A selection of album
reviews, up to Psonic Psunspot.
Sources indicated where known.
Psonic Psunspot review, from Q Magazine, August 1987 - Contributed by Mick Casey
Follow-ups to one-off bright ideas are usually disasters - the cansequence of using all your best shots first time and not knowing when to leave well alone. It's a pleasant surprise, therefore, to find that this LP - the follow-up to the 25 O'Clock 6-track mini-LP of 1985 and Andy Partridge of XTC's obsession with having missed being a child of the '60s - is actually a considerable improvement on the original. (The CD version, incidentally, will contain both albums - under the title Chips From The Chocolate Fireball.)
Much less self-conscious and over the top than its predecessor (though sharing the same producer in John Leckiel, this actually consists of 11 bright, energetic pop songs-good enough to stand on their own and generally executed with more life, invention and direction than the past couple of "pastoral" XTC albums. It's almost as if this new fantasy game is more like Andy Partridge's old self.
Musically the material - to which bassist Cohn Moulding also contributes a couple of his recognisably more straightforward songs - is a more refined mixture of affectionate parodyand the sincerest form of imitation of late '60s experimental pop, principally British but also American. (Its inspirations include Pink Floyd, Keith West, The Byrds and Moby Grape). Both the stylistic borrowings and the use of '60s effects like phasing and mellotrons are used with subtlety and restraint, and the remodelled result is correspondingly more acceptable and enjoyable, with the ersatz and contrived no longer dominant.
Partridge still hasn't got it quite right and there are odd slips into a kind of sub-Alice In Wonderland whimsical nonsense. Nevertheless this is 90 per cent good stuff and there's even a potential hit single in the pub-piano anti-war singalong You're A Good Man Albert Brown. The best of contemporary '60s pop - this one could run and run
Q Rating: 4/5, Reviewed By: Ian Cranna
Psonic Psunspot review, from Melody Maker (I think...)
"I took the glowing ticket from the giant cranefly and turned to get into the train. 'Hurry,' he hissed and then, before my very eyes, turned into a splendid cream bun." Or: "The puffin sipped at his herbal tea and sighed 'You can't get the buttons these days.'"
"Psonic Psunspot" is regularly punctuated with extracts from the exploits of the little girl trapped in the wonderland between the tracks of this, the second Dukes Of Stratosphear album. Her tall stories are a looking glass to the songs themselves, a reflection of a world populated by the "Vanishing Girl", the "Brainiac's Daughter", people with perfumed garden hair, somebody who thinks "You're A Good Man Albert Brown." The national anthem for this unstable land changes from a sophisticated jazz-babe swing to a pub joanna, an oompah, mug-bumping knees-up, from a holy hymn to wild, oddball pop.
The album is purposefully designed as a tribute to the bands which the Dukes admire from the psychedelic pop of the Sixties and such blatant admissions of inspiration make comparisons pointless.
Suffice to say that it successfully captures a degree of purity and innocence, of magic and mystique which it's hard not to be cynical about.
Most are probably well aware of who the Dukes Of Stratosphear actually are, and this LP really does give the game away completely. The differences between "Psonic Psunspot" and "Skylarking", the bands last work under their more popular name, are minimal - lyrically, musically, in the clever use of FX and in the overriding sense of humour. It can be ludicrous or perspicacious, provoke appreciation or disfavour, depending on your humour at the time.
A confusing Pslice of Psick coloured vinyl, the most satisfactory conclusion is that "Psonic Psunspot" is all slithy toves, mimsy borogroves, gyres and gimbles and the mome raths outgrabe. That and, if you're buying the next round, then you're a good man Andy Partridge.
PUSH
Skylarking - Q Magazine, November 1986
XTC unfair to the Hermit of Mink Hollow? Maybe in Q1 they were, with all those disparaging remarks about raccoon shit, but I can't see that Todd Rundgren's production has done them any drastic harm. Indeed it's barely touched them. Skylarking is essence of XTC, grown-up and still playing pop in territory somewhere between The Beatles and Squeeze. Plangent guitar sounds recall Revolver (1966), vocal harmonies have a salt-and-Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) tang, daily lives stories come from Up The Junction or, in XTC's case, out in the country - wherever ordinary people are doing the nation's dirty work and trying to break the mould, get out of the trap.
