English Settlement (1982)

XTC’s fifth album is another that unfortunately presents versioning problems. Released originally in the UK as a double LP (the band’s first), it was bowdlerized for the US and elsewhere into a single album, removing five songs and reordering the sequence. I came to it late, never knew it well in its time, so for this exercise I stuck with the original, which I assume is closer to what XTC and not the marketing arm of the label intended. English Settlement clocks in over 70 minutes, barely fitting onto a single CD. But it was the beginning of XTC stretching out for longer sets. Lost in the intricate patterns of studio construction, hobbled in a way by the worsening stage-fright incidents of principal Andy Partridge, on English Settlement XTC seems to be finding its way with songcraft developed to the furthest abstracted reaches. Sometimes the hooks are so mechanical they are more like barbs caught uncomfortably in the lip, as with “Melt the Guns,” which feels robotic even with its pro-humanist theme, or the caterwauling “Leisure.” The album has a kind of learning curve for me if I’ve been away from it too long. Just so, I had to play it through a few times before I caught on to its pleasures again. Even then I noticed I was only good for maybe seven songs at a time before I started to flag a little and zone out. I tried it on shuffle, which produced the same effect but at least convinced me it wasn’t just the first seven songs that are good. “It’s Nearly Africa,” “Knuckle Down,” “Down in the Cockpit,” and “Snowman” all improved a good deal under this system of listening. You can’t hold it against an album if there are too many songs to easily assimilate. Who listens to double-LP albums all together in one big gulp anyway? Wikipedia says English Settlement “marked a turn towards the more pastoral pop songs that would dominate later XTC releases.” That sounds right. “Senses Working Overtime” reminded me of Drums and Wires songs but considerably toned down in terms of the attack—slower tempo, milder assault, almost introspective. “Ball and Chain” even has interludes that remind me of the Genesis double-LP The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, antithetical in a way to the larger punk-rock / new wave project on which XTC was launched. It would not be a far step from here to the cartoonish psychedelics they would begin entertaining with Skylarking (perhaps their most popular album), Oranges & Lemons, and the Dukes of Stratosphear. It took me a while to get into English Settlement again, but I’m not sure I’m done with it yet—it’s sticky.