Apple Venus, Volume 1

I discovered XTC when I was in high school, first buying Oranges and Lemons on tape and listening to it incessantly on repeat in my car (which didn't have a CD player). I got to them through the TMBG pipeline, as a lot of my fellow TMBG fans, with whom I communicated on message boards and newsgroups, were also into XTC. I discovered the band during their strike from Virgin Records, so the newest release was 1992's Nonsuch and there was no clear sign that the band would ever release new music again. When AV1 was announced in 1999, it was super-exciting: this band we all thought might never release music again was suddenly back in play and the album was met with excitement from fans, as was its follow-up, Wasp Star. Unfortunately, that was it for XTC, but it was great to see them back in action, even if that action was short-lived.

So this five stars is based a lot on my own emotional attachment to the album. And I think Easter Theatre is as good a song as The Beatles ever wrote. If you're inclined, Andy released a track on how he wrote Easter Theatre, which you can probably find on YouTube and it provides a neat look behind the curtain of this particular songwriter and his method

It's been well over a year and a half since I listened to Skylarking, and I thought it was a good orchestral pop record that showed XTC taking influence from late '60s psychedelia. The group experimented further with psychedelic flourishes, though they had to deal with a five-year squabble with their label, Virgin Records. XTC ended up breaking free from their contract with Virgin and got to work on a new record on Cooking Vinyl. The band would divide this new project into two parts: one full of rock songs, the other full of "orchustic" songs accompanied by a 40-piece symphony. Along the way, sessions grew troubled, and mid-recording, guitarist and keyboardist Dave Gregory left the band, frustrated with Partridge. After all that turmoil, Apple Venus Volume 1 saw the light of day. How does it hold up?

Well, I will say "orchustic" is quite the portmanteau to describe this first volume, because it is a collection of acoustic songs with orchestral accompaniment. Partridge paid close attention to how well these compositions needed to pop and bounce from his intricate acoustic guitar melodies, with soft accompaniment from Colin Moulding's bass. That said, Moulding penned the most uptempo tracks, between the grandiose showtune "Frivolous Tonight" and the adventurous Beatles-esque "Fruit Nut". Along the way, the London Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Gavyn Wright, provided much-needed whimsy with their arrangements, evoking the psychedelic influence the group craved.

Adding to that whimsicality are the lyrics, where Partridge and Moulding split the difference between exploring paganism and the former's life events. "Easter Theme", "Knights in Shining Karma", "Greenman", and "Harvest Festival" are particularly effective in indulging the mythology and fantasicism of pagan culture, with a certain romanticism for the Middle Ages. "Harvest Festival" also blends into Andy's life, as he participated in harvest festivals in his youth. Though probably the most revealing for Andy were the songs he penned about his dissolved marriage with his first wife on "Your Dictionary" and "I Can't Own Her", where he clearly wanted to move on. At the very least, there is some optimism expressed about Andy's future, with the love song for his future wife, Erica Wrexler, on "I'd Like That", and closing on "The Last Balloon" with the hope that brighter days are ahead for him and his children.

All that said, I don't consider this a perfect record. The opening track "River of Orchids" was a stretched-out buildup to "I'd Like That" and the subsequent pagan exploration, but the song itself didn't stand well on its own. Also, for as much as Moulding's contributions added to the overall whimsy, they felt incongruent with Andy's tracks, especially with "Fruit Nut" placed between the two tracks exploring Andy's dissolved marriage.

Overall, Apple Venus Volume 1 delivered on the "orchustic" arrangements and continued fantastical nature of XTC. The second volume of the project, the collection of rock songs, was released the following year as Wasp Star, and then XTC would be no more as Partridge dissolved his creative partnership with Moulding. Everyone who had been in the band is still musically active, which is the best that could have happened out of such an ending.

488/1089 - Low 5, but I'll take it after the drought! There were a few choices I thought were questionable but some super interesting orchestrations and song forms throughout. Easter Theater is incredible.

