XTC

This 1999 record was the more accessible pop album of the two volumes the band released that year. The songs all maintain the upbeat, smart and clever '60s pop vibe that the band have been perfecting for years. "The Wheel and the Maypole" is especially inspired, as is "We're All Light." The record is a fine addition to their impressive catalog.

Most of us forget the slights and setbacks we endured at recess. Not Andy Partridge, the
principal singer-songwriter of XTC. On "Playground," the ripping first track on Wasp Star,
he sifts through long-ago humiliations for clues to his adult personality. As a festival of
childish voices taunts him, he recalls being "marked by the masters and bruised by the
bullies," and eventually concludes that "you may leave school, but it never leave... More >