Xtc - English Settlement
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Category: Music CD
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Music CD Cover
Artist: XtcEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Geffen Records
Soundtracks:
- Runaways
- Ball and Chain
- Senses Working Overtime
- Jason and the Argonauts
- No Thugs in Our House
- Yacht Dance
- All of a Sudden (It's Too Late)
- Melt the Guns
- Leisure
- It's Nearly Africa
- Knuckle Down
- Fly on the Wall
- Down in the Cockpit
- English Roundabout
- Snowman
Free Music Notes for English Settlement
Free Music Review: A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Hit: 5 Stars
Bitter waves of regret tug at my soul whenever I listen to this record and imagine what it could have done for XTC had an overstressed and fatigued Andy Partidge not been struck by stage fright shortly after its release in 1982. If ever you wanted a concrete example of how unfair life can be, look no further than the double album that is "English Settlement". After years of slogging their guts out on tour and producing a series of quirky yet deeply flawed records, the quartet that was XTC headed into 1982 in sore need of a breakthrough work. "English Settlement" -- which despite its weak spots also includes perhaps the finest song written in the last quarter century -- was the album that should have turned XTC into a super group. It was released 18 years ago and nothing I have heard since remotely comes close to equalling it in power, intelligence and musical proficiency. As an indictment of the sheer emptiness, mindlessness and nastiness eating away at the innards of modern English society, this work of art stands unparallelled. But what still surprises me about "English Settlement" is how fantastically well constructed it is and just what good musicians these four young men were. Not a chord misplaced, nary a sloppy drumbeat, every song a crystal-clear masterpiece of production to be cherished, every song a seemingly simple silver spoon which on further inspection turns out to be covered in incredibly detailed filigree. Some of these tracks are worth listening to just for the pleasure of finding an unexpected guitar riff or fleeting keyboard solo hidden somewhere in the background. This said, we need to be honest. Of the 15 songs on this record, there are only eight you can listen to easily. Andy Partridge seems to have been allergic to the concept of commercialisation and every early XTC work included a few tracks which charitably could be described as challenging. His writing on "English Settlement" ranges wildly from the inspired to the embarrassing ("Life is like a firework, you're only lit once", I mean for heaven's sake, how trite) and a few tracks are best just skipped. But when he hits the right seam, this man mines the best coal you'll ever burn. What I love about the best XTC songs is their sheer exuberance, the twists and turns, the knowledge that you're in the hands of a musical master possessed by an extraordinary muse who has been let loose in a studio and allowed to do what he wants. The overall tone of this work is both troubled and troubling, dark, nervously inquiring, puzzled, imploring, occasionally upbeat and always full of unsettled energy. Even shorn of its best song, "English Settlement" is a solid contender for one of the Top 200 albums of all time. That gives you an idea of this record's underlying strength. What propels it into the stratosphere is the fantastic, the miraculous, the chillingly extraordinary "Senses Working Overtime", a barely suppressed cry of pain from an oversensitive soul marvelling at the earth's cruel beauty which comes closer to uncovering the core of the human spirit than any other I have ever heard. Many, many years ago I remember watching a televised soccer match between Belgium and Scotland when, out of nothing, a Scottish player scored one of the finest goals ever seen in the sport's history. On the channel I was watching all you could hear was an awe-struck commentator saying "Aaaaahhhhhh" and that's how I feel every time I listen to "Senses Working Overtime". If I were a songwriter and heard that song for the first time, I would snap my pencils, shut the piano lid and change careers. And yet despite all this XTC remained in the musical shadows, hamstrung by their failure to tour live and build on the initial success of "English Settlement". Other interesting and worthwhile works followed, notably "Skylarking", but to my mind the mainspring had already been snapped. Other XTC fans will disagree with me, I know, but to my mind the band never again produced anything remotely as revolutionary or interesting as "English Settlement".
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