English Settlement

The Uffington White Horse.



When you play (and blog about) every XTC album in alphabetical order, English Settlement comes just after Drums and Wires and Black Sea, the same place it fits chronologically.

The first XTC song I remember hearing was "Senses Working Overtime", on a tape that one of my SF Bay Area friends sent me during my senior year of high school (1982/83). After my family moved to Singapore in early 1981, and I'd stay in touch with the States by having friends send me random songs taped off the radio.

This friend sent me a batch of "new music" recorded off SF radio stations KQAK and KFOG, with a bunch of lesser tunes by bands like Heaven 17 and Culture Club and one great song with a chorus "1-2-3-4-5, senses working overtime!". Unfortunately, the song was near the end of the tape and wasn't back announced, so I didn't know who did it, and when I did, I couldn't find XTC in any Singapore record shops. I later heard a rumor that XTC were "banned" because the band name was related to drugs or sex, which was probably not true, but made them all the more interesting to me.

It wasn't until the summer of 1983 that I bought my first XTC album, the Waxworks compilation, which I thought would be a better choice than English Settlement, even though both albums had "Senses Working Overtime". I didn't pick up English Settlement until later, and it was the 10-song expurgated American version.

Many fans consider English Settlement to be XTC's best album, but I think a few of the songs are too long, and the album itself (especially the double-LP and CD version) is kind of bloated in spots. I still consider the five songs that weren't on the single LP to be "bonus tracks", and these ten songs from the Epic/US version to be the "album proper". And what a fabulous album it is.

1. Runaways
2. Ball and Chain
3. Senses Working Overtime
4. Jason and the Argonauts
5. Snowman
6. Melt the Guns
7. No Thugs in Our House
8. Yacht Dance
9. English Roundabout
10. All of a Sudden (It's Too Late)

This ten song album is one of the strongest of XTC's career, and "Senses Working Overtime" is one of my favorite songs ever by anyone (even covered by Mandy Moore). Here's a live XTC performance (not a mime) from back in the day.



It was also around this time that XTC stopped touring, mostly due to Andy's aversion to giant man-eating insects. "Some people ask us why we didn't just use fly spray," he said in a recent interview. "I guess we never did try that."

I saw it on the internet, so it must be true!