XTC made a dozen studio albums between 1978 and 2000, plus two records under a psychedelic disguise. There isn’t a bad one in the bunch. Some are just better than others.
This list of the best XTC albums leans toward the records that hold up best from start to finish. If you only know “Making Plans for Nigel” and “Dear God,” start at the top and work your way down.
1. English Settlement (1982)
This is the one for me, and forty-plus years later it still sounds fresh.
XTC traded in some of the sharp edges for acoustic guitars, 12-string electrics and Colin Moulding’s fretless bass. It was a double album in England, recorded in six weeks at The Manor in Oxfordshire, and it went to number five, their only top ten album at home. “Senses Working Overtime” was the hit, but “Ball and Chain,” “No Thugs in Our House,” “Jason and the Argonauts” and “Runaways” are just as strong. This is one of those albums you can play from beginning to end and it’s consistently great throughout.
I remember seeing the video for “Senses Working Overtime” on MTV. It grabbed your attention right away.
In America it came out as a single LP with five songs cut. Find the full version. It is also, sadly, the album they were touring behind when Andy Partridge walked off the stage in Paris.
English Settlement came out in February 1982, but I didn’t hear it until that summer, at my brother’s apartment. Sure, I knew Elvis Costello, the Police and the Clash. This was the album that truly opened my eyes to the whole world of new wave.
2. Skylarking (1986)
If English Settlement is the head, Skylarking is the heart. Todd Rundgren produced it at his studio in Woodstock, New York, and he and Partridge fought through most of the sessions. Somehow that tension made something beautiful.
The album flows like one long summer day, from “Summer’s Cauldron” and “Grass” through “The Meeting Place,” “Earn Enough for Us” and “Season Cycle.” The B-side “Dear God” blew up on college radio and was added to later pressings. Some critics call it the best album of the 1980s, period. It’s hard to argue.
3. Black Sea (1980)
The best of the “live band” era. Black Sea is loud, tight and full of hooks, recorded with Steve Lillywhite producing and Hugh Padgham engineering. “Respectable Street,” “Generals and Majors,” “Towers of London” and “Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)” all came off this one, and it was their highest charting album in America at number 41.
Early copies came in a sea green paper bag. If you have one, hang on to it.
4. Drums and Wires (1979)
The first album with guitarist Dave Gregory, and the one where XTC found their sound. Lillywhite and Padgham gave Terry Chambers’ drums a big, open, room-filling sound.
“Making Plans for Nigel,” written by Colin Moulding, was their breakthrough hit. “Life Begins at the Hop,” “Helicopter,” “Ten Feet Tall” and “Complicated Game” round out one of the best new wave records of the decade.
5. Oranges & Lemons (1989)
Big, bright and colorful, just like the cover. “Mayor of Simpleton” went to number one on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart and got real play on American radio. “King for a Day,” “The Loving,” “Garden of Earthly Delights” and “Chalkhills and Children” show a band that had fully embraced the studio. It runs long, but there’s very little filler.
6. Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999)
After years of fighting with Virgin Records, XTC came back with an orchestral, pastoral record that sounds like nothing else they made. “River of Orchids” opens it with pizzicato strings and horns, and “Easter Theatre,” “I’d Like That” and “Harvest Festival” are among Partridge’s finest songs. Dave Gregory left during these sessions, leaving Partridge and Moulding as a duo.
7. Nonsuch (1992)
Produced by Gus Dudgeon, best known for his work with Elton John. “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” is the one most people know (Crash Test Dummies covered it for Dumb and Dumber), and “The Disappointed” was a UK hit. “Wrapped in Grey” and “Books Are Burning” are quietly two of their best.
8. The Big Express (1984)
The title nods to Swindon’s railway heritage, and the record sounds like it. It’s dense and clanging, with “All You Pretty Girls,” “This World Over” and “Train Running Low on Soul Coal.” It gets overlooked, but it’s worth the effort.
9. Mummer (1983)
The first record after the band quit touring, and the last with Terry Chambers, who left during the sessions and moved to Australia. It’s gentler and more English country than anything before it. “Love on a Farmboy’s Wages” and “Wonderland” are the highlights.
10. Chips from the Chocolate Fireball (The Dukes of Stratosphear, 1987)
Not technically an XTC album, but everybody knows who the Dukes really were. XTC recorded 25 O’Clock (1985) and Psonic Psunspot (1987) under fake names as a tribute to the psychedelic records of 1967. This CD puts both together. “Vanishing Girl,” “The Mole from the Ministry” and “You’re a Good Man Albert Brown” sound like lost gems from the Summer of Love. As the story goes, the first Dukes record outsold The Big Express.
The Rest of the Catalog
White Music and Go 2 (both 1978) are wiry, twitchy early records with Barry Andrews on keyboards. They’re great fun, but the band was still finding itself. Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) (2000) is the guitar pop companion to Apple Venus, and a fine way to go out.
Where to Start With XTC
New to XTC? Start with English Settlement, then Skylarking, then Black Sea. If you’re hooked after that, and you will be, keep going down the list.
XTC never toured behind most of these records. They didn’t have to. The songs did the work.