I really like XTC's music. "Drums and Wires" and "Skylarking" are pretty much perfect albums in my opinion. Overall, they have such a melodic, sophisticated, and quirky sound. I get the whole "if the Beatles continued this is what they'd sound like" but it's definitely it's own thing.

If I had a say in this list, I'd put Drums and Wires, English Settlement, and Skylarking on to represent their shift from off-kilter Post Punk to transcendent Psychedelic Pop. It's three instead of two but you can always delete a few Sonic Youth or Neil Young albums! I'd also trade Apple Venus vol. 1 for a different 1999 album like Bocanada or 13 or something, but overall I still think AVv1 is pretty great.

SO PRETTY. Unfortunately not Drums and Wires though

This one is just too "nice" for me? Vaguely Beatles-esque, more modern production, but sounds like a kinda modern indie "cute" experimentalism?

Yeah, not really for me.

XTC abandon rock in favour of Beach Boys inspired orchestral pop. It sounds very lush and pastoral, reminiscent of an English countryside, with a few goofy music hall tracks to add some fun in-between. This is one of XTC's finest but it really isn't a good starting point for the band as it's completely different to anything else they did.

Apple Venus Volume 1 is a pretty good album. It is one of those albums that has so much going for it. The music is very unique by often relying on more orchestral sounds which gives it a vibe of it's own and it is also brought up by the absolutely top notch production. The lyrics are also pretty solid here as well especially in Your Dictionary. The only thing that's keeping me from giving this album 4 stars is the fact that for an album from 1999, it feels like it is stuck in the 80s. A lot of 80s sounds are here mainly through the vocals. I feel like if this album came out in 1989, I'd probably give it 4 stars. This album is still a good listen and i would put it above Skylarking.
Best Song: The Last Balloon
Worst Song: Greenman

Pretty inoffensive pop by a band who were always inoffensive new wave rockers. It really doesn't sound like a dawn of the millenium style piece, the elaborate lush arrangements feel more like the late 60s style.

Me gustan cuando son más poperos, pero este es bastante bonito. No me guardo ninguna canción en favoritos, pero otra vez me ha servido para recuperar sus otros discos. y eso al menos merece la pena.

1.73

It's pleasant and upbeat. Chamber pop has always felt a bit cloying to me though. As far as that goes though it's relatively inoffensive.

Where has this album been hiding all my life? I really like it. And for some reason this is NOT what I thought the band XTC sounded like. I thought they were a punk band? And here they are sounding more like the Beatles. I need to do a deeper dive. But this album is interesting/pretty/creative, especially the first half. Loses steam slightly towards the end.
Good find!

Reveal reaction: I LOVE the song Dear God, but I don't really know anything about them. I thought they were an 80s band, but this was released in 1999. So either they're not an 80s band, they had a longer career than I thought, or this is one of those late career "experimental" albums that completely change and refine their signature sound. We'll see.

The first song is brilliant. Very lush, and layered. The second song sounds like an outtake from a Pretenders album. Which is to say annoying, but oddly catchy. The rest of the first half of the album swings between very interesting and very catchy in a pop-y sort of way. Which is to say, it's very good. I thought I was heading for a 4 star review.

Then, starting at song 7, Your Dictionary, it just gets...boring. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why, because there's nothing egregious, there's no dramatic shift to the vibes, or a change in musical philosophy - it just kinda sucks. Fruit Nut might be the worst song on the record, it sounds like a crappy, organ-y, bouncy, spearmint gum commercial jingle. Even the best song of the back half of the album, I Can't Own Her, is just sort of bland. in fact, the last three songs are sort of interchangeable drone.

I know I've spent more words describing why I don't like the second half of the album, but that's only because I'm trying to work out what's *actually* wrong with it. I think the bottom line is that for whatever reason, it just didn't connect like the first half. Overall, solidly decent album.