Episode 158: Andrew Gretes / XTC [Part 2]

Summary

POLITICAL BEATS – EPISODE 158: ANDREW GRETES / XTC [PART 2]
National Review • May 31, 2026
Hosts: Scott Bertram & Jeff Blehar
Guest: Andrew Gretes

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Episode Overview

In this expansive follow-up, Political Beats continues its two-part deep dive into the legendary English rock band XTC, focusing on their prolific and experimental studio era post-1983. Jeff Blehar, Scott Bertram, and returning guest Andrew Gretes (author, creative writing professor at Georgetown and George Washington University) analyze XTC’s journey from The Big Express through their final albums, including their psychedelic alter-ego records as The Dukes of Stratosphear, the landmark Skylarking, the ambitious Oranges and Lemons, and the sublime final statements of Apple Venus and Wasp Star. The panel explores the creative evolution of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, the push-pull of studio maximalism versus pop concision, the band’s complicated relationship with touring and commercial success, and the eternal mystery of XTC’s underrated legacy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Transition into Permanent Studio Band (The Big Express Era)

• Context: Following Andy Partridge’s stage fright and breakdown, XTC stopped touring after 1982. Their subsequent albums were made solely in the studio, unbound by expectations.
• Jeff (05:23–09:44):
  “They are going to retreat into the minds... and the only thing that will ever limit them musically is what can they put onto a tape.”
• Significance: XTC becomes more inventive and insular, resulting in maximalist arrangements but also some of their most underheard and undervalued work.
• Scott (11:06–13:50):
  “It almost sounds like an industrial pop album. There’s clanging and banging and the mixes sound like these things were recorded inside of a cave.”

Notable Songs:

• "Wake Up" – classic XTC, staccato riffs, high energy
• "All You Pretty Girls" – sea shanty, whimsical, accordion-like keyboards
• "Train Running Low on Soul Coal" (21:30–23:38) – intense metaphor for creative burnout, “sonic painting of a man at the verge of his end.”
  (Jeff: “Personality crisis in song, they managed to do it.”)

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2. The Dukes of Stratosphear: Psychedelic Detour (25 O’Clock & Psonic Psunspot)

• Background: XTC embrace 60s psychedelic personas for a series of EPs and LPs – among their purest, most joyous releases.
• Jeff (28:11–30:43):
  “This is the most beautiful left turn in XTC’s career... when a bunch of guys relive their childhoods in music.”
• Andrew (31:33):
  “Apparently they had a whole album of samples and whenever they made a mistake, they’d just insert a random sound... There’s a horse whinnying that happens on 'The Mole from the Ministry.' It’s just such a fun EP.”

Notable Songs:

• "25 O’Clock," "Bike Ride to the Moon," "My Love Explodes" ("effortless... you’re hearing Pink Floyd, you’re hearing, you know, Syd Barrett")
• "Vanishing Girl," "You’re a Good Man, Albert Brown" (72:42) – British pop/psych tributes
• "Have You Seen Jackie?" (74:40) – echoes New Pornographers, Sid Barrett-era Floyd
• Takeaway: These records outsold “serious” XTC releases, leading to the enduring theme of identity crisis and playful reinvention.

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3. Skylarking – The Masterpiece and Its Discontents

• Producer Todd Rundgren's Impact: Brought discipline and vision, shaping the material into a conceptual, quasi-theatrical song cycle blending British and American pop traditions.
• Andrew (42:39–44:49):
  “Rundgren’s idea to do the song cycle... it’s what holds the whole album together. It’s almost like one big medley.”
• Scott (51:18–53:09): “Perhaps my favorite moment, the most beautiful moment in all of XTC’s catalog... Ballet for a Rainy Day into 1000 Umbrellas…clearly two songs, one statement. They crossfade into each other. It’s brilliant.”

Memorable Quotes/Moments:

• Jeff (46:54):
  “‘Season Cycle’ is the most Brian Wilson-esque Beach Boys tribute that Andy Partridge would ever write.”
• Dear God Controversy (65:18):
  Andy Partridge originally removed it; Todd Rundgren insisted it stay; became one of their most famous, controversial songs.

Highlights:

• Thematic unity (“adolescence and young adulthood and then we’re going to get old and we’re going to move through this story”)
• Crossfades and sequencing central to the album’s impact
• Singles (“Earn Enough For Us” – “2:56 of pure pop perfection”; “That’s Really Super, Supergirl”; “Season Cycle” – Beach Boys homage)

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4. Oranges and Lemons & Nonsuch – Maximalism, Melancholy, and Mastery

Oranges and Lemons (80:13–96:15)

• Production: Bright, sprawling, occasionally overstuffed double LP exploring elaborate arrangements but sometimes “too much of a good thing.”
• Andrew:
  “It’s fluorescent...bright, jangly, effusive, exuberant. I really love this record. ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ is one of my favorite XTC songs.”
• Jeff (95:05):
  “‘Chalkhills and Children’...the single most emotionally resonant song Partridge ever wrote for this band.”
• Scott (92:49): “Merely a Man” as the most ‘80s’ sounding XTC track.

Nonsuch (105:16–129:19)

• Ambitious, Eclectic, Organic:
  “Maybe their capstone achievement. I think Nonsuch is fantastic.” (Jeff, 105:16)
• Scott:
  “My Bird Performs” – Moulding’s gorgeous melody, “perfect, perfect...doesn’t work without that more organic drum sound.”
• “Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” (107:35): allegory, throwback to the band’s classic virtues; “like a Black Sea song.”
• “Wrapped in Grey” (127:05):
  “One of those beautiful Beach Boys things...a song that saves lives. Don’t let the loveless ones sell you a world wrapped in gray.” (Jeff)

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5. Apple Venus & Wasp Star: The Epilogue (129:40–146:51)

• Context: Final two albums after a long hiatus; Dave Gregory departs, leaving Partridge and Moulding to two-hand the band’s farewell.
• Apple Venus Vol. 1:
  Orchestral, elegant, sometimes avant-garde, described as “ethereal sound unlike every other record the group did.”
  • “Easter Theatre” called “one of the greatest things I’ll ever report.” (Jeff, 132:04)
  • “River of Orchids” (134:36), “Frivolous Tonight” (136:10), and “Green Man” (137:15) praised for beauty and inventiveness.
  • “It’s like a fine work of art. I appreciate it...but it’d be weird to have it in my family room.” (Scott, 138:46)
• Wasp Star:
  Returns to guitar pop, catchy, upbeat, more conventional.
  • “Stupidly Happy” (141:35–145:14):
    “It’s such a great song. Again, it’s kind of minimalist. Then they build upon it.” (Andrew)
  • “I’m the Man Who Murdered Love” – “such a classic XTC song, joy and rambunctiousness” (Scott, 143:01)
  • “Wheel and the Maypole” – “a medley...just like the Beatles go out on a medley, so does XTC.” (Andrew, 145:36)

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6. B-Sides & Rundown

• Rag and Bone Buffet: (99:15–104:28) Overlooked, high-quality B-sides spanning XTC’s entire career.
  “The World is Full of Angry Young Men” and “Extrovert” highlighted for their infectiousness and idiosyncratic charm.

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Notable Quotes

• “You have to be in a certain mood for it. But it’s very post-punk, I think. And I love post-punk.” (Andrew on The Big Express, 21:20)
• “The first EP is them masquerading as 60s rockers. The second is XTC paying tribute to 60s rockers...they’re owning it at this point.” (Jeff on the Dukes, 77:09)
• “The stickiness of their hooks and melodies...I see the song titles, I can hum all of these songs. That is a rare quality.” (Scott, 151:10)
• “Parrots and lemurs populate your unconscious. Let them out and go live life. Don’t let the loveless ones sell you a world wrapped in gray.” (Jeff on “Wrapped in Grey,” 127:05–128:47)

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Time-stamped Segment Highlights

• The Big Express – 04:26–23:38
• Dukes of Stratosphear – 28:11–39:13 & 70:26–78:16
• Skylarking – 39:13–69:08
• Oranges and Lemons – 80:13–99:15
• Nonsuch – 105:16–129:19
• Apple Venus/Wasp Star – 129:40–146:51
• B-sides/Rag and Bone Buffet – 99:15–104:28

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Essential Album & Song Picks (153:30 onward)

Andrew Gretes

Albums: Skylarking, Wasp Star
Songs: All You Pretty Girls, Season Cycle, Rook, River of Orchids, Stupidly Happy

Scott Bertram

Albums: Skylarking, Nonsuch
Songs: Ballet for a Rainy Day/1000 Umbrellas, Earn Enough for Us, Vanishing Girl, My Bird Performs, I’m the Man Who Murdered Love

Jeff Blehar

Albums: Skylarking, Nonsuch
Songs: Train Running Low on Soul Coal, Bike Ride to the Moon, Vanishing Girl, Chalkhills and Children, Easter Theatre (plus a host’s prerogative 6th: Wrapped in Grey)

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The XTC Legacy

• Underappreciated Influence: XTC’s meticulous pop craft, bold artistic risks, and restless reinvention made them a band beloved by musicians and obsessive pop fans—if never fully embraced by the mainstream or Hall of Fame institutions.
• Enduring Appeal: Their music “is one of the most incredible musical legacies...sitting there waiting for you to discover it” (Jeff, 146:51).
• Emotional Resonance: “Songs that save lives,” “emotionally resonant,” and “stickiness of hooks” cited as why the panel continually returns to XTC.

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Conclusion

XTC’s post-touring, studio-bound years reveal a band at creative zenith, toggling between psychedelic nostalgia, pop perfection, baroque orchestration, and offbeat English whimsy. The episode—richly analytical and passionate—should inspire the uninitiated and re-invigorate longtime fans alike to explore (or revisit) the kaleidoscopic depths of XTC’s catalogue.

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For the most crucial track, album, or deep-dive discussion, use the timestamps above to jump right in!

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Hello again everybody and welcome into another edition of Political Beats, a presentation of National Review. Find us on X at Political Beats. You can join the conversation there. Also on Facebook as well. Subscribe to our feed, get those new episodes via Apple Podcasts or where you find your audio also [e-mail] under the Podcasts tab. Listen, leave reviews where possible and we ask you to support us via Patreon too. Patreon.com Politicalbeats you like us? You like the show? Well that's one way to show it. Support us and help the show stay ad free as it always has been. Entry level there for supporting the program and some voting privileges time to time. Mid level for early access to our shows and at a higher audio quality. And our best friends, our upper level supporters get the early access, the higher audio quality monthly exclusive content shows. Those are always fantastic remastered episodes from days of yore playlists and more. All of [e-mail] politicalbeats now the part of the program where we thank some of our Patreon supporters specifically and individually, including our brand new members, is Ian Pedraza, Howard wolfson and John McCaffrey. Thanks so much for joining us and joining in the fun. Longtime members Chet Archbold, Daniel Boylan, Derek Wilczynski, Philip Wegman, also a former guest, Justin Cassell, Sean Jester, Nathan Anderson and Steve Carroll. Thank you for helping us make all of this happen at Political Beats. You too can join [e-mail] politicalbeats My name is Scott Bertram. Find me on X at Scott Bertram, my tag team partner. Standing by as always, Jeff Blair. Jeff, how are you?

[C]

I am doing fantastic my friend. Awaken you dreamers asleep in your beds they're monkeys, they're parrots. There are lemurs and size of your heads. We got a train fully stocked on Soul Cole here and we're going to be chugging all the way to the end. And it's a pleasure to talk about something I've I've thought about for a very long time.

[A]

Let's begin. Peter Pumpkin and came to town Spreading wisdom and cash around Fed the starving and how's the corn? Showed the Vatican what goes for but he made too many enemies. All the people who would keep us on our knees Drape of peace of pumpkin we pray for Be your pumpkin

[B]

head Jack can be found at Esoteric CD on X. Our guest returns. It's always, you know, our pleasure to have our guest come back for a part two. It's better than the alternative except for The Stones episode, people will think I'm like saying something about our guest. For those episodes that was planned, there was one person for part one, one person for part two, and we did that for Genesis.

[C]

Same thing with Genesis, right?

[B]

Yeah, but sometimes we just want the same person back twice. That's the case this time. Andrew Greetis returns. Fiction writer, teaching rhetoric and creative writing at Georgetown and George Washington University. You can find him@andrew greetis.com@g r e t e s.com Andrew, welcome back. Great.

[D]

Happy to be here. Happy to talk about XTC Round two, the revenge.

[B]

And for those who are like, hey, I don't need that part one. I don't care about anything that happened before the big express with xtc. Give people just a little brief run about who you are and your background.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. I teach, you know, creative writing and rhetoric at Georgetown and George Washington University. I also write. Wrote a novel called how to Dispose of Dead Elephants and have a short story collection called Please Don't Feed the Philosophers coming out later this year.

[B]

Be on the lookout for that. And andrew greetis.com all right, this is XTC Grant, part two. As we left our boys last time, Jeff, we were wrapping up our discussion of Mummer. Some of the great tracks that didn't quite make the album. Man Gold's actually been spinning in my head for weeks on end. And this was also around the time the band stopped touring. They were not going to tour anymore. Andy Partridge could not perform on stage anymore. And we enter a new stage for our band. XTC set us up here as we approach the BIG Express in 1984.

