XTC

For this 1979 album, XTC lost founding member Barry Andrews (later to join Shriekback) and gained a second guitarist with Dave Gregory. The result was one of the finest moments of their early years. Including both "Making Plans For Nigel" and "Life Begins At The Hop", this album really shows that XTC were not about to be contained by post-punk minimalism alone.

XTC could concoct perfect formula pop songs if they'd just take it easy. But the group's
glory is that songwriters Andy Partridge and Colin Mouldings won't take it easy: they're
compulsive hook factories on overtime, cramming every tune with more clever ideas than
formula pop can bear. Even a comparatively low-density number like Mouldings's "Life
Begins at the Hop," which opens the American version of Drums and Wires, sprin... More >

My reservations about this tuneful but willfully eccentric pop are ideological. With its playful clash of cross-currents (crossed wires, really, to go with the jingle drums) it's just a "Complicated Game"--like everything else under the sun, Andy Partridge believes. This idea is an attitude rather than an analysis, and it assures that the music's underlying passion will be strictly formal. But I like games, especially three-handed hearts or this record--which require concentration but not lifetime dedication, and Partridge and Colin Moulding are moving toward a great art-pop mean that will set standards for the genre. Catchy, funny, interesting--and it rocks. (Grade - A-)