Released
on August 17th, 1979, the third LP from XTC, Drums and Wires, turns 45
years old today. The album marked the band's turn away from their
experimental leanings into a more accessible pop disposition, giving
them their first proper commercial breakthrough. It was their first
album after the departure of keyboardist Barry Andrews, who would go on
to co-found the successful mutant funk group, Shriekback. His
replacement, guitarist Dave Gregory, would help inspire the album's
title as the band's sound shifted to emphasize guitars over keyboards,
hence the "wires" reference. As for the "drums" aspect, this came down
to the group recording in Virgin's newly opened Town House studios, with
producer Steve Lillywhite beginning to developing the gated reverb
effect that would give the drums their heft and impact. The studio
featured the infamous "stone room", which would play a huge part in
Public Image Ltd developing their own thunderous and influential drum
sound on their Flowers of Romance LP in 1981.
Prior
to working on the album, Lillywhite helped produce the breakthrough
single, Life Begins at the Hop, which helped set the course for the
album to come. The follow-up, Making Plans for Nigel, would solidify
the band's trajectory into the upper reaches of the charts, establishing
Andy Partridge as a songwriter of significant talents. he would pen
the bulk of the songs for the album. While the group was refining their
sound into a more radio friendly variant, they were maintaining enough
edge to keep themselves in the forefront of the "new wave" and
"post-punk" edges of the alternative music scenes. The album's closing
track, Complicated Game, in particular, offered one of the group's most
intense performances, particularly considering the vocal from leader
Andy Partridge literally blew his vocal chords by the end of the song,
achieving one of the most self-destructive vocals since John Lennon
ripped his voice to shreds on Twist & Shout. Needless to say, the
vocal was done in one take.
The
strikingly iconic cover graphics were initially conceived by Partridge,
who recalls their development: "I quite liked the idea of the letters,
the X - T and C, and the little underline actually making the features
of a face. And I did a rough version, and we were in the studio and I
didn't have time to do any finished artwork. And we got together with a
girl, I think she was working at Design Clinic [Virgin's art department]
at the time, who did a lot of our sleeves. And I ... said, "Okay -
here's the sketch. I want it done in real primary colours. And then the
back I want done in more muted kind of khakis and browns. But on the
front I want really, really bright primaries." And she took away this
sketch and I think she just cut it out of coloured paper or something,
originally. And reproduced this little sketch in terms of just these big
bright flashes." The 'girl' in question was Jill Mumford, who had also
designed the cover for Siouxsie and the Banshees' The Scream, an album
that also inspired the selection of Lillywhite as producer.
Drums
and Wires would be the first album by the band released in the US
market. While it only grazed the bottom of the top 200 in the US, it
soared to #2 in Canada, and was also very popular in Australia and
throughout western Europe. In the UK, the album peaked at #37, making
it their biggest seller up to that point. The critics were fairly
unanimous in their praise of the album, NME's Paul Morley decreed that
XTC were "doing all sorts of they've never done before and never hinted
they would. ... They have moved many steps forward to making a rock
classic." In Billboard, the album was deemed "an interesting package
from a label that's beginning to make headway in the U.S. It's fresh
rock 'n' roll in a new wave vein with a dash of '60s English melody. Of
particular note is the inventive mix as instruments sparkle in both left
and right channels." The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote:
"My reservations about this tuneful but wilfully eccentric pop are
ideological. ... Partridge and Colin Moulding are moving toward a great
art-pop mean that will set standards for the genre. Catchy, funny,
interesting—and it rocks."
I was
one of those Canadian kids who helped push the album to the top of the
charts in the "Great White North". I saw a video for Making Plans for
Nigel, and its syncopated drumming shudder, couple with the
authoritarian dystopian lyrics, intrigued me, and then the striking
cover graphics had an instant appeal for me to want to pick it up. That
closing with Complicated Game was the most impressive moment for me,
capturing the sense of helpless hopelessness a teenage aspiring punk
working at Burger King could clearly identify with, humming the tune
while flipping burgers. It doesn't matter where that burger goes, after
all...
