XTC fans (or non-): possible explanations of their appeal???

Try buying the greatest hits, it makes most sense.

Judging from interviews I've heard, the two main songwriters (and now two remaining original members) draw generally on musical references from their own youth, namely Sixties psychedelia (mostly UK), bubblegum pop and elements of easy listening. If a chronological map of their own sound could be drawn it would look very generally like this.

Glam Pop w/ whizzy Sci Fi keyboards.

Herky Jerky New Wave.

As above, but trying less hard to be overtly dissonant and becoming better composed.

Acoustic elements creep in.

Tempos slow a little, pastoral elements creep in.

Broader songwriting, sixties, world music and folk/early music elements appear. (circa English Settlement).

Big drum sounds generally out, more keyboards, acoustic guitars, quirky production tricks and a sniff of Psychedelia.

Mildly distressing diversion into Eighties production style with rip-roaring drum machines and Fairlight samplers etc:

Above offset by side project consisting of Psychedelia/Power Pop/Sixties pastiches.

Lingering Sixties elements. Pastoral/folk touches back in bolder strokes, strings sections and Todd Rundgren kitchen sink production.

As above but with Billy-Big-Bollocks L.A. production values.

Less obvious sixties pastiche elements, more mature songwriting, kinda reaching a grown up amalgam of previous influences.

Xtc where they are today, Andy Partridge still willing to write music that is big, brash, heartfelt and sometimes a little over the top.

Moulding relaxes into old age by writing, often dodgy, easy listening ditties.

Their best song (granted I've only heard a few albums plus the singles) is clearly and absolutely "I'd Like That"

English Settlement I wouldn't include with some of their strongest albums.

only longtime fans
will get E.S. properly
(that's its problem/strength)

i agee with this

English Settlement I wouldn't include with some of their strongest albums.

i do NOT agree with this. every song on english settlement is amazing. even DOWN IN THE COCKPIT.

I could maybe settle for 'over earnest' instead of cute.

That's interesting because I didn't start liking XTC until I bought a used of ES. Granted, the only album I heard before that was Skylarking (and I thought that absolutely sucked until a couple weeks ago).

Haha Nina Blackwood just played "Balloon Man" on New Wave Nation!

Rockist, WTF with you today?

actually Smashmouth can be pretty pretentious too, just these guys got pretentious in a more baroque way. I guess the equasion is XTC - "Sgt. Peppers is the best album ever" + rasp = Smashmouth

I would never consider XTC alongside Gabriel or Bush -- completely different aesthetics going on there. I can never imagine XTC giving off the same air of gravity, seriousness, artiness, or self-importance (note: I love Gabriel and Bush, too) as these two. If you're going to say that Gabriel and Bush are better at being prog (which in your definition seems only to mean being complex and intricate), then there are surely a WHOLE SHITLOAD of artists better than G and B! Same argument defeats your second point about eccentricity, too.

I realize that you're just trying to work out why you don't like them and I respect that, but you're pigeonholing them somewhere they just don't belong. I'd say your second characterization of them (as UK psych-pop/etc.) is much more on-point, but as far as them not being especially energetic or hooky... I can't reach into your ears and take the cotton out from over here! Seriously, though, you should get Black Sea if you want to give them a second chance. That was the album that completely and totally sold me on them, and their other records are easier to understand once you have a basis from which to appreciate their sound and approach.

Basically, what I'm asking is whether or not a part of what XTC fans like about their music is some sense of a perceived prog-ness. By this, I'm referring specifically to complexity in the songwriting, playing, studio arrangements and production, etc. (plus a general sense of eccentricity), as opposed to the prog elements that you bring up (gravity, seriousness, artiness, or self-importance).

No, really...my guess is that it's not the complexity that people like about XTC, but rather their melodicism and sound. The complexity is some sort of icing on the cake?

Explanations of their appeal? Incredible songwriting, gorgeous lyricism, unmatched consistency.

I don't think they're prog (and I like Yes and Floyd, and I don't see any common ground). I like Andy Partridge because he's a fantastic lyricist and writes direct, extremely effective pop songs.

In reference to "Senses Working Overtime" sounding cute: I see your point, and some people I've played XTC for hear an "oompa-loompa" quality in it. I attribute that to a willingness to be totally innocent, even naive, about their subject matter - spring, family, hallucinations, destroying civilization and reverting back to nature - and then giving themselves to it with total exuberance. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush don't seem like good points of reference for XTC, and even next to a lot of post-punk they're a lot more giddy/innocent sounding.

I'd start with Drums and Wires ('specially "Helicopter," "Real by Reel" and "Scissor Man") or, as mentioned above, Black Sea. English Settlement took a while to settle in with me - now it's about my favorite record ever.

Again, I'm only familiar with XTC from their songs that have been played on alternative rock/cutting edge radio since the beginning of the format (early-'80s, where I live--they've had a decent amount of songs on there, obvioulsy), plus hearing ES now and, I don't know...I remember hearing 25 O'Clock once and I heard part of Apple Venus a few years ago. I understand the impulse to call them Beatle-esque, but how accurate is that, ultimately? How much is a given XTC album really and truly equivalent to Sgt. Pepper or Magical Mystery Tour? Or how much is it equivalent to, say, the Kinks' Something Else (from the Kinks era that I am presuming you're talking about)?

Where does the XTC-Yes comparison come from? I've seen the parallel drawn loads of times, but the two bands are utterly mutually exclusive.

Also, a lot of prog fans happen to like XTC.

Finally!

