XTC in the Press: 1987

• “Andy Speaks to Simon Potter”, 1987
• Reviews of White Music, Black Sea and Mummer, Q, 1987
• “Exclusive: Interview with Swindon Guru Andy Partridge”, Sudden Apathy, XMAS 1987
• Reviews of Skylarking and Psonic Psunspot, Rolling Stone, December 1987
• “‘Dear God’ Starts a Stir”, The New York Times, July 15, 1987
• "Dear God", CMJ New Music Report, February 27, 1987

1987

XTC
White Music
Black Sea
Mummer

XTC came to prominence in 1978 by bumming a ride aboard the New Wave express, but even as techno-punks pogoing awkwardly out of step at the art school hop, on their hectic first album White Music they displayed the idiosyncratic smarts that have sustained a distinguished career on the sidelines of English rock.

The spluttering incoherence of Andy Partridge's vocals on This Is Pop and the spikey nervous energy typified by scattergun songs like Science Friction had given way to a more measured approach by the time of 1980's Black Sea, but their penchant for convoluted arrangements somehow bundled into oddly-shaped pop packages remained intact, and now provided minor hits in Sgt. Rock and Towers Of London.

But the lurking suspicion that here was a group inclined to be too clever for their own good was confirmed in 1983 by Mummer, their least successful release, and an album that paraded moments of inconsequential pastoral whimsy, like Colin Moulding's Wonderland, together with performances of irritating pomposity as on Great Fire.

These, the last three albums from XTC's catalogue to be released on CD, come complete with additional songs culled from B-sides and EPs (16 extra tracks in all) and, given Partridge's appallingly daft diction, indispensable lyric sheets.

In retrospect there is often less to XTC's complex music than at first meets the ear. Despite all their high-wire antics, they have always managed to sling up the safety-net of a good chorus and, paradoxically, this simple, traditional facility may yet prove to be their greatest achievement.

Q Rating:
White Music
Black Sea
Mummer

Reviewed By: David Sinclair

[Thanks to Christopher Marrinan]

Rolling Stone
12/17/87-12/31/87
The Year in Records
David Fricke (individual synopses not credited)

Skylarking - XTC
Psonic Psunspot - The Dukes of Stratosphear

With these two dazzling son-of-Pepper platters, the English pop wags XTC beat the Summer of Love nostalgia peddlers at their own game. Produced by Todd Rundgren, Skylarking evoked the lush, bucolic allure of English springtime with earthy acoustic guitars, willow strings and a playful paisley surrealism, like a Beatlesque Barnyard Mystery Tour spiked with singer-guitarist Andy Partridge's bittersweet lyric musings. Psonic Psunspot, the work of XTC's acid alter ego, the Dukes of Stratosphear, was simply a loving mimicry of eccentric British post-Pepper pop, its campy parodies of bands like Pink Floyd and the Move authentically executed with all the tricks of the time - Mellotron, fun-house sound effects and daffy songs titles like "Collideascope," which just about says it all.

Go back to Chalkhills Articles.