XTC Song of the Day thread

The amount of progress the band made between summer 1978 and summer 1979 must surely be the greatest leap forward in their career.

 

In the bizarro world that is XTC's chart success, 'Sgt. Rock' actually is their second biggest hit, behind 'Senses Working Overtime'. It hit number 16 on the UK charts, one place higher than 'Making Plans for Nigel'.

 

I dare say this song would be 100% better if only Andy had found a different word to rhyme with "greenhouse".

 

Life is Good in the Greenhouse - this is one of those songs I thought "what the heck..?" for the first few times. But then, it clicked with me.

Now I like it... a lot. I can't defend it, I just like it for some reason.

 

Yeah, this is probably the worst song from the BA-era (and, more broadly, one of the worst tracks XTC ever released). I really can't find anything positive to say about it. I definitely think that they had their pop craft down to an art (science?) by this point, but it just doesn't show on this song.

 

I can honestly say that most of the G0 2 songs haven't impressed me, this one isn't bad in the same way as the Barry Andrews songs but it's just kind of there, if you know what I mean. Nothing about it is particularly exciting. That's the worst thing you could probably say about a song by XTC I think, that it leaves almost no impression on you whatsoever. Would I listen to this if it wasn't XTC? Definitely not. Go 2 would have probably been better as an E.P in hindsight.

But on the bright side, Beatown has grown on me quite a bit recently, and Meccanik Dancing and Battery Brides are definite keepers. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt since they were still working out on what type of band they wanted to be. But thank god Dave Gregory would soon enter the picture!

 

Today's song is "Across the Antheap"



I like this song a ton. That recurring guitar lead/rhythm with the vocal effect is fun as heck to tap your foot and sing along to. I can see this being one of the songs they thought they overcooked due to all of the different sounds and whatnot going on throughout, but I feel that's part of its charm. Oranges and Lemons is loaded with good songs, and when I grab songs from it to listen to on their own, this is one I often reach for.

 

I like this one a lot. Great guitar tone! And the percussion is quite inventive. Lyrically this is one of Andy's better efforts. The only negative for me is the dated crappy 80s keyboards -oh well, nothing is perfect.

 

Across the Antheap - Andy popart rock. Good rhythm, intricate guitar line, and I can't decide if I should cringe or take delight in the lyrics. Solid, almost but not quite a fav.

"We're spending millions to learn to speak porpoise, when human loneliness is still a deafening noise."

 

Across This Antheap does nothing other than irritate me, from the interminable intro to the cacophony that follows (where's the bloody tune?!). It's so unlistenable that I needed to look up the lyrics to see what it's going on about. Surprisingly, they're better than the lyrics on songs like Melt The Guns and The Smartest Monkeys, but that's not saying much.

 

Let me try and do my small part to bring you back to when this was released. Since I'm assuming (by your sigs) that you guys are in America, were you here in the states back then? I was music director at my college radio station, and we had a sub to Columbia records, among others. I loved the XTC of D&W and Black Sea, so when English Settlement arrived in the mail, Runaways and most of the rest of it caught us at the station off-guard. It was clearly a change in direction, and we all had to warm up to it (except for Senses, which was universally loved right away).

But here's the kicker: the cheapskate, vision-less swine at Columbia only issued English Settlement domestically as a single album. It wasn't until months later, that I happened to see it in the import section at a record store, that I learned we'd been cheated. Of course I bought the whole thing for my own collection.

I even wrote Andy P., as there was a British address included with our station promotional copy, and included a copy of our playlist with my letter. It showed that 'Senses' was getting solid play on our airwaves. And believe it or not, Andy actually wrote me back, with a nice hand-written (these were the days before the internet and home computers) letter of appreciation! Sadly, it has been lost to the ravages of time and moving.

Anyway, those of you in the US who were around back then, and actually were buying XTC albums, do you also recall a single, shortened version of English Settlement? Or was our college station just getting a 'promo copy', and the real thing was out there in full double album strength, even domestically?

