I never thought about it until this listen, but other than the two love songs (Difficulty and Ten Feet Tall) every track on here could be interpreted as touching on a theme about the pressure to conform, looked at in various ways: professionally, sexually, technologically, from table manners to globalization, etc. XTC never got much mainstream recognition - they were always more of a "your favorite artist's favorite artist" type band. But they have such a deep catalog that they've long been my most listened rock band just because they have another 10+ albums of similar quality to this one, each with a different sound, and if I'm ever bored with some of them, I can dust off the others. They're one of the very few long-lasting bands that never went into a rut or a decline or started repeating themselves. I'd definitely recommend digging deeper with them!
I would go a step further than that: That the album is literally about control, from politics down to literally being an animal with no free will. Listen to how robotic all the tracks are, they are all so stripped down, the way the album is mixed almost sounds like it's being played live. The drums are so mechanical, like being on a conveyor belt (especially for Roads Girdle The Globe). Even a song like I Have Difficulty is literally about forcefully having difficulty from an outside source, and Complicated Game is about complete futility, not only from society (They wanted Tom, they wanted Joe, to stick 'em out, and put 'em out on show!) to literally from the existence of life in general (God asked me should he put it world to the left or to the right, it doesn't matter where you put your world, someone else will come along and move it; The song is stating that even literally even God is controlled by outside sources and "his" creation can not be changed in the way he wants).
Absolutely LOVE the 4/4 bass and guitar and 5/4 vocals on the end of When You're Near Me. Such a cool little thing. Also Complicated Game is an absolutely phenomenal track. 10/10 for me. Top 10 songs (for me) of all time. Absolutely alien and frightening.
@@EyeballParalysisProd Tap out beats along with the band during the outro. You'll notice the guitar riffs & bassline repeat every 4 beats, but the title phrase vocal repeats every 5 beats, causing them to go in and out of phase with each other (the vocal repeats 4 times for every 5 repeats of the riff.)
Just found your channel! Great stuff! I’m a die-hard XTC fan from way back… I’ve worked in record shops… I’ve DJ’d on radio (college and commercial) and have listened to thousands of albums… and I consider XTC to be an easy Top 3 band of all-time. Just a brilliant catalog of music. Great to hear you love The Shins, as well! (Saw them at Spaceland in LA live, right after their brilliant debut album came out.). Since you love those bands, a couple to recommend that you should love: THE SUGARPLASTIC and THE CHILLS, Both offer amazing pop songwriting. Subscribed and looking forward to checking out more of your channel! Cheers!
I discovered XTC almost one year ago. Skylarking was their first album that I listened to, and I knew immediately that I had found my new favorite band of all time. I have been living, breathing, and eating XTC for months now. I simply cannot get enough of all this impossibly wonderful music. I loved seeing how deeply impressed you were by "Complicated Game." When I first heard it, I couldn't believe a song that fucking good has been completely forgotten. I can't believe a band as good as XTC have been completely forgotten. I urge and implore you to keep listening to their records. I promise you'll be stunned by what they achieved.
Just thought about this while watching (great vid btw) Blurs Great Escape album has a HELL of a lot of Roads Girdle the Globe vibes about it. Watching this up to Scissor Man, I KNEW what the reaction to Complicated Game would be to everyone who hadn't heard it lol. First listen, it's utterly mind-blowing. Shame you didn't jump on the bonus stuff, Limelight is a highlight, great track too.
Just a thought re: punk/new wave. If you listen to XTC's early albums (White Music, Go2), you'll definitely hear the punk. Later work clearly transitioned to New Wave. It's all great stuff!
The song is actually titled "Real by Reel" but services get it wrong all the time! Anyway, so glad that you gave this a listen, and I'm excited for you to hear English Settlement, Skylarking, and beyond. XTC is top tier and they have so so much to offer. Woo!
You should check out early stuff by Split Enz, they were a band from New Zealand with really cool vibes. Also in the general vicinity of XTC, Devo, Sparks, Talking Heads, Cardiacs (in some ways) etc
They once toured with the Talking Heads, Andy Partridge was very good friends with David Byrne and they were all fans of each others music. They also toured with the Police. Scissor Man was covered by Primus and is the first track on their 1989 album Rhinoplasty. I'm 62 and a lifelong fan (note the shirt) for me XTC's Oranges & Lemons album is their masterpiece.
Oh my god, YES! This was my original favorite album by XTC. The more I listen to them, the harder I find it to pick a favorite. One of their best and truly groundbreaking at the time.