[C]

Okay, so it's one of those things that I'm struck by returning a month later, I realized you kind of almost have to do an introduction over again. You have to re explain who this group is and who they are because in all honesty, for the second part of their career, they need re explanation. They're not really going to quite be who they were. Who was XTC when last we left them? That was Andy Partridge and Colin Molding. These guys were two friends from Swindon, London. Swindon, which is a suburb of London, far outward, Bumpkinsville, London. And they had basically been processed through the record industry and had decided that it was not for their tastes. Andy Partridge with his eccentricities, his writerliness, had basically developed both a drug addiction and a nervous breakdown by the end of 1982. They crashed out from that weird post punk new wave vibe that they were surfing and decided that, well, there's only one way for us to Continue. We have to be a studio band.

[A]

Oh, well. As this world over. You sadly. Grace, will you tell about that far off and mythical land about the leader with a famous face?

[C]

There's really only in my experience, ever been one group in history that has managed to survive successfully as a studio band and that's the Beatles. The only reason the Beatles were able to do that is because the Beatles were the Beatles and everybody knew who they were and cared about them. Nobody in 1983 cared or knew about XTC, but they didn't mind. They were going to. They said to themselves, we're going to make music for ourselves. And that leads us to the Big Express where you have the sound of a band that has permanently decided it will never play another show again. This is a studio bound group. They are going to retreat into the minds. I think the way I ended last episode, I said these people are going to retreat into their own minds and the only thing that will ever limit them musically is what can they put onto a tape. The thing is, they're going to have to take their time to figure out what that is and in the meantime the rest of their audience is going to disappear. So the reason XTC is going to spend the next several albums making some of the greatest art that no one ever listened to is precisely because this is what happens when you just decide to dive into your mind. And that's what happens with the Big Express. It's an album, nominally, there's a ruralness to it, there's an industrial Britain that Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding are referring to in 1984 when they finally returned to the studio. But what this really is is the sound of a band trying to kind of reform itself into coherent. And by the end of the record, by the end of the record, which ends, in my opinion, with a personality crisis and song, they managed to do it.

[A]

I'm a 30 year old puppy doing what I'm told and I'm told there's no.

[C]

But it's a rough one. And this is a strange way to begin Part two, because I think it's one of the least successful records we'll be discussing.

[B]

I would tend to agree. Right, and for those again joining us, maybe for a first time, I know XTC running backwards, that their last albums were my first albums and I really loved a huge portion of our first episode, in particular those back to back albums of Drums and Wire and Black Sea. So now I enter this next period and the Big Express starts things off and I already know, like I Said I knew the story of the band before I knew the songs of the band. So I know sort of the story that Jeff sets up here and as they begin this trek of not touring and being this band in studio instead of working inside their own heads. And I kind of expected a continuation of what we heard on Mummer, which is a kind of a softer, more acoustic kind of not beautiful music in the classic sense, but making very pretty pop music. And, well, that's not really what we get on the Big Express.

[C]

Not in the slightest.

[B]

These are dense arrangements. These are really loud mixes. You have these little Lynn drum comes into the mix and it almost sounds like like an industrial pop album. There's clanging and banging and the mixes sound like these things were recorded inside of a cave. It's big and bouncy and cavernous.

[A]

It's raining on the beach. First.

[B]

And so you have this album that is not at all like Mummer in many significant ways. And you sort of, you know, I sort of deal with that as I go through these songs. I will say the leadoff track, Wake up, which is a molding song, I think that's an upper end XTC song I really like Wake up with these staccato riffs starting and stopping and sort of bouncing around from the left to right channel in your headphones. That's a really nice track. That is not. I don't think it's affected all that much by sort of the production style on the Big Express. That's just a classic, really fun, good XTC song. And then I think you do start getting into songs where you hear them getting inside themselves. Perhaps too much inside themselves. Thinking about, all we have is studio time. Let's try it 50 different ways. Let's do this, let's do that. Shake your donkey up is this very loud snapping crack. Like, you know, Devo and whip it like they're supposed to have cracks and snaps in there, but that's the same kind of sound you hear. And Shake your donkey up, which is a fine song. But I mostly come away thinking about the way that they decided they wanted to present that song this World over sounds a lot like a Police song.

[C]

Like with that's Police, I'm surprised you made that connection.

[B]

Yeah, like a Stuart Copeland. Like that drum is so important and the way the drums actually come off in this world over. And so it's a really, you know, this is going to be something that I return to, I think, in discussions. And it's not always a critique. But, you know, when Partridge gets a hold of things and except for one exception, you know, Partridge is not a producer, but is the producer for these songs, these albums. He is interested in placing as many of his ideas as possible in these arrangements and mixes again, because all they have is time and all they have is themselves in the studio. And the Big Express is somewhere where their next producer, Todd Rundgren, would say, I listen to the Big Express and I'm exhausted. When I'm done.

[C]

Edit yourselves, right?

[B]

Edit yourselves. And don't make these mixes so dense that I can't hear the beauty of this music. And that's my biggest. It's. I think it's a good album. It's not a great album because you can't hear the genius in so many of these tracks.

[C]

There's so many things I could think about song by song. Before I say about that, Andrew, what are you gonna say?

[D]

Yeah, I mean, I think. I mean, each album is different. I think it's part of the charm of xdc. I was joking with Scott earlier that it's not like the Foo Fighters, where at a certain point you can't tell the difference between the albums. To me, this is like their post punk, almost like being possessed by Joy Division album. It's a folksy, synth, gloomy sort of album. Kind of makes me think a little bit of like the Cure's Faith album. times it's a bit monochromatic. But I really love this album because I don't expect it. To me, it's an avenue they never fully go down again. And it is maximalist. It is kind of cacophonous, but I think that's kind of the state of mind they were in at the time. All you Pretty Girls is amazing songs. This great sea chanty, mellotron whistling accordion like keyboard by Dave Gregory is playing.

[A]

Do something for me if I should die of sin.

[D]

I love that song. I love even seagull screaming.

[B]

Kisser, Kisser.

[D]

It's this weird kind of carpe diem on synthesizers. You know, there's a great back and forth in that one with the. The bass. I actually really love the bass playing on this album. But the bass kind of almost sounds like it has like a tuba like quality to it. And it's kind of doing a back and forth with a euphonium, which is like a small tuba. This world over is like an apocalyptic or post apocalyptic lullaby. I think it's a really beautiful song.

[C]

Devastating. I mean, I think there's a moment there where, you know, would you smile? Will you Tell them about that far off in mythical land where it goes back into the chorus and you realize you're actually sitting through a movie. It's cinematic and it's. It's sadness and it's outrage we're talking about. It's like, what would you talk to you? Oh, well, this world over we're not talking about. It's. It's going around the whole world. He's actually literally playing on that pawn. He's saying this world is over.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

I am. I am now sitting here in the ashes, in the rubble. And what can I tell my son? What do we do? What was it all for? And those things, you know, in 1984 you like. Oh, well, this guy's like, you're worried about, you know, communists, you're worried about the Cold War. You can listen to that in 2026 and it still reson.

[A]

Okay. Oh, so it seem.

[D]

Liarbird is to me.

[C]

She makes me think of the management problems. Right.

[D]

It makes me think of the Kink song, Denmark Street. Yeah. It's got such a fun vaudeville quality to it.

[C]

The Lola comparison is great. That's very much what it's like.

[D]

And it's got this. It's got this like. I mean, I love the image, right? You know, a liar bird is this flightless bird that sings about how great it is to fly. It's this little leech or parasite. And I think he just nails it in that one because there's like little moments of beauty where you begin to believe the dream, believe what the liar bird's saying and then that's kind of. It's always kind of interrupted by this kind of odd little send up.

[A]

With all I gave I bought myself a big mistake he grew too greedy by will break and then you'll be. You will find that dire birds are really flightless on their own.

[D]

I remember the sun is a great Colin moulding tune. It's jazzy, it's got these great piano parts by Dave Gregory. And then the last song I'm sure we'll talk about out. You know, I think the last song's a fantastic album, ender. I've never heard anything like it. It's this great frenzied song with 12 string guitar, almost like a banjo like riff and kind of this percussion that feels like a collision is about to happen. Which it is. So, yeah. I actually really love this album. It's just very different. Right. You have to be in a certain mood for it. But it's very post punk, I think. And I Love post punk.

[C]

The album is chaos to me. And the problem with the big Express, by the way, you refer to that last song, but you never named it. It's called Train Running Low on Soul Cole, which is a title basically. It puts forth the problem with the big Express right there. It's a brilliant song. This thing is. It's a sonic painting of a man at the verge of his end. A guy who's literally using the metaphor of a train running off the tracks, going into a wall, heading straight into a wa. And it's his own creativity, it's his own life, it's his own spiritual being that is literally being carried in the back of that train, that's using it to fuel the engines. It's a beautifully powerful metaphor that in the middle of it, it descends into this, this. This fantastic musical construction where it's like. And all my servants are leaving. Imagination is dying Hammer falls down breaks all scream Me and a couple of empty carriages slide downhill still ill. Next stop, Bad Dreamsville. And when he starts shouting it, he's like literally living a nightmare out on, you know, on tape. You can hear it. And it's the intensity of it which is just a bit too much to take. There's no focus, they're so dense.

[A]

Is traffic and a go down breaks on screen Me and a couple of empty cages slide downhill still. Next up.

[C]

There are songs on this record that stun me. You mentioned already, this world over, we've talked about all you pretty girls, which is a sea shanty that shouldn't work. But the one I keep coming back to is called you're the wish you are I had. And I've been befuddled by this song since I was maybe 19 years old. You hear it on the record and you'd think this is like the lowest. This is the least important song on the album. And you're right, because when you listen to it, it's like flaccid. It's a flabby production and it's like all these weird inverted notes and chords that should not work. Now you go and listen to what happened when the beat. When the BBC invited XTC to come over. So you're not touring anymore, so come and do your session. Andy Partridge took that song and basically said, I have done a mistake. I have put it out to the public, but now I get to re record it. And you can find it on a box set called Transistor Blast. But you're the wish you are I had is perhaps the single greatest song that Xtc wrote during this era and I think it's very telling that it's like the worst song on the record because it shows you how disorganized they were. They needed somebody to write heard over them and to discipline them in some way. And they were about to get that.

[A]

That. Why don't you send Hell, hell, hell. But if you take my wish away then this cold world will burn as well. You're the wish you are. You're the wish you are.

[C]

Scott, any thoughts before we move on?

[B]

I think I've. Oh, you know what? I want to mention one thing that actually predates the big express. How about that slide 4, which is. Is a wonderful little Christmas tune that these guys.

[C]

Novelty tunes. Yes. XTC has one. Yes.

[B]

One that I like and I think one that Andrew likes, I thanks for Christmas, which was. What did they call themselves? The Three Kings. Which we'll come back to in a minute. Thanks for Christmas was a one off Christmas song that was released late in 83. And I, I love thanks for Christmas. I love the fact that both, both two I, I love Squeeze and now I love XTC too, that two of my favorite bands of this era have these wonderful one off Christmas tracks that I get to play on, you know, the radio station that I run here at, at Hillsdale each and every Christmas. So I hear them over and over again and they're both just imminently listenable, repeatable, wonderful little Christmas tunes. Thanks for Christmas from XTC is a great track.

[A]

The seas is near, you will know Fires burn clear now in the winter frosty air. Sing with us and we can share our thanks for Christmas. Thank you for the love and happiness that so much way down.

[D]

And then there's, there's also Countdown to Christmas as well. Both of those are really fun. Yeah.

[C]

Okay. And, and by the way, that is a perfect segue because there's one place that the members of XTC could retreat and that is into Persona. Right.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You're going to throw out a novelty single. How about a novelty ep? How about a novelty album? How about a novelty career? Okay. And this is the most beautiful left turn in XTC's career and the one that I've kind of been hitting at for a month or two now. Heck, when we did the Apples in Stereo on our last few episodes, I was like, boy, you know, Scott, you've never heard of this, this thing called Dukes of Stratosphere, but when you do, I'm pretty sure your head will explode. Because what it is is Andy Partridge, Colin Dave Gregory and this is, by the way, Dave deserves a lot of the credit for this because this is really a union that came, a meeting of the minds that came together with Dave and Andy way back in 1977, 78, before even Dave Gregory joined XTC. They found out that they were mutually just like absolute nerds for psychedelia from the late 60s, 1967, 1968, all that silly stuff that basically predated when they were adults or born. It was the sound of their childhoods, right? And what they loved is the innocence, the pure pop play of all those great songs. And they said to themselves, well, why don't we just like try to record a couple simple tunes like that, right? Simple stuff. We don't have to pretend to be xtc, we don't have to make it on the market. We can actually just masquerade. In fact, we can pretend to be some sort of unearthed nuggets like psychedelic group. And what they did is just all three members of the band, this is as much a part of XTC story as their own stuff is just decided to put out a little EP called 25 O'. Clock. Okay? This is what happens when a bunch of guys basically relive their childhoods in music. And the secret trick is there are only six songs on this record. Before they go in and do their real next big follow up to the big express, they put out this little EP of six songs. It might be the best thing from the entire episode. Just the four songs that open at 25:00'. Clock. Bike Ride to the Moon My Love Explodes. What in the world? This is the XTC that actually I think people should have heard more of. It was unburdened by their pretensions. And it's so fun and it's so innocent and it's just a place I return to constantly.

[A]

The urge to take you Bros was strong 4 time make me wait too long each watch I smash a watch just down into my heart each watch I snatch a monster spinning 25. That's when you're going to be mad. A 25 hour we'll be together till the end in 25o.

