Wasp Star Apple Venus Vol 2

I dashed off an initial review and, having spun this CD hundreds of times, I thought a second opinion was in order. (By the way, my son is now hooked. I catch him singing "Church of Women" all the time, although I'm not sure that's such a good thing for a 10 year old.) So where do things stand, you might ask? We'll, my rating has dropped from a 5 to a 4. Let me explain. The more I listen to this album, the more derivative it sounds. Almost every song has fairly strong hints of prior XTC songs, including familiar riffs, accompanyments, and even basic melodies. Now, all of them are great, in my opinion, but this borrowing from past songs creates an uneasy feeling. If you haven't listened to much XTC in the past, it may not bother you. Then again, if you search out their other albums, it may be just as disquieting. In my opinion, the stand out song on the album is "Standing In For Joe," by Colin Moulding. This is a well-crafted a pop song as I've ever heard. It is as if a formula existed for cadence, production, and lyrics of an archetypal pop song and Moulding found it. XTC would be fools not to make this their single. Instead, they've chosen "The Man Who Murdered Love," which has some real high points (such as the chant, "I'm guilty, I'm guilty, I'm guilty" that springs the song to life midway through), but is, in the end, a rather unfinished sounding piece that doesn't hang together well. Indeed, if the bad points of this album could be summarized, it would be criticism of Andy Partridge's failure to take the creative beast by the tail and give us some amazing songs. (I can remember the feelings when I listened to English Settlement the first time, or Nonsuch, or Drums and Wires. Wow. Wasp Star is not a "wow" album. Now that the negative stuff is out of the way, let me say that I still really like this album. Compared to what many other groups are putting out today, this stuff is pure genius. But I know that XTC can do better. We'll just have to wait.

XTC - Wasp StarIf a Wasp Star is something that both stings and shines, this is an accurate characterization, and great title, for XTC's long-awaited new disc. Long-awaited, at least by me, who was overjoyed to see no less than three new discs from XTC when I recently did a search on Amazon's music offerings. I had no idea that there were problems with a strike and a contract, something I first heard of by reading other reviews, but I found this dismaying, seeing how companys' intervention in artists' work brings about such frustration and hindrance to the creative process. It is all the more dismaying when it harms or hinders the work of what I consider to be one of the greatest bands since the Beatles and alongside R.E.M. and Jethro Tull (now you have a glimpse of my taste in music).But enough politics. The music is fantastic! I was captured from the first chords, and by second and third hearings was getting the goosebumps I get when really excited by a piece of music, something that hasn't happened in a long time. I first heard XTC by chance on local radio when a wonderfully different song was aired (different from all the local crap and the pop station drivel). It was "Chalkhills and Children". After hearing who they were I picked up the Oranges and Lemons disc and from then on have collected and immensely enjoyed them all. This latest disc, without the second guitarist Dick Gregory and just Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, is pleasantly familiar XTC material, but this time 'round paradoxically both more simple and more complex.Somehow, I get the impression that this disc is practically a self-parody of what XTC can do. There is a lot of similarity to previous stuff of theirs, especially in the disc's opening guitar riff, reminiscent of the opening of Nonsuch's "Peter Pumpkinhead". Perhaps the band is saying to their former record company (Virgin) that they can produce this kind of high-quality pop-rock progressive music with eyes closed. But this is sub-text. The music is great!And if the price for getting this disc was to "let the finicky musicians do their own [presumably non-commercial] thing" with "Apple Venus", some record-company executive's gotta be either nuts or senile to have stood in the way (if that's the way things were), 'cause "Apple Venus" is no less fantastic, and WAY more interesting. But that's another, long-winded review...A track by track, quasi-academic commentary would probably be tiresome, so I'd just say that this disc has restored my enjoyment of what might be characterized as non-classical people music. It doesn't thrumb me senseless with electronic mock tribal rhythm loops; it doesn't insult my sensibility by pandering to some low-common denominator. It's honest, direct, infusing, happy, groovy, free, fun, deep yet accessible, progressive yet unpretentious. It is another great disc to "discover", that is, listen to, be impressed, get into more and more, until you're glad to have 'found' such a cool bloom among the thorns and want to confound your friends with what they inevitably take as unfounded enthusiasm. No matter; this disc (and its 'sisters') is one of the most enthusing to come round in a long time.