 

It was definitely released as a single LP in the states. I remember when I got to college in 1983, in about my first week there, I met a guy who had the double-LP import and had him tape it for me. It was then later re-released in the states as a double-LP at some point later in the 80s.

 

Thank you, uzn007, for clarifying my suspicions.

 

I bought the single LP version right after hearing Senses Working Overtime on the radio. Several weeks later I was shopping at Strawberry records (in Harvard Square, Cambridge for you locals) and saw the import version. It had embossed lettering on the cover, was darker green and cost about double a single LP. I did not know at that time that it was a double album, because the track list was not visible from the outside and there were no stickers indicating it was a double album. I passed and forgot about until the CD release of English Settlement years later. The CD had all these songs on it I had never heard before -and not just bonus tracks, like what was included on Mummer and The Big Express, but a whole bunch of songs from the double album I knew nothing about. Pre-internet ignorance was not always bliss. Had I known about the double album sooner I would have picked up that vinyl back when I spotted it at Harvard Square.

 

Runaways -Not a favorite off English Settlement. Something about it never fully meshed with me. I don't dislike it, nor do I skip it, but I always feel more should be going on than actually does. I still think it's a weak album side opener and that either Ball and Chain or Senses Working Overtime would have been stronger, but the album was still a pretty big hit so what do I know about sequencing an album?

 

For those on Spotify, I am compiling a playlist from this thread if you are interested. It is called XTC Hoffman Thread Topic. Not very original I know!

Also, it doesn't include any of the Apple Venus or Wasp Star selections as these aren't available on Spotify. Enjoy if so inclined!

 

Can we start a thread here of which XTC album cover is the best? For me it is English Settlement. Oranges and Lemons a second.

 

I just took a look at the single-LP tracklisting, and man, they made some bizarre choices. Why would anyone think that All Of A Sudden was a good closer?

 

Go 2 is their most brilliant cover. White Music is their cheekiest. Apple Venus is their most enticing. Black Sea is their coolest.

Anything other than the original Skylarking cover, though!

 

I was also on a college radio station, and we did get the single album. Of course we all bought the import and played the crap out of it, especially the ones left off (I think I must have played "Leisure" every shift). Here's the songs left off of the domestic:
Fly on the Wall
Down in the Cockpit
Leisure
Knuckle Down
Yacht Dance
It is inconceivable to think of this album without these songs.
Re: "Across This Antheap"-typical kitchen sink O & L production, but I like it for Andy's vocal and the unbelievable mess of percussion in the song.

 

"Drums and Wires" is the iconic XTC album cover.

 

Today's second song is "War Dance"



This seems like one of those songs that was built around a single idea, and while that idea was a good one, what was built around it didn't really do it justice. Not a bad song at all, but just kind of there. As much as I like Nonsuch, it is a handful of songs too long, and this is one that could have gotten the axe.

 

I've read a few people over the years saying they're not keen on War Dance (although I don't think it's as divisive as Bungalow!), but I've always liked it, especially the little riff that sounds like it's played on an oboe, but I think might be a synth line. I always thought it was a little like a companion piece to Generals and Majors.

 

Today's song is "I'll Set Myself on Fire"



Another early XTC songs that I will take a hard pass on. It's still interesting to hear the band in its early stages when they had a regular keyboard player; I just wish the songs were better.

 

I quite like War Dance, even though the lyrics are rather one-dimensional. It has a lot going for it on a musical level, and it sounds a lot livelier (not to mention dynamic) than most of Nonsuch, making me suspect that they didn't spend as much time on it as they did on the other songs (which often sound overworked).

I'll agree that I'll Set Myself On Fire isn't top-tier XTC, but it is one that I can listen to if I'm in the mood. It would have been better off as a B-side, though. Side 1 of White Music is ace, whilst side 2 is relatively weak. If they had included some of the non-album singles and B-sides instead of tracks like I'll Set Myself On Fire and I'm Bugged, I think it'd have a better reputation today. It's academic as far as I'm concerned, though, because the CD version that puts the bonus tracks in the middle gives you the best of both worlds!