On the drive home from band rehearsal last night I popped XTC's English Settlement into the CD player and it really took me back to the early 80's when there was such a spirit of adventure and boundary-breaking in music.



Andy Partridge, XTC's primary tunesmith, is a master of the melody, and that talent is in full display on English Settlement, even if the backing tracks are often somewhat jarring. The juxtaposition of the stripped-down instrumentals and the sing-along melodies is what makes it such an entertaining set.

I've heard several of XTC's albums, but currently the only ones I own are this one and Oranges and Lemons. To my ears there is a huge difference in the band's approach between the two, with the latter employing a much richer musical sonic palette than the former. Oranges and Lemons is a good album with some excellent songs (most notably the hit single "The Mayor of Simpleton", with it's driving basslines), but for my money English Settlement is the better record.

I hadn't listened to it in a long, long time because I've been off exploring other genres, but hearing it has inspired me to re-investigate the other CDs from that period, and so I'm looking forward to rediscovering the joys of bands like the Psychedelic Furs, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello's early stuff, PiL, the Clash and the Pistols, New Model Army, Patti Smith, Wire and whatever else I find in my collection that I can remember being very into back in the early 80's...