How about you?

Definitely.

I am less and less inclined to measure musical works by album. I think the digitalisation of music has led me to appreciate tracks out of album context more readily. Thus I love Apple venus but some songs I admire more from other releases are missing from it and I could drop three or four songs in their place say, and add a Wrapped in Grey, Rook, Yacht dance and enjoy it more. The fact that you recorded them and released them at a point in time doesnt mean they need to be listened to the same way always.

I am inclined to make up play lists to change the context of songs. Eg Make a play list of just Colin songs, or as Xstatic did live in 2005, a playlist of just the opening tracks of all the albums or songs to keep you going while driving 250 miles to Manchester . And some songs seem to fit togther, to my ears, in a diferent layout than exists in the records.

In some ways keltics answer was soooo much better, wasnt it.

On a slightly different tack. had you release AB +WS as a double album then that would have been your best album.

I agree with both Mr Tein & Andy...if that's possible.

They will be released as separates again soon,if Colin agrees,and who knows if he and I can come to an agreement on the conditions for a 5.1 release,Wow! would love to achieve that.
A complete AV/WS is not out of the question though.

Looking forward to that 5/1 and/or AV/WS package. Saving the pennies for a decent turntable to play this stuff in my old age.

AV is my favorite album, even though English Settlement will always hold a special place in my heart.

RedbrickDream (Kate from Chalkhills) and I discussed this once: Harvest Festival (Instruvenus version was the processional at her wedding!) vs. Easter Theatre. I'm still all about Easter Theatre for the sheer drama, even though I think Harvest Festival is one of the most beautiful things you've ever done.

I was still in Japan when Renée came home w/AV -- I didn't even know it was coming. I'll never forget that first droplet...

ploink

THUMMMMMMMMMM...

Still gives me chills sometimes.

Mine too.



Intellectually.


My head says AV, but my heart belongs to D&W.

Apple Venus is my favourite, very clear front runner! I have about a 4 way tie for second place though & WS isn't in the bunch.

Nonsuch by a country mile.

Exactly.

I never get why Wasp Star is so undervalued. Among my favourite ever XTC tracks I would include : "Playground", "Stupidly Happy", "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love", "We're All Light", "You and the Clouds Will Still be Beautiful", "Church of Women" & "The Wheel and the Maypole"

Glorious

I have to say that I don't tend to separate the two these days. I bought WS (from a store: AV wasn't on the shelves) and had the usual love affair with it, until I got AV via Idea Records. Then I got the box set wiv me own special feather. i tend to play both discs together now, as nature intended. Parts of them still make me weep, silly old sentimentalist that I am. And I still have to pick up a guitar and blunder along to Playground. I don't much listen to the older albums anymore, to be honest....I just seem to gravitate to those two last, magical, superlative works.

and how come AV never got a sniff of the mercury's or is the entrance price too high?

That's what I was going to say as well... I've probably listened to Nonsuch more than any other album I own.

I've had the great fortune to hear every XTC album since (and including) Drums & Wires hot off the presses, right as they was released. And I clearly and fondly remember the circumstances when first listening to each one. But this album has a particularly special place in all of those, because I'd heard about the 'strike' but had heard absolutely nothing about XTC since the mid 90s. And then one day in early 1999 I was browsing the bins at a CD store (an experience I'm sad our younger readers will never experience) and just happened to see this unfamiliar disc in the X section. Jesus it couldn't be...it IS...new XTC! I had NO warning whatsoever. I couldn't wait to hear it and had no CD player in the truck, and the studio was on my way home and there was no session that day, so I CRANKED it on the big monitors. The first thing I heard was water drops in reverb and this string orchestra pitz bass note followed by a faint touch of click leakage - the biggest issue recording strings, and showing how loudly and closely I was listening. It kept building and building, and then the brass came in, and then the vocals. By this time I was DANCING in the control room with my arms failing wildly and the biggest stupid grin imaginable SHOUTING out loud: "FUCK YEAH!!! XTC!!!" That was absolutely one of the best moments of my life, right up there with the best sex I've ever had and hearing XTC for the first time with Simp. (I'm SO glad nobody walked in on me, I would have been mortified!) I played that song 4 or 5 times before I even went on to "I'd Like That" which was totally different and totally cool and I loved as well. And then "Easter Theater" came on and completely blew me away again! I thought: Jesus, this is one of the best fucking songs ANYBODY has ever written. I played that a whole bunch of times too, and by then I was totally exhausted in the best way possible. I wanted to savor each song, so after over an hour I drove home having just listened to the first three songs, but knowing I had all the other ones to look forward to. I was the kid in the candy store.

