Andy Partridge – Fuzzy Warbles 2 (2002)

This is the second of XTC's Andy Partridge's trawl through the tapes he has in his garden shed, a mixture of demos, rehearsals, songs which never quite got there, songs which never quite got finished and bits of fun which were never meant to go any further.

So, XTC demos first -there's a solid demo of You're The Wish You Are I Had (from The Big Express), a first take of Chain Of Command (free single with early copies of Drums and Wires), a very early solo version of All Of A Sudden (from English Settlement), with nothing more than the chorus intact, a much more developed Summer's Cauldron, recorded at Dave Gregory's house, and not sounding like Todd Rundgren had too much to do to prepare it for Skylarking. There's also a version of Then She Appeared (eventually on Nonsuch), a spoof released by a music magazine as a song by the lost '60s psychedelia band The Golden, as well as its B-side It's Snowing Angels supposedly by Choc Cigar Chief Champion - no one suggested that the latter be repurposed for the Dukes or XTC, with good reason.

While on the Dukes, there's a fine early demo of 25 O'Clock.

Of the rest, there's a rehearsal and a demo version of Ra Ra For Red Rocking Horse, a decent enough song which never quite made it to Skylarking. Finished songs include the bouncy I Don't Want To Be Here, recorded with Colin Moulding for a benefit CD, the melancholy Young Marrieds, a song from the Wasp Star era, and Ship Trapped In The Ice, again a jolly little number with darker overtones around the recording contract XTC were caught in.

The rest are short instrumentals, half formed ideas and one awful cod-reggae answerphone message, best forgotten.

This is more of an archaeological dig than a listening experience, but for the XTC obsessive, there's a lot of interesting stuff, even if it's lacking in undiscovered classics.

Link to album tracks

3* - If you like XTC, there's plenty of interest here. If you don't, you won't find much.