[D]

Yeah There's a. There's a great randomness or D like quality to the recording of the first ep. Apparently they had a whole album of samples and whenever they like made a mistake because they had very little time to actually record this. Whenever they made a mistake or they just wanted some kind of musical flourish, they would just insert a random sound. It might be like a speech from Churchill. It might. Might be you know, a, you know, sample from another piece of music. There's a horse winning that happens on the song the Mole from the Ministry. It's a lot of. It's just such a fun ep. In the later album as well, they even had pseudonyms. I love Dave Gregory's pseudonym. Pseudonym. Which is Lord Cornelius Plump.

[B]

Which is. Which is. Which is great.

[D]

Yeah. The Mole from the Ministry in the first ep. I love that song. It's just. It's got this sinister little detuned piano, beautiful melotron strings. Sounds like something from Magical Mystery Tour. And apparently that was just. He just had a little bit of extra time and wrote the one at the end. But for the first ep, that's the one that sticks out for me.

[A]

I'm the moon from the Ministry and you'll bow down to me I'm the mole in your ponting shame I've got bad thoughts inside your head and you won't catch me.

[C]

I do divide them because the second one, we'll come back to this after Skylarking.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

But the second EP is a little more considered, which I think hurts it. It's like they're trying a little bit too hard, because now that they've realized how well it succeeds when they weren't trying, they can't help themselves. This first ep, those songs are just like. They're effortless. There's Bike Ride to the Mo song that is stupid. It's such an obvious, like, British novelty song from 1969 that you just love it. You're hearing Pink Floyd in your head. You're hearing, you know, Sid Barrett. And then you hear this. This guy singing a nap. Right. We're going on a bike ride to the moon doesn't sound anything like Annie Partridge. It doesn't have any of those burdens that Andy usually brings to his music, which just makes it feel like I've stepped through a mirror and I'm now in a magical wonderland.

[A]

Push me off to start the fun on a bike onto the moon what's our room for? Everyone on a bike ride to the moon and we'll bring back jeans for my Auntie Jane and some magic moon that starts on the rain on my horacle Alfred head Even though he stays in bed Silly Alpha.

[B]

This is a lot of fun. Jeff told me about it. And by the way, in the span of, like, a week, I had four, three people tell me about it. Jeff, as we were talking apples and stereo, and then two former guests, Yvonne Pongrasic, who just did Deep Purple with us, and John J. Miller, who did the Police and Afghan Witness. I think I had kind of offhanded mention. Oh, XTC is next. And both of them are like, you're going to talk about the Dukes of Stratosphere, right? You're going to do that, right? You gotta. You gotta talk. Yes, yes, yes, we're gonna do it. And of course, it's just as fun as. As promised. You have to put yourselves in XTC shoes a little bit. And they've talked about this. Where the big Express hits 178 on the album charts in the US sells nothing.

[C]

All that chaos we talked about. Guess what? People didn't want to hear it either.

[A]

But.

[B]

But 25 o' clock sells twice as many copies as the Big Express. So people don't like you when you're yourself, but if you pretend to be other people, they'll buy your record. A little bit of a personality conf. Not conflict, but it's a mess. Like, who are we supposed to be? They like us when we're not ourselves.

[A]

2032. What in the world is it coming to? What in the world Twin. What in the world I in the world. Could see today?

[B]

This album is fun. I actually.

[C]

He's also having this. Andy and Colin are having this weird personality crisis in music as opposed to, like, their own lives. He talks about Andy in particular. He's like, I. I was falling in love with the Beatles. I loved them my entire life. And I was like, how can I admit this? Okay, I'm writing another damn Beatles song. He talked about it. He wrote Lady Bird. And, you know, you wouldn't think of that as being a big crossing the Rubicon, but it was for him. And now it's all these songs. I just want to. I want to be clever, I want to be fun. And it's a. You can almost see as a songwriter how it was a retreat from. From trying to, like, carry the weight of all the other, like, the public weight of being a band leader. And you can just retreat into this and it's so delightful. Delightful.

[B]

This is great. I actually really like the. The next album too, which we don't have to talk about quite yet.

[D]

I'm with Scott, actually.

[B]

Yeah, I like that.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

We'll return to it after because I think it's actually important that they thought about it and they did skylarking before they come back. So there's 25 o' clock and then there's. Is it sonic with Ps, right, it's P, Sonic, P, Sunspot, Sonic Sunspot and These are all gathered together in a one single disc compilation called Chips from the Chocolate Fireball. This is one of those things where the chronology, it's a little bit for a after, but yeah, it's important to point out that they, they do this right before they head in the skylarking and it's probably to their benefit.

[A]

My love explodes like the stars up his face for you, you yeah, you, you My love explodes with the whole human race for you, you yes, you, you when the worlds are closing in and your parad Smell my name on your pillow tonight Catch away no and I'll be alone Sing hello song My life's. I got people, billions of people waiting here for bl. All it takes to free these people is a love is My love explodes.

[C]

So I actually think that that point. We have to now talk about what happens when XTC finally develops a producer, a producer who can run, basically run heard on them and say to Andy Partridge, as an equal say, like, you've got great ideas, but you have too many ideas. You're going to have to edit them. You're going to have to come to me as something that I can produce. And this is the point where XTC is willing to take instruct because their career is now in the dumps. I mean, as Scott points out, their big artistic statement sold nothing. Their Joke EP sold twice as much when they were pretending to be somebody else. But now they have to go back to being xtc. What do they do? Well, the first thing they do is they look through a list of producers their label hands them. It's like, who can I tolerate working with? One of them happens to be Todd Rundgren. Todd Rundgren is a guy who hasn't come up too much on political beats. I'm familiar with most of his 70s work. I don't love it.

[B]

If we ever want to cover it, we've got a guest for Todd Rungren, a big fan.

[C]

It would be fun, actually. Just sort of like to reacquaint myself with something. I passed away, I've passed over during my life. But the truth is, is that he was the man this band needed because he could come into there and he's like, I know what it's like to be a pretentious prog rocker. I know what it's like to have big ideas that flopped. I know what will sell and what.

[A]

The hunt is on to find the Fox Cross Patch McFields and Spinny Cubs Much to unfolding why do we dream? He leads him a clin to a wood where he escape.

[C]

I guess he should.

[A]

You know, he's a late starter, but he's much smarter.

[C]

And of course, skylarking. The result is to. I think most people synonymous with xtc. It's probably their most famous album and. And for all the wrong reasons, sadly enough. But this is a. I don't really know if I'm capable of doing it justice when I try to set it up. This is theater. This is a. An XTC album that fulfill Andy Park's desire to actually put on a theatrical show. This is a mummer. This is a stage play in song. And of course, Colin is hugely involved with it and, you know, in the process and in the writing as well. But this is as close as they've ever gotten to what they would consider to be a complete album, a complete statement, a complete act. It actually had success. And I'm going to be the guy to tell you that I think it's one of my least favorite records. We're going to talk about during this show.

[A]

Now, let rain. Rain.

[C]

Who wants to set up Skylocking?

[D]

Beyond that, I'll set it up a little bit. So, I mean, yeah, I think it's Todd Rundgren's idea to do the song cycle. So it really is him being kind of their George Martin for this album. And I think it's a brilliant idea. It's what holds the whole album together. I love this album. I think it's one of their best ones. But I think it's interesting because after they do the Dukes of Stratosphere, there's a way in which they never really shake completely. The Dukes of Stratosphere. There's a great quote in a Kurt Vonnegut novel called Mother Night.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Be careful who you pretend to be.

[D]

Exact, be careful what we. You know, the whole quote is, you know, we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be. And in a way, obviously, that. That book's about a. An American spy who's pretending to be a Nazi. But here, I mean, in a lot less nefarious way, they pretend to be the Dukes of Stratosphere and then they never fully shake that. And I think it's great because this baroque pop thing, why would you want to from it?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Exact.

[A]

Laying on the grass my heart, it flares like fire.

[D]

But I love this album. I think the charm of it is the way in which it all just comes together. It's almost like one big medley, you know, Summer Cauldron in the Grass is this. It really is a One, two, punch there. They actually recorded them at the. At the same time. It's supposed to be one long song that kind of bleeds into each other, but there's this great kind of pastoral synth goodness about this album. It is very different from every other album they did, though, I would say. And I think it's not a great introduction to them, but to me, it's become one of my favorite albums of theirs. I could keep talking about it, but I think the charm of it is the. So many medleys here, right. You have the ballet for A rainy Day into A Thousand Umbrellas. That's such a beautiful transition.

[C]

The stringer Scots lender here, because I know he loves that, too.

[D]

Yeah. The string sequencing on Thousand Umbrellas by Dave Gregory is fantastic. It's. It's like class meets emo, and I just love it. And the vocals there are also just fantastic. And to me, Season Cycle, that's my favorite song on the album, but it's set up by Todd. It's really the sequencing. I think it works so well because A Thousand Umbrellas is so baroque. We need this release of tension. And Season Cycle is like the Beach Boys come in. It's got this wonderful, upbeat, joyous song with tremendous lyrics in it.

[A]

Season Cycle moving round and round Pushing life up from a cold, dead ground it's growing green it's growing green well, darling, don't you ever stop to wonder about the clouds about the hail and thunder about the baby and it's on delight who's watching the pedals on the season cycle. Go from death to life?

[D]

Yeah, there's so much variety here as well. I mean, you get the man who sailed around his soul, which is jazzy, and so is Mermaid Smiled. Yeah. I really. I think it's a fantastic album. I just think it's not less like other things they did, but to me, the beauty of it is how it holds together into this large circle. Yeah.

[C]

Todd.

[B]

I think it's incredible that they see this list of potential producers. They insist on an American producer to sort of Americanize some of their British music. And they see Todd Runyon and they say, yes, the guy who made fun of Bruce Springsteen by producing Bed out of Hell by Meat Loaf. That's the sound we want on Skylark, and this is where we want to go. And it's just a perfect. No, of course, this is not. This is nothing near bad out of

[C]

hell, big Jim Steinman sound here. Yeah.

[B]

But this. This conflict. So I got. Let's start here. The. The photo on the top of our Patreon page for the past, what, six years features a handful of record titles, you know, LPs. It stacks, backed up and right in the center is Skylarking from xtc. And everyone who sees it says, oh, you know, guys are big fans. Why can't you do a show this, that. And it's my copy of Skylarking, and I bought it on Reputation only as a radio station, was unloading a bunch of old LPs, a bunch of old records, and I bought it on Reputation and I don't know if I've ever actually listened to that record.

[C]

It's not one of those horrible LP versions that has Dear God on it. And Mermaid Smiled. Right? I'm pretty sure it is.

[B]

It's the American, so it probably, probably, probably is. Although it's. It's the radio version, so it's probably the first ones that were sent out, so maybe not, who knows? But. But the great thing is this album earns its place on the, you know, the top photo of our Patreon page. This is my. This is my favorite record that we're going to talk about today, and I think it's really special. And what Todd Rundgren does, does is confine the guys a little bit and give them some direction. And, you know, you read stories and hear stories about the other recordings where there's a producer, but it's really Andy's show and the producer defers to Andy for any number of things on the record that just simply didn't happen. On Skylarking, Rundgren insisted on being an actual producer and saying the songs fit, that one doesn't. We're going to do a cycle. We're going to start. It's going to be adolescence and young adulthood and then we're going to get old and we're going to move through this sort of story we want to tell and we're not going to try all 15,000 ideas. Or I think there's stories where Rundgren says, all right, I'm leaving for two hours, you guys do whatever you want. When I come back, we're going to do it my way, the right way. And then you just leave and they mess around, they come back and do it the way Rundgren wanted him to, to. To record things. And I think his. His input. And clearly the songs are outstanding, too. You don't do it without the songs. But Rundgren really shapes this into a winning album, a really winning al.

[A]

The place Scuffing in the dirt Whistle blow whistle Will. Share a love Song When I get you on your own we'll see Someone might hear you Someone might hear. You're a working girl now. You got money on your.

[B]

Perhaps my favorite moment, the most beautiful moment in all of XTC's catalog is one that Andrew already mentioned, I think. Ballet for a rainy day into 1000 umbrellas. Clearly two songs, one statement. They crossfade into each other. It's brilliant. This mini suite of two songs about the rain. One uplifting and one dream dreary. It's just amazing. The beautiful chorus on Ballet for a rainy Day silent film of melting miracle play. These lyrics too are Partridge at his very best. That bridge on this song, when he says when it rains it rains all the colors in my paint box when it rains it rains Tickets for the front row seats up on the rooftops and in my mind I just picture well, yeah, it rains and you can sort of sit by the window and watch it rain.

[C]

What?

[B]

Like those are the sort of things you do in this sort of upbeat song about a rainy day.

[A]

When it rains, it rains all the colors in my paintball. When it rains it rains Tickets for the front row seats. All the Ro. Orange and Le Raincoats bow and to together dropped in diamond disarray for a race I love film of melting miracle dancing up and through my window behind

[B]

the curtain Silver Point and it segues into 1000 umbrellas. And as Andrew mentioned to Gregory's arrangement here on the strings is simply brilliant. You saw almost have this ELO style chopping of the strings throughout 1000 umbrella umbrellas. And this is.

[C]

There's something so inevitable about the way that 1000 umbrellas ends that makes it. You can't. The chorus is 1000 umbrellas open to spoil the view the string runs on that are unreal. I listen to them and I think like, well, that must have been written by a computer because like, how is that so perfect? But it's not. It was written by Dave Gregory. It just works so wonderfully.

