XTC
Apple Venus Volume One
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NATN Recommended
XTC
Apple Venus Volume One
TVT, 1999
RiYL: Orchestral Blur, R.E.M.’s Up, The Beatles’ Abbey Road, Burt Bacharach |
Volume One starts with the pride of unconventional pop genius Andy Partridge's new batch of gems. A sole plinking water drop resonates and slowly becomes surrounded by Colin Moulding's calculated bass plucking and the mimicking staccato riffs of the London Session Orchestra. When Andy finally speaks up, he comes out with a quirky but perfect melody line, delivering something like "Hey! I heard that dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus!"
"River of Orchids" commences to weave a number of vocal hooks with equally obtuse messages around the enchanting, if not evolving, melodic base, prompting the listener to wonder how something so weird sounds so catchy.
But it's a natural bouquet for the English mainstays, labeled as eccentric throughout much of their 24-year career for numerous reasons. Early on, XTC established itself as a high-energy live act, only to change to the "never-will-we-tour-again" philosophy in 1984 due to Partridge's stage fright.
The band has defied the industry's incessant demands of hit pop singles by sticking to sometimes too-clever constructions and albums just enough off the beaten path to elicit critical praise and dismal sales. Over the non-touring years, it built up an increasingly bitter relationship with the record label that kept pushing for the hit single it knew Partridge and Moulding could write.
With 1992's Nonsuch, Virgin gave the band little-to-no promotional support and also refused to breach its binding contract. Partridge's chosen course of action after years of dissatisfaction was simply to stop recording music for the label. Multi-instrumentalist Dave Gregory was a casualty of the hiatus, but Partridge and Moulding held on and were eventually dropped by Virgin. Creatively free and on their own, the band's two original songwriters ended up on American indie label TVT, of all places.
It isn't so much that Apple Venus is a revolutionary album, it's actually completely removed from context. The album is timeless without necessarily qualifying as classic, and that's what makes it so interesting. Partridge and Moulding don't try to rejoin the modern pop world, or even reference their own past work. The result is fresh and immune to sterotype or preconception.
The songs themselves thrive within Partridge's complex arrangements. Most feature percussion of some kind, but rarely does one hear bona fide drums. The overall sound, not wholly unexpectedly, is like a troupe of Victorian minstrels from the English countryside channeling a '90s pop band. Songs like "Fruit Nut" and "Harvest Festival" paint portraits of pastoral villages where the biggest concerns are agriculture and love in spring.
"I'd Like That" has the most of the old XTC (that is to say, middle-period XTC) in it, bouncing along with an up-tempo acoustic guitar. But the chorus is a curious section, Partridge following an engaging vocal line until he falters and seems to grasp for a simile: "Each drop will make me grow up really high, really high, like a really high thing...say a sunflower." The last word drops the music dead in the first three run-throughs, then leads into a repeating motif of the sunflower, adorned with erratic handclap percussion.
Apple Venus Volume One is a triumphant return for these deserved princes of pop. Moulding and Partridge still defy classification, and in rebirth, XTC is making music as intriguing and rapturous as ever. Welcome back, lads.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.