Also, recall that "Remain In Light" represented a significant shift in Talking Heads style. For the album and tour, they really incorporated afro/world-beat rhythms and rhythm players. Woven into the art-rock of their earlier work.
when i was young and just was about to start to listen to new wave, i bought three albums i never heard before, just from reading about them. all three were great, and this one blew me away. it still does.
hey, these guys are from my hometown (swindon is massive)! and remain in light is one of my favourite albums! fuck yeah, I'm so glad you're hearing this stuff!
Colin Moulding has said Making Plans for Nigel is autobiographical. It's about parental expectation for their kids to go to university, and get a decent white-collar job (and not mess around in Andy Partridge's band!). British Steel was the name of the nationalised company that produced steel and steel products at the time. It was a major employer in the UK (especially in cities like Sheffield). XTC were from Swindon which is an industrial town in the West of England with a history of building train locomotives and providing parts for the automobile industry. So steel was very important to the economy of Swindon, and thus getting a management job at British Steel would be a prestigious position for a parent to push their son into. Until, of course, the steel industry collapsed a few years after this record was released. Colin was right and his dad was wrong.
That's so funny you said that. At the time '79-82; (High School) those were my 3 favorite bands. XTC, Talking Heads, and DEVO. saw them all live too! , and yes I didn't have any friends because I listened to "WIERD" music 😂😂😂
XTC is a deep rabbit hole. They evolved from a touring band into more of an ongoing studio project. This is from pretty early in their career. I would encourage you to explore further. I think they genuinely got better and better over the years.
Primus were definitely influenced by XTC and have covered a few of their songs (Scissor man in particular). Also Complicated Game was used during the end credits of the recent film Vivarium, and despite there being 40 years between the release of the song and movie, it worked perfectly. The song works just as well today.
Walt - the comparison with Talking Heads is mostly based on their first album TH ‘77. Remain in Light is the only album that sounds the way it does. It was a one off experiment that sounds nothing like their early days of quirky clever pop.
I find so more pleasure listening to music when I don't continually "compare" every new song I hear with some other band or music that I've already heard. You fall into the trap that so many music journalists do - "What genre is this?! I must pigeon-hole it for it to make sense to me".
The missing 3 songs go inbetween "Roads Girdle the Globe" and "Real by Reel": "Life Begins At The Hop", "Chain Of Command" and "Limelight". I suppose they're really extra tracks but they were on the first CD release. Regarding punk vs. new wave, punk was a reaction to corporate exploitation of disco. But not everyone wants to be anti-everything, and there were musical inspirations that fueled many groups but punk didn't like inspiration as a concept. Talking Heads, Television, The Clash, Blondie and XTC started as punk bands and became recategorized as new wave because they weren't going to act like the Sex Pistols. This is oversimplifying of course. Musical sneers aside, many reviewers said by "Drums And Wires" that XTC revealed themselves to be "art rock". Their fast paced new wave period was over after their second album, "Go 2" and the departure of mad keyboardist Barry Andrews. You would do well to hear their song "Neon Shuffle" (either live version or studio) to get a sense of how chaotic the group was in the early days.
XTC are much more "POP" oriented with their approach to songwriting, while still spicing things up with complex cross and counter rhythms, dissonant guitar licks from Dave Gregory, out of the box rhytm patterns by Terry Chambers, and quirky vocal attacks from Andy Partrige. (the 'sweet' vocal lines are generally Colin Moulding - e.g. 'Nigel' and 'Ten Feet Tall' is Colin on lead vocals. While "Helicopter" and "Complicated Game" is Andy) XTC actually have a song called "This is Pop" on their first album of 1978. Just listening to it, it sounds like an exclamation, "This is POP!".. but the cover notes has the question mark. "This is Pop?" BTW, if you're into deconstructionist cover versions, have a listen to XTC's reimagining of Bob Dylans "All Along the Watchtower" from their first album. Very whacky.
Great album but I don't see the parallels between XTC and Devo and even less with The Stranglers or The Clash, although Andy Partridge and Joe Strummer both have rocky voices, but Strummer's voice has always been much weaker and wobbly. The closest you'd get to XTC would be the band Oingo Boingo in their early days (at least when Andy Partridge was singing, as bassist Colin Moulding also sang on quite a few XTC tracks). It's time for you to listen to Oingo Boingo and in particular their debut album Only a Lad (1981), Nothing to Fear (1982) and Good for Your Soul (1983). Take the opportunity to listen to The Stranglers, and what better way to start than with their first albums: Rattus Norvegicus (1977), No More Heroes (also 1977) and Black and White (1978).