[B]

It's a beautiful, beautiful song. Perfect arrangement, perfect execution. Execution. That is one of my favorite moments in this entire XTC catalog.

[A]

And just when I thought that my Vista was calling in you 1000. 1 billion salts is recalled from school. Atlas, alas, would be full to the brim Sonny Jim couldn't jump it how can I be pleased when I'm handed the keys to a town like a misery

[B]

and then I. I know Jeff does not like this song, but he's wrong about this. It is, it is. It is absolutely perverse verse that the lead single from Skylarking was decided to be Grass, which is a good song. It's a great song. And I actually love the beginning. As again, Andrew mentioned, it's the segue again. The sweet summer's cauldron into Grass. It's Partridge into molding. The first few times I heard the album, I didn't know they were separate songs. They flowed so naturally. And I love it. It sort of infers that there's a ton.

[C]

It's hypnotic, it lulls you. That's the thing about the problem with Grass is that it's frankly too much of a part of this. The whole piece is that kind of lulls you into a place, in a sense. Same thing with the meeting place, which falls immediately after it. Meanwhile, yes, Earn Enough For Us is poppy. We're going to say something about that, my friend.

[B]

I am. Which is Grass is the single, perversely, the first single. It's just not a song you expect to grab a portion of the audience. It's a beautiful song. Earn Enough For Us. Earn Enough for us is 2 minutes and 56 seconds of pure pop perfection. It's just such a perfect single, not just from a musical perspective, but from a lyrical perspective. It's the kind of song that people could relate to. In 1980. What, 6. When this is released. 85. 86, where the guys just. I hope that I can get to the weekend and earn enough for Us. I got. I got a mean boss, you know, the job isn't great. It's kind of. You already mentioned the Kinks, Andrew, but it's like, get back in line from the Kinks from. From years ago. I've been praying all the week I've been praying I can keep you and then he finds out he's going to have a kid. The belt's already tight. I'll have to get another job at night. And the way these. The way they transition from these places where he says, like, it's just one word anyway. And anyway, carries the song from one part to the next as the music shifts. It's an awesome song. Jeff is so wrong about this, and

[D]

it would get a great single.

[A]

At home and working on the bus I've been praying I could keep you and to earn enough for us so you're saying that we're gonna be three of our fathers While we. Don't get me wrong, I'm so proud. With the belts already tight, I'll get another job of night but all this. I can't take humiliation from hurtful comments on the Wall. I'm just praying by the weekend. I can't Earn Enough for Us.

[D]

They're notoriously bad at choosing singles. But I'm actually with you, Scott. I never thought about that as a possible single, but that would be wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah.

[C]

Okay, you want to hear my problem with Earn Enough for Us?

[B]

Sure.

[C]

Completely has nothing to do with the song itself. The problem is that Earn Enough from Us, in my mind, competes with another song on this record that I find to be infinitely superior. And of course it has to be because it's about a superhero. It's called that's really Super Super Girl. Now it tells you something because when did I first encounter skylarking? I was 17 years old. You know what I did not care about? I did not care about Earning Enough for us. But what I did, did care about was impressing that incredibly, impossibly beautiful girl who I was friends with. But of course, you know, she has me locked up inside her fortress of solitude. I don't mean to be rude, but it don't feel super that much anymore. Supergirl as. As, you know, he's like running around trying to chase after this perfect, perfect angel who just. Just doesn't even pay attention to his existence. That song, it's so 80s. In fact, in some ways it may be the single most 80s song XTC ever recorded with bleeping, keeping synths and all the beat. But God, that's really super. Supergirl. XTC never made a more direct play for the pop charts and they never even released it as a single.

[A]

I won't call again even in a J. Now I realize you could be on a mission Saving some of the. That's really super, super girl Are you sleeping up a Zach Goosebath? And your friends are gonna say that's really super, super girl I used up the universe from dying but you're never gonna stop me crying I feel like trying hard to squeeze me like dirt underneath your cape well, I might be an ape but I used to feel super, super good. Yeah, no, it also has.

[D]

I mean, it's a great anecdote as well. Cuz apparently in the studio they had Eric Clapton's. You know, Todd Rundgren had Eric Clapton's guitar that he would play on Cream. And it was kind of like a sword in the stone thing. Dave Gregory was incredibly attracted to that guit. And he took it out and then he restrung it and he came up with a solo for that's really Super Super Girl. And it's a fantastic tiny little solo that happens in there that's played with Eric Clapton's guitar. So, yeah, no, just kind of a fun anecdote.

[C]

Listen, I. I have spent my entire life living with Skylarking and I think that's the problem I have with it. It's a slippery beast. It was the first introduction beyond the singles that I had in the band and I guess I had always been introduced to me is like this is the big artistic statement. It's a whole and it is, It's. It's a complete work. Therefore you almost have to take it as a complete work. It's indigestible otherwise. The singles never really succeeded. I think of all the ones that we've discussed here, Season Cycle is the one. How many things. This wasn't released as a single. This wasn't a single. Season Cycle is to me the highlight of this album. The most Brian Wilson esque Beach Boys tribute that Andy Partridge would end ever write. All right, Every little thing about that, including the interludes where he just. He, he. Andy Partridge, by the way, we don't talk about this. Has evolved as a vocalist immensely during these years. You know, from the seal bark of, you know, 1979 to when he's singing Autumn is royal as spring is kind but it was to repaint summer They're. They're closing. I can't. I'm confused.

[D]

Autumn is royal as spring is clean clown but the repeat summer they're closing

[C]

Closing winter down as Colon sings in the background we're into Smile territory. We're. We're beyond Smile Terry territory, frankly. When Andy Partridge is writing that song and it's just the seventh out of 14 tracks,

[A]

You all. Time is royal as spring is come to repaint summer the closing winter down. Darling, don't you ever stop to wonder about the clouds around the hail thunder about the baby and it's who's pushing the pedals on the seas when summer.

[C]

There are so many other things to talk about when it comes to this album. It becomes difficult. They're like very few meaningless songs. There are songs here that I think were done better. Another Satellite is kind of a dud on the record, right? But there's an. There's an experimental attitude behind it that I love and I think Andy Partridge knew this because when he took it to the BBC, remember, I'm talking if you go to the BBC sessions of these later period XCC albums, the rethinking the things that they did on the record and that thing then becomes one the weirdest, most interstellar travels that the band has Ever taken. It's just an alienation anthem of loneliness that in. In a strange way, given the placement, it has to come near the end of the record. But it's like part of the record where they're sailing out into outer orbit, when really the concerns of this album are much more domestic. They're much more homebo.

[A]

To see a moon and moon and face a sail Earth, do you revolve around me? Aren't you aware of the gravity? Don't need another Sam I'm happy standing on my feet D Clear I have no wish to swim your Milky, Milky Way I say wild earth Just send your letters round here Only to gum up the atmosphere don't need another savior

[C]

I mean, this is an album that ends with dying. It ends with a sacrificial bonfire. And, in fact, I guess the original American version of the album ended with a song called Dear God, which must be discussed. This was a B side. This was a B side.

[D]

I was gonna say it's supposed to be on the album originally. It's really, you know, Andy Partridge, who takes it off the album, you know, and he puts another satellite on there instead.

[C]

Oh, I did not know. Are you serious? I did not know that. Yeah.

[D]

So Todd Run Grenad picked Dear God and that made.

[B]

Recorded it.

[D]

And then, you know, Andy didn't. He was uncomfortable with the lyrics. He thought he could do a better job with the lyrics on Dear God. He thought it wasn't his full statement about theology. So he's like, I kind of want to take it off.

[C]

I don't want to just L. About beer and all that.

[D]

Right.

[C]

Yeah, I get it.

[D]

Ron Grin thought he was crazy, you know, and I think Ron Grim was proved right, you know, it should be on the album, actually. And I think Another Satellite is the worst song on the album. So I don't. Yeah, I. That's my take.

[A]

Dear God, don't know if you know this but your name is all the quotes in this book. That's crazy human throat. If you should take a look at all the people that you made in your image still believing that junk is true well, I know it ain't so you. You go, I can't believe. Believe in. I don't believe in I won't believe in Heaven, Hell no saints, no sinners, no devils. The pearly gates.

[C]

No, that's about all of the other famous songs. This album is about as full of famous songs as XTC's career ever got. We should just say you've heard of none of them, but you'll like them all.

[B]

Yeah, I like Big Day, which was written by Moulding for the first Dukes album. And they saved it so much. They saved it here. But again, it's a sequencing. You have those two opening songs, the two songs about the rain. You've got two songs about marriage in a row with Big Day and Another Satellite, which is more about a potential affair than the marriage itself, I suppose. But Big Day is a fun little track by Molding. I like the. The song that Andrew mentioned, Man who Sailed Around His Soul, where it has this sort of secret agent spy film, loungy, jazzy, sort of Bond theme almost feel to it toward the back half of the album. And, yeah, Dying in Sacrificial Bonfire. I read an interview with Partridge much later on where he defended the idea of an album. Right. The way you sequence things. And that's how. Has to do with crossfades too, which I think the band uses really to perfection where they're needed and where they're appropriate. It's a statement from start to finish. We're saying something by recording these songs in this order and putting them in this manner. And Skylarking more than anything else in the career, thanks to Rundgren's help, as Jeff mentioned, is this. It's a whole. It's a statement. It takes you on all ride for. From start to middle to end with Sacrificial Bonfire, which is a fun. Another good, good molding song. And, you know, there's an album coming up where I had my mind changed in the opposite direction a bit the more I listened to it. But the more I heard Skylarking, the more I really loved it. And again, it's my favorite album of this. Of this era.

[A]

He's broken all the lies he ever spoke and tattooed on his arms and the jellyfish stings Even angels with wings who look too deep I dare to pee now he sits all alone Knowing flesh, blood and bone is everything he found the treasure he came the land.

[C]

And isn't it strange, Scott, I was the one who came in and told you in advance. I don't like it as much as I think everyone else does, blah, blah, blah. But having listened to it through again, like, all my criticisms feel pointless. It's like they're just pinging off the hall. I'm throwing pebbles at, like, a hall. It's like bounce, bounce, boun balance. What am I even doing? Trying to, like, attack it? It's a beautiful record and, yeah, probably even what you already know about XTC with these episodes, maybe not the place to start but certainly a wonderful place to end. In fact it's not going to end here, it's going to continue onwards. But this is just. It is a statement if they ever brought it together. I don't know if. If we're going to find what actually do think that their final album. There's. There's something to be said about. About you know, Apple Venus, but this is just a great place to sort of get a bite sized experiment and an experience of what they're trying to do as opposed to I guess what will come next. But we don't have to get to Oranges and Lemons yet just yet. Why don't we talk one more time and what happens when after skylarking they're full of success. Hey, finally we're making it. We're doing something in the charts because we're never going to tour. Let's go back to the well and do a little bit more anonymous Dukes of Stratus atmosphere stuff which is great. Like you finally hit it big and

[B]

what are you gonna do?

[C]

You're gonna go dive right back into your Persona again which is results in sonic sunspot. We we. I mentioned it already. This is just another like basically how many songs are on the album there 10 songs that are just various explorations of things you might have heard out of the corner of your ear when you were a child. Oddly enough I think it's less successful than the original ep. It's again I. I said I think they're trying to too hard now remember they don't have a producer to run hurt on them. They can do whatever they want and they're trying every single little British idea that ever popped into their head. There's a really great. You're a good man, Albert Brown. Curse you Red Barrel. This is about Charlie Brown, the Red Baron, Snoopy, you know. But it's not. It's really just about a British thing that you'll never understand. But I like musically. There's one song on this record that I really do want to single out however. It's called Vanishing Girl. It's the one that opens it which is basically the greatest Holly song never written by the Holly. And I've loved the Hollies for a very long time. They're band that everyone else forgot about. But I haven't. One day we'll talk about them maybe if we're lucky. But beyond that this is just more of the same stuff and it's going to be interesting to see how this bleeds over very painfully. Into the next record that they actually do under their own name.

[A]

Someone's knocking me in the distance but a different flight she's not expected on this evening so I leave the world behind for the vanishing girl the vanishing girl oh, yeah. She give you a twirl? She vanishes from my world so bur my. Street looking so great. People gossip.

[B]

As an excellent earlier. I like this one maybe a little bit better than the first ep. Vanishing Girl. Is that song here. Yes. A Hollies thing. Wonderful melody. Just a beautiful, beautiful song. A great pop moment you mentioned. That's the best song the Hollies never wrote. And you're a good man. Albert Brown is absolutely the most Kinks thing ever to not appear on an actual Kinks album. It is so spot on. There's piano led musical sort of melody, a character sketch including a guy who was wounded in war and drunk upon the floor. And the brown was the color of the mud and red was the blood you spilled upon it. And pink was the fingers of the nurse who dressed your wound. And it's just so kinks, so British as to almost.

[C]

There's some Pink Floyd in there as well. I don't know if you remember the song, Corporal Clegg, you know, from like 1968. A saucer full of secrets before they went out into out outer space. It's a very British concern. It's just no Americans can really relate

[D]

to that kind of fixation.

[A]

Well, you're a good man of a friend and you was wounded in the war but now you shot some people down. You're still a good man of a brown and you're a good man of a round but you were drunk up on the floor and if you're buying the next round and you're a good man out. But brown was the color of the mud across the song. Red was the blood you stood upon it were the fingers of the nurse. White balls such a bon up and you married that nurse and her name was Alice.

