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Label: Tvt
Release Date: 1999-02-23
List Price: $16.98
Buy Now: $0.98 - $16.98
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Additional Info: Tracks Reviews
A Personal Favorite! (5 stars)
The punk-turned-Britpop group XTC released this fine album in 1999 on the independent TVT label following a seven year "hiatus/strike" with their former label. Reduced to the studio-bound duo of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, who seemingly write independent of each other, they interweave their inimitable pop chops with lush orchestral flourishes and warm, often quirky modernist arrangements. This also has some of the most tasteful and resplendent production imaginable -- an "adult" album and a personal favorite!
|  | | | a gift (5 stars)
I picked this album up when I was in my early twenties -- the malnourished years. Eager to be distracted by another (long awaited) wit-filled XTC recording clad in clever chord progressions and well-read references, I was treated instead to something altogether richer; subtler; quieter; smaller and neater. Apple Venus thrust me from ebb to flow in a single listen. It wasn't just fun or upbeat -- this album really made me feel *good.* This is actually something I don't ever see cited about this recording -- the decided optimism that is woven throughout the tracks. I distinctly remember thinking at the time that the album felt like a gift.
The arrangements on Apple Venus are some of the most subtle and most pastoral of XTCs career. It sounds like something vaguely aged, and yet, unlike anything from the past. There is an effervescence to the tunes and the pagan-tinged lyrics (how can anyone dog on the lyrics???) which has not diminished some ten seasons later. In fact, it always seems like one of the newest CDs in my collection. Nothing else sounds like Apple Venus, from the angular and contrapuntal arrangement of River of Orchids, to the lyrics of Harvest Festival, to Andy's fading vocal on The Last Balloon, which blends sublimely into the trumpet outro. I almost feel selfish hoping Messrs Partridge & Moulding might one day return to Abbey Road studios to attempt to top this, their masterpiece, esp. with the sad news that XTC now seems to be a closed book. Still...
In the meantime, buy this. | | | | XTC Never Left - Brian Wilson Sindrome - Vault of Inner Conscience (5 stars)
Cronopio "Adriana A." (México) wrote : for the fundamentalist and nostalgics outthere Apple Venus may sound too orchestrated , over produced and pretentious . They even sound like Brian Wilson's British Sons . So , thanks XTC for giving us simple and beautiful melodies , majestic arrengements , for not being politically correct , for nor saving the world and it's dinosaurs ....
I could not help traduce Cronopio into english , kool thoughts . I will add that yes , XTC has matured and gone Studio Savy and written some wonderful music for my ears . Fun , in the vein of Thomas Dolby ( he still owns some more fantastic music ) , Prefab Sprouts , The Blue Nile , Deacon Blue and those modern John Mayers , Intricate and Majestik like Robert Wyatt and psychedelic Beck . Checking their site will also give pleasure to the ears . | | | | After 7 years' wait: a total disappointment. (1 stars)
I had been listening to XTC since "English Settlement". I liked some of their earlier work, and saw them improving with every album. "Nonsuch" is a great album, and after waiting 6 or 7 years for their next CD, when this piece of ship came out, I was one of the first buyers. Couldn't wait to play it.... I thought... these guys must have spent the last 5 years listening to Charly Garcia records, because this [...]could not possibly be that bad under no drugs! The selling price for this album says it all: [...], compare it to Skylarking, English Settlement, or Nonsuch, and you'll see why some people are as eager to sell this CD online as quickly as possible. Unfortunately I wasted [...]- on this CD, no used record shop would take it, so I threw it under the subway tracks. The rats can keep it. | | | | Spectacular (5 stars)
Like another reviewer I too, missed "Easter Theatre" on the first play. I was knocked out by it on the second play. Complicated and catchy music combined with the greatest lyrics yet written about Winter turning to Spring and the annual renewal of nature. Anyone who could write a song like Easter Theatre has a beautiful soul. It's a must play around here every spring.
Brilliant chords and harmonics you don't expect, this album is real craftsmanship. | | | |
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