Wasp Star

Just two more XTC albums to go, their last one (Wasp Star) and their first one (White Music).

Wasp Star is the second of two volumes of Apple Venus, the six year backlash of material that XTC accumulated while they were on strike from Virgin between 1993-1998. It seems like all the best songs were on Apple Venus, because it feels like a fully realized album while Wasp Star feels like a batch of leftovers.

My two favorite songs on the album are the first two ("Playground" and "Stupidly Happy"), but everything after that sounds uneven and half baked. None of Colin Moulding's three songs are especially memorable, and Dave Gregory left during the sessons, so it's almost like an Andy Partridge solo album. Andy's songs on Apple Venus, Volume One are some of the best ones of his career, but few of the Wasp Star songs are up to that level.

"Stupidly Happy" is a catchy little single that should have been a hit single, but it doesn't sound very much like an XTC song to me.