[B]

Hey, speaking of Pink Floyd, how about have you Seen Jackie? Which is a very Sid Barrett Floyd, Arnold Lane kind of song. This one. When I hear it, I think. And I don't know if Andrew's real familiar, but I know Jeff is with the new pornographers and distributors Destroyer and Dan Behar, who's in both those bands. I bet he listened to have youe seen Jackie about 14,000 times based on the direction he writes his songs. He even wrote a song called Jackie and then wrote a sequel to Jackie called Jackie Dressed in cobras. On a. On a future new Pornographer's album. And here you have have youe Seen Jackie? Which is this just fun, weird, off balance song in the verses and this turbocharged chorus. Like it is just like a blueprint for a whole. Those pornographer songs that Behar wrote and even some of his work. In Destroyer 2.

[A]

A long black beard is a pride and joy and all the children follow. Grown ups Trying to drag her down so we sing Leave Jackie alone. Have you seen Jackie? He's a long little fish to fly.

[B]

That's really great. I like that a lot. You're My Drug is kind of very druggy, birdsy, late 60, you know, phaser on the vocals. This is kind of baseline on it.

[C]

Nuggets Part three. I mean, if you like that kind of stuff, you're gonna love this. Yeah, right.

[B]

Brainiac's Daughter. It sounds like this big bouncy lady, Madonna type piano. There's.

[D]

I.

[B]

There's a lot of fun on Sunspot. I. I don't know. I. I think maybe. I think the. Maybe. I think the first one is a little more. It's a little more loyal to the idea of what they were doing. And this one's a little more loyal to the idea of we want to pay tribute to this specific thing and not create something that sounds like it would have been there, if that. If that makes any sense.

[C]

Scott. You know, that's actually a really great way of putting it. The first EP is them actually masquerading as 60s rockers. And the second one is XTC paying tribute to 60s rockers. Very much more clearly inflected by their. The way that they actually write. They're. They're owning it at this point because they know they can. They already had a success.

[A]

Oh, yes.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

No, I mean, I feel like the first EP is a little bit more of a novelty record, where this one. I come back to this one a lot more. The Psionic Sunspot. I really love this one. Pale and Precious. I'm surprised we haven't mentioned that one. I think it's a gorgeous song. It's very. Beach Boise. But you'll be humming Ba Ba Ba afterwards.

[C]

The.

[D]

You know, Brainiac's Daughter is such a good McCartney piece. You know, this falsetto vocals, the piano and that's wonderful. We've already talked about. You're a Good Man, Albert Brown. I think it's been described as like a pub psychedelia, which I really love. But yeah, I love. I mean, it's so. It's much more melodic than The. This is much more like sergeant Peppers, where the first one was much more like Pipers at the Gates of dawn. And I'm just more of a sergeant Peppers and Pipers at the Gate, Gates of Dawn kind of person. But, yeah, I mean, even the affiliated Colin Molden is on there. I love how you have this, like, parenthetical middle section, which gets this, like, Latin, you know, vibe in it. Yeah, I find these fascinating.

[C]

I also think that this record had a permanent effect on XTC because it just bleeds over so transparently, clearly, into their next record. Another big, ambitious double album. Hey, what else do you have to do when you're not touring? You know, you sit around, you stockpile songs. You can put them all out in the one record. Look at that cover. Look at the COVID of Oranges and Lemons. But it's one of the most delightfully psychedelic covers of its time. I actually think the one. I instinctively compare it to. Anybody else here familiar with around the World in a Day by Prince from 1985?

[B]

Well, I am, having done the show. Yes, yes.

[C]

But that color, the COVID and the colors and basically the sounds within. It does what it says on the tin.

[A]

Your call don't let your mind loose can't open my check off but you'll be okay. Welcome to the God of Earthly. Welcome to beyond Arabian night this is your life when you do what you want to do this is your life when you spend it all this is your life when you do what you want to do Just don't hurt nobody and the big rewards here is.

[C]

And the problem with Oranges and Lemons, as ambitious and as sprawling a record as it is, as many highlights as it has, you know, you. Naturally, you would think of English Settlement, which, is, again, another double album from a very different era and a very different band. Now, at this point, my critique of Oranges and Lemons is that they don't know when to stop. This is a double record that probably could have been a single record. There are too many ideas. There are so many songs here where I'm like. Like, hey, take one element out, take two elements out, and it would be a better song. And in fact, again, I returned to the idea that they knew this after the fact as well, because you go listen to the XTC play Garden of Earthly Delights or Scarecrow People, some of these really complex arrangements, they take them to the BBC and they strip them back down. Even though they're not playing live. They know, like, okay, I've done this. It works much better when you Just hear them playing in a room under, under pressure and not just throwing every single color, every single paint in the can onto the canvas.

[A]

Welcome to the God of earthly. Welcome to a. This is your life when you do what you want to do this is your life when you spend it all this life. Welcome to a God of what we do.

[C]

That sounds like I'm, I'm attacking this record, but there are moments on it that are the most transcendent moments of XTC's career. There are some of the greatest, most famous pop moments that they ever had. In fact, this is one of those sources that maybe if you ever heard of the band xcc, you hear some DJ on the radio saying, yeah, that was xcc. It could be this song from this record.

[A]

Where they belong to me. Stepping stones of human hearts and souls into the land of nothing for free One way that we live is untaken no give there's nothing to leave it.

[C]

And yet Oranges and Lemons has always been a strange disappointment. I've always wanted to like it more than I do because I just think there's too much of it.

[D]

Oh, I guess I'll. I'll come in and defend it because I think Scott's gonna. Scott's gonna be maybe down on it as well. Let's. I mean, I think it's, you know, again, each one of their albums is different. This one is the most unapologetically exuberant album they ever did. Andy. Andy Partridge at one point described himself as, you know, jolly sandpaper. I really love that description.

[C]

That's a great phrase.

[D]

Yes, it's fluorescent and. But it's, it's bright, it's jangly, it's effusive, it's exuberant. It makes you want to sing along. I really love, love this record. Garden of Earthly Delights is one of my favorite XDC songs. It's just I. I can't not be in a good mood when I hear it. It's got this great Indian sounding, bright quality to it. It's also lyrically really fun.

[C]

It's about just don't hurt nobody. Unless of course, they ask you to. They might be into that kind of a thing.

[D]

Right, right, exactly. And he wrote it. Apparently. He writes really great songs for his kids. I mean, I think this one's about having a. A son. It's almost like an instruction manual about entering the world. Mayor of Simpleton is, of course, so jangly. The 12 string guitar is wonderful. Not the bass line. It's the only time Andy Partridge writes A bass line for Colin Moulding, and it's a terrific bass line.

[C]

He also gives the most memorable part of that song to Colin. Because everything I always think of that song, I hear, please be upstanding for the mayor of Simpleton, which is Common's line, right?

[B]

It's.

[C]

It's singing right behind Andy the whole time.

[A]

The currency. No change of focus in the world Some of your friends watch and pray that's how they all stay well, I don't know how many makeup Turn over the Nobel Prizes that I never want.

[D]

Yeah, no, absolutely. King for a Day is the Colin Moulding tune. This, you know, I think, think is. Is a great single. Sounds like Tears for Fears here, but it's also, you know, there's a lot of kind of cynicism and misanthropy that Colin Moulding has on this album, but he turns it into kind of sing alongs, and I really love that, that contrast. The baseline on One of the Millions is fantastic. It's such a good bass line on that song. Scarecrow People, I love it. It's like apocalyptic folk music. Fiddles and Dave Gregory playing these really twangy parts. And the percussion on that one is really, really great. You know, they had a session, drummer Pat Mastalado, and he's hitting on pots and pans and even, like, luggage with padding on it. Yeah, I don't know. I really find this album, it is too much. I mean, I. I agree with you there, but I, I. Sometimes you just want to go to a buffet, and this is like a sonic bright buffet. And I. I love it for that.

[A]

Cause I'm scared.

[B]

So I had a weird experience with the record. I, in full transparency, had sent Jeff A note 10 days ago, ish, saying, all right, I'm ready to call it Oranges and Lemons. That's my favorite from this period. I really love it. And it just so happened that I think two things happened. One is I could keep coming back to this. I listen a lot when I'm walking my dog now, and this is like a good dog walking record.

[C]

It's.

[B]

It's upbeat, it's up tempo. There's a lot of. It's a fairly loud record, especially compared to what came just before it.

[C]

Someday, Scott, we need to assemble your top 10 dog walking.

[B]

Dog Walking album. But it sounds pretty good. And then when I took a deeper listen to it, headphones, as I do with all these records, I just began to like it a little bit less and a little bit less and started Hearing things I didn't like as much as I did. So this is in no way me slagging on this, but saying I didn't like it as much as I did at one point. There's some really good things here. It's far too long, as Jeff already has indicated a 60 minute double album. But again, yes, when you. All you have is time, then all you have is time in the studio. And the producer here is the opposite of Todd Rundgren in that it's, it's. Well, it's still an American producer, but it's basically an XTV XTC fan who had never produced anything previously. And so this, this gets almost back to a big express problem, which is everything's very flat on the production side of things. It's bright, but it's flat. And you miss a lot of things happening because everything's happening at once. Earthly Delights. I really like it a lot. There's so much happening in that. In that, in that arrangement. The Loving is another one that's big, bold, loud, colorful piece of pop. But I don't know if it. It sort of breaks through the ceiling. It doesn't get to that next level of being a truly, you know, outstanding kind of song. I like a lot of stuff here that you guys already mentioned. I think Scarecrow People is really good. And this is one where I will side with Jeff and say, hey, go check out the BBC session. Because the Scarecrow people in the BBC. That acoustic guitar pops through on that BBC session and really takes Scarecrow People and brings it to life. No pun intended. As I reference wizard of Oz.

[C]

I suppose pun was entirely intended. Don't kid yourself.

[A]

Hope you enjoyed your fight in one of the. On you store airplanes. You'll find things here just like what you used to. There's lots of waste and laser wire and no one gives a damn about the land we just stand and stare like you folks do for we ain't got no friends and we got the. Oh, it's just that wild wind that tells us all apart. We're the Scarecrow People. We got lots in common with you.

[B]

Jeff, you mentioned a song on. On Skylarking that you said was the most 80s thing they did. I disagree. Merely a man might be the most.

[C]

Yeah, okay, fair enough.

[B]

Did. And. And it actually gets to one of my problems with the album. Which is the drummer from Mr. Me, Mr. Who Andrew already mentioned on drums.

[D]

There.

[B]

There are so many synthetic sounding percussive elements on this record. That's one of the things I noticed upon Closer listen that I don't think it holds up quite as well. Merely a man that hook is big. I, I don't lose that melody on the chorus. I'm merely a man that's big. But there's that 80 drum, metallic, metallic, synthetic flat drum sound. There's this big synthetic cymbal hit at 231 in the song that I actually wrote down because it bothers me so much. And there's just little, little pieces like that in places. Ah, Cynical Days is a great molding song. That's, that's, that's a real fun one. Across the ante though, is the opposite, which again, there's just too much happening there. There's these stray synth chords and horn blades, flares and this weird kind of, you know, chanting kind of, kind of chorus going on. So I, you know, as Jeff mentioned, the, the COVID is what you get on this record. Big, bold, colorful, loud pop. And I just think it's almost too much of that. Good thing. If you could reel that back in maybe 15 or so, I would have liked this record a little bit.

[A]

I bring nothing of love for you I'm merely a man that I want Nothing that you can't do it's true that with logic and love we'll be lifting humanity.

[C]

Give me 41 minutes of this album. I mean, giving me a 41 minute compact version. Maybe stripped out some of the mixes slightly and you've got Skylocking part two. But instead they said, hey, we, we've had enough of Todd Rogan telling us when we can and cannot do we're going to do it our own way again. They did it their own way again and they went right on back to not hitting the chairs, which is unfortunate. I actually, I love, I love the album and I think I don't want to ever depart from it without mentioning what is the reason. I guess the reason Andy Partridge demanded that kind of command is that it may result in a lot of overproduction, may flip, flop around, but every now and then you'll get a song like Chalk, Hills and Children, which is the song that ends Oranges and Lemons. And I think a lot of people would say, if you know anything about xtc, gotta be one of the most moving things that they've ever written. This is a soulful soft ballad that is deeply influenced by Brian Wilson. I remember I was talking with you about this, Scott. You said, is it Till I Die? That was the cue that he was thinking, I don't think I hear Till I Die. In it. But I know why you hear that.

[B]

It's just the beginning. It's. It's just that first 15 seconds. I'm a fantasy what is it I'm

[C]

floating over Floating over Strange land it's soulless sequence, Showbiz mood. He's returning back to his disillusionment with the entire record business. And of course, you know, this is an album where he's basically said, I don't want to even. I don't even be told by Todd Rundgren what I have to do anymore. Instead, I want to sing the songs that I want to sing, write the ones that I want to write, and then eventually, when it's all over and done, I will come back around again to the thing anchors me to this earth which is chalk hills and children they anchor my feet they bring me back to earth Eternally and ever In Irmin street, which is his own local place where he grew up. Always heading out to the sea Even I never know where I go when my eyes are closed this is everything Andy Partridge had ever been striving to, like, achieve in terms of creating a dream world, creating a sense of youth, creating an innocence, creating sense. Something that stands outside of himself and is just one of those things where I never grew up in this world. I did not have the childhood that is described in that song. And yet I did. You know, everyone did. Just, you know, I'm just there. You want to be there. It's probably the. The single most emotionally resonant song he ever wrote for this band. And I guess that's the reason why it's the name of the pants website, ultimately.

