Amazon.com's Best of 1999
The first XTC album after a six-year hiatus opens with the plink of a water drop, just a hint of the musical downpour to come. Add an interplay with a plucked cello and the low pulse of French horns, and soon
Apple Venus Volume One bursts into a festival of symphonic excess. Wedding Andy Partridge's impeccable, overtime-working pop senses to the warmth and lushness of acoustic orchestral arrangements is an inspired move, not only recasting XTC's long career, but resulting in one of the year's most splendorous recordings.
--Tod Nelson
Amazon.com essential recording
Because of record contract litigation,
Apple Venus Volume One is XTC's first album of new material in nearly seven years. The now-duo of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding sure seem to have been using their time off to smell the flowers, as their lyrics are ripe with fruit, nuts, dandelions, orchids, sunflowers, and harvest festivals. Billed as the "orchestral" album that precedes its "rock" bookend,
Apple Venus is XTC's most obvious nod to the lush, intricate sounds of the Beach Boys'
Pet Sounds and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper (those familiar with 1986's Skylarking know that's a bold statement). Cellos, flutes, and other highbrow instruments provide the backdrop for the flowery lyrics. The whimsical "I'd Like That" is the perfectly understated pop song that has always eluded Partridge. The album's lone touch of angst comes courtesy of "Your Dictionary," which is spiked with four-letter words, but Partridge, ever the genteel Englishman, merely spells them out. Essential? No. Innovative? Hardly. But
Apple Venus is a solid, cohesive work by one of rock's most artistic artists.
--Bill Crandall
![Black Sea [2001 Reissue]](http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/I/41X1C9E675L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