A few days later a friend said they'd heard a new XTC song on the radio. I played "I'd Like That" and he said yup that was it, great isn't it? I said indeed it is - and there's even better ones on the album.

I played the first two AV songs blind to various people to get their impressions. Many were totally confused by "River of Orchids." Some thought it was the weirdest Sting song they'd ever heard. Most preferred "I'd Like That" saying it was the best new McCartney song they could remember. A few of the more sophisticated ones were intrigued enough to buy the album for themselves.

Wow, cool story! There aren't many moments where music hits you that hard. So I really cherish them, too.

It's funny there are so many people raving about Easter Theater... and I even know and hear all the good things in this song... but I never FELT the same amount of emotion and fascination regarding this song, as otheres seem to do. Is it almost too perfect? I don't know.

My initial favourites on listening to AV were I Like that ( no 1) and then easter Theatre. later I cant own her became favourote. Now it is Rivcer Of orchids - bot with headphones. My sound system isnt up to jeffs big studio boomers!

Sometimes you have to revisit things. Take a fresh look. Just played AV through and two things struck me why sometimes it doesnt hit home say like Black Sea. Firstly its a very meloncholic record - a record for a certain time of day or a certian mood. It also struck me its unique. I cant call to mind another album or band you could asnwer the question " So what does it sound like " to.

I think sometime we all get caught in cliches and the one that always reverberates around this album is PASTORAL. In fact I think this is misleading and in fact AV is one of the truly great Blues albums . This is more of the legacy of Billie Holiday than Moris dancing English Folk. When I think of it like that it takes a diffeernt course and immediatly becomes incorparrable to your other albums which exisit in other wildly varying genres.

A 5.1 mix would be SO killer!

Someone should poke a hot stick up Virgin's ass about doing that for the rest of the catalog.
Or at least be prepared for it by getting the masters together and copied.
Big record companies USED to be good at that kind of thing.

5.1



HD 3D 5.1 XTC

I can appreciate the love that "River Of Orchids" and "Easter Theatre" always get in these discussions, they seem to be the twin center pieces of the album. "Easter Theatre" is a very well-crafted piece and "River" is a fun sing-a-long, with its mouthful of verse. They both explore new areas for the band. The song on the album that's always stood out for me is "Harvest Festival", with "THe Last Balloon" a close second. When the drums, bass and orch kick in in "Harvest Festival" - "that longing look you gave me..." - yeah, the wistfulness of the whole thing is really captured well. And my fave line from the whole album - "See that you two got married and I wish you well" - I love the positive acceptance by the narrator there, yet there's an "unbearable lightness" to all of it that makes it all feel so poignant and bittersweet. It's emminently relatable.

What is it about XTC albums that you have to listen to them 3 or 4 times before they really begin to reveal thier full weight? Didn't fully appreciate this one at first, but have since grown happily into it. "Frivolous Tonight" I loved at first blush, hated "Fruit Nut". But "Fruit Nut" finally did win me over, there's a very subtle genius going on behind that one.

Something that stands out with Andy's songs, stands out because you hardly see it elsewhere these days, is his (thier) ability to craft a song experience that slowly builds into something dramatic or colourful. "The Last Ballon" (and "Stupidly Happy" also) is a prime example. Starts off kind of dirge-like and it appears to be rather repititious through the first and second verses. Yet...the instrumentation starts to fill out with each repitition and the song is finally fully realized with the final stanza of "You should drop us all..." and that lovely meloncholy trumpet coda.

"You should drop us all..."