[A]

Hush Crowds the reluctant Cannonball it seems I'm soaring over hushed crowds I'm propelled up here by long and dream still getting higher Icarus regrets and retired shields and children and for my feet. Chalk hills and children Oddly complet. Yeah.

[D]

I think it's also a moment where you can see the. The shift in the way he does his vocals. He says that he wants to. His more natural voice is more like Chet Baker or, you know, even Paul McCartney, as opposed to what he was doing in earlier albums. And it kind of comes through. I mean, I love when he sings, you know, even I never know where I go when my eyes are closed there's just a new kind of falsetto element that he's allowing into his voice that you're going to see a non such and, you know, again, it just gives them one more place to go. Musically, I really love what he does with his voice. And some of these later albums.

[C]

Okay, so before we move on to, I guess, the last album of XTC's main label career, does anybody have anything they want to say about the B Sides collection, which I frankly kind of love? It's called Rag and Bone Buffet, one of those, you know, catalog fillers where you have to, like, you know, this band, of course, spends hours upon hours in the studio. So what are they going to do? They're going to collect this. They're going to fulfill an obligation. A lot of these B Sides are really fantastic, though we never talked about them in the eras where they belonged. There's a lot of great stuff from the English settlement era in particular that, like Tissue Tigers, the World Is Full of Angry young Men, Heaven Is Paved With Broken Glass are great little B Sides. It's not a major outpost in XTC's career, but I did want to actually say stuff. By the way, this is where you find those great Christmas songs that you guys are talking about, huh?

[B]

Yeah, this is a fun collection. And, you know, we should mention, too, this is not just from this era. So there's a lot of stuff that goes back to.

[C]

Goes all the way back to, like, Barry Andrews 78.

[B]

Right. What I covered on part one. There's. There's two tracks I would highlight from here, from. From this. This particular era. One is the very first song on the compilation called Extrovert. It's the only vocal that Partridge admits he did while drunk, but it makes sense. This was the B side of grass in 86. And as a introvert. As an introvert, I sort of relate to the idea that. That you could become an Extrovert, that you. You change your personality entirely, where you. You love hanging out with people and people give you energy. And it's such a weird outof body experience to think about that being what drives, you know, you moving forward each and every day. That is a fun song. And then the other one, I think Jeff loves this one too. The world is full of angry young men. If I played this for you and you didn't know we were talking about an XTC episode, you might identify it as a Ben Fold five track. It is Ben Folded. Folds five from piano tone to sort of the. The rhythm and the pace. And even at this point, the. The vocals even sound a bit like Ben Folds on this too. And then vocally, you have a chip on the shoulder, an idea in their head who thinks that life owes them something, but you only get out what goes in. That's a very Benfold Sentiment too. This is from 89. B side of the Loving. World is Full of Angry Young Men, I think is my favorite little throwaway track on this entire collection. It's really fun.

[A]

World is full of angry young men. Who think life won't have something but you only get out what goes in. There was was a time when I see now was just an actor stage I see clear the colors through the haze as time goes on your opinion will change like the weather things that you.

[D]

Yeah, I mean it is a great collection. I'm just trying to think of B sides from that period. Three that come stand out for me from the Skylarking period are Extrovert for sure. Extrovert is wonderful. I really wish that was actually on Oranges and Lemons. I just feel like it fits the personality of that album. But they remastered Skylarking, a guy called Steven Wilson and I think he. He brought that. That song to life. Let's Make a Den and the Troubles. All three of those I think are wonderful. The other one is a B side on Oranges and Lemons, which is my. My Paint Heroes, which I think is on King For A Day. It's the B side of that single. My Paint Heroes is fantastic. It's an Andy Partridge song. Check it out if you're interested. And a lot of these songs, I'm just surprised they. They threw away. But they always seem to have the ability to. To create new songs.

[A]

I'm really perfect for a pussy Human volcano at a zero degrees I'm feeling extra burn Instead of quiet and shy I'm really dying to FL I feel like someone else Yes, I do Yes I do Yes I do I feel like someone else I feel new how so blue I feel. Extrovert no hidden message, nothing political. You didn't listen. I just wanted to show feelings.

[C]

Okay, so there's something curiously weightless, airless about XTC's career up until this point, which is inevitable because remember, they don't actually respond to market pressures in the way most bands do now. They don't tour, they don't do video. They do videos. The videos are all lame. Ignore the videos. They don't tour, though. And they're not making money, they're just making art. And eventually this becomes pretty frustrating, especially in the background here. You have to keep in mind there's the ongoing lawsuit that they're fighting against their X Men manager, which is basically keeping them in semi poverty for the entire time. And they're finally coming to the end of their record deal with Virgin, Virgin emi, which of course it was virgin at first and then it's Virgin emi. Everybody's been, you know, coming together in terms of conglomerations these days. But it was an unhappy relationship insofar as they were never going to be able to frankly earn what they deserved. They were never going to be able to earn enough for us. They had one one record left and it was called None Such. This is the weirdest album of all. This is an album that I shouldn't like. It's. It's over long, it's 60 something minutes. It's very studio bound, it's very hermetic, It's. It's full of the weirdest music in some ways that you'll ever hear the band make. And yet I consider this to be maybe their capstone achievement. I think Non Such is fantastic. It's not the way XTC's career ends. We have a fan. Bizarre and fascinating coda that we're going to talk about here, but it's the way the most people understand xcc as a popular project goes to bed. And it's with just a fantastic fanfare. This is the way this band was actually always trying to be. This is better to my mind than Skylarking in a lot of ways. Begins right up the front with A Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, which is like Andy Partridge apologizing for writing Fear God. Yeah, I don't.

[B]

Can I talk about that just for a second?

[C]

Yeah, go with it. Yeah.

[B]

So I. I laid this on Jeff and, and maybe he can talk me through this. Partridge is obviously a smart dude, as you know, Andrew has sort of mentioned to. He's smart, he's sharp, he's funny. So he writes dear God. And he's apparently not really all that pleased with the final result or not pleased enough with the final result. But the point is he's an atheist, clearly doesn't believe in God, doesn't. Why would you people need help down here to create disease, all this stuff. All right? Atheist Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead is a clear allegory for Jesus Christ. Now it's fine he doesn't believe in that, okay? But if you take Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead on its face, he's describing the story of Peter Pumpkinhead exactly as the story of Jesus Christ unfolds. Holds in the Bible. Right? So then what. What exactly is he saying? That I don't believe in God or Jesus. But if Jesus did come to Earth, he'd be treated exactly the way it's described in the Bible, because that's what humans who Are bad. But it's a recurring motif here, as we get later in the career. Humans are bad. Yeah, the smartest monkeys, all this stuff. So humans are bad. They would treat someone who is perfect and nice and kind and trying to help everyone in exactly the way it's laid out in the Bible. This book that I don't believe in and even made reference to that in Dear God. You got this book that humans wrote and your name's in it all over. So help me through this. Because he's not dumb.

[C]

We need to make a little permission for confusion here. Okay. I mean, there's a creative impulse that maybe doesn't quite map onto rational thought.

[A]

Empty churches and shopping malls. When he spoke, it would raise the roof. He turned pin head, told the truth, but he made too many.

[D]

Well, I was going to say there's a quote here that might help a little bit. Who knows? This is what he says about the lyrics to this song. He says he's every hero, every politician,

[B]

every religious figure who's far too good

[D]

to be true and by telling the truth becomes a martyr. Is Peter Pumpkinhead Jesus or JFK or Buddha? Question mark? Actually, the name's from a jack O lantern I carved after Halloween. I stuck it on a fence post. It was my garden. And every day I go past it on my way to my composing shed. And every day it would decay a bit. I felt sorry for it. So I thought I'd make a hero. I thought I'd make it a hero in a song. So that's apparently the origin story of that one.

[C]

I did not even know this, but I want you to know now that I have named every single pumpkin I have ever owned since like age 18, Peter Pumpkinhead. And now I know I was naming him after Christ himself. I didn't know. We know. The thing is, we're not even talking about the song. What's remarkable about this song is that it's a total throw. Throwback musically to like XTC's virtues from 1980. I think a ballad of Peter Pumpkin, I think that comes off a Black Sea. It doesn't even come off of English settlement or drums and wires. It's a Black Sea song. Is that Crash boom bang. Terry Chambers could have been recruited to come back and hit those heads. It's so beautiful. And then again, it's the harmonica. It's the, the, the note that you didn't expect. XTC has always been accused of overstuffing their arrangements. There's a little bit of that in this album. But I Think they've ran train themselves in. This is such an open and free arrangement. I remember thinking when I was a kid first learning to play guitar. The first thing you learn when you play guitar aren't XTC songs because they're too complicated. But this was one of the first songs I actually could play and I taught myself. Why? Because all those chords in the chorus are deceptive. You think you know how that chorus goes when you take that to a guitar, you realize every single time he runs through it, he's fingering a slightly different chord. And it just has that McCartney esque development.

[A]

Put to shame. Clever man who would slur his name Blocks and sex scandals failed outright Peter merely said except any kind love is all right but he made too many enemies. All the people who would keep us on our knees Pray for me to come here who pray for people.

[D]

It's.

[C]

It's a song that in its quiet way leans into like the best of the beetle virtues that in fact they were losing because frankly they never got out on the road at this point. They were never playing live. They even tried a few things. They did a BBC appearance for this EP for this album.

[B]

They did do. They did Letterman for Oranges and Lemons. They played King for a Day on Letterman.

[C]

Wow. I actually did not even see that. But I can imagine it must have been a panic ridden moment. There's a reason it probably didn't appear on the box. But the thing is, is that this record doesn't stop with Peter Pumpkinhead. There are. This is the Curate's Egg album. This is what Oranges and Lemons should have been. And that there are songs on here that would not work on any other record. There are jazz experiments, there are classical experiments. There are very strange raucous things. Every one of these songs works on a record that in any other place would. Will feel overstuffed. I think the Ugly Underneath. I don't need that. That's the one song.

[B]

Oh, I do like that one. I. I do like you do.

[C]

There you go. But we have 17 songs and I can't really think of 16. 16 of the 17 songs should.

[A]

The first photograph on Fox Noble's Jail I was a little frightened. Cherubim tears.

[B]

I like the Ugly Underneath. It's not my favorite track, but I like it a lot. One thing I note for Ugly Underneath is when I listen it kind of sounds like a Fats Domino piano that. But it's not. It's more like a shimmering guitar. I think that now I listen to it more. But I Do like that. This is an album that actually increased in its stature as Oranges and Lemons decreased in its stature the more I listened to it. And yeah, there are some weird things here. Beautiful things.

[C]

I know exactly what I'm thinking of.

[B]

Right. What are you. Rook is beautiful. But, but, but I, I don't know if it's as odd as you think it is because it's. It's XTC at some of its most organic sounding. Which I think is part of what you mean by when you. It's a Black Sea song because it just sounds like guys at a studio playing.

[A]

There's an epidemic stirring passions in your hearts Even the old campaigners have got it really bad well, we ain't seen nothing like it since Coronation Day but when the street party sound I'm going underground to keep the rabid hounds at bay oh, my, my there's one dance. A patriotic romance.

[C]

This is.

[B]

You know, there's a weird real drummer. A guy from Fairport Convention plays which Dave Maddox.

[C]

Who Love.

[B]

Right. Not to me.

[C]

The guy from Fairport Convention. He's Dave frickin Maddox.

[B]

There you go. But I, I, I think it's actually the band sounding as sort of natural as can be in. In many places, which is one of the. The strengths. So the second track on this record is another molding song that I think is one of the best things he wrote in the band's history. My Bird performs Completed Agreement. What a. An unbelievably pretty song. A gorgeous, gorgeous melody and again arrangement. This fugal horn.

[C]

It's a hummingbird actually. It's a bird that's floating in air. How does it hover like that? And so it's like there's no effort in.

[B]

Yeah. And beautiful.

[C]

It just is. I don't. I'm failing to describe it.

[B]

It's. It's perfect. It's perfect. And that song doesn't work without that more organic drum sound that is. That is brought back on this record.

[A]

Sun cl. But my W shakes for me My bird sings sweetly A different kind of tinsel decorates my dream yeah My bird the.

[B]

And the next one from Partridge. Dear Madame Barnum is such a fun little track. And again it worked. That pop of the snare drum that. That really brings it forward along that jangle of birdsy kind of shuffle of the late 90s 1960s in a fine set of lyrics. One that really grew on me over the past week. And I said somewhere, remember it was Emailer. I would listen to a lot of this stuff just before I went to bed and I'd wake up with these songs just embedded inside the folds of my brain. And for a few days this week, waking up, all I heard was Holly up on Poppy, this song.

[C]

I knew you were gonna say that, because that's exactly the song I would have said, too.

[B]

Yes, the song that Andy. And this is where I made this note. Like, is Andy kind of a normie? Like, he's a. He's a dictator in the studio, but away from the studio. Seems like a pretty normal dude with. Who likes being a dad and writing songs for his kids. And this is one about his daughter who named her little toy horse Poppy that she gets up on and rides. And there's just. There's a wonderful sort of carousel feel to the arrangement here. And you listen to some of these lyrics. You know, every time I watch, I'm reminded we're poor. In hours per day or every second spent with her. A bulging wallet overstuffed with angels pay. That is such a great phrase. These angels who I guess he doesn't believe in. We'll leave that alone. Angels who. They don't get paid anything. This is their job. So how do you pay them? With great memories and these mental images of your young daughter having fun riding a horse. Those things stay with you long. Longer than any kind of paper money or anything. You're. You're paid being a dad with these things that you can't get anywhere else that stay with you forever. That song's gonna stick with me for a while.

