XTC started as a sort of punk band with "White Noise" but rapidly evolved into one of the best exponants of the melodic British Pop tradition that seems to have started with the Beatles and continues on through groups like 10CC, Squeeze and a few others.

Nonesuch has an amazing range of styles, from the hard-rocking Peter Pumkinhead to the lyrical "My Bird Performs" and the dark "Rook". There's fiercely biting social commentary in "The Smartest Monkeys", traditional English ballad in "Wrapped in Grey" and many other delights.

The more I listen to Nonesuch, the more I become absolutely enchanted with it. Certainly one my desert island albums, and maybe, just maybe the finest British Pop album ever.


The most underappreciated album of the decade...   July 7, 1998
VictorVon (Fort Thomas, KY United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

If you love rich lyrics, challenging yet sweeping arrangements, complex and addicting melodies, then look no further to this 1992 album of XTCs last work before they went on strike. From songs of loss to social jabs XTC lose none of their thrust and power, and wrap it all in the tastiest coating imaginable in the recording arts. Marvel at the production (drum sound on Peter Pumpkinhead), tremble at the intimacy (crawl inside Rook if you dare), air guitar along (Books are Burning, Smartest Monkeys), but you will love this album. And at under $7, what the heck have you got to lose? Listen to the piss and pathos of Andy's singing and let the magical XTC lift your spirit up and fire a few shots into your soul... you won't come away the same.


A Call of Awakening From "A World Wrapped in Grey"   December 1, 1999
Andrew Field (Shanghai)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Today's British and American pop music artists are firmly grounded in the broader discourse of post-industrial philosophy and poetics, and in the search for religious meaning and national identity through the excavation and exploration of mythologies that Western writers, philosophers, and poets have been working in for centuries. Pop musicians such as XTC have taken on a dual role both as subversive critics of society and government within the public sphere of popular music, and as post-modern lyricists. This new approach to music begins to appear in their now classic album English Settlement (1982), a clear departure from their previous dance-oriented albums, which explores political, social, and mythological themes in the context of contemporary urban England. Subsequent albums by the band paint a richer picture of both urban and rural scenes, as the band reaches back further in time to draw on the pre-modern corpus of English, European, and Greek mythology. Their trio of albums that came out in the late 1980s and early 1990s--Skylarking (1986), Oranges & Lemons (1989), and Nonsuch (1992)--can be considered a trilogy. Each album builds on images and themes of the previous album, collectively evoking a rich tapestry of both Christian and pagan imagery, including folk tales from pre-modern England, and the mythology of ancient Greece, set in contrast with dreary depictions of post-industrial England and a war weary world. Nonsuch, arguably their richest album to date, is a rhapsodic call of awakening into the colorful dreamscape of animism and poetic resonances that underlies our dismal modern "real world" existence, as exemplified by Andy Partridge's call to "awaken you dreamers" from the state of the "loveless ones" who dwell in a "world wrapped in grey." Who are the "loveless ones?" They are the ones chained inside the Platonic cave of material reality that constitutes the grid-like world of mills, mines, factories, streets, apartments, offices, laboratories, schools, and prisons in the modern age of science and industry. Our infatuation with these institutions prevents us from seeing beyond to the deeper structures of nature and human history that lie behind our immediate visual universe. This is a task that England's Romantic poets and American transcendental philosophers dedicated themselves to during the previous century. Inheriting these and other philosophical and literary enterprises, XTC impells us to look beyond the confining strictures of the material or "rational" world by employing the vast powers of the collective lyrical imagination that have been constructed through the literature and music of the pre-modern world.

AF


musical medicine for the mind and soul   November 10, 1999
chris (majorsimpleton@aol.com) (chicago)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

after reading all the reviews on nonsuch , i cant believe anyone would have a negative thing to say about this beautifull collection of soul relaxing songs . i must admitt this was my first xtc disc ,i bought it when it came out gave it a listen or two and it collected dust for years , thats because like others who had negative comments , i didnt give this eclectic, interesting work of art enough time or plays to realize what a jewel of a band i had stumbled upon . since disovering xtc i have become a huge fan,cant say a bad thing about the english thugs , for the exception that some of the earlier stuff might be a little too punkish for me , but then again maybe all i need to do is listen a little harder before judging so quickly , I feel the same way about apple venus volume 1 and i am presently awaiting the release of 2 , i am sorry to hear that the guitarest wont be joining him , i think its a great loss to the band and i heard andy partridge was going to take on most or all of the guitar work on that disk , well for the price nonsuch is one of the best musical bargins you will ever find , buy buy buy