Drums and Wires

I think Drums & Wires is XTC's first great album. Their first two albums with Barry Andrews sound like they're trying to process a million different ideas at the same time, but after they replaced Barry with Dave Gregory, everything suddenly developed into a cohesive whole. Drums & Wires is the first XTC album that sounds like no other band.

I've always found it strange that Colin Moulding only wrote four songs of the 12 on the original album, but half of them pulled as singles ("Making Plans For Nigel", "Ten Feet Tall") and Colin also wrote the non-LP single "Life Begins At The Hop" which was included in most CD reissues. Andy Partridge wrote most of band's material at this point, but Colin was the hit-making machine. "Life Begins At The Hop" and "Making Plans For Nigel" were bona fide top 20 hit single in the UK. Here they are miming to it on "Top Of The Pops".



Some of the "drum sounds" on Drums & Wires sound a little dated thirty years on (courtesy of producer Steve Lillywhite). I thought Lillywhite had to work to make it sound like Terry Chambers was banging on trash cans, but it makes more sense if Terry really was banging on trash cans!