XTC - Fossil Fuel (Disc 2)

Release Date: September, 1996

★★★★★ Tracks:

Mayor of Simpleton

Soon after the moderate success XTC experienced with their single from 1982, "Senses Working Overtime," the band was to embark on a major tour, but it was cut short due to Andy Partridge's battle with anxiety issues, which crept up during their very first show in Paris. The band decided to stop touring indefinitely, and would never play a live performance again. But that wouldn't stop XTC from writing and producing more records.

This is where Fossil Fuel's disc 2 begins; when, in 1982, XTC transformed from live performers to strictly studio songwriters. The increased time spent on writing and production might have given their music more complexities, but for me, the songs here are less enjoyable. And less to do with XTC specifically, the overall production trends during the era, quickly becoming overkill, are mostly responsible for my waning interest. With the overuse of synthesizers and silly vocal effects, the trebly, twangy bass guitars, and the manipulation of the snare drum mix to give it an echoed, booming sound; 80's production was taking a lot of those innovative ideas from the New Wave and Punk Rock genres and running them in to the ground. In an attempt in sounding cutting-edge and futuristic, musicians and producers were actually accomplishing the opposite, leaving pop and rock from the era to sounds dated. XTC songs are often no different, and "All You Pretty Girls" is the track that best serve as a testament to this.

Putting aside my dislike for a lot of the trendy studio techniques from the 80's, after repeated listens I found a lot of songs I enjoy on disc 2, but only one I love; "Mayor of Simpleton." A breath of fresh air from the sound that defined them for much of the decade, the song represents a change in direction for XTC. It also reminds me a lot of those Gin Blossoms singles MTV would rotate (to death) a few years later.

Being a bit disappointed with Fossil Fuel's disc 2 after being completely blown away by disc 1, I am still very much looking forward to delving deeper in to XTC's discography. After sampling all the songs from Fossil Fuel many times over, I'm almost certain I will love their first few albums, and maybe as I work my way up the latter half of their catalogue, some of those records will surprise me. I might write more on XTC at another time, but for now it's time to move onwards (or backwards) to artists beginning with the letter "W."

XTC - Fossil Fuel (Disc 1)

Release Date: September, 1996

★★★★★ Tracks:

Science Friction

Statue of Liberty

Making Plans for Nigel

Love at First Sight


I generally don't like "Greatest Hits" collections. I'm the meticulous type of person who likes to hear an album in order and in its entirety, at least for the first couple of listens. I just don't feel I am properly digesting the material otherwise. A collection of singles not only cuts an artist's work in to bits and pieces, but it's also not often ordered chronologically, and when a band has such an extensive catalogue like that of XTC's, spanning decades, it's nearly impossible to pinpoint what they sounded like during a specific period in time. So when I found out that XTC's Fossil Fuel was in chronological order, covering 31 tracks from 1977-1992, I ignored my disdain for an album's worth of singles and decided it would be the best place to start.

And I wasn't disappointed. I can't believe it took me 29 years to try out any of XTC's music! Not many in the U.S. have, as their success in the UK, Canada, and Australia has not carried over to the States. Other than "Senses Working Overtime" (Mandy Moore's a fan, and covered the track on her 2003 album Coverage) peaking at 10 on the charts, none of their singles cracked the top 10 until 1989, when "Mayor of Simpleton" climbed to #1 on the Rock charts. I'm not sure why, either. Almost every song on Fossil Fuel's first disc is incredibly catchy. The song I most recognize and one of my favorites is "Making Plans for Nigel." It holds up infinitely more than most the singles hitting the charts in 1979, like "My Sharona" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." We also get to see an early music video here, and a very odd one at that. How much fun is it to sing along to this?



The first three tracks on Fossil Fuel are taken from XTC's first LP, White Music, and they're phenomenal. I haven't heard the whole album yet, but these songs sound like the UK's answer to the Talking Heads, and a collection of tracks Hot Hot Heat have been mimicking since their existence. My favorite of the bunch is "Statue of Liberty." It was their first ever single, but banned in the UK soon after its release because of its suggestive lyrics. Or I guess, suggestive in terms of 1978:

"I leaned right over to kiss your stoney book.
A little jealous of the ships with whom you flirt.
A billion lovers with their cameras snap to look.
And in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt."

The other track I want to mention is "Love at First Sight," which comes from their fourth album Black Sea, released in 1980. It's just such a great single, with great guitar hooks that became so prevalent over the course of my listening to Fossil Fuel. It's a song like this that bands like Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, and the Killers were attempting to recreate during the 80's revival phenomenon a few years ago. None of them could create one quite as good though:

The period covering 1977-1980 has turned out to be one of my favorites for rock'n'roll. And just recently discovering XTC only adds to a collection of artists who were putting out some incredibly innovative music at the time. Not only was punk rock gaining momentum, but it was a time when the seeds for alternative music were planted; when an undercurrent of really creative music was pushing its way to the surface, and when much of mainstream music had become entirely too reliant on marketing -- a theme that we've become all too familiar with.

Disc 2 is up next.