This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Sunday Bloody Sunday," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input. Purple lettering indicates something nobody legally got paid for.

XTC was initially a four-piece from Swindon signed by Virgin in 1977 on the strength of their angular, complicated pop. Not many miles removed from the Buzzcocks or Wire, the band (at the time singer and guitarist Andy Partridge, bassist Colin Moulding, drummer Terry Chambers and keyboardist Barry Andrews) were instant critical darlings, but their singles didn't chart and their albums (White Music and Go 2) only briefly troubled the UK top 40. After Go 2's failure, Barry Andrews left the band, and would later emerge in Shriekback.

Andrews was replaced by Dave Gregory in time for the group to find their first chart single "Life Begins at the Hop," a bouncing, catchy and utterly weird singalong which made #54 in the spring of 1979. It was included on Drums and Wires, released that August. The album begins with the remarkable "Making Plans for Nigel," which would hit the top 20 in a couple of months. With clipped vocals, a weird "a-woo-oo" backing tune, and a truly bizarre subject (getting a tyke ready for a "future in British steel"), it wasn't like anything the charts had seen before. The album succeeds by finding a unique blend of surreal lyrical imagery, old-fashioned British psychedelia, and quick, buzzsaw pop played with such originality and verve that it seems nobody else could have ever come up with the quirky arrangements.

While miles removed from anything that would trouble the US pop stations, the album found some success in college markets and album-oriented rock, paving the way for the fourth album, Black Sea, to make the top 50 in 1980. In England, it hit #16 and spawned two top 40 singles. XTC launched a successful US tour while rushing a follow-up, the critically praised and commercial smash English Settlement, into shops just six months after Sea. Unfortunately, XTC's momentum was cut abruptly when Partridge suffered a nervous breakdown just before a tour scheduled to start in California. With success came increasingly larger audiences, and Partridge's stagefright before large crowds left him unable to play in public. Not wishing to be part of a studio-only outfit, Terry Chambers quit the band.

XTC was absent from the charts and the stage for a year, which was a dangerously long time in the early 80s, when reputations were made by the weekly music papers as much as live performances and TV appearances. They returned with their weakest single, "Great Fire," in the spring of 1983, and it missed the chart. "Wonderland" and the parent album Mummer appeared that summer, but the reviews were terrible and sales poor. Mummer is stunning for what it lacks. With the exception of the bright "Love on a Farmboy's Wages," which sounded like a Drums & Wires track with more friendly production, the album is full of unmemorable, dull efforts. Partridge makes some solid points about commercial radio on the last track "Funk Pop a Roll," and the weird imagery of "Toys" (a B-side of "Farmboy" later added as a CD bonus track) proved the band could still make salient points couched in metaphor, but the playing and performance were stale and uninspired. 1984's The Big Express was even less interesting, with only a few nifty stereo tricks on a sea shanty (!) called "All You Pretty Girls" rising above a messy sludge of a mix. Desperate for a hit, Virgin appended all three of the band's previous top 20 singles to the 12-inch version of "Wake Up." It still didn't chart. Directionless and tired, the band was in desperate need of inspiration.

In 1986, XTC changed their name to "The Dukes of Stratosphear" and released a five song, mini-LP called 25 o'Clock. This was a radical departure from their established sound, instead intentionally sounding as much like a late '60s psychedelic, drug-filled guitar act as possible: Blue Floyd, maybe, or Pink Cheer. The Dukes followed that up with a full album, Psonic Psunspot, in late 1987. A remarkable soundtrack to an hour of an acid trip, it begins with the Cream-esque "Mole from the Ministry" and winds its way through lots of unfashionable styles: "Vanishing Girl" evokes post-Pet Sounds Beach Boys, "You're a Good Man, Albert Brown" early Tyrannosaurus Rex, and "Braniac's Daughter," as well as the album generally, the 13th Floor Elevators. The project is remarkably clever: leaving behind simple parody for something worthwhile and deserving of repeated listenings. The critics detested the records, collected in 1988 on the single CD Chips from the Chocolate Fireball, and they didn't sell, but they have a fandom all their own and helped to raise XTC from their mid-80s slump.

In between the two records, meanwhile, the band released what's arguably their most important album. Without Skylarking, they might have continued to sink without trace. Produced by Todd Rundgren, the album was initially unsuccessful, but when US DJs began spinning a song called "Dear God" (an extra track on the "Grass" 12-inch single), the US label Geffen added it to the running order and people took notice. A blistering attack on religion, it was exactly the sort of song disaffected college kids (like, ahem, me) would use as anthems of individuality and separation from their parents, and the college radio world, which had ignored XTC since 1981 and which was becoming a very important mover in US sales, embraced it. Unfortunately, "Dear God" is nowhere as clever as it thinks, and unlikely to find fans among anyone, even atheists, who can think about the subject realistically. A track which insists the Lord is meant to be perfect and then hating Him because He fails to meet human expectations is more petulant than intelligent, and someone as insightful as Andy Partridge could surely have penned a more realistic attack.

The success of Skylarking paved the way for Oranges and Lemons to be as big a cult hit as Black Sea and English Settlement were in their day. With MTV now devoting a nightly half-hour show, Post Modern MTV, to "alternative" rock (aping what was on college radio playlists at the time), acts like the Cure, Depeche Mode and They Might Be Giants suddenly had national exposure like they'd never had before. (Even Pere Ubu was getting regular airplay!) Oranges and Lemons entered the top 50 on the back of "The Mayor of Simpleton," a wonderfully goofy and truly clever pop song. While it never charted as a US single (if indeed Geffen released one), "Mayor" was an enormous hit on college radio and MTV, even getting some play on the top 40 stations. The record certainly has its flaws (a needlessly bloated 15-track length one of them), but apart from the psychedelic opener "Garden of Earthly Delights," none of the songs suffer from the cluttered, unfriendly production that weighed down their mid-80s efforts. "King for a Day," "Cynical Days" and especially "Across This Antheap" are just great songs in a good package. A little more editing might have pruned this album down to a classic, but it stands as a decent return to form.

1992's Nonsuch is exactly the same, only longer. It's certainly a listenable album, and none of the songs are really bad, it's just that with seventeen of them, there are too many in one place. The fellows go out of their way to avoid being noticed with this one, which is designed to look like some medieval artefact. Additionally, fashions had changed a lot in three years, and the quirky pop of XTC (and TMBG) didn't have a prayer of attracting the "alternative" crowd who were embracing grunge, especially when they're singing songs about decaying pumpkins and clowns composing resignation letters to the circus. Three years did seem an unforgivably long time between records for a non-touring act, which might also explain radio's shying away.

That was a drop in the kettle compared to the break which followed. XTC and Virgin had some contractual argument in 1992, and the band elected to wait out their obligations until its expiration in 1999 rather than record for the label anymore. When XTC resumed work seven years after Nonsuch, it was as a duo of Partridge and Moulding; Dave Gregory declined to continue. Signed to indie Idea Records in England, and distributed by TVT in the US, the leaner XTC released the very sparse Apple Venus Vol. 1. The majestic "River of Orchids" opened the album with a strange orchestra plucking out-of-tune strings, setting the stage for a set of more complicated pop. "I'd Like That" was a minor hit on the alt-rock stations and "Frivolous Tonight" got considerable college radio play, and both of them sound like older brothers telling Oasis and Blur that they were doing pop wrong. Apple Venus got more press than Nonsuch had, which might indicate how little attention Virgin was paying the band in 1992.

There has been more activity from XTC in the three years since Apple Venus than many other bands in the same time. A follow-up, Wasp Star, was issued in 2000, along with two further albums full of demos. In 2002, Partridge and Moulding patched up some of their differences with Virgin to see the release of a 4-CD career retrospective box set called A Coat of Many Cuboards, and then prepared limited edition instrumental versions of Apple Venus and Wasp Star that autumn. (9/02)

XTC: Drums and Wireless: BBC Radio Sessions 77-89 (1994, **)
Much as it pains me to give a negative review of any album with a sleeve designed by the great artist Rian Hughes, Drums and Wireless is a patchy mess. It features sixteen performances for the BBC, which is nowhere near the total, and the songs are not even in chronological order, jumping from a 1989 "Poor Skeleton Steps Out" played by the trio of Partridge/Moulding/Gregory song back to a 1977 Partridge/Moulding/Andrews/Chambers "Crosswires" and then back to 1984... it's needlessly schizophrenic. In 1998, a more complete 4-CD set of BBC sessions and concerts, Transistor Blast, was released and that seems to be a more thorough look at their radio work.