That line carries so much weight to it. It really is incredibly sad to me that someone would have to write that, and that we all instantly get it when the singer goes there. It's one of the saddest and most prophetic lines in the whole catalogue. Andy was never one to shy away from the darkest elements of the human story and this line always makes me want to choke up. I would be in tears writing a line like that.

Something else interesting about that, too:
Andy is an athiest, and yet...

He has so many allusions to God or a God-like figure or Judaeo-Christian culture in his work. Not implying that Andy is a closted believer, not in the slightest. But I do appreciate his willingness to go there for the sake of a point.

"Scissor Man"
"Will you tell them how a child to the virgin came..." from "The Everday Story Of Smalltown"
"Reign of blows has washed away the corpse of Abel, Cain is now the king in every Babel" from "Reign Of Blows"
"You should drop us all..." WHO should drop us all?

Still, I like that he'll go there. All these examples are very powerful moments in those songs.

I'm sorry!

"And how a child to the virgin came..." - That's from "This World Over", isn't it? "The Everyday Story Of Smalltown"? Where did that come from?

Also..."Travels In Nihilon" - "We've seen...no Jesus come and gone..."

I'll grant that many of these are ironic statements within the songs. Still, Andy returns to this trough time and time again. To good effect.

In the interest of full disclosure, none of the outstanding songs Chrestus quoted in the above three posts happen to be ON "Apple Venus."

Yes, alcohol was involved.

"The Last Balloon" is on AV.

I'm like Dr. Johnny Fever. Alcohol actually increases my mental powers.

Just a slight clarification, Dear Readers. The above events were completely unrelated. Completely. Unrelated.

Thank you.

Andy i would jump at once once if a 5.1 of WSAV were released in 5.1 Hoping that all can agree. Someone like Steven Wilson mixing it would be absolutly tops he is probably the best at the moment, not that you of course would not do a a splendid job it being your babay.

I am more than willing to get AV/WS mixed in 5.1................................................

Putting the album on and hearing River of Orchids for the first time in my tiny little car is one of my best music memories, I left the engine off and let the goose pimples cover my entire body, it really was an ecstatic reaction. The initial reaction really lasted for ages, I loved it. I've never had that experience with another XTC album- the immediate love and compulsion to keep it on repeat, every other album the appreciation had to grow on me in some way.

My reaction to Wasp Star was a bit different, the first reaction was, of course, very good, but I was very aware that I wasn't getting the thrill I did from AV.

The funny thing is how this perception has switched so much.
AV started feeling old, especially the grand songs like Greenman and Knights in Shining Karma, it started to come off as a little bombastic and though I do enjoy listening to the album it doesn't inspire multiple plays anymore. Instead I feel like moving on to Wasp Star, which now always demands repeat listens, I go through it once and immediately go back to favorite tracks to hear again.

But if I were to rate all the albums, neither makes the very top spots... actually, we haven't done that in a long time... off to the Everything Else section.

I would have preferred this as the comeback/last album. I think it would have got a lot more attention. And in my opinion these would be the best songs altogether on one album.


River Of Orchids

I'd Like That

Easter Theatre

Greenman

Your Dictionary

Harvest Festival

Stupidly Happy

Boarded Up

I'm The Man Who Murdered Love

We're All Light

Wounded Horse

The Wheel and the Maypole

(Except for replacing 'Wounded Horse' with 'You And The Clouds')
I almost agree with Donavan!
Is this a first?

AV1 should have been the last album.

I had a similar experience standing on the Iron Age ramparts of Uffington Castle and yelling it into the headwind...until I couldn't for the sheer exhilarating sadness of it, and wept. Why the fuck don't we push our cars from the road, anyway?

...and as to 5.1....I wasn't so convinced a couple of years ago....but I'd buy it if you brought it out. I need a new system anyway. Jeez, I bought a new turntable for the Skylarking vinyl, after all...

Because we need them.

Cars only for emergency services. Everyone else,cycle power,walking or horse.

So you never use a taxi?

You can't stop evolution even if it ends up killing us. Ask the dinosaurs.

