februari 05, 2026

Published februari 05, 2026 by ad-vinylrecords with 0 comment

XTC - English Settlement (1982) (vinyl Lp) - €10,00

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"English Settlement" is the fifth studio album and first double album by the English rock band XTC, released 12 February 1982 on Virgin Records. 
It marked a turn towards the more pastoral pop songs that would dominate later XTC releases, with an emphasis on acoustic guitar, 12-string electric guitar and fretless bass. 
The title refers to the Uffington White Horse depicted on the cover, to the "settlement" of viewpoints, and to the Englishness that the band felt they "settled" into the record.
Once again, XTC has managed the difficult feat of sounding accessible even while moving into evermore abstruse and adventuresome territory. 
Driven along by the rolling thunder of Terry Chambers' drumming, the smooth electric glide of Colin Moulding's fretless bass and the angular guitar work of Dave Gregory and Andy Partridge, the ten songs on English Settlement take on the world, by turns, in concretely political and dreamily mythic terms. 
On one side, "Melt the Guns" pleads for global disarmament, singling out the U.S. in particular for fecklessly courting apocalypse. "Jason and the Argonauts," though, is almost the stuff of parable, an imagistic recounting of a modern-day vision quest.
Musically, XTC's new songs attain something of an anthemic grandeur through repetition of a musical theme or fragment, sustained over the course of five or more minutes by a steady rhythmic pulse (African and third-world rhythms figure prominently). 
The result is a program of numbers that resonate across all manner of invigorating wordplay with a jazzy, stoned ambiance.
"Senses Working Overtime," which could be this band's long-overdue hit, sums up the XTC aesthetic perfectly: employing all of their faculties for taking in the world around them, they digest that input and send out some new wisdom of their own. This process is called communication, and to XTC, it's as natural as breathing. 
XTC recorded the album at The Manor Studio in Oxfordshire with producer Hugh Padgham, the engineer of their previous two LPs. Compared to the band's previous releases, English Settlement showcased more complex and intricate arrangements, lengthier songs, lyrics that covered broader social issues, and a wider range of music styles. 
Principal songwriter Andy Partridge was fatigued by the grueling touring regimen imposed by their label and management, and believed that pursuing a sound less suited for live performance would relieve the pressure to tour. 

Three singles were issued from the album: "Senses Working Overtime", "Ball and Chain" and "No Thugs in Our House".


Side one
1.  Runaways - 4:33
2.  Ball And Chain - 4:30
3.  Senses Working Overtime - 4:50
4.  Jason And The Argonauts - 6:05
5.  Snowman - 5:12

Side two
1.  Melt The Guns - 6:31
2.  No Thugs In Our House - 5:09
3.  Yacht Dance - 3:54
4.  English Roundabout - 3:48
5.  All Of A Sudden (It’s Too Late) - 5:19


XTC

Additional personnel
  • Hugh Padgham – backing vocals on "Ball and Chain"
  • Hans de Vente – backing vocals on "It's Nearly Africa"

Technical
  • Hugh Padgham – producer, engineer, mixing
  • XTC – producer, mixing
  • Howard Gray – assistant engineer
  • Ken Ansell – artwork
  • Art Dragon – illustrations
  • Allan Ballard – photography

Notes
Release:  1982
Format:  LP, Vinyl
Genre:  New Wave, Pop
Label:  Virgin
Catalog#  204446

Vinyl:  Goed (Excellent)
Cover:  Goed (Excellent)

Prijs: €10,00

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