke were probably present on the studio hi-fi during the creation of the ten tracks present - check Vanishing Girl, Little Lighthouse, Collideascope and Pale and Precious for proof - and the mood of the album is perhaps closer to XTC than XTC. Spoken dialogue (a la Lewis Carroll) from the neighbour's daughter Lily Fraser gave the album loose continuity and You're a Good Man Albert Brown (Chas n Dave wearing Ray Davies' traahsers in an East End pub) sadly bombed as a single. This and 25 O'Clock were eventually paired up on a CD release, Chips From The Chocolate Fireball.
Oranges and Lemons - 8/10
XTC's final coquetry with psychedelia comes with 1989's revered double-album recorded with then-novice-but-keen American, Paul Fox. Sessions for O&L were easier, Fox was more malleable to his client's suggestions and the final results remain punchy, fresh with a much-needed lift at a time when the trio needed some serious financial return for their efforts. Where Skylarking oozed like honey from the speakers, Oranges and Lemons hollered and jangled with a newly-discovered exuberance that reinstalled XTC into the Top 30 Album Chart and nearly earned them a hit with the excellent lead-off single, Mayor of Simpleton. In fact, aside from Pink Thing and Hold Me My Daddy, every song on this album ranks as some of Partridge and Moulding's finest works. There is no denying that the former's Chalkhills and Children, Simpleton, The Loving and Scarecrow People and the latter's unassuming Cynical Days and One of the Millions are the album's highlights, although tomorrow it could be any one of the remaining songs in their place.
Nonsuch - 9/10
The '90s couldn't have been a more difficult age to release records when you weren't a drug-consuming techno-rave act, Grunge band or Right Said Fred, but XTC soldiered on with one last album for Virgin, the sprawling less poppy more thoughtful musical almanac Nonsuch, issued in 1992. The sleeve depicts Henry VIII's celebrated Cheam palace of the same name and the album contains XTC's first Top 40 hit since 1982's Senses Working Overtime. Though hardly a smash-hit, the plaintive sad-face shuffle-beat of The Disappointed was a welcome break from the norm of Radio One and earned a few hard-fought plays on prime-time shows, though not enough to help it better its peak of #33. Nonsuch had some similarities with the preceding Oranges and Lemons in that it still possessed the same chopping-and-slashing guitars, deft rhythms (this time from Fairport's Dave Mattacks) and perfectly-crafted song. But with added strings and pin-sharp arrangements, producer Gus Dudgeon proved to be another inspired choice, even if he was a tad eccentric. Sadly, Virgin followed opening single The Disappointed with the album's overlong opener The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, instead of Omnibus, Dear Madam Barnum or Wrapped in Grey. Initial pressings of a 7" and CD single of Wrapped In Grey left the pressing plant, only to be recalled and shelved. Colin Moulding hit new heights with his songs - My Bird Performs, The Smartest Monkeys, War Dance and the sublime Skellern-esque Bungalow are as good as it gets while Partridge's Humble Daisy continues on from where Chalkhills and Children and Ladybird kinda left off, all pastoral meadows hugged by fauna and flower.
Apple Venus Vol 1 - 10/10
With Virgin out of the picture, the band settled royalty issues, built studio space and started their own Idea Records in partnership with Cooking Vinyl and a plan to release two very different albums within a year of each other. The results were two Top 50 albums' worth of material that ranged from stringed orchestral craftsmenship to a more familiar jagged electric-guitar driven follow-up. Apple Venus Volume 1 is, quite simply, XTC's best since English Settlement which, when you consider how fabulous the rest of the albums in between have been, is no mean feat. Every detail on the quieter cousin of this final pair of studio-albums is perfect - the descriptive Partridge has been let loose on lyrical pinnacles such as River of Orchids, I'd Like That, The Last Balloon and Easter Theatre, all packed to the hilt with lovely couplets such as "I'd smile so much my face would crack in two/then you could fix it with your kissing glue" (I'd Like That). Anybody who fails to feel at least a pang of elation or tremble-lip when that rears its sensitive head, needs surgery. There are only two Moulding songs on here, both examples of the unassuming Englishman who just wants to be left alone to enjoy the simple things in life such as social drinking (Frivolous Tonight) or gardening (Fruit Nut), both superb, even lightly humourous ("A man must have a shed to keep him sane"). But perhaps the most dazzling song on here is Andy's, the sparkling paean to one love leaving and a new love arriving that is I Can't Own Her. While not an immediate tune like other songs here, say Green Man or Harvest Festival, this one builds into a symphonic crescendo that builds up to that peak of piques - "I can't own her/and that's a bitter pill", says it all. The harmonies work a treat and the song hangs on a minor-key thread as it fades out - top stuff indeed. If you were fortunate enough to buy the Apple Box, you'll be familiar with the two sterling bonus tracks, Say It and Spiral (see below).
Wasp Star (Apple Venue Volume Two) - 7/10
And so to the end, the final curtain. 2000's Wasp Star is perhaps a let-down when compared to its perfectly-ordered predecessor but stick with it because, even amongst the gloom-blues and stricken emotions, messrs Partridge and Moulding can still bang out a pin-sharp tune, even if long-serving guitarist and arranger Dave Gregory left long before the Apple Venus sessions concluded. Stupidly Happy was an obvious choice for a single at the time but, perversely, The Man Who Murdered Love was picked instead, a decent enough choice but perhaps not the song to win new audiences. Other highlights include Standing In For Joe ('entertaining' your best mate's wife while he's away), Playground, We're All Light, Church of Women and the rousing roustabout, In Another Life, another of Colin Moulding's continuing series of witty suburban vignettes a la Frivolous Tonight, Washaway and One of the Millions.
Interestingly, the re-release of both albums as part of Apple Box in 2005, unearthed two superior download-only tracks, Spiral (which might have suited being on Wasp Star) and the truly lovely Say It (a contender for Apple Venus Volume 1). Both were recorded after the two accompanying albums and are certainly superior to much of Wasp Star - it's a pity the band didn't continue beyond these and the internet-only Where Do The Ordinary People Go?, but apparently Colin declared his detachment from writing and music in general, while Andy opted to park XTC and go it alone to continue with his adventurous Ape Records imprint and related (mostly ace) recording projects. It's doubtful that XTC will ever resurface as an active band, although the ongoing prospect of carefully curated reissues (at long last) through Andy's site does at least make for something to look forward to with regular HD and Blu-ray re-issues of the band's catalogue.
As for compilations? Perhaps the best ones are the quirky Rag and Bone Buffet (B-sides, outtakes and rarities), the definitive Dukes reissues on Ape, Apple Box and the neat Transistor Blast box-set of BBC sessions, live tracks and rarities issued in 1999 by Cooking Vinyl. Those after bite-sized morsels of hit-singles should head to Fossil Fuels, a double CD of their familiar Virgin moments. Or just buy everything!
For further information on XTC's activities, past present or future, head to Chalkhills here or APE here