XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)
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Music CD Cover
Artist: XTCEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-05-23
Music Label: Tvt
Soundtracks:
- Playground
- Stupidly Happy
- In Another Life
- My Brown Guitar
- Boarded Up
- I'm The Man Who Murdered Love
- We're All Light
- Standing In For Joe
- Wounded Horse
- You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful
- Church Of Women
- The Wheel And The Maypole
Free Music Notes for Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)
Free Music Review: Sadly, not a return to form
Hit: 3 Stars
I can certainly see why this CD would be appreciated by XTC fans. After waiting so long (7 years, for God's sake), then to be treated to 2 CDs in rapid succession, would make one's mood bouyant. But they just don't deliver. There are some good songs, yes, but Molding in particular, disappoints. His songs are just not that strong, lyrically or musically. Partridge's songs suffer from a sameness in the production and arranging. Also, I think Gregory is sorely missed. His always imaginative guitar always added something special to the tunes. I pull out this CD every couple of years to see if I've missed something, but I always end up disappointed. After the consistant brilliance of everything they did from Drums and Wires through Nonsuch, this is a considerable letdown. But, even mediocre XTC is better than most of best of any other artist's work, especially these days.
Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) Poster
'Wasp Star' is the eclectic follow up to the critically acclaimed 'Apple Venus Volume 1', featuring the return to the incisive guitar pop that made XTC legends. 2000 TVT release.Who's the Brian Wilson of tomorrow? If this elector's vote counts, it'll be XTC's Andy Partridge, whose studio genius and crafty pop prowess is unparalleled over a career spanning four decades and 13 studio albums (XTC even does an impressive Beach Boys impression as their alter egos, the Dukes of Stratosphear). Wasp Star: Apple Venus, Vol. 2 does the first volume one better, adding XTC's penchant for perplexing pop to their gorgeous pastoral inclinations. --Tod Nelson
Sidelined by a decade-long "strike" against their former record label, XTC's Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding nonetheless kept themselves busy writing songs and recording demos during the 1990s. The resulting body of work was divvied up stylistically, with the more pastoral/orchestral pieces consigned to Apple Venus Volume One (and Homespun, its accompanying home-demo collection). The brash electric guitar flourish that launches Wasp Star's "Playground" heralds a collection that leans toward the jangly guitars and jagged rhythms of the band's Black Sea and English Settlement prime. Adorned with ornate harmonic flourishes and their trademark pop sophistication, Wasp Star finds creative mainstay Andy Partridge in a distinctly upbeat, romantically intoxicated state of mind (as witnessed by the virtually irony-free "Stupidly Happy"), yet one in which history-bred suspicions die hard. It's Moulding who seems the most melancholy here, with the gentle romantic prodding of "In Another Life" and in the downright gloomy take on his hometown's future, "Boarded Up." Known for occasional pointed social jabs, XTC's focus has become a bit more philosophical with age, Partridge and Moulding perhaps gleaning the wisdom that the hardest battles are sometimes fought on the home front. But if music this joyous and rewarding is the result, it's been the noblest of struggles. --Jerry McCulley
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