[A]

Anyway. I love to watch you right away. The alchemy Love perform. Wealthy.

[C]

And one of the other ones that sticks with me, too is written on that same spirit. It's called Rook. It's mentioned already. It's clearly written like a children's rhyme, you know, like, you know, Ladybird. Ladybird. He likes these images, right? Rook, Rook, Read from your book. Who murders who? Where's the treasure hid? Crow, crow, Spill all. You know, this is very, you know, rural imagery. You know, you probably hear it like your grandma sings it to you as she's dottling on your knee. The way they arrange that song, those piano chords are avant garde in the strictest sense of the term, and they're just, like, alien to pop music. This I think of. I think of Rook. I'm thinking, okay, compare that to Radios in motion from 1977. Like, what's the. What's the transition between the songwriters? The same guy who wrote both pieces, but he's really come a very far away. And this is, again, Just one of these lovely childhood rhymes, rhythms with a very darker, weirder, jazzier sense to it as well.

[A]

From the washing wind break the code of the whispering chimneys and traffic signs Watch the message that's written under the base of clouds and eternal. I know. You know, so don't blur out loud.

[C]

By the way, Andrew, we're just going to blot out the sun with all of our discussion of these songs. And then he appeared.

[D]

No, I mean, I think this is their most eclectic album. I think it's a masterpiece. I love Dear Madame Barnum. It's the of one wonderfully bouncy. It's got this musical, singalong quality, apparently. It's, you know, fun fact. I guess the.

[A]

The.

[D]

The circus barker in it is actually the producer, Gus Dudgeon. So that's kind of fun. Humble Daisy. I love Humble Daisy. It's again, more Beach Boys like, but I feel like the falsetto has a sincere whimsy, which is a great paradox.

[C]

Rook.

[D]

I agree. I mean, Rook is probably, you know, one of my favorite songs by xdc. Dave Gregory has a nice description of it. He says it's got these plodding, ominous piano chords that suddenly take flight in the verse sections like a flock of birds.

[C]

That's great.

[D]

And I think this is kind of, you know, this song really foreshadows where they're going in Apple Venus, Volume 1, with the trumpets and the chamber music and all of that. But also, I mean, the song itself. I mean, it's about fate, mortality and our desire, I guess, to become privy to the inevitable expiration date that we all have. I think it's really, really beautiful. Bungalow is another one that I just love. It's such a weird. Colin Moulding has a strange turn and it's the way he writes songs. I love it. It makes me think of the Kinks, the End of the Season. It's weirdly like. It's like a disillusioned Brian Wilson. And I just kind of love how it captures the dream of retirement in this sweet little bungalow by the sea in this kind of cheesy but delusional way.

[A]

Standing behind position for the town. Working for a vision through this life so we can fly away. Saving it all for you.

[D]

Yeah, I think it's a fantastic album. I listen to it a lot. Yeah.

[B]

I will say, I don't think it's quite as perfect or quite as great as. As Skylark. I don't. I like Omnibus, where he talks about the great white girls and black girls and I'm not sure about that. I don't love War Dance. It's a molding track. It's a little.

[C]

I like that one quite a lot.

[B]

But I will say that last track

[C]

that we're clarinet track on War Dances. Okay, you're wrong on that one, but I'll.

[B]

That last track, Books Are Burning would have been. Would have been a fine capstone to the band's career if they never recorded again. And they would after a lengthy time off. But there's something both comforting and consistent about that song, but also new and different because you don't often hear Annie Partridge and Dave Gregory like having this dueling piano or dueling piano, dueling guitar solos which they have at the end of Books Are Burning a really nice sort of mid tempo run through. And at the end you hear both these guys playing in their own styles against each other on these solos. Like that would have been a fun fine way. A fine capstone for not just NonSuch but also XTC's recording career. But there would be more.

[A]

Is cruise back by breathing in the smoke of Dream. You boys will turn off these games. Books are fun.

[C]

It's funny actually, Scott, that you say that because my only real equival with Nonsuch is that it's not formatted properly. Books Are Burning should not be the last song on this album. The last song on this album should be Wrapped in Gray. And I do want to take a moment to talk about this because there are songs I've talked in the past about, you know, there are songs that really hit you, effectively affect you directly. Wrapped in Gray is one of those beautiful Beach Boys things. It's obviously he's doing his. His purest Brian Wilson imitation. But the message of that song is if you take anything from what XTC is about, you take anything from what Andy Partridge cares about. Listen to what he says there. And he says some. Some folks will see the world as a stone concrete daubed and dull monochrome. But you don't have to listen to them because your heart is the big box in of paints. Others are the canvas. You've. You've been dealt. And you just have to go and live your life. Your head may be full of balloons and streamers, parrots and lemurs. Let them out, Let them out. They're. They're in there, they're wild, they're running around. Let them out and go Live life and do it today. And don't let the loveless ones sell you a world wrapped in gray. And I gotta tell you, like There are songs that I know say save lives I've played for people. That wasn't one of them in college. You know, you can actually sing that song to a person, explain what it's about and they'll take a reaction from it and it'll be a good one.

[A]

Balloons and streamers Decorate things inside of your hands Please let some eyes do it to be but don't let the love this won't sell you A world wrapped into gray of every.

[C]

And that should have been the end of XTC's career. Of course it was in my mind when I. I remember playing that song because that would have been 1998 and at that point it. 1992 is when non such came out and they had like a big breakup with Virginia Maya.

[B]

Like, you know, they just went on strike. Yeah, they said anymore, right.

[C]

They went on strike and it was like. Is that the end of xtc? Yes. No, Maybe. So I don't know how you put this, because what happens is that after seven years of sitting around doing nothing, they finally come out with their. What we will consider the end of this episode, their Capstone 2 album double album release. The Apple Venus series. Apple Venus Volume 1. And then there's Wasp Stars, Apple Venus Volume 2. And of course, what happens during these sessions. The most important thing of all is that Dave Gregory. Gregory quits. He's had enough. Why? I mean, it's funny because you sit around not touring and basically doing nothing except putting in your occasional time in the studio to think about how to decorate these songs and apparently.

[B]

And apparently moving rental cars around Britain to make ends meet during this time.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna work some odd jobs, small jobs. And of course, what's the thing that Andy Partridge wants to do when they get back into the studio? Orchestra work. Where's your guitar? There ain't no guitar. You're going to be on piano now. Okay. You're going to be handling piano because there's no rock on these things. And this is as we've seen XTC move ever further and further from like, remember the early post punk New wave days. Now we're into fully orchestral music. And the thing is, you can't dismiss this, you can't treat it as a footnote because some of the music on, particularly the first record, Apple Venus Volume 1, this is in fact Scott's intro story. Some of the most beautiful things that XTC ever did. Avant garde experiments. You know, why Andy Partridge acted like a dictator, why he sweated all this stuff out. It wonderfully works and yet there's no future for it. You can't play it and you've already alienated your band and almost all of your bandmates in doing it. But I don't want to leave without spending at least a little time appreciating the sheer beauty, transcendent beauty. It's an ethereal sound that is unlike every other record record the group did. Apple Venus Volume 1 Part 1 is the way XTC story ends. Apple Venus Volume 2 actually feels almost like a strange coda. Like there's some rock songs on it, there's some great hooks on it, but this is the way the band finally says goodbye. And it's very telling that it's now just a two man collaboration. It's two people writing songs with no thought of how they'd ever reproduce it. And yet Easter Theater is probably one of the greatest things I'll ever report

[A]

Ter and she's dressed in Yo Yo Stage one. Now the son has died the father can be. If we don't breathe in Blow away the snow we don't want a new. Easter.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

I think about it almost like you take ecstasy and you put them in a centrifuge and you separate the more lush orchestral side from the guitar rock poppy side and you get volume one and volume two. The way I think about it is almost like Brian Eno's before and After Science album. In some ways this perfectly distills the two different poles that the band is capable of exploring. They might be my favorite two albums of their career.

[C]

There you go.

[D]

My, you know, I bought Wastar probably like in 2003 or something like that. When I was in college. I remember I'd play it in the car. This, you know, going a little bit fast forward. We'll come back to volume one. But I played in the car and people would, you know, my co workers or friends would be like, turn this up. What is this? I mean people were, you know, it's so catchy, but the first volume is just so beautiful. I mean, river of Orchids is one of the most complex, strange, beautiful songs I've ever heard before. The string plucking, the trumpets, the water droplets. There's a minimalism, weirdly enough in some of these songs. These last two albums that makes me think of like Philip Glass where you have these like hypnotic repetitions.

[A]

From the road.

[C]

How familiar are you with the band? Talk Talk.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

The way Talk Talk sort of like developed and sort of drifted away into like weird ethereal music. It didn't have Enough time to play out with XTC's career here. But I hear a lot of those same dynamics. They're just no longer concerned with anything related to charts. They're playing for themselves.

[D]

Yeah, no, absolutely. But I mean, I like. That is a beautiful song. You could see that on a potentially a different album. But you know, it's got the, you know, leg slapping, hand clapping, acoustic stuff. The lyrics are. I think Andy Partners described it as a single entendre. The lyrics are blatant and nakedly sexual on that one. But frivolous tonight. Colin Molding he just something in his later career. He kind of perfected this kind of yearning, nostalgic showtime kind of tune. Apparently I didn't realize this, but Moulding was a fan of. Of heavy metal and like Black Sabbath and apparently so it's kind of funny to think about him then getting into like Cole Porter and musicals and there's this kind of 180 turn he has and he's very kind of this album Fruit Knot and Frivolous Tonight the on Volume one. They're both terrific and they're very fun and kind of domestic songs.

[A]

Let's reveal agile like nature and leave us talks and invoices to RO let's go too hot and tell life jokes about mothers in law but watch him jump when she comes through the door oh, the party goes with a swing or when we talk about the trivial things we're all so frivolous tonight

[C]

but

[A]

there's always one who wants to talk show.

[C]

By the way, I'm laughing at you describing I'd like that as a single entendre. I wonder how you would describe your dictionary, which is. What was it? F, U, C, K? Is that how you spell friend? I mean, it's not exactly subtle.

[D]

Yeah, that's true pop song though.

[C]

It's like horrible, angry, angry, bitter, bitter lyric. And it's all just dressed up in this glorious music. Green man actually to me is the one which isn't Collins, but boy, he. I feel like him all over the song. This is like how does it. It's one of these things that just like starts and then it develops into a longer reverie than you're expecting. And it fades out and you're like. I. I'm thinking to myself, why would Dave Gregory quit? I understand exactly why he quits. When you hear river of Orchids and you. I have no place in this music. But I do actually wish like he'd stayed around because he could have added something to some of those songs. I love this record, though. I'm sorry to interrupt. Robbed.

[D]

No, no, I mean, yeah, I. I totally agree. It's weird because, I mean, Dave Gregory does string arrangements so well, and I actually feel like there probably are some in this album. Clearly he's working with them. He quits during the first part of the album.

[B]

Right.

[D]

So I'm sure some of these actually have that. I know Colin Moulding talks about frivolous tonight, that he, Dave Gregory is the one who puts it to the piano. Yeah. So. But I know, I agree. There's something. I think about this as like kind of another. Another green world, maybe by, you know, maybe different things. Like, it's. It's a beautiful thing. It's not, you know, it's not something I put on all the time because it is such a different vibe. It's classical and pretty, but it lacks the hooks, you know, of obviously, some of the earlier songs.

[C]

So, Scott, this is actually your XGC origin story, isn't it? You want to tell us a story about how you really got into this hot band?

[B]

I was handed Apple Venus Volume 1 to review as a new release at my college radio station. And even at this point, again, I knew part of the story of xtc and it was the first album in a long time and we're like an AOR rock based format. And I had to say, of course, yeah, there's nothing you can play here, guys. I'm sorry. Sorry. I'd like that as. As close as you could possibly come to a song that we would play on our air and I don't even know if it made it. That's a fun song. It's a fine song. You guys are really. Describe Apple Venus Volume 1. Well, I. I've said before, I enjoy it. It's like a fine work of art. Like, I look at it and I appreciate it and it's beautiful, but it would be weird to have it in my family room. And so like, Applevine is like. That's a. Those are really pretty songs. As Jeff mentioned, Easter Theater is one of the great things from later in Ex Sec's career. That's a. That's a great song, but I'm not. I never really reach for it. I never really think I need to hear, you know, Andy Partridge and this and his orchestral arrangements and. And these. These particular songs. It's rare. I have a desire to hear it, even though I. I know and understand why and how. It's a beautiful piece of music. Beautiful pieces of music. If I talk a bit about WASP Star this is the more uptempo upbeat. And this is where you miss the rock album. You miss Gregory here too, because the arrangements here are slightly too simple to make it among their very best. But there's some really catchy stuff here. Playground, the first track, is really good and it's another song to kids. Basically, this is saying that the playground's a rehearsal for all of life to come. You're on this square rectangle where you're practicing for everything you're going to do after you get out of school. And it's a fun little catchy track. Stupidly Happy has this riff that I always confuse. And I don't know if you guys know this song. Third Eye Blind had a song called Never Let yout Go, and the riff is nearly identical to Stupidly Happy. And they both came out within a year of each other. And I don't think one copied the other because probably this song was in the. In the rack for six years, seven years, right? That they didn't. Weren't recording things. The thing I like about Stupidly Happy is it begins stupidly simple with just that riff and a little bit of a drum part. And what Partridge does is he adds layer on top of layer on top of layer, one by one. Vocals, then bass, then these chiming arpeggios. And there's more and there's a layer. And by the. By the time the song is done, you have this like, stupidly happy sandwich where things have been placed on top of each other over and over, over again. And it's fun.

