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Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
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Points: 37575
Posted: February 15 2011 at 13:04
XTC never made a dud album - every one is a little gem. Pick anything from Drums'n'Wires through to Skylarking and you can't go wrong. The only one I'd avoid to start with is White Music - Andy's affected vocals can be a bit much on that album - he clamed down a lot after that (a bit like Steven Wilson did with Porcupine Tree).
No one's mentioned Big Express yet - a nod to XTC's Swindon heritage - "All You Pretty Girls" is one of the most infectious songs they ever wrote.
The dub versions Andy did are pretty good too (Go Plus and Take Away/The Lure of Salvage).
Joined: April 29 2006
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Points: 29630
Posted: February 15 2011 at 14:52
Dean wrote:
No one's mentioned Big Express yet - a nod to XTC's Swindon heritage - "All You Pretty Girls" is one of the most infectious songs they ever wrote.
Ever since English Settlement, I've been getting their albums as they came out and they are one of those artists whose music can really take me back to era when I first heard it. The Big Express happened when I was in college before I got my first drafting job and was working a fast food gig. Funniest line heard on the job between the guy doing the burgers and the gal doing the assembly "My buns are ready for your meat."
Edited by Slartibartfast - February 15 2011 at 20:16
Joined: July 14 2007
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Points: 3449
Posted: February 15 2011 at 15:13
English Settlement, Skylarking, The Big Express. All fine albums. Dukes, Oranges and Lemons, Nonsuch only a step down from those.
Someone on these forums once posed the question, what if The Beatles hadn't broken up? What music would they have made? I think they would have sounded pretty much like XTC.
Can you tell me where we're headin'?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon.
Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20048
Posted: February 15 2011 at 16:51
Dean wrote:
No one's mentioned Big Express yet - a nod to XTC's Swindon heritage - "All You Pretty Girls" is one of the most infectious songs they ever wrote.
Yes, good call Dean. I've been listening to The Big Express quite a lot lately, underrated album. Oranges and Lemons is good as well, "Chalkhills and Children" would definitely be in my XTC Top 10.
Joined: April 29 2006
Location: Atlantais
Status: Offline
Points: 29630
Posted: February 15 2011 at 18:15
chopper wrote:
Dean wrote:
No one's mentioned Big Express yet - a nod to XTC's Swindon heritage - "All You Pretty Girls" is one of the most infectious songs they ever wrote.
Yes, good call Dean. I've been listening to The Big Express quite a lot lately, underrated album. Oranges and Lemons is good as well, "Chalkhills and Children" would definitely be in my XTC Top 10.
What about the penis song? Yeah Oranges And Lemons reminds me of the time I got laid off from an architectural job that I thought would have lasted longer. It's actually a couple of years older than the event. I was a casualty of early '90's recession. Sorry if I'm rambling on a bit.
Edited by Slartibartfast - February 15 2011 at 20:16
Joined: April 29 2006
Location: Atlantais
Status: Offline
Points: 29630
Posted: February 15 2011 at 20:15
Don't stop at Nonesvch. Keep on going through the Apple Venuses...
By the way if you like The Big Express, list your favorites, Mine: Wake Up This World Over Reign of Blows I Remember the Sun Train Running Low on Soul Coal
Edited by Slartibartfast - February 15 2011 at 20:38
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
Joined: July 14 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3449
Posted: February 15 2011 at 20:47
Slarti, I love The Big Express. I still have the round LP, for whatever that's worth and at some time also bought the CD. As I've said before, the last time I went to demo speakers for my stereo, it was The Big Express I had in hand because it will test the overall sound of any speaker pretty well, and will also test the patience of the salesman.
Wake Up
All You Pretty Girls
Shake You Donkey Up (it takes a while to like this one)
and yes
I Remeber the Sun
and Train Running Low on Soul Coal
Can you tell me where we're headin'?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon.
Joined: July 14 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3449
Posted: February 15 2011 at 21:23
Okay, I think sometime about a thousand posts ago I said I'd give it up, the prog angle to XTC. But as always, I just can't help myself.
So, go listen to a little Jason and the Argonauts or English Roundabout. If either of those songs had been made by Rush or Yes, people would have bootprints on their tongues, praising the progressiveness of it all. Listen to those guitars. Just saying.
