XTC – White Music (1978)

During the latter part of my university years (1978-1981) XTC were probably my favourite band. I saw them play on an early date with a new girlfriend, and was blown away by the energy and creativity of the music - clearly these guys were already post-punk. The truth, as for many, is that a decent rock band, a couple of years old, had used the punk genre to strip down the sound, refine an image and present it just as record companies were looking for exactly this.

Of course I had this album soon after release, and played it to death (although it wasn't until Drums And Wires that the penny dropped for me), yet it's only now that I've finally got round to replacing it on CD. This is a 1987 re-release from Virgin, so early in the CD era, and has one massive flaw.

Record companies wanted to persuade us to buy album which were only ten years old on this new format, so used the gimmick of bonus tracks - this contains the Science Friction EP and a couple of other singles. And that's fine, provided you tag them on the end. Virgin, having been kicked in the head by a horse, chose to plonk the seven bonus tracks in the middle - halfway between the vinyl's A and B sides. I'm expecting this to intrude massively on my enjoyment of an old friend, and as you can tell, I'm quite grumpy about it.