FFWD Weekly
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CD Review by Mike Bell XTC Wasp Star: Apple Venus Volume 2 TVT Records · Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding plug it in for this ying to the more pastoral Volume 1’s yang. Following a seven-year recording absence, XTC’s return last year with Apple Venus Volume 1 was an event more notable than the album itself. While it was an excellent disc – and one that, with every listen, digs its roots in deeper – the orchestrally minded recording whet rather than satiated a thirst for the Swindon outfit’s fanciful charms. Now, a year later, the cup runneth over. The duo’s latest, Wasp Star, takes its place on the band’s evolutionary ladder neatly above 1989’s Oranges and Lemons and ’92’s Nonsuch, losing the Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC’s alter-ego) retro window dressing from the former, and all of the underlying sullenness from the latter. The result is concise pop craftsmanship that engages on the most melodious of levels. Colin Moulding’s dreadful, plodding lump, "Boarded Up," acts as little more than a brief, albeit numbing, speed bump, as the album clips along at a carefree pace, delivering instant XTC classics like "Playground," "Stupidly Happy," "I’m the Man Who Murdered Love" and "Church of Women," which reveal Andy Partridge (responsible for nine of the album’s 12 tracks, to Moulding’s three), musically and lyrically, at his sharpest. Drink up. 5/5

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