In fact, an XTC album is just like life, isn't it? Remember grannie's sweet jar on the sideboard and your multi-coloured tea-cosy and feel guilty about not being nicer to her, then afraid because you're going to die some day too (Dying)? Bask in Summers Cauldron, a sound as shimmery as a heat-haze. Celebrate a wedding - in the light of the divorce statistics (Big Day). That's it. Just when you think XTC are all heart to the point of sentimentality, they bite.
Q Rating: 4/5, Reviewed By: Phil Sutcliffe
Skylarking : Friday Morning Quarterback (December 2, 1994): Music News Rock Report
Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs remaster : XTC: Skylarking (UDCD 615)
Since their formation in the mid-seventies, XTC have won over fans and critics alike with their passionate and clever music. Fans of the Swindon, England outfit can rejoice with the release of a special Ultradisc II version of XTC's superb 1986 Skylarking through Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. Produced by Todd Rundgren, Skylarking is an aural feast for audiophiles. With tracks like the controversial Dear God, Beach Boys homage Season Cycle, super-elastic pop sheen of That's Really Super Supergirl, and the spy movie sound-alike The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul (featuring ex-Tubes drummer Prairie Prince) Skylarking ranks as XTC's most adventurous and assured effort. One listen to the Ultradisc version of Skylarking is enough. You'll be treated to deeper timbres, a greater clarity and definition in the vocals, and a dramatic improvement in instrument separation. Highly recommended for all XTC aficionados.
Skylarking, iCast - February 1987
Though borne out of frustrating circumstances, SKYLARKING proved, upon its 1986 release, to be XTC's biggest seller. Attention was spurred along by "Dear God," which was originally issued only as a B-side and not even included on the album. Subsequent pressings quickly substituted the song (removing "Mermaid Smiled," which resurfaced on RAG & BONE BUFFET). At the time, Andy Partridge was extremely vocal about the band's dissatisfaction in working with producer Todd Rundgren. Intervening years have softened the memory of personal clashes and he now also embraces this as one of their finest hours (as had been the case with most of their fans all along). With hooks galore ("That's Really Super, Supergirl," "Season Cycle"), lush orchestrations ("1000 Umbrellas"), acoustic reveries ("Grass," "Sacrificial Bonfire"), and even some big fat electric guitars and drums ("Earn Enough For Us"), this is a perfect starting point for anyone unfamiliar with the fine XTC catalog.
Skylarking - LM magazine (review format was one main review and two "second opinions.")
Never in their long a distinguished career have XTC made a duff record. They've made a few mediocre ones (Mummer was a tad patchy and English Settlement rambled uncontrollably at times), but they've always managed to slip one or two glistening gems into each LP while keeping the quality control set high for all tracks.
But despite their laudable attention to detail, XTC have outlived their usefulness. When they perfected their distinctive and intricate blend of student pop (best highlighted on the classic Black Sea) they we're already about six or seven years out of date; now they're beginning to sound senile.
Still, Skylarking is a good LP, and it's thematic approach is intriguing. The opener Drowning In Summer's Cauldron, billows in on banks of clicking crickets and modulating synths, producing a perfect picture of a heady, brow-mopping July afternoon in the countryside.
Just as you're about to drift off, the track segues effortlessly into Grass. Romantic rustic themes swirl and twirl as the song develops, finally fading into the reassertion of the opening cut. Pretty conceptual man.
Ballet For A Rainy Day pulls us quickly into autumnal glory, while 1000 Umbrellas shivers and shudders as the November heavens open, pouring discontent into a dying year.
Season Cycle - a bit of a corker - questions the natural powers that govern our lives, and restates the pastoral theme that dominates the LP's first side. Perhaps XTC should consider this one for their next single.
Side Two details more directly with human experience. Earn Enough For Us tells of a young man's efforts to support his girl and his household, Big Day discusses the implications and complications of marriage, Another Satellite comments on the passing years, and Dying is an overpowering, highly intimate view of our inevitable fate, provoked by the death of a loved one. Disturbing stuff.
