I say good.

i have one of 'em and eventually intend on buyin the other

Good.

Haven't disliked any XTC album ever.

XTC is one of those rare bands that can't screw up in my eyes. Nearly everything they do has merit. Apple Venus, however, stands out in particular - it's one of my favorite albums of all time. "Easter Theater" - it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Wasp Star has a some high points and is overall "good," but misses the mark of being what AV is to me. I can't say anything about the two instrumental versions of the album (haven't heard 'em but don't see a need to, either,) but I can say that the two discs of demos for those albums are essentially pointless - demos or not, they sound virtually identical to their professionally-recorded counterparts. (The other albums of demos/outtakes Partridge has released - Fuzzy Warbles (6 of 'em so far) - are most definitely worth buying for XTC fans. Lots of fun stuff, plus some tracks that will leave you stunned that they didn't make it to an album. The recent boxset, A Coat of Many Cupboards, is also equally great - even more demos, most of which are excellent.)

As a huge fan of XTC's nonsuch, of all albums, it took me a long long time to appreciate the pop simplicity of Apple Venus and Wasp Star, and other XTC in general, but now I am so very very grateful that these albums exist, and that I hung in there as a listener.





http://www.econspectu.com/songodamonth/Hockgrain.htm

Nonsuch is my favourite by XTC. Everything about it is perfect to me even the cover and the way the tracks are listed on the back.

Howdy.

pretty much what Mot said. i love "i'd like that" and a bunch of others off the first disc. don't quite see the reason for the demos though. anyone have an theories as to why this band isn't among the same tier that other bands from the late 70's early 80's pop rock/punk/new wave genre have achieved? i can't really think of a band that compares musically with XTC, but it seems like everyone (other than us) is like Gang Of Four this and Television that and so on. maybe because there haven't been many bands sprouting from an XTC influence and also becoming popular...(Like the Strokes, and um...the Faint i guess)

bort

XTC were pretty much revered from 1979 to about 1992 or so. Respect often runs in cycles. Their status will come back.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars sound like they're doing an XTC impression.

I noticed this as well. Even the vocals sound like Colin and even Andy's at times. I almost thought this might be another Dukes Of Stratosphere kind of thing.

I hate that band...

oh yeah....what's that other band that sounds lke xtc? Rouge Wave? something with an R

I love that band. Great album, hell of a lot of fun to listen to.

I hear a huge amount of the early XTC (Drums And Wires and earlier) in the Futureheads. I'd be curious to check out this other band (or Rogue Wave if it is indeed them.)

Apple Venus and Wasp Star are both excellent. The only middling efforts from XTC are "The Big Express" and pseudo-psychadelic "Chips from the Chocolate Fireball" recorded under the guise of Dukes Of Stratosphear.

Everything else from XTC is essential listening. I never tire of this band. My personal favorites are "English Setlement" and "Black Sea".

It's a damn shame that they don't play live anymore. I was lucky enough to catch a live performance in San Francisco during the English Settlement tour in early '82. While on that same tour, in March of '82, Andy Partridge collapsed from exhaustion on stage. Less than a month later, he collapsed again with a stomach ulcer. The band cancelled the tour after his second collapse. In November, Andy announced that XTC would never play live again. He also blamed his collapses on intense stage fright.

Interesting story on how the name Apple Venus came about. On the album Skylarking, there is a line that goes, orange and lemon something and then the next album was called Oranges And Lemons. On that album there is a line with the word nonesuch and the next album was called Nonsuch. Andy has said these are just coincedences and decided to use a line from Nonsuch intentionally to name the next one and in the song Then She Appeared, the phrase apple venus is used and that was what was used for the next album.

Then she appeared, apple venus on a half open shell
Then she appeared, the first photograph on Fox Talbots gel
I was a little frightened
Flying with my senses heightened
Cherubim cheered
Then she appeared
Then she appeared, as the giggling crew of Marie Celeste
Then she appeared, pale Atlantis rising out of the west
I was a little dazzled
Catherine wheeled and senses frazzled
Know it sounds weird
Then she appeared
And the sun which formerly shone
In the clearest summer sky
Suddenly just changed address
Now shines from her blue eyes
Then she appeared, brittle shooting star that dropped in my lap
Then she appeared, dressed in tricolour and phrygian cap
I was a little troubled
Hookah with my senses bubbled
All Edward leared
Then she appeared
And the moon which formerly shone
On the marbled midnight mile
Suddenly just packed its bags
Now shines from her bright smile
Then she appeared
Out of nowhere

sorry, Futureheads was the band i was thinking of, not something with R. silly me. i dig that band ok.

bort

np: the rentals 1st album

I'm late, but I can't not chime in on an XTC thread.

I think the only reason Apple Venus and Wasp Star are volumes 1 & 2 is because they contain all the stuff written during the 6 or 7 years they were "on strike" until Virgin finally let them out of their contract. Just because they split the songs between the quiet album and the loud(er) album doesn't really make them two halves of the same project.

Apple Venus is of course wonderful. The strings on "Green Man" make me swoon. The syncopated raindrops and string plucks that open "River of Orchids" would have sounded totally cheeseball in other hands.

Wasp Star is disappointing to me; it feels unfinished, like they didn't take the time to work out more interesting arrangements. My theory is that, since Dave Gregory quit the band after Apple Venus (fed up with Andy's bossiness), that extra source of ideas and musicianship was lost and the songs came out sounding more exactly like Andy's demoes than ever. I ended up liking Colin's 3 songs better than most of Andy's stuff on the album.

Of course, a disappointing XTC album to me means that it's, like, 3 1/2 stars out of 5--it's not like I hate it. Just not my fave.