XTC ... any fans?

[Splicer]

Were there any other bands where both singers sounded exactly like each other?

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

I'm a huge fan, but can't go back any further than "Black Sea."

I'm gonna figure that you've given Drums and Wires a close listen, but if you haven't... Millions and Complicated Game alone are worth the price of admission bro!

[jake]

I always thought, when he went solo, Andy Fraser of Free sounded like Paul Rogers.

[3LockBox]

My intro album was Skylarking even though I was aware of songs like Waiting for Nigel. I bought it for Dear God but was kinda surprised by the rest of the album, expecting something much more edgy. It took a few months and some happenstance rotation in my CD changer to revisit the album. Now I can't imagine not listening to Skylarking in its entirety. The Rundgren is strong with this album and I think his influence stayed with Partridge (even if Andy would shudder at such a notion).

I used to entertain a notion of a Partridge/Mouldin writing team, joined at the hip ala Lennon/McCartney, only to read later that not only was there a secret competition between them, they really grew apart by the time of the last XTC album.

[pb2015]

As far as favorite albums, the b-sides/rarities collection Rag & Bone Buffet is one I played a lot in the high school car cassette player days.

[polmico]

Black Sea is probably still my favorite, but Wires and Settlement are close behind....maybe Skylarking really close too.

Yeah. I’m not picking a fav. Too many great moments on each album.

Doesn’t Partridge have some new music coming out (besides his Monkees tunes)? Seem to remember seeing something about this on FB.

[GuitarGeek]

It is shame that Dave Gregory jumped ship at this point, he was such a vital part of the mix and I have seen Andy post that he regrets how this ended up.

If I remember correctly, he quit becuase he was largely relegated to being a keyboardist, when he wanted to play guitar. I think either Andy or Colin said in Guitar Player that they'd say, "Oh this song could use some piano", and everyone would look over at Dave, as if to say, "Yeah, Dave, you're playing piano, not guitar, on this one", and that sort of think kept happening. It was suggested that Wasp Star was the XTC album that Dave probably "wanted to make", but he quit before they got to it. I recall in that Guitar Player article, that apparently, Dave took Andy's favorite recording amp with him when he left.

The documentary is “This Is Pop” and it is a brilliant watch for any fan, made with self deprecating humour, but it tells the story in a positive way that warms your heart.

It's a good film, but I felt like they really only scratched the surface of what they could have done if they had done a "proper rockumentary" on the band. But Andy explains in the beginning, he hates those kinds of documentaries, mentioning that they always have...wait, I don't want to give that away for anyone who hasn't seen it, it's hilarious what happens in the first couple minutes. So maybe this film, by design, was meant to be different, and it kinda is, but i just feel like they kinda glossed over a lot of stuff i"d like to have seen them talk about. I'd like to have heard them talk about more of the music on each album, I'd have liked to hear what their various producers thought about working with them, etc. But for what it is, it's not bad.

[polmico]

I used to entertain a notion of a Partridge/Mouldin writing team, joined at the hip ala Lennon/McCartney, only to read later that not only was there a secret competition between them, they really grew apart by the time of the last XTC album.

I recall reading an interview with Moulding where he claimed they never really worked together. Moulding wrote his songs and Partridge wrote his. But they never really wrote together.

Am I crazy for generally preferring Moulding’s tunes?

[ThomasKDye]

I'm finding it amusing that NO ONE has mentioned Mummer as a favorite.

I used to like that one a bit. Honestly, though, it's a very downbeat album all around. Partridge had just had his breakdown, XTC had officially stopped touring, and Terry Chambers had taken off in a huff. Partridge thus stayed in his garden and apparently wrote the most depressing songs he could muster. "Human Alchemy" is dreary as f**k, "Beating Of Hearts," I suppose, is supposed to be cheerfully world-musicky but it sounds awful to me, and "Funk Pop A Roll," while it has a fun and upbeat arrangement, is just Partridge screaming in a gestalt fashion about the horrible music industry. Moulding's songs are less dismal but they don't really raise the energy level any. I had to stop listening to it after a while because it was really depressing the hell out of me. "Love On A Farmboy's Wages" is the only song I ever go back to, and that's honestly enough.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Am I crazy for generally preferring Moulding’s tunes?

I think Colin's songs are better 3/5 of the time. For every 3 great Colin songs there are 2 great Andy songs... yet there are other Andy songs that may not be "great" but are still good

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

I'm finding it amusing that NO ONE has mentioned Mummer as a favorite.

I would put Mummer in my personal 'top 5 XTC albums'
I love it

[ThomasKDye]

Now I can't imagine not listening to Skylarking in its entirety.

Same here. I consider it on the level of Sgt. Pepper's or Dark Side of the Moon; just a perfect cohesive whole that needs to be listened to all at once.

