Amazon.com's Best of 2000
Who's the Brian Wilson of tomorrow? If this elector's vote counts, it'll be XTC's Andy Partridge, whose studio genius and crafty pop prowess is unparalleled over a career spanning four decades and 13 studio albums (XTC even does an impressive Beach Boys impression as their alter egos, the Dukes of Stratosphear).
Wasp Star: Apple Venus, Vol. 2 does the
first volume one better, adding XTC's penchant for perplexing pop to their gorgeous pastoral inclinations.
--Tod Nelson
From Amazon.com
Sidelined by a decade-long "strike" against their former record label, XTC's Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding nonetheless kept themselves busy writing songs and recording demos during the 1990s. The resulting body of work was divvied up stylistically, with the more pastoral/orchestral pieces consigned to
Apple Venus Volume One (and
Homespun, its accompanying home-demo collection). The brash electric guitar flourish that launches
Wasp Star's "Playground" heralds a collection that leans toward the jangly guitars and jagged rhythms of the band's
Black Sea and
English Settlement prime. Adorned with ornate harmonic flourishes and their trademark pop sophistication,
Wasp Star finds creative mainstay Andy Partridge in a distinctly upbeat, romantically intoxicated state of mind (as witnessed by the virtually irony-free "Stupidly Happy"), yet one in which history-bred suspicions die hard. It's Moulding who seems the most melancholy here, with the gentle romantic prodding of "In Another Life" and in the downright gloomy take on his hometown's future, "Boarded Up." Known for occasional pointed social jabs, XTC's focus has become a bit more philosophical with age, Partridge and Moulding perhaps gleaning the wisdom that the hardest battles are sometimes fought on the home front. But if music this joyous and rewarding is the result, it's been the noblest of struggles.
--Jerry McCulley
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