Back on the old days I once bought a copy of XTC's double vinyl 'Oranges & Lemmons' and (I can't guess why...) it didn't sound so incredible to me at the time so that I sold to a friend. A bunch of years later I was thinking about that album, kind of missing it, and suddenly I stumble over it (now on CD) in a rarities shop. It was like magic! Listening to it again I just fell in love with those songs and arrangements and, until now, I think it's one of the 10 best records that I ever heard!But this was supposed to be a review of 'Wasp Star' album...Well, since 'Oranges & Lemmons' I've been hunting and chasing, trying to put my hands on any album of the band (a very, very rare thing in Brazil...). So, I was so excited when I first saw 'Homeground' that I immediately bought it without noticing that was a demo Album... I was kind of disappointed when I realized it reading the credits but all the disappointment was wiped away as soon as I heard the first riff of Andy Partridge's guitar... This was so good that it was really painful to wait until I could laid my hands on the real studio album.And here it comes! My review!"Playground" is a fantastic song, with that omnipresent and brilliant sounding riff (full of perfect 5ths and octaves) with a question-answer vocal arrangement."Stupidly Happy" also sounds great with that ostinatto riff all the way through the song with melodies and harmonies moving around. It reminds me of Genesis' "Keep It Dark" although the later doesn't have this shiny mood...The other songs are all ok but my list of favourites jumps to "Church of Heaven" and finally to the best one of them: "The Wheel and the Maypole", originaly 3 different ideas merged in one great song.I have to confess that this "Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)" stands under the shades of "Orange & Lemmons" and "Apple Venus Volume 1" which I think are the best ones of the band, but I really do recommend this album.

I'm guilty of being one of those people that have known XTC's music through the singles but have never ventured further into their expertise. When I first heard Making Plans For Nigel, I was about 22 and working on a farm for a lazy sod of a farmer who rarely showed up so I spent hours alone in a tractor with nothing but music for company. I've always loved music and was very fortunate in having parents that allowed me access to the radiogram (remember them?) from a very young age and my formative years were spent listening to George Shearing, Duane Eddy, Bill Haley etc on vinyl, hours spent tuning through Radio Caroline, Radio London and, of course, Luxembourg. How I miss 208! Anyway, back to MPFN, when I first heard this, it was about two in the morning and I was in the middle of a field ploughing. I just had to stop to listen to this completely different piece of music, the likes of which, I'd never heard before. I was hooked and couldn't wait to hear it again and again. Remember- I was a farm worker in north Devon so I was so low paid that buying records was just a pipe dream. I was paid barely enough to get me to work and back! So years pass and I've bought hundreds of cd's after better wages and the kids fleeing the nest (Thank God!) and I finally get around to exploring the genius of Andy and Colin. This was the first album I bought along with Big Express. It's hard to believe that there's nearly twenty years between them. Two cd's with nearly thirty tracks and there isn't one track I dislike. They are the reason that I'm in the process of buying the entire back catalog. With apologies to The Who and Tom waits as they're not in the 'grab first' stack at the moment. The Dukes are in the next 'collect' category after the rest of of XTC. Andy Partridge is a gifted genius and it's a great shame that he and Colin Moulding aren't better recognised for their monumental contribution to English music.

I hunted this down after hearing Andy playing the riff to Playground on YouTube & I’m very glad I did. XTC used to be one of my favouriteBands & somehow dropped off my radar, which could have something to do with them getting banned from TOTP’s. Now I’m catching upOn their back catalogue & Wasp star is the latest in my collection. Some of the songs are instantly catchy & the others creep up on you.IMO this is stronger album than Apple Venus that proceeded this, so I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to anyone who likes well craftedSongs.

I have to say that I am a massive XTC fan going back to 1979, and have been waiting with bated breath for this album to experience a vinyl repressing. I have purchased all of the recent vinyls, including the 200grm deluxe repressings, with the amazing ‘Skarking’ being my favourite vinyl re-release to date. From a quality perspective, my Wasp Star copy ticks all the boxes and played flat and true and no unnecessary background noise or pops etc, and sounded superb on my Rega 6 deck! Buy with confidence what is a great vinyl version of a great band, that is so missed by many.

The media could not be loaded.  It’s a real shame: very bad quality control. The b side has some stains and little bubbles that affect reproduction. The cartridge can’t track it correctly and so it skips.

Wasp Star features at least four great songs - the opening salvo of Playground and Stupidly Happy, the singalong I'm The Man Who Murdered Love and the closing The Wheel And The Maypole. The rest is good quality, wholesome XTC fare, although You And The Stars Will Still Be Beautful comes perilously close to sounding like Sting, while the allegorical Brown Guitar, in the same vein (pun not intended) as Pink Thing from Oranges And Lemons, isn't a patch on it.Sure, this isn't the best XTC album ever, but they could still teach a lot of younger, more successful bands a thing or two about songwriting.