XTC - Drums and Wires
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Music CD Cover
Artist: XTCEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2002-08-06
Music Label: Caroline
Soundtracks:
- Making Plans For Nigel
- Helicopter
- Day In Day Out
- When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty
- Ten Feet Tall
- Roads Girdle The Globe
- Real by Reel
- Millions
- That Is The Way
- Outside World
- Scissor Man
- Complicated Game
- Life Begins At The Hop
- Chain Of Command
- Limelight
Free Music Notes for Drums and Wires
Free Music Review: fun, clever, sharp
Hit: 4 Stars
Drums & Wires was my first introduction to XTC, "Helicopter" specifically. Who were these guys with their excessively energetic, snappy, and clever songs? Some of the songs on the album didn't sit well with me at first listen, but I could tell they bore repeated listening.
Today the album still smarts. "Life Begins at the Hop" is a great pop song, "Complicated Game" is still powerful, and most of the rest of the tracks still resonate well. XTC was my favorite band from Drums and Wires through the end of the 80s.
Drums and Wires was one of those albums that had a few different configurations, depending on whether you had the UK release, the US release, or something else like one of the later CD releases (Geffen, e.g.). I think the current version finally gets this right. "Chain of Command," and "Limelight" were originally released as a limited bonus 45 with the album, along with the single "Life Begins at the Hop." The songs were later inserted as CDs accommodated more tracks, haphazardly in the middle at first (i.e. between "front" and "back" sides of the CD). This was a problem with all of the original Virgin CD releases. Thankfully, the bonus tracks have been moved to the end.
This album marked the departure of keyboardist Barry Andrews, and thus XTC's new emphasis on guitars (wires).
Drums and Wires Poster
Most Americans' first taste of XTC came from this CD, originally released in 1979. The band's first full-length without cofounder Barry Andrews, it was a cavalcade of Andy Partridge's neuroses and paranoia. Although it contained two quirky bona fide pop songs--the calling card "Making Plans for Nigel" and the breezy "Life Begins at the Hop"--the music as a whole was as jagged as Partridge's attitude. "Complicated Game" and "Scissor Man" have the singer's haunting howl echoing and whispering throughout, sounding like a fun house operator gone mad, while "Real by Reel," another pop standout, might be the most conventional song on the CD. Drums and Wires is a must-have for anybody who is only discovering the band. Skylarking and the collected singles are the only other releases that come close to capturing the band's early and earnest dementia. --Steve GdulaRemastered reissue of 1979 album features the classic 'Making Plans For Nigel'.Virgin Records. 2001.
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