The album's highlight is The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul. XTC tackle an unfamiliar musical area in this boisterous stab at cool jazz, and come up trumps. It's probably one of their finest tracks ever.
Like all XTC albums, Skylarking grows and grows with repeated plays. It could prove to be one of their biggest LPs to date. Get it.
75%, Paul Strange
XTC may be perennial misfits, but they make consistently interesting records. This time round it's pleasant soft-focus psychedelia, strongly reminiscent on mid-period Beatles. As ever XTC have come up with a surefire commercial failure.
65%, Richard Lowe
The first time I listened to this XTC album I checked several times to see of my Walkman batteries were flat. The musical style may be strictly for fans, but the album's strongest point is the lyrics. The song list gives and idea: In A Sacrificial Bonfire, Dying, That's Really Super, Supergirl and so on.
65%, Mike Dunn
25 O'Clock (The Dukes of the
Stratosphear) - J.D. Considine, Musician,
July 1985
Contributed By Martin Monkman
According to the liner notes, "It's time to visit the planet smile," so excuse yourself from Paisley Park [note: this refers to Prince's label, launched in 1985 with the vaguely psychedelic album Around The World In A Day] and prepare yourself from an intentionally funny psychedelic revival. The Dukes, who bear more-than-passing resemblance to XTC, know all the best jokes, from the light-hearted Beatle-isms of "What In The World?" to the Dark Side stereo tick-tock of the title cut. Yet there's enough affection for these affectations that these six songs remain listenable even as you laugh. A sure antidote to everyone else's flashbacks.
The Big Express - MUSICIAN, January 1985 (No.75) - Contributed By Martin Monkman
Compulsively bursting with invention, originality and wit, The Big Express clacks away from the floral and pastoral scenery of English Settlement and Mummer, and delights with its range of moods, textures and topics. Indeed, this musical excursion is rather more suggestive of XTC's Black Sea period, in which each song seemed to plumb a different exotic world. By combining provocative lyrical metaphors with rich soundscapes, leader Andy Partridge is becoming adept at creating three-dimensional travelogs. XTC is not happy unless you smell-touch-taste the music.
Take for example the witty "Bless You All You Pretty Girls," [sic] a sailors' homage to all those young maidens with "your pale arms waving." From there we travel to the country-flavored "Shake You Donkey Up," a kinetic square dance complete with mule-like sound effects. The eccentric love song, "Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her," rolls in like the fog with a haunting repetition of Mellotron, thundering drums and unresolved tensions. So kiss her already!
But XTC can also pack a direct emotional punch. "Reign Of Blows," with its heavy backbeat and screaming harmonica, and the jarring discordant breakdown of "Train Running Low On Soul Coal," show off XTC at their most effective. Moulding makes two other lovely contributions: the abrasive, angelic "Wake Up" and the wistful "I Remember The Sun."
The Big Express' theme is implied by its symbol of an antiquated British railway. Here, Partridge expresses his distaste and caution for the arrogance of progress. A Beatlesque "The Everyday Story Of A Smalltown" pays tribute to the simplicity and "backwardness" of a burg. ("You're just too fast for little old me…next you'll be telling me it's 1990," Partridge scoffs.) At the other extreme, "This World Over" features Police-like rhythms ands and a flowing wash of sadness as Partridge movingly addresses the survivors of a nuclear war.
XTC is never short of ideas; their only real flaw is a propensity for crowding together too many. But in this day of pop cliché, I'd take XTC's senses-working-overtime anytime. I just hope that they're still not too far ahead of their time.
Erica Wexler (Yup! The very same Erica Wexler who is now engaged to Andy)
White Music, Black Sea, and Mummer (re-release review) - Q magazine, June 1987
XTC came to prominence in 1978 by bumming a ride aboard the New Wave express, but even as techno-punks pogoing awkwardly out of step at the art school hop, on their hectic first album White Music they displayed the idiosyncratic smarts that have sustained a distinguished career on the sidelines of English rock.
