Must admit I still struggle with GO2. The most accessible track is Are You Receiving Me? Every other LP is dead easy to listen to.
Drums & Wires was the first album I bought. From the first I thought it was brilliant, and they just got better and better. The hardest track to listen to is Complicated Game. But what a track:
Some people like Black Sea best. I don't but it is absolutely up there. Not a bum track on it. Here's No Language In Our Lungs, for the simple reason that it was the first one that popped up. Great, great track:
English Settlement is beautiful. Whereas Black Sea was quite rocky, ES is less angry. To this day if I hear anything from this album on the radio I just smile, because peoplpe might just be hearing that something different that they heard a long time ago and couldn't figure out who it was. Jason & The Argonauts:
The oft maligned Mummer was absolutely different. It has some of the band's best moments on it too. Here's Ladybird:
A return to crashing and banging from earlier days. The Big Express was a shock but after a slight head readjustment, I loved it. I have to be in a special mood to listen to though. Reign Of Blows:
About this point the band go off and indulge in their alter-ego psychedelic selves, but I'll save that for another series. Next is the superb Skylarking album. Another LP with not a single bum track. Here's Season Cycle:
Oranges & Lemons was my first favourite album because, about 10 years after I bought it, it saved my sanity. I would drive from Egerton Forstal in Kent to Bognor Regis to work as a store manager for Comet, then as a troubleshooter, I went everywhere across the south-east. First thing every morning I put the cassette in the player and sang along with the album as I went and I never got tired of it. It made the trip pleasureable rather than unbearable. Chalkhills and Children [with a tiny bit of Miniature Sun thrown in at the beginning]:
I came to Nonsvch fairly late. I'd been too busy and then eventually syopped buying LPs. But it's a great album and I have it now. Then She Appeared is just an indication of how mature Andy Patridge's song writing talents had got. You can hear all those quirky bits he throws in, but there is a quality now is that is different:
Then we had that gap in time while the lads successfully ended their contract with Virgin. Apple Venus Volume 1 is possibly the best album of all. Your Dictionary is powerful stuff and told straight, just as always with AP when he's angry about something:
And to the last album as a band [but without Dave Gregory], apart from those wonderful 25 and Psonic EPs, which were later put together as a full album. Apple Venus Volume 2: Wasp Star simply isn't as good as the previous album. In fact it's even average for XTC. That still makes it a good album. Church Of Women is great:
