Rated 10/10
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