XTC: Upsy Daisy Assortment (1997, ***)
This is a single-disc American compilation which was offered in the USA instead of the previous year's double-disc Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977-1992. The material on this collection begins with Drums and Wires and offers 19 tracks, none new or rare, from the rest of their career, with all the "hits" and key album tracks. The packaging is terrible, with sparse liner notes, but the songs are mostly wonderful. There's no excuse for including "Chalkhills and Children" and not "The Loving."

YAZOO: Upstairs at Eric's (1982, UK #2, US #92, ***)
The UK act (called Yaz in the US since there's a blues label called Yazoo) is pretty impressive on this debut. Alison Moyet's vocals are amazing, and some of the material still ranks as Vince Clarke's best writing ever. "Winter Kills" tends to drag, and the studio farting of tracks 3 and 5 doesn't bear repeat listening. "Only You," on the other hand, is one of the best singles in history, and most of the songs follow in its huge footsteps.

YAZOO: You and Me Both (1983, UK #1, US #69, ****)
Closing with an explosion, Both includes another true classic, "Nobody's Diary," and ten other tracks with beautiful and powerful lyrics and vocals. "And On" might have done with fewer synth flourishes, but honestly, a band couldn't hope for a better finale. The US track listing is different, replacing "Happy People" with "State Farm."

YAZOO: "Situation" CD single (1990, UK #14)
"Situation" still gets plenty of dance airplay in this country, even though its 1982 mix seems a little dated. This set of three remixes brings it up to date. It also includes a furious version of "State Farm."

TRISHA YEARWOOD: The Sweetest Gift (***)
I'm very particular about my Christmas music. In 1994, when she still had that enormous lion mane of red hair, Trisha, favorite daughter of Monticello, GA, released this wonderful collection, containing only a few of the standards, but also several lesser-known numbers and a beautiful hymn, "Take a Walk Through Bethlehem," written for this release. I even listen to this one when it's not quite close to Christmas since her voice and the arrangements are so good.

TRISHA YEARWOOD: Everybody Knows (***)
A few notes on country music in the space of a Trisha Yearwood review: I think that one reason the genre has failed to gain widespread acceptance - certainly not outside the US - is the strict emphasis on the "song" rather than the "album." The tendency in Nashville is to pair a singer with something crafted especially for that singer by a team of professional songwriters. The results, as shown on Everybody Knows, may be perfectly listenable one by one, but as a unified whole, Nashville albums are disjointed kaleidoscopes careening from one emotion to another. In the first four tracks alone, Trisha delivers a "sick of being single" song, a "tonight's gonna be perfect" song, a "sorry I'm awful" song and a "what happened to the man I fell in love with" song. They're all good pieces, written, played and performed well, but without a cohesive center of some kind, the album feels exactly like any random hour of drivetime country radio.

PAUL YOUNG: Other Voices (1990, **)
Well, when I was in high school, the girl who introduced me to the Bunnymen and Depeche Mode also introduced me to this mulleted cover singer and it took a very long time to realize her taste was in question. Young started out in the 70s in a London-based soul-rock combo called Street Band and played in the early 80s with the Q-Tips. Few expected his 1983 solo album No Parlez to be a hit, but his cover of "Wherever I Lay My Hat" was a British #1 for weeks and the record stayed on the chart for over a year. Transatlantic hits like "Come Back and Stay" and "Every Time You Go Away" followed and Young was briefly a major star. 1986 was a weird year for UK artists, though. Young followed previous hitmakers like Adam Ant, the Thompson Twins, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Duran Duran and Alison Moyet into the lower end of the chart with some poor sellers and took four years off. Other Voices, built rather than grown in three cities with a who's who of top sessioners, was promoted to the adult contemporary market with a bunch of smooth, passionless nothing tracks sung by Young in a voice midway between Michael Bolton and Rod Stewart. Oddly, though "Oh Girl" went to the US top ten, the LP bombed, prompting CBS to drop him after the subsequent hits album.

PAUL YOUNG: From Time to Time, the Singles Collection (***)
Even more annoying to me than singles collections that don't contain all the singles (where the devil is "Tomb of Memories"?) are singles collections that contain songs not issued as singles. Amusingly, one of those hangers-on is a cover of "I'm Only Foolin' Myself."

