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: Stupidly Happy -- Desceptively Clever
Hit: 5 Stars
After being "on strike" from their contract with Virgin for about seven years, this band finally came back with two releases in quick succession. I was disappointed with the pastoral, orchestral extravaganza that was Apple Venus vol.1, but perhaps that was just because I was expecting a continuation of the pop tradition of previous albums. Vol.2 or "Wasp Star" restores my faith. If you liked "Nonsuch" and "Oranges and Lemons" you will also love this. It is the most accessable thing they have ever done and it is instantly likeable.
In fact, it is SO instantly likeable that there is a danger that after hearing it only twice, you will start skipping tracks because your mind is going "Yeah, I love this but I know how it goes..." in the way you might skip an old Beatles classic. However this, like the Beatles, is not "disposable pop" -- each song is a melodic lolly you can enjoy over and over again, each time you can suck out a new nuance of pop flavour that you may not have noticed the first time around. There are hooks galore in these songs, and they get their hooks into you nice and early.
When I say "they" what I really mean is just two guys: Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding. Dave Gregory quit during Apple Venus vol.1. Hence we are left only with the two songwiters who were with the band since it's inception. They haven't played live for over twenty years, so can we really call them a "band" anymore? It's just two songwriters pissing about in the studio with the occasional studio musician. In regards to the way they work, they are now the British equivalent to Steely Dan. Same thing across the Atlantic: Walter Becker and Donald Fagan, reclusive studio freaks. The similarity is only in the WAY they work, not the end result, for there is no musical similarity (except maybe "Standing in for Joe" ;-) and they don't share writing credit either. So "XTC" is now just a recording banner, a "brand name" -- but it is a good brand, and I love their product.
"Playground" -- opens with a strong riff (you'll get that in track two, too!), and explores the same theme he so eloquently summed up in his hit "Senses Working Overtime". "You may leave school but it never leaves you..." he sings. Except now he's an "old" man, and his teenage daughter is singing the backing vocals.
"Stupidly Happy" is built on a repetitive Stones-like riff and is highly infectious. A happy virus that you think you have kicked after two listens but, the next day you will re-catch it. It may be "stupid," but spread it around anyway, and make the world a better place. The simplicity of the song is desceptive. The riff repeats over and over for the life of the song, without variation. That's stupid, right? Not really, for all the variation is provided by everything else: the bass line cranks up a cog, introduce another percussive element, the dexterously-placed acoustic guitar arpeggio -- these all come into play along the way to give the song all the color and tone it needs while still being driven along by that one infectious repetitive riff. A cleverly-constructed piece of "stupid" pop by one of the best in the business. One of the best songs in this current offering.
"In Another Life" -- this is the first of Colin's songs for this album, and the lyrics are hilarious. Both these guys have a great sense of humour. And on what other pop CD will you find the main instrument being a harmonium? It sounds delightfully eccentric -- just like these two guys.
"Boarded Up" -- another song from Colin. It's got to be the most "woodiest" sounding track I've ever heard. I can almost smell the maplewood (or whatever)!! It sounds like they are literally banging on a board for percussion. In a sense, thet is exactly what they are doing: they are tapping on the sound-board of an acoustic guitar.
"I'm the Man Who Murdered Love" -- a typically unique point of view from a unique musical mind. Starting with the chorus is a trick invented by the Beatles (on cue, let us sing: "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah..."). However the other half of the trick would be knowing when to apply it. As one of the best song-craftsmen in the business, AP knows instinctively when to do it, and when not to. Not only is the chorus incredibly catchy, but the opening line (and title) is intrigueing and thus immediately grabs the attention of the listener. However the verses MAKE the song. Without the substance behind the lyrics, this song would be vapid. Indeed, anyone who didn't listen closely and only judged the song on the chorus would soon dismiss this song as trite. It is one thing to come up with an intrigueing title and catchy chorus. The real skill is making it come together with the compelling and perverse logic of the lyrics in each verse. Without that, one would soon tire of the chorus. In lesser hands, this song-idea could have been a dud, but AP wouldn't bother recording it unless he struck just the right balance and placed all components just where they should be. Whether it is a repeated riff ("Stupidly Happy") or a repeated phrase ("I'm the man who murdered love") you've got to listen beyond the desceptive simplicity to appreciate the brilliant songcraft on display here.
"We're All Light" -- you don't hear many songs these days which incorporates the theremin, especially in something which otherwise sounds more conventional. One of the more musically-
sophisticated songs on the album.
"Standing in for Joe" -- Hmmm...he's "playing all the parts," including "switching off the bedroom lights." How kind of him to go out of his way in doing his mate a favour by looking after his girlfriend so attentively --There's Colin's devilish sense of humour again!
"Wounded Horse" -- the result of what happens to the heart of the boyfriend when he finds out what his "mate" has been up to. This is yet another one of Andy's "divorce songs," probably written around the same time as "Your Dictionary" (from "Apple Venus vol.1") and "Young Marrieds" (from "Fuzzy Warbles"). He sings it like he knows what he's talking about. The final horse-like exhale after the completion of the song is typical of their attention to detail in the studio. He will gallop and jump that extra hurdle to get things just right -- I wonder how many takes it took to get "just the right tone" in the exhaled breath.
"You and the Clouds will still be Beautiful" -- Sounds like something Sting would do, only Andy writes a better Sting song than Sting himself!! As musically sophisticated as "We're All Light".
"Church of Women" -- there's that unique point of view popping it's partridge-head up again. Possibly my favourite song on the album. Finally, a sermon I can relate to!! This is one church I'd like to attend. My family will be so pleased that I have finally come back to the fold: "I'm on my knees but dancing..."
"The Wheel and the Maypole" -- Andy always has something special for the last track on an XTC album and this one does not disappoint. A truly strange song. I can't imagine where else they could have put it in the track listing except for here at the end. The maypole spins the wheel of life, life is quite a spin, but in the end we get flung off like a frisbe into the ether! "Everything decays" he sings in a bouncy, joyous tone. He is singing about death and decay in the most uplifting and accepting manner. Accept death and enjoy the spin of life while you are here. The universe itself will die, so don't feel too bad. In it's own way, this is a very life-affirming song, and a very apt and upbeat ending to the album....if not the universe, just yet ;-)
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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