The spluttering incoherence of Andy Partridge's vocals on This Is Pop and the spikey nervous energy typified by scattergun songs like Science Friction had given way to a more measured approach by the time of 1980's Black Sea, but their penchant for convoluted arrangements somehow bundled into oddly-shaped pop packages remained intact, and now provided minor hits in Sgt. Rock and Towers Of London.
But the lurking suspicion that here was a group inclined to be too clever for their own good was confirmed in 1983 by Mummer, their least successful release, and an album that paraded moments of inconsequential pastoral whimsy, like Colin Moulding's Wonderland, together with performances of irritating pomposity as on Great Fire. These, the last three albums from XTC's catalogue to be released on CD, come complete with additional songs culled from B-sides and EPs (16 extra tracks in all) and, given Partridge's appallingly daft diction, indispensable lyric sheets.
In retrospect there is often less to XTC's complex music than at first meets the ear. Despite all their high-wire antics, they have always managed to sling up the safety-net of a good chorus and, paradoxically, this simple, traditional facility may yet prove to be their greatest achievement.
Q Rating: 3, Reviewed By: David Sinclair
Waxworks - Tower Records Online
XTC's WAXWORKS is subtitled "Some Singles 1977-1982" and it is just that--a selection of their fine array of 45s which chart the course of a band arriving with a jump, finding it's legs and taking off and running. Not trying to be complete, it wisely shows just what can happen when a band is spurred along by the power of radio and the desire to have hits. Never cliched, their songs in fact stretched the boundaries of pop songs in subtle and ingenious ways. "Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down," though not a chart-topper is a wonderfully original new take on kiss-offs and regrets. "Making Plans For Nigel" delineates familial issues in a manner quite British, and thematically Kinks-ish. "Sense Working Overtime" is hooky dazzle and delight from start to finish. And that still leaves nine more equally fine slices.
English Settlement - Smash Hits
Thankfully unaffected by passing trends (there's barely a synth or a horn section to be found here) XTC are nevertheless getting better all the time. The whole range of their writing is represented on this double album, all the way from tough sarcastic numbers like "No Thugs In Our House" to the more poignant and sympathetic likes of "All Of A Sudden" and "Knuckle Down". Partridge and Moulding always manage to put a a new twist on even the most tires matter ("Melt The Guns" is the best anti-violence song in years) and the band have never been heard to better effect, Terry Chambers performing minor percussive miracles to keep some ambitious arrangements punchy. All in all, something to get your teeth into.
8 1/2 out of 10
English Settlement - Tower
Records Online
Any doubt's about XTC's abilities and directions following their permanentr withdrawal from live performance after the release of BLACK SEA were cast aside when this album appeared in 1982. Originally released as a double album (and subsequently formatted onto a single CD), it marked the dawning of their more pastoral phase. However, far from setting aside their rocking grooves, they now came wrapped in a softer blanket, of more intricate arrangements. "Senses Working Overtime" garnered them some airplay in the states, which brought in new fans who were treated to a wonderful range of songs which all featured a judicious mix of electric and acoustic instruments. ENGLISH SETTLEMENT is the band's second homerun in a row.
Black Sea - Smash Hits
This really is a magnificent album. Their most "commercial" to date, it's packed with brain-hugging potential hits yet still as energetic, engaging and interesting as ever with the unexpected bonus of the startling "Travels In Nihilon", their most powerful and satisfying piece so far. Quite how Andy Partridge and XTC manage to be so dazzlingly clever and thoroughly likeable at the same time I don't know - they just get better and better. A compulsory purchase.
9 out of 10
Black Sea - Tower Records Online
XTC's fourth album showed the full flower of their two-guitar lineup, begun on the previous DRUMS AND WIRES. Perhaps their most powerfully rocking work, the songs were no less compelling live. Unfortunately, as touring began in support of the release, leader Andy Partridge's long-standing stage fright blossomed into immobilizing panic, forcing the band to permanently retire from the stage. Their palette was continuing to expand sonically and Steve Lillywhite's production made the most of every towering beat and rhythmic nuance. Several singles were drawn from the record and charted in Britain, most notably the dazzling "Respectable Street" and "Towers Of London." BLACK SEA marked the close of the band's first era and stands as one of their peak works, filled as it with the stunning and unmistakable flavors that are the band's character.