Oh sure, everyone thinks they want to live on Mackinac Island, but the tourists drive you mad in the summer and in the winter you're basically trapped there with the other 500 year-round residents.

Still, I'd recommend a visit... Just remember, to get to the Island without motor vehicles you'll have to get on a couple planes, a road vehicle or two, and a high-powered gas-driven ferry boat.

Back when I worked there I always got a kick out of all of the Amish and Old-Order Mennonites that came- in order to get there they had to abandon their horse and buggies, charter a bus and catch the ferry, in order to get to a place where people drove around with horses and buggies.

They weren't even in the same state.
Or the same decade.
Or the same millennium.

Don,of course I take taxi's,but if they had horse drawn ones I'd take them. Too many bloody cars everywhere,everything in town and countryside is done for the car and nothing for the person.

I agree completely! This really strikes a nerve with me.

First of all, I walk or ride my bike 3 & 1/2 miles to work every single day, no matter the weather, and I live in a fairly cold place. I think many, many people (although admittedly not all) who drive to work could walk instead, or bike, or take public transportation. It's my favorite part of my day! Just me and my thoughts, and/or my mp3 player.

We don't make bike and pedestrian infrastructure enough of a priority. We paint white bike lanes on roadways built for steel death machines, and we call it good enough. Well, it's not good enough! We need to get bicyclists and pedestrians away from cars! It would encourage more and more people to get out of their cars and start exercising more.

More important, it would make people healthier. We complain about health insurance and healthcare costs, but we're not willing to get out and walk! I'm more and more convinced that health and transportation issues are inextricably linked.

And don't tell me we can't afford it. If we can afford to invade Iraq, we can afford to build pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. It's a matter of priorities.

Disclaimer: Yes, I drive to get groceries. Those wine bottles are heavy!

Public transportation in my city is a joke. Last buses run at about 6pm - and that only matters if it's going where you actually need it to. After that, you're left to cab it, try to get a ride, bike it, or walk. Which, despite my city being stretched out north-south (with the Trans-Canada "belt" through the middle), is what a lot of people do. I've done it myself. Nearly 4 hours, and I'm a quick walker (who stopped at every Tim Horton's along the way). Biking is very dangerous here as we have few bike lanes, and only intermittent ones on the main arteries. As for regional transport, getting to Vancouver from the Fraser Valley means a Greyhound. No other options exist. There's a group (which I support) pushing for light rail to at least the Surrey/Langley border, but it's a hard sell to those currently in charge.

We do have a lot of horses here, but they only tend to be ridden on the country roads out near the farms that surround the city (mostly by young women, I find) when not on designated walking trails by the rivers, and are only readily accessible to people who have money to throw around. As romantic as it sounds to have horses all over the place, even the handfuls 'round these parts produce enough shit to make you reconsider. So much fuss about dog owners not picking up after their pups, but horses are the damned worst. Just a northward flick of the tail, and plippity-plop-poop-poop, their riders none the wiser. Jerks!

I bike to work. Worst dangers are heat stroke and geese, but drivers here are very aggressive and stupid about bikes and bikers. It is not a bike-friendly down.

Ummm... and yes, AV1.

Hey, we're talking about pushing our cars from the road!

I agree about walking (albeit in some circumstances, not practical and you have to use your car) I walk practically EVERYWHERE in the city I live in but I'm also centrally located. I've had many people think that I don't drive because they always see me walking everywhere. And yes, I've had a valild driver's licence since 1979 !!! And again.... yes Simp; you would all be much HEALTHIER.... heaven forbid you could get up and move around folks. Keeps you from getting fat too

Wow, what a concept. Move around and feel better too; healthy body, healthy mind. Two feet for transportation and exercise every so often. Simp, you're a damned Genius !!!!!

Damned - Yes.

Genius? - Nah!

Back to the 5.1 discussion, I would plunk down $100 in a heartbeat as a pre-order for a Deluxe AV/WS release in hi-res 5.1 DVD-A (or SACD or Blu-Ray). Perhaps if enough of us pre-ordered such an item, Andy would have the necessary funds to facilitate such a release?

And yes, the entire catalog would be incredible in 24/96 5.1 surround...