What are you Listening to?

[Guybrush]

Yes, @SGR has noticed my posting of XTC songs lately I have listened to them quite a bit, including Skylarking which I enjoy.

I have looked into them before, maybe around 15 years ago or so, but they didn't quite stick with me then. But for the last 5 year or so maybe, there's been an increasing amount of New Wave bands in my rotation so I guess my ears had ripened and were ready. On revisiting them, I've found a much greater appreciation.

An album I did check out back then was Drums and Wires, so I'm gonna re-explore that one a bit. Of course we all love Making Plans for Nigel, but I also quite like this one:

[Lisnaholic]

If you've never heard their Skylarking record, it's 45 minutes very well spent. @Guybrush will back me up on that. 

^ Thanks ! I'll check that album out later today.

[SGR]

I can't settle on whether I prefer Skylarking or English Settlement. XTC has a Beatles-esque quality to them with their mastery of pop song craftsmanship. They also were Beatles-esque in the sense that they became a studio only band because Andy Partridge eventually was overcome with his stage anxiety. I think if you combined REM with the Beatles, you'd get XTC. One of the most underappreciated 80s bands imo.

[Marie Monday]

I think if you combined REM with the Beatles, you'd get XTC.

This is really very accurate. I had never listened to them but I like skylarking so far

[SGR]

This is really very accurate. I had never listened to them but I like skylarking so far

Thanks for confirming! I don't pull out analogies to The Beatles or REM incautiously.

XTC is one of those bands that did crack the mainstream a bit but remain, in my opinion, completely underrated/underappreciated on a broader level. Similar to Killing Joke or The Damned.

[Paul Smeenus]

English Settlement is my favorite XTC album, love it

[SGR]

English Settlement is my favorite XTC album, love it

Great album!

Now's as good a time as any to shout out @Suburban Placeholder? as the guy who put me on to both the album and the band via his top 100 album list on MB years ago! 

[Marie Monday]

I've never heard anything Zach Hill was involved in that I didn't like and this is no exception

[Lexi Darling]

Great album!

Now's as good a time as any to shout out @Suburban Placeholder? as the guy who put me on to both the album and the band via his top 100 album list on MB years ago! 

Absolutely. His list was indispensable for broadening my tastes back in the late aughts. Introduced me to Massive Attack, Grandaddy, Stereolab, DJ Shadow and a bunch of other artists I love to this day.

[SGR]

Absolutely. His list was indispensable for broadening my tastes back in the late aughts. Introduced me to Massive Attack, Grandaddy, Stereolab, DJ Shadow and a bunch of other artists I love to this day.

Same! Though by the time I got hip to it, it was the early 2010s.

The biggest find from that list for me was the Manics. I don't know if I ever would've discovered/listened to them naturally (as an American) otherwise. I ended up seeing them in Boston in 2014 during the 20th anniversary tour of The Holy Bible, which was then and now my all time favorite album - and of course, that was and is still my all time favorite concert I've ever seen.