XTC-Apple Venus Volume 1 (Låt för Låt)

XTC-Apple Venus Volume 1

Genre: Chamber Pop, Art Pop, Baroque Pop, Progressive Pop, Psychedelic Pop, Sunshine Pop, Folk pop. Släppt 1999

RYM Rating 3.78 / 5.0 from 3,699 ratings

Spotifylänk till albumet:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0BOGd3GkLblP0N9koqXtmd?si=qQLMs76PQAabQL_Qwmjyjw

1. River of Orchids

Studsig, vågad öppning. Fantastiskt plock(fiol?) mixas med studsigt blås. Lägg till fantastisk sång/stämsång. King Crimson, Yes och Gentle Giant hörs som influens i sången. Doftar det inte svagt av Kevin Gilbert. Grymt bra start!

"I made sure my garden shed studio door was locked, and removing my shirt, shoes and socks, I proceded to fling myself around like a grinning dervish for the next couple of hours. I was so happy. Scat singing myself into a coma, I decided to turn on my cassette machine to capture the best phrases. This was all happening too quickly and too beautifully, I needed words to sing, where's my notebook? I couldn't lose this transient moment."Frantically I flipped through my rough book looking for words or couplets jotted down for just such an occasion, and there it was. The phrase 'I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus'." -Andy Partridge

2. I'd Like That

Tvära kast när I'd Like That drar igång. Helt annat sound. Detta är väldigt välskriven pop. Det låter nu snarare mer som Paul McCartney, Jellyfish och Kevin Gilbert(igen) än prog. Grymt bra även här!

"'Oh, it's the soundtrack of the Paul McCartney fan club barbecue, ha ha'. Well, I was right and I was wrong. Sure it has more than a smack of Macca about it, but that's nothing to apologize for." -Andy Partridge

3. Easter Theatre

Stage left! Huvudsingel från albumet. Trallig och popig. På rätt sida av gränsen mellan geni och medeltidsprog. Enligt Andy Partridge hans allra bästa låt någonsin.

"There's the little melodic figure at the beginning, which I thought sounded medieval and earthy, combined with placid, droning high keyboard chords, which sound like you're floating—so it suggested floating over a land. The ascending figure sounds like something pushing up and growing out - like springtime. The whole meaning of the song came out of the onomatopoeia of these ascending chords." -Andy Partridge

4. Knights in Shining Karma

Lugnare mellan låt. Vackert framförd. Lämnar inga större avtryck hos mig. Påminner lite om Moon Safari med sina fina ackordvändningar och färgningar.

"If the demo of this sounds close to the finished recordings the reason is simple. I'm not great at finger picking style guitar, so once I'd got the speed, feel and a relatively mistake free performance from each of the two electric guitars that constitute the backbone of this song, why should I play it again? For the master recording we lifted off these two guitars, which I was very happy with, and merely re-recorded the vocal. (Thinking about it, we also kept the bendy acoustic guitar theme and finger cymbals as well?)" -Andy Partridge

5. Frivolous Tonight

Beatles? Ingen favoritlåt. Lite Roger Waters över sången. Blir säkert mera spännande om jag orkar lyssna fler gånger på plattan.

6. Greenman

Kevin Gilbert möter Moon Safari i Lejonkungen? Petter Sandström har hört? Första gången som jag reagerar på att soundet låter "sentida". Denna bit är också en växare?

7. Your Dictionary

H-A-T-E Is that how you spell love in your dictionary

K-I-C-K Pronounced as kind

F-U-C-K Is that how you spell friend in your dictionary

Black on black A guidebook for the blind

Va fasen är det som händer? Inte den vassaste låten väl? Andy försöker att inte vara bitter över ett brustet hjärta och ett avslutat giftermål.

"I tried and tried NOT to write a divorce song, I really did, you have to believe me. The last thing I wanted was to come over as a grieved cattle bum crying into his beer in the bar of heartbreak motel. Or even worse, as Phil Collins. I mean, divorce is so. . . middle-aged and crap."Trouble was, the internal stale steam kept building, the pus kept expanding inside my head. I needed a safety valve, maybe if I just put all the hurt in one song. Not even that XTC should record this song mind you. Just let me release this cak out of my head, then I can move on." -Andy Partridge

8. Fruit Nut

"Having been seen to have owned five sheds at one time by various people who know me, it wasn't long before I came to be known in certain quarters as 'five sheds Moulding'. So perhaps it follows then that one day I might be best placed to advise friends and fellow hobbyists of the joys of owning one, but it never occured to me I would do it in a song. I might have written the tune in any of the outhouses if not for the ephemera of moving house occupying all of them, or at least the ones in good repair. You could say that most of my working life has had a connection with one shed or another having worked as a groundsman before I became a full-time musician (the horticultural link perhaps?) and whether you're putting the Hornby '00' through its paces, peering through a telescope at the moons of Jupiter or even writing a song, being alone in an outhouse at an odd hour gives you a sense of being at the frontier of discovery, a kind of Dr. Jekyll feeling, whose experiments must not be disturbed. However, I should point out that men who spend too much time on their own invariably arouse suspicion, so to avoid that 'dirty raincoat botanical gardens Tunbridge Wells feeling', be generous with the invites to your piece of paradise." -Colin Moulding

9. I Can't Own Her

Vacker sång. Än en gång handlar det om Andys äktenskap som gick i kras. Du kan inte äga människor...Återigen hör jag Kevin Gilbert. Är det bara jag?

'I Can't Own Her' was a realization that you don't own people," XTC lead singer Andy Partridge told SFGate. "I'd just been divorced somewhat against my will, and somebody just walked out of my life, and I couldn't own them. And somebody was just walking into my life, and I couldn't own them, either. And it's that realization that you can't own people. You can love them, but it is an amazingly solitary feeling. You can love them and try to express that you love them, but there's nothing to stop them from wandering off or dying or... well, do you see what I mean? You just can't own people. Love is an incredibly solitary sensation, I think. So that was that one. And I always wanted to write a song that had kind of Burt Bacharach chords, and 'I Can't Own Her' is a little bit Bacharach in chords." -songfacts.com

10. Harvest Festival

Otroligt intro. Sångmelodin låter närmast skev i sin underbarhet. Paul McCartney ligger nära i inspiration igen. Mellankolisk, varm och idyllisk.

"As a kid, I had no idea what the harvest festival ceremony at school was supposed to be about. This bizarre mix of Christianity, paganity, help the Aged, a jumble sale and fridge raid, all seem to crash together (with schoolboy lust interest) in the lyrics of this song." -Andy Partridge

11. Last Balloon

Jazzig, långsam. Gentle Giant-melodi och körer. Perfekt albumavslutare! Climb aboard! Climb Aboard! Saxen är gudomlig. Hur mycket har Jellyfish inspirerats av XTC och tvärtom?

"A. N. D. Y. Is that how you spell God in your dictionary?" -MrMungbean

Bra låtar:River of Orchids, I'd Like That, Easter Theatre, I Can't Own Her, Harvest Festival, Last Balloon

Sämre sortens bitar: Frivolous Tonight, Your Dictionary

Bästa låt: Last Balloon

Sämsta låt: Your Dictionary

Betyg: 9/15. Kan säkert växa med fler lyssningar.