The first of XTC’s three copper-bottomed classics – the others being Skylarking and Apple Venus Vol 1. All of which is not to belittle the band’s other post-Drums and Wire releases, every one of which is uniformly excellent.
With the obvious exception of Badfinger who didn’t produce nearly as many top notch stuff, was any band’s career afflicted with more wretched bad luck than Swindon’s finest? The fact that ES’s master multi tracks are still AWOL and can’t receive the Steven Wilson 5.1 treatment until they are found is just one example of the wretched turns of fate that bedeviled the band.
There is, however, a pretty decent sonic upgrade from a couple of years back which I will spin in honor of messers Partridge, Moulding, Gregory and Chambers’ honor later today. Will have to wait until I’ve finished spinning the ancient vinyl copy of Todd that I recently cleaned back to something approaching rude good health.
https://thequietus.com/articles/31096-xtc-english-settlement
ES was the second XTC album I got into at the time, jumping on as I did in 1980 with Black Sea. It is, quite simply, a brilliant album. The Quietus article is great, and for another deep dive into the album, check out the superb ” What Do You Call That Noise” podcast, where guitarist Dave Gregory picks over it in some depth with producer Hugh Padgham. A great listen.
Fav songs from this album? Too many, but Ball and Chain, All of A Sudden, Jason and The Argonauts, No Thugs In Our House and of course Senses Working Overtime all immediately spring to mind. XTCs best LP? It’s certainly up there…
Jesus, it’s got the best one-two-three opening salvo imaginable. And that beautiful sleeve. Doing a double album in 1982 was considered commercial suicide but it effectively cemented their reputation, especially Stateside.
In 1982 I was eight years old and my two favourite records were Golden Brown and Senses Working Overtime – songs about heroin and (I think) magic mushrooms respectively. Between that and watching crazy-ass shit like the Flumps and Danger Mouse, I had a pretty psychedelic childhood.
Not sure about the shrooms, M. AP’s lengthy valium dependence aside, the band were apparently more into pints of real ale than drug-fueled orgies
It’s clearly inspired by drug-fuelled psychedelia if not by drugs themselves.
Mind you having read that Quietus piece it could also be about AP’s new-found sense of clarity having come out of the fog of Valium (tumfuttle)
FLUMPS! (Proustian rush…)
Where the hell is the Apple Venus remix??? It was announced it was in the works last January.
I was working in my first ‘proper’ job (Photographers Assistant) and I ordered it from a tiny record shop in the small West Sussex town where I was working. It took a week and a half to get there.
I taped it as soon as I could and I think it didn’t leave my Walkman for a month.
My first XTC purchase, ex-lending vinyl copy from Clarendon Park Library in Leicester in 1988. Up to that point, only knew about the singles, but the cheap price made it worth a punt. Cheap price, huh? Several Fuzzy Warbles later, it has proved to be an expensive but happy purchase, not to mention the Uffington White Horse up my sleeve.
Always preferred Go 2…waaah.
If you dug a little deeper under the shiny synth drenched shite* in the 80’s there were several gems to be found and IMHO XTC were diamonds. As Jay states above all the band’s albums were excellent and English Settlement is one of the finest albums of that decade.
*Yes there was some good stuff.
For some reason I didn’t buy any XTC til I was in my twenties, though I heard Senses…, All You Pretty Girls, Nigel etc in my childhood and loved every one. I’ve made up for it since and have certainly spent more money on XTC than any other band. English Settlement is certainly top 3, alongside Skylarking and Nonsuch. Another vote for the ‘What Do You Call that Noise’ podcast.
I think Oranges and Lemons is my favourite of them all -,very underrated. Then there was a disc set of unreleased/ outtakes that was exceptional and included a song called No thugs in our house which I loved.
I have a battered vinyl copy with ‘Derbyshire County Libraries’ stickered onto the front. Ah the heady days when libraries would sell off their slightly used vinyl after a year or two of needle abuse. As a confirmed new waver (first saw them on the Black Sea tour) I go backwards for their best work from ES rather than forwards. Either way it’s in there.
I’ve still got some ex-library CDs – Flowers in the Dirt for one. 50p in about 1992 and sounds just as good (and bad in places) as it must have done in 1989.
Dey’re alright, dese CDs, aren’t dey?
I quite like XTC, but I found Senses Working Overtime to be just incredibly irritating. Someone I knew thought it was called “Sixes working Overtime”,
All together,
“1,2,3,4,5, 6s working overtime”
I’ve heard someone singing along “Senses working ALL the time”
Factually correct (probably) but I couldn’t be bothered to correct them
Reference to The Prisoner, perhaps? Not their last…
Just astounded really that The Quietus has written a piece about a band someone’s actually heard of.
As with Pitchfork, their retrospective pieces – like this one – are very good but the majority of current artists they write about are patently fictional. “Nudge-core legends Badgerfondle to tour Orkneys” and so on.
Actually, I was hoping to catch the Badgerfondle gig in Kirkwall…
Hope you’ve had your jab.
For TB, I mean.
@duco01
Sadly, they pulled out of that particular gig when they found put their support act was an Ian Astbury tribute band called The Cull
Oh, that’s a pity.
Every time I’ve seen Badgerfondle, they’ve always played an excellent … sett.
Were you there the legendary night Hawkwind’s Dave Brock
sat in, D?
Sat in what?
Hey, quit unmellowing our vibe and head back to squaresville, gramps!
I see what you did there.
I enjoy The Quietus, but I sometimes wonder how difficult it would be to spoof them with some random bleepings and a good ‘three more from them later’ band / artist name.
Black Sea is the one for me.
On a related note, I just saw an announcement of a new vinyl pressing for Mummer…..
Scheduled for Spring 2022
Who is going to buy that?
Genuinely interested.
Me, probably. I have just about everything they ever did, bar the single of Wrapped in Grey, and the very valuable version of the 3D-EP.
….Bags of Fun with Buster?
Oh, yes. Featuring Dave Gregory on corduroy trousers.
Me too. ‘Mummer’ is probably my favourite XTC albums. It features ‘Ladybird’, arguably the finest song Partridge ever wrote.
Back in 1980, somebody bought me for my birthday Andy Partridge’s solo ‘dub’ LP, “Take Away/The Lure of Salvage”.
I must confess that I’ve not played it too often.
What is Explode Together like? Never heard it.
I also have the Smash Hits flexi-disk of theirs, plus the magazine. Somewhere…
Ten Feet Tall? I used to have that on a flexi they shared with The Skids (Olympian, I think). Very 1980 indeed.
That’s the one!
@duco01
I got that too. One play only I think.
Yeah, I might consider it too. Good quality vinyl, good pressing. A great album so a definite possibility.
Me too.
Good as the first two albums are, I don’t really play them. Nor do I play Drums & Wires and Black Sea very often.
I like the slightly pastoral XTC best – English Settlement was the start of a long run of crackers – with Skylarking my absolute fave.
I only bought the single of Love on a Farmboy’s Wages at the time, so don’t own this album on vinyl, and the Ape House remasters are excellent (and good value).
I’m slightly with Unc. on the artwork, though. See also Skylarking’s “ladygarden” cover. No wonder thay had battles with the record label.
Turn Skylarking over and you’re faced with a pants moustache. Eeeww!
Three more from them later…