Hello! I'm pretty sure the lyric on "Nigel" is "happy in his work" as the song is about forcing their kid Nigel into a traditional English middle-class career
XTC were definitely born on the same environment as the Pistols, the Stranglers and the Clash. (This album actully came out before London Calling) "Punk" wasn't originally a music genre. It was a movement, an ethos, an 'attitude'. It was born out of disaffected UK youth - in a time when unemployment was rife, inflation was running at 25%, rolling strikes were causing mountains of trash to pile up in the streets, and IRA bombs were going off in London and other UK towns on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, the government was spending millions on flags and banners and parades celebrating the Queen's 25th anniversary. There were just as many unemployed Jamaican kids at Pistols and Clash gigs as there were 'white' boys and girls. They joined the movement, and hence the reggae/punk fusion that became known as Ska. Punk only became a music 'genre' after the fact because some music journalist needed a pigeon-hole to stuff songs into.
Complicated Game facts--- Tom is Tom Robinson, Joe is Joe Strummer.. The nasty guitar solo was done in one take and done without listening to the song while doing it.
You should've listened to Life Begins At The Hop...a great Poppy new wave song... Listen to the rest of their catalog -- they blow the Talking Heads out of the water..
Love this album! But had to stop the video 4 songs in after like the 10th comparison to Remain in Light. I get that you just listened to it but it's not even the same band, so there's really no reason to keep comparing the albums. It should be judged on its own merits.
👍I agree, especially since if there was a band stylistically close to XTC from 1979/80, it was Oingo Boingo! (however, the latter only released their debut album in 1981 so no comparison possible in 1979). Indeed, no relation to Remain in Light! (which wasn't even recorded at that time).
I never thought about it until this listen, but other than the two love songs (Difficulty and Ten Feet Tall) every track on here could be interpreted as touching on a theme about the pressure to conform, looked at in various ways: professionally, sexually, technologically, from table manners to globalization, etc.
XTC never got much mainstream recognition - they were always more of a "your favorite artist's favorite artist" type band. But they have such a deep catalog that they've long been my most listened rock band just because they have another 10+ albums of similar quality to this one, each with a different sound, and if I'm ever bored with some of them, I can dust off the others. They're one of the very few long-lasting bands that never went into a rut or a decline or started repeating themselves. I'd definitely recommend digging deeper with them!
I would go a step further than that: That the album is literally about control, from politics down to literally being an animal with no free will. Listen to how robotic all the tracks are, they are all so stripped down, the way the album is mixed almost sounds like it's being played live. The drums are so mechanical, like being on a conveyor belt (especially for Roads Girdle The Globe). Even a song like I Have Difficulty is literally about forcefully having difficulty from an outside source, and Complicated Game is about complete futility, not only from society (They wanted Tom, they wanted Joe, to stick 'em out, and put 'em out on show!) to literally from the existence of life in general (God asked me should he put it world to the left or to the right, it doesn't matter where you put your world, someone else will come along and move it; The song is stating that even literally even God is controlled by outside sources and "his" creation can not be changed in the way he wants).
Absolutely LOVE the 4/4 bass and guitar and 5/4 vocals on the end of When You're Near Me. Such a cool little thing. Also Complicated Game is an absolutely phenomenal track. 10/10 for me. Top 10 songs (for me) of all time. Absolutely alien and frightening.
how do u know when its 4/4 bass or 5/4 vocals
@@EyeballParalysisProd Tap out beats along with the band during the outro. You'll notice the guitar riffs & bassline repeat every 4 beats, but the title phrase vocal repeats every 5 beats, causing them to go in and out of phase with each other (the vocal repeats 4 times for every 5 repeats of the riff.)
Just found your channel! Great stuff! I’m a die-hard XTC fan from way back… I’ve worked in record shops… I’ve DJ’d on radio (college and commercial) and have listened to thousands of albums… and I consider XTC to be an easy Top 3 band of all-time. Just a brilliant catalog of music. Great to hear you love The Shins, as well! (Saw them at Spaceland in LA live, right after their brilliant debut album came out.). Since you love those bands, a couple to recommend that you should love: THE SUGARPLASTIC and THE CHILLS, Both offer amazing pop songwriting. Subscribed and looking forward to checking out more of your channel! Cheers!
I discovered XTC almost one year ago. Skylarking was their first album that I listened to, and I knew immediately that I had found my new favorite band of all time. I have been living, breathing, and eating XTC for months now. I simply cannot get enough of all this impossibly wonderful music. I loved seeing how deeply impressed you were by "Complicated Game." When I first heard it, I couldn't believe a song that fucking good has been completely forgotten. I can't believe a band as good as XTC have been completely forgotten. I urge and implore you to keep listening to their records. I promise you'll be stunned by what they achieved.