Drums And Wires, iCast - March 1991
This third album marks a significant personnel change for XTC. Organist Barry Andrews departed and was replaced by guitarist Dave Gregory. While neither of the two wrote songs for the band, the change effectively removed the most "New Wave" element in XTC's original sound, ultimately setting the stage for a magnificent sonic expansion over the following several albums.
Opening with one of their biggest hits, "Making Plans For Nigel," the album finds the Partridge-Gregory guitar interplay exploring the rich fields of Captain Beefheart (the tag to "Day In Day Out" is pure Magic Band). The relative quiet of "Ten Feet Tall" sounds positively pastoral after the nonstop energy of the last two albums. With "Life Begins at the Hop" Colin Moulding was emerging as XTC's hit-bound writer, but since these charting entries he's remained pretty much in the shadows of the more prolific Andy Partridge.
Go 2, Record Mirror, October 14, 1978, Contributed by Thomas Hoheisel
After the promise offered by 'White Music' and numerous live gigs, I found XTC's latest album 'Go 2' something of a disappointing anticlimax. Perhaps I had expected rather too much. Certainly, there are several very worthwhile numbers; for example, the first song 'Meccanik Dancing' and the gem-like 'The Rhythm'. On the other hand some lack positive direction; 'Buzzcity Talking' and 'Crowded Room' immediately spring to mind. This is a platter of contrasting nature. The second side possesses greater overall drive, with a classic opener in 'Beatown'. Here the Rats meet the Stranglers, meet Elvis Costello. The pace slackens for 'Life Is Good In The Greenhouse', but increases for 'Jumping In Gomorrah' - a lively cut. 'Super-Tuff', a Bob (huh?) Andrews composition, is another effective number, and throughout XTC's music can be viewed as simplicity in itself, elegantly decorated with the electronic sounds of tomorrow.
What does make this package a creditable venture is the inclusion of a five-track EP, called 'Go +', given free with the first 150,000 copies. Here are dub versions of certain numbers on 'Go 2', complete with new titles. This is an excellent 15 minutes of music, and in fact it is at first difficult to establish which one corresponds to a number on the actual album. Strangely enough Virgin's ploy in this release seems to have been to confuse everyone (probably including themselves); indeed working out a track list involves much groundwork. A parallel (conscious?) with XTC's music, something which involves in depth study for complete understanding.
Therefore 'Go 2' is at least above average, with 'Go +' going one giant step ahead - a definite case of technical XTC.
++++ (out of 5)
Go 2, iCast - March 1991
With their second album XTC was already showing signs of outgrowing their own clothing. Similar in style and content to their debut WHITE MUSIC, GO 2 features a less brittle production and, perhaps most notably, comes packaged in a design which finds the group standing apart from and commenting on the market forces meant to convey their music to the public. XTC were clearly at a crossroads with this album, a situation borne out by their subsequent releases which moved them further away from any accidental peers of the era, and into the ongoing tapestry of pop music. Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding's songwriting skills were in evidence from the beginning, and this album found XTC doing exactly what those songs needed. Those needs, however were to soon change, and this album marks the end of the band's brief "New Wave" era.
White Music, Tower Records Online
This album stands as an effective summation of the punky exuberance particular to a parcel of British bands that all ended up sailing across the ocean to America and were captured under the marketing flag of New Wave. XTC was one of the best of the lot and their continued artistic growth is testament to their devotion to music over punk ethos or the dictates of commerce. This 1978 album (which now also includes their 3-D EP from the previous year) is overflowing with hopped-up energy and wiseguy humor.
The songs are played like a building on fire by a quartet featuring the era's de rigeur instrumentation of guitar, Farfisa organ, bass and drums--seemingly with everything turned up in the mix! "This Is Pop," "Do What You Do," "Statue of Liberty," "I'll Set Myself On Fire," "I'm Bugged," "Radios In Motion"--no look at the era would be complete without these songs. Hearing XTC's earliest work with the full knowledge of where they'vegone since is both elucidating and entertaining.
All original work is acknowledged as being the copyright of the originator.