[A]

All the lights of the cars in the town form the strings of a big guitar. I'm a giant to play you a tune for wherever you are I'm stupidly happy like the words to that song. I'm stupidly happy happy no, nothing's not wrong. I'm stupidly happy Me now.

[B]

I like Wounded Horse, which is a very explicit, not profane, but explicit song about him finding out his wife was having an affair. I can't remember the line. It's something. When I found out you were writing another man. The rhythm is like this clip clop of hooves. You could. You could. You could hear. But the song, that's really outstanding and I think. Is it just a classic XTC song, one I'll probably put on my final five just because I like it so damn much is.

[C]

Well, I mean, to me. To me, Wounded Horse is like a song he wrote and then he wrote as a response to it.

[B]

I'm the man who murdered love which is the Song. Yeah, I'm referencing here. It is such a classic XTC song that. That. That snaky guitar solo. There is joy and. And rambunctiousness and a lot of just pure pop moves inside. Omni. Man who Murdered Love. If I rarely want to or feel the. The com. The compulsion to listen to Apple Venus Volume 1, I often get the jones to find I'm the man who murdered love Somewhere in my collected MP3s. To hear that song, it's just. It's a joyous track.

[A]

There'll be no more pain from broken hearts. No more love is to be torn apart. The fires of so me in your dungeon dark. You're one of them. Be putting statues up in every part. The man who Murdered Love. Yeah. What do you think of that? The man who Murdered Love. Yeah, what do you think of that? So, dear public, I'm here to confess that I'm the one who freed us from this mess. Love won't be calling at your address. Cause what you never had, you never miss.

[D]

This is one of my favorite of their albums. Yeah. I mean, I think there's so many just clever hooks and riffs in this album. I've never understood why this is so low on the totem pole for a lot of XDC fans. Andy Partridge describes it as. The record has more hooks than a Long John Silver convention. I mean, stupidly happy. It's such a great song. Again, it's kind of minimalist. I mean, I think Scott described it perfectly. It's so simple. And then they build upon it. I mean, here's a fun fact about it, though. I just learned, apparently McDonald's in Australia was going to use it for an ad, but. But they back down, so. But it is so catchy. You could see McDonald's using it in an ad.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

In another life. By molding. I love that one. The harmonica, the drums on that piece. Again, it's got this kind of dreamy, almost cheeky, yet honest, warts and all. Lullaby. My brown guitar is kind of like Andy Partridge doing Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On. It's fun, it's risque. It's bouncy. Man who Manu.

[B]

Murdered Love.

[D]

I agree. It's, you know, the perfect word for that Scott uses. It's rambunctious. We're all light. I love that song. And then the Wheel in the Maple, I think is the perfect album ender for their career. It's kind of upbeat decay. And it's just also. It's a medley, you know. Just like the Beatles go out Emma Medley, so does xtc, which I think is perfectly fitting.

[A]

To free me from day faint decay. As everything decays Forest tumbles down to make the soil planets fall apart Just feed the stars and stars.

[C]

And that's pretty much the way this story is going to have to end. Now XTC has, I believe, they formally dissolved the decades after 1999, 2000, which, again, these final albums came out when I was in college and I was thinking, wow, this is wonderful, this is a great development. Can't wait to see what happens next. Nothing happened next. This was the end. 25 years later, I finally go on the. On the Internet. I poke around, I find Colin molding saying, yeah, we're not going to be doing anything anymore. You know, Andy's kind of become a cranky hermit shut in at this point. Like how people are actually asking Partridge, like, hey, come on, you know, why don't you just start a web show? Just like, you know, film yourself playing some songs. People would sign up in droves. People are dying for this. But it's not what he wants to do and it's not his real tastes. And that basically brings us to the end, XTC's career. But it's one of those things that it's a career that may end, but is never, never ended for me, in the sense that I constantly think to myself about this music. I think about these lyrics, I think about the worldview that Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding have approached songwriting from their entire lives. And I. I've always wanted to sort of adopt it as my own. These are the people that inspired me. In a weird way, all the writing I do, it comes more directly from a heritage, from a line of thought that involves these three guys. Even Dave Gregory, who might not have been writing the things, but he was doing stuff on a guitar that was every bit as eloquent. This kind of music is what motivated me. It was the gears that turned in my head. I've talked about that before, like, what's the sound of the music in my head? Sometimes I liken it to Brian Eno, sometimes I liken it to Echo and the Bunnyman. Sometimes I liken it most of all to a group like xtc, because they were always moving with purpose. There was always some thought, there was always some sort of present, some care and consideration. Didn't even have to be one that I agreed with. But these people never, ever took the cheap way out of anything musically. And the results are just one of the most incredible musical Legacies that again, it's just sitting there waiting for you to discover it. You haven't heard of most of these songs, but I pray to God that after we're done, you go and find these records and these albums one by one, order. By order. You will agree, I think at the end of it that XCC are one of the greatest groups of all time.

[A]

Peter Pinhead was too good had him nailed to all junk of wood he died grinning on live TV. And he look a lot like you and a full of love like me but he's made too many enemies

[B]

all

[A]

the people who would keep us on our knees. Of pumpkin. Oh, my I'm gonna make you want to cry.

[C]

I didn't even. I was at the Rock and Roll hall of Fame recently for the first time ever, and it kind of. I'm appalled that I didn't bother to check. I assumed they would never have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall.

[B]

Oh, no, I don't think so.

[C]

No, not even close, right? Not even popular enough. But, man, they. I don't even know which kinds. I don't know what kind of my op acts have been inducted from the past 25 years alone. XTC is one of the more important ones that I've ever heard in my life. And I'm really glad that you guys now understand why I feel that way.

[B]

I want to say something very quickly before we get to our albums and songs, and that is I'm essentially new to most of this. As I've explained a couple of times, I'm going to be awfully sad to leave this. These songs behind. I never thought that's great for me, but, I mean, not that I'm going to never revisit them again, but, you know, we have to go to the Next Step episode and I have to dive into some other catalog. And I still feel like I could spend even more time with these songs. And something that never left Partridge and molding is something that I referred to as the stickiness of their hooks and melodies. Part two, just as was the case for part one, as I look back on these notes, we're talking about all these albums. I see the song titles. I can hum all all of these songs. I know the choruses to all, all of these songs. I can hear them in my head because the way they write has that stickiness to it that the songs really, really ingrain themselves into your mind and into your love of music. And I'll see these titles three years from now, hopefully, and still remember. I'll Listen to them again by then, I'm sure. But I'll remember the way these songs go, go. I'll remember the way these songs were written. And that's a really, really rare quality. Even going through 100 whatever, you know, artists and, and, and, and, and, and bands that we've done on this show. That's a rare quality and something that XTC had in spades.

[C]

Andrew?

[D]

Yeah, yeah, I think they're, I mean, they're intricate but always melodic. Yeah, I mean, especially these later albums. I love Rev listening to them just because there's always something I missed in a song, even though obviously part of it immediately took me over. There's always something I, you know, some flourish I forgotten that attracts me back to the song. I think they're very relistenable, which is, you know, part of the charm of xdc.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

All right, come to the part of the show where we give you the two albums you should own. The five songs you need to hear from this second section of XTC's career. Start with our guest Andrew Greas. Find him@andrew gres.com Andrew, your two albums, your five songs from this section of XTC's career.

[D]

All right. Yeah, I found this a little bit harder than the first time, but let's see. I think for albums I'm gonna go with Skylarking as one of the essential albums. Even though it is different from a lot of the other albums, I do think, you know, it's just a work of art. It's beautiful. I love how everything blends together in that album. And the other one I'm going to choose, which is a heterodox opinion, is I'm going to choose Wasar, their last album. And I do this just because it's one that I play a lot. I just find myself wanting to you. There's something just so catchy and uplifting about that album. So yeah, I want people to, to give it a shot and five songs. So I'll just take from a bunch of different albums from, let's see, from the Big Express. I'll take all you pretty girls.

[B]

I just, it's.

[D]

To me, I love anything with kind of a whistling and all of that. And it's just such a catchy little sea chanty from. I guess from Skylarking, I'll take Season, Cycle and I'll take from. From Non Such. I'll take Rook, which is again, just a beautiful song. Probably the prettiest song they ever, Andy Richard ever, ever wrote. And then I'll take River Of Orchids from Apple Venus Volume 1, incredibly complex. And then stupidly happy from Wasp, which is again, probably the catchiest thing he ever wrote as far as a guitar riff.

[B]

All right, my two albums from this era. Skylarking is number one. Already identified as my favorite album from the era. So yeah, that's one of my two. And somewhat unexpectedly from where I started a week or two ago, Non Such is the second album. I would recommend that. That you. That you own five songs. I. I thought this would be difficult and it is, in that there are many, many choices. But these, these, these just jumped out at me and I feel really good about these five. So my first one you've gotta hear. I think it's the most beautiful moment of their career. From Skylarking, Ballet for a Rainy Day and 1000 Umbrellas. That is so amazing. And yes, two songs, but it's one statement. It's one song Earn Enough for us. Brilliant power pop turn. On that same album. Skylarking from the Duke's Vanishing Girl is on my list of five. We'll squeeze that in. My Bird performs one of Colin Moulding's greatest moments of his time with xtc. And then I already alluded to this. Yeah, I'm going to put I'm the Man who Murdered Love from WASP Star on this list of five as well. Jeff.

[C]

An Impossible Task. And I also have to laugh that we eventually ended up coming with the same answers because Skylarking and none such as the two albums are the ones that I would recommend. And it's funny, I already talked to you guys, like, I don't like Skylarking as much as everyone else, but it's a. You have have to take it as a whole. And the wonderful thing about mentioning those two albums is I can ignore every one of the songs on them. The five songs I'm going to rem. I'm going to mention here are unrelated because I want to get as much spread as I can. So I'm going to start with Train Running Low on Soul Pole from the Big Express. Now it was either between this or this world over in terms of which one I would pick. But personality crisis and song rarely come in better and more thought through formats than that one. Now we're going to just actually ditch XCC and we're going to talk about the Duke's stratosphere. The next two songs are Bike Ride to the Moon, which is from the 25 o' clock of EEP, and Vanishing Girl, which is from the Sonic Sunspot album. When XTC decided to put on A mask and play Personas. They were actually unburdened from all the other things that they were being crushed by professionally. I love both of those songs. Oranges and Lemons is a flawed album, but Chalk Hills and children, my 4 4th pick is unimpeachable. It's one of the, the purest and most lovely sentiments that Andy Partridge ever wrote. You know, we, we keep on coming back to this thing. Like Partridge has a real feeling for childhood, for innocence, you know, for writing songs about like, you know, like, you know, people who are untroubled by the Huckermugger of the everyday world. It's kind of like he'd like to escape back to that himself. It never came through more purely than on that, that song. And then I guess I'll. I'll mention one song from Apple Venus Easter Theater is probably the greatest orchestral avant garde kind of thing that Partridge ever tried to write. And I can understand why Dave Gregory felt he had no place in this group, but he should have stuck around. And since I have, I'm a host and I have the host privilege, I'm gonna actually throw a sixth lawn on and it'll be wrapped in gray from none such. You need the entire album, but in particular you need to hear Wrapped in Gray. That's a song that saves lives.

[A]

Heart is the big box of paint and others the canvas were there. Your heart is the big box of paint. Just think how the old masters felt they cross away from. Welcome you dreamers asleep at your desk. Parrots and lemurs populate your unconscious. Do it today but don't let the loveless one sell you a world wrapped in gr. And in the very least you can't stand the.

[B]

All right, there is the political beats look. The long awaited political beats look at the music and career of xtc. If we find a Van Morrison guest, we'll knock off the other long awaited episode that will be coming down the pike at some point. I. I assume we thank our guest for making this one happen. Andrew Greetis fiction writer, teaching rhetoric and creative writing at Georgetown and George Washington Washington University book coming later on this year. Andrew Greetus.com G R E T E S.com Andrew, fantastic job. Thank you for joining us for this episode.

[D]

Yeah, thanks for having me. It was a delight.

[B]

Wonderful.

[C]

You have helped me knock off a big item from my bucket list. So I'm very, very thankful.

[B]

Jeff, I know this one was. Yes. High on your list to get done. We checked that box. I have literally no idea what we're doing next, but we'll convene after this mix is done and figure it out because we've got a summer, and sometimes we can do some deeper things in the summer because I've got a little more time. So we'll figure things out. Jeff is on X@ esoteric CD. I'm there. Scott Bertram, again, we invite you to help us support us [e-mail] politicalbeats entry level, mid level, and be our best friend at the end, upper level. Mark over at patreon.com political beats subscribe get those new episodes. Find us at nationalreview.com we're on Facebook on X. Join the conversation at Politicalbeats. This has been a presentation of National Review. This is Political Beats.