Just thought about this while watching (great vid btw) Blurs Great Escape album has a HELL of a lot of Roads Girdle the Globe vibes about it.
Watching this up to Scissor Man, I KNEW what the reaction to Complicated Game would be to everyone who hadn't heard it lol. First listen, it's utterly mind-blowing. Shame you didn't jump on the bonus stuff, Limelight is a highlight, great track too.
Complicated game is straight up one of the most well written songs ever
Just a thought re: punk/new wave. If you listen to XTC's early albums (White Music, Go2), you'll definitely hear the punk. Later work clearly transitioned to New Wave. It's all great stuff!
The song is actually titled "Real by Reel" but services get it wrong all the time! Anyway, so glad that you gave this a listen, and I'm excited for you to hear English Settlement, Skylarking, and beyond. XTC is top tier and they have so so much to offer.
Woo!
Their discography is really deep and rewards those that explore beyond the ‘hits’. The Dukes stuff is fantastic too.
You should check out early stuff by Split Enz, they were a band from New Zealand with really cool vibes. Also in the general vicinity of XTC, Devo, Sparks, Talking Heads, Cardiacs (in some ways) etc
Another XTC contemporary you may want to explore is Oingo Boingo.
This is another band that is worth going through every record. They mature in such an interesting way and have a great story
They once toured with the Talking Heads, Andy Partridge was very good friends with David Byrne and they were all fans of each others music. They also toured with the Police.
Scissor Man was covered by Primus and is the first track on their 1989 album Rhinoplasty.
I'm 62 and a lifelong fan (note the shirt) for me XTC's Oranges & Lemons album is their masterpiece.
Oh my god, YES! This was my original favorite album by XTC. The more I listen to them, the harder I find it to pick a favorite. One of their best and truly groundbreaking at the time.
Also, recall that "Remain In Light" represented a significant shift in Talking Heads style. For the album and tour, they really incorporated afro/world-beat rhythms and rhythm players. Woven into the art-rock of their earlier work.
Complicated Game,....continues to Floor and Haunt me. It's a Genius Song.
when i was young and just was about to start to listen to new wave, i bought three albums i never heard before, just from reading about them. all three were great, and this one blew me away. it still does.
hey, these guys are from my hometown (swindon is massive)! and remain in light is one of my favourite albums! fuck yeah, I'm so glad you're hearing this stuff!
Colin Moulding has said Making Plans for Nigel is autobiographical. It's about parental expectation for their kids to go to university, and get a decent white-collar job (and not mess around in Andy Partridge's band!).
British Steel was the name of the nationalised company that produced steel and steel products at the time. It was a major employer in the UK (especially in cities like Sheffield).
XTC were from Swindon which is an industrial town in the West of England with a history of building train locomotives and providing parts for the automobile industry. So steel was very important to the economy of Swindon, and thus getting a management job at British Steel would be a prestigious position for a parent to push their son into.
Until, of course, the steel industry collapsed a few years after this record was released. Colin was right and his dad was wrong.
Hit "Black Sea" next.
I owned Black Sea at its Release. It's Stellar.
I actually saw their last live show in S.F. I guess they went live in L,A. but shut it down in middle of the show.
That's so funny you said that. At the time '79-82; (High School) those were my 3 favorite bands. XTC, Talking Heads, and DEVO. saw them all live too! , and yes I didn't have any friends because I listened to "WIERD" music 😂😂😂
XTC is a deep rabbit hole. They evolved from a touring band into more of an ongoing studio project. This is from pretty early in their career. I would encourage you to explore further. I think they genuinely got better and better over the years.
Primus were definitely influenced by XTC and have covered a few of their songs (Scissor man in particular).
Also Complicated Game was used during the end credits of the recent film Vivarium, and despite there being 40 years between the release of the song and movie, it worked perfectly. The song works just as well today.
Walt - the comparison with Talking Heads is mostly based on their first album TH ‘77. Remain in Light is the only album that sounds the way it does. It was a one off experiment that sounds nothing like their early days of quirky clever pop.
"when you're near me I have difculty respirating" is just another way of saying "you take my breath away"
I find so more pleasure listening to music when I don't continually "compare" every new song I hear with some other band or music that I've already heard. You fall into the trap that so many music journalists do - "What genre is this?! I must pigeon-hole it for it to make sense to me".
The missing 3 songs go inbetween "Roads Girdle the Globe" and "Real by Reel": "Life Begins At The Hop", "Chain Of Command" and "Limelight". I suppose they're really extra tracks but they were on the first CD release.
