XTC were a band I was aware of by 1978 and I first saw them at Sheffield University (3rd Nov 1978, according to the internet) at about the time this album was released. By the time of the next album they were my favourite band.
Is this another album suffering from ‘second album syndrome’? What still feels fresh? It kicks off with Meccanic Dancing (Oh We Go!) and Battery Brides, but the rest of the first half doesn’t live up to that start. Nothing’s bad, but no more than solid album tracks, although the single Are You Receiving Me is added at the halfway mark on this 1985 CD, just before the lively Red (heard, and I’ll swear by this, in the background at a party in Mike Baldwin’s gaff in Coronation Street).
Beatown opens the second half (and the live set for the following year or so), before the three quarter point dip, with the two Barry Andrews’ contributions My Weapon and Supertuff. These don’t fit the band, and the lyrics of My Weapon, intended ironically as the first person rant of an inadequate, merely sound crass and misogynist. Unsurprisingly, Andrews left the group soon after. I Am The Audience brings a welcome sense of XTC back to proceedings to finish.
So, second album syndrome? I think so. Not enough strong songs from the main songwriter Andy Partridge and unsuitable contributions from Barry Andrews filling the gap. Colin Moulding’s four songs show him developing as a songwriter, but it won’t be until the next album that the Partridge/Moulding axis deliver consistently.
3* - there’s enough here to entertain, although it’s an inconsistent package
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