FRANK ZAPPA: Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch (1982, UK #61, US #23, **)
I am not at all qualified to review anything by Frank Zappa. Anyway, this former friend of mine really liked him, so I listened to a compilation and some live stuff and bought this minor hit, which worked its way up the chart on the back of the top 40 novelty single "Valley Girl." Most of the album is actually edited together into "songs" from some eternal, infernal jams between Zappa, Steve Vai and keyboardist Tommy Mars. Frank also contributes some distorted, "wacky" vocals. It's a shame all this technical proficiency was put to use providing a soundtrack for stoners in their thirties.

FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION: Break Wind! (2001, Zomby Woof)
A two-CD collection of some of Zappa's more far-out jamming from 1969 to 1975. I kind of wish I liked this more than I do.

HECTOR ZAZOU: Sahara Blue (1992, ***)
This is an interesting little album. Zazou concocted the idea of an series of songs based on the poems of Arthur Rimbaud and got a bunch of egghead musicians like Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Cale, Bill Laswell and David Sylvian to contribute. Unfortunately, Virgin Records objected to Sylvian singing on Columbia's album and so the CD was withdrawn. They probably knew he was going to get in trouble in the first place, which is why he is credited as "Mr. X." There's a later, more common issue with the two Sylvian vocal songs excised. On that one, he's credited by name for some guitar parts. Hunt for the Mr. X edition to get the best songs, although both contain Cale's brilliant, kinky reading of "First Evening."

various artists: FOR THE MASSES (***)
16 Depeche Mode covers by artists as disparate as the Smashing Pumpkins, and, in the only disappointment, Rammstein. Best offerings: the Cure's take on "World in My Eyes," Hooverphonic's "Shake the Disease" and a pair that probably surpass the originals: Gus Gus's "Monument" and Veruca Salt's "Somebody."

various artists: Kindercore Fifty: We Thank You (****)
The Athens-founded Kindercore Records, devoted to the purest and most optimistic pop possible, decided to make their 50th release a special one: a three-disc compilation. Disc one, "the new," features 20 recently-recorded pieces, best of them Dressy Bessy's "Instead," The Apples in Stereo's "The Oasis," Je Suis France's "Coming Out Party" and Japancakes' "Wisconsin." Disc two, "the classics," features twelve now out-of-print rarities, with the best-of-set award going to The Catskills. Their "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" edges Dressy Bessy by a nose. The third disc, "the remixes," features eight new and retooled versions of older tracks.

various artists: LOVE IN SONG: AN ATLANTA TRIBUTE TO SIR PAUL McCARTNEY (***)
This is a great collection of tunes assembled by a Decatur-based label showcasing twenty Atlanta acts playing Macca tunes. Van Gogh's "Letting Go" is my favorite. Other really good renditions include Christopher Robin's "Let Me Roll It," Paul Melancon's "Another Day" and Big Fish Ensemble's "Love in Song."

various artists: PARTY GIRL original motion picture soundtrack (***)
Whee! What a breezy, fun movie! The soundtrack is like a time capsule of New York City 1995 (I'm told), leading with Wolfgang Press's awesome cover of "Mama Told Me Not to Come" (how many times better than the original is this?!) and also featuring material from Tom Tom Club, Run DMC and others, along with snatches of film dialogue.

various artists: RED, HOT & BLUE (***)
20 Cole Porter covers by such notables as David Byrne, U2, Sinead O'Connor, Erasure and k.d. lang. U2's "Night and Day" is brilliant, a real crowning moment for them. Kirsty MacColl teams up, not for the first time, with the Pogues to much success, and Aztec Camera close with a beautiful "Do I Love You." Basically, 18 of these 20 selections are very good indeed. Sadly, Salif Keita (the only artist here unknown to me) and Tom Waits contribute wretched, unlistenable efforts that lower the overall tone by some notches.

various artists: VELVET GOLDMINE original motion picture soundtrack (1998, **)
People who sampled Todd Haynes' film would probably agree that the music was the best part. This collects a few early 70s pieces by such artists as Roxy Music, Lou Reed and Steve Harley along with 70s-sounding new material by Pulp and Grant Lee Buffalo and lots of covers, including Placebo's "20th Century Boy" and a brace of songs by "The Venus in Furs," a supergroup containing Thom Yorke, Bernard Butler and Andy Mackay. Good driving music if you can get past Yorke's vocals.

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