I used to entertain a notion of a Partridge/Mouldin writing team, joined at the hip ala Lennon/McCartney, only to read later that not only was there a secret competition between them, they really grew apart by the time of the last XTC album.

Based on the ratio of songs per album, my analogy was that Partridge was BOTH Lennon and McCartney, and Moulding was Harrison. First, Moulding was definitely the quiet XTCeetle, and second, there's always the Eastern sounds of Moulding songs like "Grass" and "Big Day."

[markwoll]

Long time fan, since Drums & Wires came out I have been hooked.
I love the undanceable pop, the lyrical twists and turns, social commentary, even the filler.
Their output has been a bit uneven over the years ( some of the self flagellation is pretty brutal ) but I love it.

[pb2015]

I remember a Partridge interview for Nonsuch where he said "he [Moulding] writes the quality and I get stuck with the quantity."

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

for those of you who like Drums and Wires, I have been working with that album for myself and though I know that Steven Wilson has remastered it (and he did an excellent job BTW) I wanted to take this one piece to the next level. Drums and Wires was excellent sounding right from the beginning in 1979 but SW made it even better and I have taken the twisted tune from D&W and made it more extreme. Here it is for those who might like to hear what I did with it (you may not notice many of the differences on computer speakers though)
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1t152c486dfpl/

[proggy_jazzer]

Thanks to this thread I watched This Is Pop last night, and like all good rock docs it made me want to go back to the music. I only know Skylarking well, as it came out while I was working in a record store. I was much more into jazz at that point, but the fact that we played it almost every day in the store for awhile and couldn't seem to keep it in stock finally wore me down and I bought a copy. It really is brilliant pop music and as I delve into the rest of their catalog I have yet to be disappointed. I agree with those who say the songwriting rivals that coming out of the Beatles or Beach Boys, but I think there's another even more apt comparison: to Fagen/Becker. The musicianship and level of wit and sarcasm are very similar, IMO.

[No Pride]

Am I crazy for generally preferring Moulding’s tunes?

I'm very partial to Partridge's tunes, but that doesn't make you crazy... or make me sane for that matter. I think the best tune Moulding wrote was "The Vanishing Girl" for The Dukes of Stratosphere. It would've been a big hit if it came out in the '60s.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

of course, I know there are fans but... I used the 'search' and even 'advanced search' and found absolutely no discussions

http://www.progressiveears.org/forum....php/12733-XTC

[bill g]

Am I crazy for generally preferring Moulding’s tunes?

In general, I do too. I especially love the 3 Moulding penned tunes on Oranges & Lemons. But on the next two, my favorites (for the first time) tend to be Andy's tunes. But if I did a top 10, probably 6 would be Moulding songs. Definitely 'Remember The Sun' would be there too, but Andy comes out with some gems, such as 'This World Over', 'Mermaid Smiled', and 'You Can't Own Her'.

[Zappathustra]

I am revisiting (again!) these last days, and re-evaluating. (Skylarking is climbing the stairs in my esteem).

A striking thing is the variety between individual records, in terms of musical style, production, arranging. Sometimes it's hard to imagine this is the same band.

And another thing which impresses me a lot is that they didn't actually swim with the tide. Were there any other bands that were doing this Beatles-like art-pop in the mid 80's?

[Guitarplyrjvb]

^^ The Producers of "I Love Lucy" and "She Shiela" fame, although they were a Beatles/Police pastiche and harkened back to the rockier days of the Fabs.

Perhaps Squeeze around Argybargy....

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

I think perhaps REM wanted to be the XTC of Merka

then there's Japan and the aforementioned Squeeze and also Elvis Costello

[GuitarGeek]

Were there any other bands where both singers sounded exactly like each other?

I don't know about "sounding exactly alike" but I was really surprised how many songs by The Cars were sung by Ben Orr. I always thought Let's Go and Just What I Needed were sung by Rik Ocasek, until I saw videos for the songs during the 90's, which revealed the truth. According to Wikipedia, on the first three albums, Orr sung nearly half the songs, even though virtually everything was written by Ocasek.

Also, with Uriah Heep, it took me ages to suss out which songs were sung by David Byron and which were sung by Ken Hensley. From what I gather, Lee Kerslake also sang some of the leads on a few of those records, but I've never been able to spot his voice.

[AndiSexgang]

I preferred Squeeze and Stump and The Stranglers. I've got most XTC albums on vinyl, but I rarely listen to them mowadays, and only ever really liked a handful of songs anyway. Favourite album probably Oranges & Lemons or The Big Express. On certain XTC/Stump songs they sound very like each other.

[AndiSexgang]

I think perhaps REM wanted to be the XTC of Merka

Maybe that's why they had an album called Murmur