I picked up Drums and Wires a few days ago, and I'm glad I made one more attempt with XTC. I don't know what happened in the 3 years between Drums and Wires and English Settlement, but if "Complicated Game" were to get into a schoolyard fight with a song like "Senses Working Overtime" (which I like, even), the latter would get bloodied and then have to watch his girlfriend make out with "Complicated Game".

Great song, great album. I also bought Black Sea, but I think I'm going to listen to Drums and Wires again first.

'Complicated Game' is one of my favourite XTC songs, and one of their most underrated, period. Does the quiet to loud thing better than just about anything else, has great lyrics, and sports some truly unhinged guitar work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9GIxfbfob0

the bonus tracks on the Black Sea CD are seriously incredible. "Smokeless Zone" sounds not just weird but utterly unique, unlike anything else I've ever heard, while remaining effortless and extremely fun; "Don't Lose Your Temper" has a guitar line that puts a smile on my face every time I hear it and is possibly better than anything on the album proper. especially after the rather dour "Travels in Nihilon", those tracks are like perfect little blobs of sunshine-flavored jello (wait, what the fuck?).

Actually, the best thing about the song is Partridge's delivery of the final, climactic 'God asked me...' verse. It's perfect, and I don't think vocal echo/multi-track has ever worked more splendidly. Repeat after me: RightRaRightRaRightRaRightRaRightRightRight!

OMG bryson strikes! "Smokeless Zone" is my favourite track off Black Sea (with the possible exception, and here's where you LOSE, of "Travels In Nihilon")! You forgot "The Somnambulist", btw, which still scares the living crap outta me.

I wasn't counting "The Somnambulist" because I'm still not sure what to make out of it. it's sort of like those bonus tracks at the end of the notwist's Neon Golden, in that it's good, but so distinct in sound and mood from the rest of the album that it almost feels more like commentary than music.

an old friend asked on fb which album his friends had owned the most copies of (in various formats), and my answer was XTC's Oranges & Lemons. i hadn't listened to it in a long time, so i pulled it out and listened to it in the car today.

to explain the appeal of XTC the first time they appealed to me is pretty easy: i was 12, they were weirder than anything i had heard before, they sang about politics and how horrible people are, they welcomed me into the garden of earthly delight, funny songs about love and genitals, their songs were catchy and not all the same, they weren't scary, and nobody else i knew had any idea who they were.

i vividly remember seeing them perform on MTV, which is what made me want to buy the album the first time. now that it's 2017, i remembered that i can see if that performance is on youtube and it is! i also found my 8th grade yearbook last week at my parents' house and i think XTC saved me from developing into a boring conformist.

all that from this performance of "scarecrow people", the song i remember liking when i saw this, probably sitting at home by myself bored and watching mtv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI8MalyCCGU

i calculated incorrectly -- i was 13 but the sentiment remains true

They're radio promo tour for O & L boots are pretty dope. Fun banter and slick guitar inter-play ...

Their - duh

man, wish I had a cool story like that. mine is I heard "Generals and Majors" on internet radio and then had to play it 10 more times, and eventually wondered what their other music was like

I honestly can't remember what my first exposure to them was. "Skylarking" was the first album I bought, but prior to that I was def familiar with Senses Working Overtime and a few other singles thanks to 91X airplay.

For me, it was just a case of knowing their two most well known tracks well ('Making Plans For Nigel' and 'Senses Working Overtime') and then checking out the albums to see if the rest of the stuff was any good. It was.

my memory of seeing that performance always made me doubt my sanity -- did it even happen? did i dream it up? i'm glad to realize i wasn't imagining it. such a great album all the way through.

at the time i was into INXS, REM, etc (lol) but also had one Cure album -- as a littler kid I loved The Beatles and XTC was the most appealing combo of modern humor and topical subject matter + well-crafted Beatley songs. i also hated Reagan and nuclear bombs so the political songs resonated a lot. i feel fortunate to have had nothing better to do that evening than watch tv by myself.

eventually i found Skylarking at the library.

Was 15, had seen them on Urgh! and then noticed cheap cassette of English Settlement at rockheads in downtown St. Paul (the version without Africa, cockpit, leisure etc on it-- I still don't like those songs being there). Loved it right away. The year after, Skylarking came out and became the huge album of my circle of high school friends.

I doubt I'm the only one that discovered them this way, but They Might Be Giants have a song called "XTC vs Adam Ant" and I was at the age where I was just starting to learn about music not on the radio and would check out literally any band I heard about. Also got into Adam Ant that way, but he is not as much a fave

about a year and a half ago a good friend of mine made a very passionate and long post on FB explaining why, "after 20 years of near constant music consumption," he'd concluded XTC was his favorite band ever, for all the reasons we know... i was in new york and about to go to Other Music so i picked up Mummer and The Big Express there. ended up being my last visit there before it closed.

the O&L radio tour is sweet. the way their guitars blend on Love on a Farmboy's Wages - oh man

https://youtu.be/cTtFTHI7Or0?t=20m13s

I doubt I'm sure I'm the only one that discovered them this way, but it was on the 1982 WOMAD benefit double album Music and Rhythm, which had a bunch of artists who played the first WOMAD festival and which I bought for the unreleased Peter Gabriel, Pete Townshend and Jon Hassell tracks. It also had "It's Nearly Africa," which I completely flipped out over.

Bought English Settlement a few weeks later and flipped out 14 more times (see, 'cause there's a total of 15 tracks). By the time Mummer came out a year later, I had bought every album and most of the singles, EPs and side projects (with a big thank you to the late lamented Venus Records on 8th St. in NYC).