Not to mention Wake Up. Who cares, stay in bed.
Not to mention Skylarking.
Oh wait, really really good pop-rockers, I almost forgot
Can you tell me where we're headin'?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon.
Joined: January 30 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2632
Posted: February 15 2011 at 23:56
desistendo:
Now that you are completely confused (LOL), listen to the world's absolutely, unquestionably, unarguably hugest, major XTC aficionado: as many have suggested, English Settlement is where you should start. And you should listen to Mummer diretly after that. Once you have heard those two, you will be able to appreciate both their earlier albums (including Drums & Wires and Black Sea) and later albums (including Big Express, Oranges & Lemons, and Nonesuch).
And in reference to other comments made, one of the reasons I "left" PA under a "cloud" some time ago is that I was among those who were against the inclusion of Queen (simply for Queen II and parts of NATO) while groups like XTC (clearly prog-related, if not some other category) were passed over. That XTC is still not on PA is an outrage!
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
Joined: May 23 2005
Location: Baltimore,Md US
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Points: 27802
Posted: February 16 2011 at 00:56
Nice post maani,I agree that XTC should be here in PA.I recently "discovered' and fell in love with them.I have all of their output but "Mummer",I really need to check that out.
Joined: July 14 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3449
Posted: February 16 2011 at 01:21
Where were you guys when I brought this up 2800 posts ago? I gave up, the wall where I beat my head having given in completely, them underpinning 2x4's not being very resilient. It has been determined that they are a really really good pop band . Nothing more, nothing less. What do I know, I wasn't there when brains were handed 'round.
Eventually, the logic will go cold and all the thinking will get done, and they'll surely be here, in all their really really good poppy sweetness, and at that moment we'll all be kings for a day.
Can you tell me where we're headin'?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon.
Joined: April 29 2006
Location: Atlantais
Status: Offline
Points: 29630
Posted: February 16 2011 at 05:14
TheProgtologist wrote:
Nice post maani,I agree that XTC should be here in PA.I recently "discovered' and fell in love with them.I have all of their output but "Mummer",I really need to check that out.
That was one of the albums I was listening to when I went off to college. Deliver Us From The Elements. Me And The Wind. Funk Pop a Roll. Some ambient bonus tracks on the CD...
With all the flak some Crossover additions have been getting these guys are worthy. They have my endorsement for what it's worth.
I was just thinking about how Dear God had some popular success but the song Dying that comes in after that is really chilling.
"Funk pop a roll beats up my soul
Oozing like napalm from the speakers and grill
Of your radio
Into the mouths of babes
And across the backs of it's willing slaves
Funk pop a roll consumes you whole
Gulping in your opium so copiously from a disco
Everything you eat is waste
But swallowing is easy when it has no taste"
Edited by Slartibartfast - February 16 2011 at 05:29
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20048
Posted: February 16 2011 at 06:42
Slartibartfast wrote:
chopper wrote:
Dean wrote:
No one's mentioned Big Express yet - a nod to XTC's Swindon heritage - "All You Pretty Girls" is one of the most infectious songs they ever wrote.
Yes, good call Dean. I've been listening to The Big Express quite a lot lately, underrated album. Oranges and Lemons is good as well, "Chalkhills and Children" would definitely be in my XTC Top 10.
Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
Status: Offline
Points: 32995
Posted: February 16 2011 at 07:05
chopper wrote:
Slartibartfast wrote:
chopper wrote:
Dean wrote:
No one's mentioned Big Express yet - a nod to XTC's Swindon heritage - "All You Pretty Girls" is one of the most infectious songs they ever wrote.
Yes, good call Dean. I've been listening to The Big Express quite a lot lately, underrated album. Oranges and Lemons is good as well, "Chalkhills and Children" would definitely be in my XTC Top 10.
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What is XTC best album?
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Dean wrote:
Yeah Oranges And Lemons reminds me of the time I got laid off from an architectural job that I thought would have lasted longer. It's actually a couple of years older than the event. I was a casualty of early '90's recession. Sorry if I'm rambling on a bit.
I should know. Please be upstanding...
