From 1978-1982, XTC were probably my favourite band. I was lucky enough to see them a few times before they stopped doing live gigs, but my interest had waned after English Settlement, and this album passed me by at the time. I had a tape of it later on, and finally bought the CD when it was reissued with the polarity issue resolved. No, I didn't understand, either.
It also restored the original 'daisy chain in pubes' cover which the record shops said they wouldn't stock in the mid-1980s. Following the magic he'd allegedly worked on Steve Hillage's L album, Virgin sent XTC to USA to be produced by Todd Rundgren as a 'last chance to break America', a move fraught with tension as the Rundgren and Partridge egos collided.
The album is presented as a loose concept of a summer's day and we open with the lovely Summer's Cauldron, a gentle mood piece, dominated by the melodica theme, leading us into Colin Moulding's West Country tribute to teenage al fresco sex, Grass, followed by another Moulding song, The Meeting Place, to my mind one of the weaker songs on the album. Then there's a run of Partridge songs, the upbeat That's Really Super, Supergirl, the gentle Ballet For A Rainy Day before the string-laden, angst-ridden 1000 Umbrellas, delivered with passion. Season Cycle bounces along merrily after this (the sun coming out after a summer rainstorm?) and then it's Earn Enough For Us, a lovely song about struggling financially to keep a family together (a theme Partridge had already visited on Love On A Farmboy's Wages). Then the mood goes down a notch on Another Satellite, Partridge's "leave me alone, I'm a married man" message to an over-keen admirer (who a decade later became his partner), an Eastern tinged accompaniment working perfectly. After this, Mermaid Smiled sounds a little throwaway, but the magnificent The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul snaps the album back to life - when visiting Portmerion a couple of years ago, I made sure I was photographed posing with an umbrella à la Partridge in the Tube video. The tape I had from the original release didn't contain Dear God (later added by popular demand), and it's a great song. My problem with this album starts after this. Dying really doesn't work in the concept or tone of the album. It's a weak song and adds nothing. Sacrificial Bonfire is better, but still lacks the grandeur that this album, otherwise great, deserves as a finale. Despite the attempt with the overpowering orchestration, it's a weak ending to a great album, and for me, distracts badly from the whole.
Many see this as XTC's masterwork, and I can see why, but the anti-climax at the end upsets me.
4* - I so wanted this to be five stars, and had it ended after Dear God, it probably would have been. But oh, those last two songs!
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