Regarding punk vs. new wave, punk was a reaction to corporate exploitation of disco. But not everyone wants to be anti-everything, and there were musical inspirations that fueled many groups but punk didn't like inspiration as a concept. Talking Heads, Television, The Clash, Blondie and XTC started as punk bands and became recategorized as new wave because they weren't going to act like the Sex Pistols. This is oversimplifying of course.
Musical sneers aside, many reviewers said by "Drums And Wires" that XTC revealed themselves to be "art rock". Their fast paced new wave period was over after their second album, "Go 2" and the departure of mad keyboardist Barry Andrews. You would do well to hear their song "Neon Shuffle" (either live version or studio) to get a sense of how chaotic the group was in the early days.
Spoopify almost always has an error in the listed lyrics. It’s “world”.
The version of Talking Heads they're imitating is more specifically, 'More Songs About Buildings and Food' era (1978), *NOT* Remain in Light.
XTC are much more "POP" oriented with their approach to songwriting, while still spicing things up with complex cross and counter rhythms, dissonant guitar licks from Dave Gregory, out of the box rhytm patterns by Terry Chambers, and quirky vocal attacks from Andy Partrige. (the 'sweet' vocal lines are generally Colin Moulding - e.g. 'Nigel' and 'Ten Feet Tall' is Colin on lead vocals. While "Helicopter" and "Complicated Game" is Andy)
XTC actually have a song called "This is Pop" on their first album of 1978. Just listening to it, it sounds like an exclamation, "This is POP!".. but the cover notes has the question mark. "This is Pop?"
BTW, if you're into deconstructionist cover versions, have a listen to XTC's reimagining of Bob Dylans "All Along the Watchtower" from their first album. Very whacky.
Great album but I don't see the parallels between XTC and Devo and even less with The Stranglers or The Clash, although Andy Partridge and Joe Strummer both have rocky voices, but Strummer's voice has always been much weaker and wobbly.
The closest you'd get to XTC would be the band Oingo Boingo in their early days (at least when Andy Partridge was singing, as bassist Colin Moulding also sang on quite a few XTC tracks).
It's time for you to listen to Oingo Boingo and in particular their debut album Only a Lad (1981), Nothing to Fear (1982) and Good for Your Soul (1983).
Take the opportunity to listen to The Stranglers, and what better way to start than with their first albums: Rattus Norvegicus (1977), No More Heroes (also 1977) and Black and White (1978).
Hello! I'm pretty sure the lyric on "Nigel" is "happy in his work" as the song is about forcing their kid Nigel into a traditional English middle-class career
XTC were definitely born on the same environment as the Pistols, the Stranglers and the Clash. (This album actully came out before London Calling)
"Punk" wasn't originally a music genre. It was a movement, an ethos, an 'attitude'. It was born out of disaffected UK youth - in a time when unemployment was rife, inflation was running at 25%, rolling strikes were causing mountains of trash to pile up in the streets, and IRA bombs were going off in London and other UK towns on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, the government was spending millions on flags and banners and parades celebrating the Queen's 25th anniversary.
There were just as many unemployed Jamaican kids at Pistols and Clash gigs as there were 'white' boys and girls. They joined the movement, and hence the reggae/punk fusion that became known as Ska.
Punk only became a music 'genre' after the fact because some music journalist needed a pigeon-hole to stuff songs into.
Complicated Game facts---
Tom is Tom Robinson, Joe is Joe Strummer..
The nasty guitar solo was done in one take and done without listening to the song while doing it.
You should've listened to Life Begins At The Hop...a great Poppy new wave song...
Listen to the rest of their catalog -- they blow the Talking Heads out of the water..
Love this album! But had to stop the video 4 songs in after like the 10th comparison to Remain in Light. I get that you just listened to it but it's not even the same band, so there's really no reason to keep comparing the albums. It should be judged on its own merits.
👍I agree, especially since if there was a band stylistically close to XTC from 1979/80, it was Oingo Boingo! (however, the latter only released their debut album in 1981 so no comparison possible in 1979). Indeed, no relation to Remain in Light! (which wasn't even recorded at that time).
It's purely since he's unfamiliar with both bands & he's heard so many people say they're so similar
@@Kittiekonfuzed True, no doubt when he has explored further that the comparisons won't seem so obvious to him!
Now do Nonsuch!
Fame is just Bowie and Lennon doing funk. The funk guitar strumming comes from James Brown and pre dated Fame by about 12-15 yrs
Not quite sure regarding the need to compare to other bands all the time