Although your reviewer would baulk at using the term 'institution' in relation to Swindon's finest XTC, you're hard pushed to find anything substandard in their intriguing, 25-year plus recording career. Besides, in a climate where several of England's brightest young sparks such as The Futureheads clearly owe them a debt or three, what better time is there to rediscover arguably the band's finest work?
XTC burst onto the scene during the infamous summer of 1977 and had carved impressive credentials on the New Wave tree by the time of their third LP, "Drums & Wires" in 1979. Indeed, blessed with two gifted singer/ songwriters in Andy Partridge (guitar/ vocals) and bassist Colin Moulding and nonchalently knocking out quirky, evergreen singles like "Making Plans For Nigel" and "Life Begins At The Hop", they had already been making significant inroads into the mainstream.
"Drums & Wires" was a pivotal release in that it saw guitarist Dave Gregory replacing keyboard player (and future Shriekback man) Barry Andrews and joining Partridge, Moulding and drummer Terry Chambers in the 'classic' XTC line-up. This quartet would then go on to make another wonderfully angular guitar album in 1980's "Black Sea" and top it again with their finest four sides in 1982's "English Settlement."
Actually, while this great double album jealously hoards XTC'S biggest hit single in "Senses Working Overtime", it has received surprisingly scant kudos in recent times and is crying out for rediscovery, not least because it's such an exciting melting pot of ideas, styles and ambitions and dares to realise many of them during the course of its' uniformly excellent 15 tunes.
Unlike the resolutely electric "Black Sea" (which also basked in producer Steve Lillywhite's trademark huge drum sound), "English Settlement" introduces a semi-acoustic feel and the folky, rustic charm that still infuses XTC releases to this day. There's delicacy aplenty in places, too - not least when you come upon Partridge's elegant "Yacht Dance" which is a nylon-strung guitar picker's treat, or "All Of A Sudden (It's Too Late)", where tinges of a world-weary glory and shimmery English psychedelia first appear in the XTC story.
In typically XTC fashion, "English Settlement" is defiantly anti-violence in lyrical tone. In fact, three of its' most memorable set-pieces explore a similar theme. "Melt The Guns" is particularly explicit - so much so the band were heckled strongly when attempting to premiere the song in the USA - while the delicious "Knuckle Down" is a softer paean to understanding. Best of all, though, is the crunching "No Thugs In Our House": a textbook case of blinkered parents nurturing their spoilt son who harbours National Front tendencies and is "dreaming of a world where he could do just what he wanted to."
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Yet "English Settlement" still suceeds even when it takes major leaps of faith. For example, the album also houses "It's Nearly Africa", where the song's polyrythmic overtones, busy percussion and marimbas perfectly evoke the Dark Continent and its' lemmings-head-for-the-cliff lyrical message seems even more pertinent as society continues to speed up twenty years down the line.
Naturally, the band never took their eye off the ball where singles were concerned either. Both "No Thugs In Our House" and Moulding's anti-demolition/ developers plea "Ball And Chain" are typically punchy anthems with Terry Chambers pulling off percussive miracles, and these could have easily been joined by another Moulding effort "Fly On The Wall" with its' gimmicky synth buzz and bright melody. Naturally, we mustn't forget Partridge's "Senses Working Overtime": still his most commercially durable five minutes or so.
Sadly, the aftermath of "English Settlement" brought about a sea change in XTC'S fortunes when the band withdrew from live work after Andy Patridge suffered two bouts of chronic stage fright: the second forcing him to abandon the idea of live gigs permanently. A further blow hit when Chambers quit, emigrating to Australia and leaving the remaining trio to continue as a studio concern, still synonymous with quality and turning in albums as consistently great as "Oranges And Lemons" (1989) and "Nonesuch" (1992) with respected session drummers such as Dave Mattacks depping in the drum stool.
Partridge and Moulding continue to make great music to this day, but if you're after a slice of truly classic XTC then make straight for "English Settlement". It's a fabulous, old-fashioned but forward-looking record where pastoral folk-rock and the occasional psychedelic scent wafts under the band's traditional herky-jerky New Wave blanket. Like the famous Uffington chalk horse adorning the cover, it remains an important landmark on pop history's ordnance survey map.
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