Drums and Wires (1979)

I played this certified stone classic by XTC for the first time in possibly decades and wondered what I’d been doing with my life all this time. Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking now because among other things it instantly put me in the place where it is so gratifying to play albums all day. It occurred to me that Drums and Wires might be the greatest new wave album ever recorded (after only perhaps Singles Going Steady). Not talking about Iron Maiden and that new wave, but the safe-for-kids offshoot of punk-rock. New wave—the land of fast-tempo’d hooks and earworms and pleasures unexpected, keyboards, dancy rhythms, electric guitars, and posers that make posing fun again. I was so smitten with the habit of Drums and Wires it took me a while to notice that “Life Begins at the Hop” not only did not kick it off, the way I remembered, but did not even appear to be on the album at all, which instead led with “Making Plans for Nigel”—a great song, warm, poignant, bouncy-bright primary colored and saucer-eyed. Because, yes, it turns out Drums and Wires is one more story of competing UK and US versions, which I thought was a thing of the past in 1979, except apparently the problem of marketing punk-rock and even the more arty commercial new wave brought the practice back again for a redux. All butcher-shop metaphors apply. In fact, Drums and Wires nearly stands up to comparison even to the Beatles’ mighty Rubber Soul, by the unique circumstances of the parallel versioning problem, and more generally the songwriting too. The US version opens with a song not on the UK, and the UK version returns the favor. (In the case of Rubber Soul, it’s “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” the correct opener, and “Drive My Car,” a delightful song but alas no. The comparison doesn’t entirely hold, because “Making Plans for Nigel” is on both versions of the XTC album, but you see my point.) Having left Napster because of its chronic stability problems (and worrisome new crypto ownership) I resorted to youtube, where that version of Drums and Wires includes “Hop” as an extra and hence jogged my memory. Drums and Wires is remarkable because it sounded fabulous from the first time I returned to it—sometimes, these days, it can take a try or three before these older favorites kick back in—and it has tended to sound better every time I play it. I believe every song on it now has appeared as an earworm these past days and weeks, pleasant enough to relive. I think I made this point somewhere else recently, but I don’t take earworms in and of themselves as unwanted. It depends on the song. “When You’re Near Me I Have Difficulty,” yes. “1-877 Kars4Kids,” no. Fortunately, every song here is a great song and welcome when they drift into my head unbidden. Get the completest package of Drums and Wires you can (or resort to youtube). This was a good period for XTC.