From Amazon.co.uk
1983's
Mummer was the first fruit of the Swindon combo's "pastoral" period, but merely proved to be the inaugural chapter in XTC's mercifully brief mid-life crises. A commercial flop, stalling outside of the UK Top 50--a major setback considering the belated bridgeheads established in both the British and American charts by the preceding
Black Sea and
English Settlement albums--
Mummer was considered something of an artistic disappointment at the time. Even so, any record that contains such moments of delicious rural innocence as the folksy "Love On A Farmboy's Wages" ("shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in") or the mangled, chamber-orchestra pyromania of "Great Fire" is worth a listen, while the addition of several alternately odd and poppy b-sides only adds to the intrigue. The poorer cousin of the subsequent
Skylarking, perhaps, but well worth reassessing now that time has passed.
--Kevin Maidment
Album Details
Remastered reissue of 1983 album. Virgin Records. 2001.