The second time I saw XTC was at the Top Rank in Sheffield, soon after this album was released, and it was at this point I think I 'got' the band.
This is also the album which started a brief romance later in the year, as I shared these songs with a new girlfriend, at 3am with no regard for volume, leading to grovelling apologies to the rest of the block.
I'd been a fan of the band since the first album, and been bemused by their lack of success with bangers like Statue Of Liberty and This Is Pop. I'd been less impressed by Life Begins At The Hop, and when they hit the charts with album opener Making Plans For Nigel, it felt like they would only be known for what seemed like a novelty record. Four decades on, the title is still a thing, especially associated with neo-fascist politicians, but there's a lot to like about Colin Moulding's song - that drum pattern and guitar riff still sound great, even if the lyrics feel a little twee.
Helicopter is the first Andy Partridge song on the album, and it's a belter, full of wordplay and a catchy, infectious tune, followed by Moulding's repetitive Day In Day Out, driven by a strong repeated bassline, and a jarring guitar, slightly out of time with that bassline at times. When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty is another bouncy pop song by Partridge, leading into the slower, gentler Ten Feet Tall, a gorgeous little Moulding love song which was a US (flop) single, but strangely not released in UK. The first half ends with Roads Girdle The Globe, a classic Partridge, angry, in your face, banging anthem.
It's another thumping dystopian number to open up the second half, in Reel By Real, then the oriental flavour of Millions, a song with much more musical depth than I remember it. Dick Cuthell's (Herb Helpless and his Marijuana Brass) trumpet part livens up the otherwise unremarkable That Is The Way, then the lively Outside World, full of alliteration and guitar riffs, a song seemingly forgotten in the XTC songbook, hidden as it is in the middle of side two. The upbeat mood continues with the jaunty and silly Scissor Man, possibly too deep a trawl into Andy Partridge's childhood trauma, before the finale, the fatalistic Complicated Game, a fine song, building to a bombastic climax.
This CD release (the 2013 remaster on Andy Partridge's Ape label) also contains three bonus tracks - the limp Life Begins At The Hop, and the two songs from the 7" single which came free with the first release of the album, Chain Of Command and Limelight, neither of them XTC classics, despite being quite listenable.
Possibly their breakthrough album, having had to develop a different sound for their songs, swapping the keyboard skills of Barry Andrews for the guitar wizardry and oft-overlooked arranging genius of Dave Gregory, it's still a great listen, and as powerful a reminder of university years as any I can remember.
4* - a great album as XTC really develop their sound
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