The obligatory hallucinogenic love song, "Your Gold Dress," hints at the Stones' "She's A Rainbow" right down to Dave Gregory's Nicky Hopkins-influenced piano fingerings. Final EP track, "Mole," pulls out the woozy stringwork and backwards tape sounds so intrinsic to the original Mystery Tour — all in service to an obscure psychic pspy (okay, I'll stop) story.
As for the less familiar material, the high points are "Can" and "Tin Toy Clockwork Train." The former takes Partridge's trademark skepticism re: humanity (see "Poor Skeleton Steps Out" and "Scarecrow People") and wraps it up with a bracingly moddish Who-styled rave-up. The latter is a Not-So-Big-Express lark with toy train whistles and a lotta laughing embellishing a typically bouncy XTC-styled beat.
If some of this gets admittedly cartoonish, the songs still stand strongly by themselves: as demo versions of "25 O'clock," "Bike Ride," "My Love Explodes," and "World?…" all demonstrate. "My Love Explodes" adds to the catalog of great ejaculation songs (neat Easterny guitar riffs on this 'un), though the insertion of a nerdy Woody Allen-ish rant about the song's "filthy" subject matter at the end grows old on replays. With their follow-up album, Psunspot, the boys would tamp down the studio goofing, but unfortunately add more spoken interstices.
XTC's love for psychedelic nuggetry would ultimately lead to one of their strongest albums, the Todd Rundgren-produced song cycle Skylarking, though few at the time of 25 O'clock's release would have likely predicted the gorgeous village greenery still ahead — or the evanescent pale and precious sounds that the "Dukes" themselves would create for their Psonic elpee two years later.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Nice to see this one getting the reissue treatment, as it's one of those forgotten gems that a lot of folks could've easily missed the first time around. XTC is one of those great bands that I could never understand why they weren't a lot bigger in America. I saw them just once, opening for the Police and have never forgot it. Also agree with you about "Skylarking"...is there a cooler Beatlesque gem than "grass" anywhere? I think not.
-Glen
2 - Turner
Dont get it!
3 - ScienceFriction
I have to say this, don't take it the wrong though, The Smartest Monkeys is a Colin Moulding composition. Also, the videos will not be on the official releases due to problems with Virgin Records. Otherwise nice review, we have our differences, but then again I'm biased! Cheers.
4 - Bill Sherman
Made the correction on the Partridge/Moulding misattribution (my simpleton brain mashed Moulding's song togther with "Scarecrow People"). Ape House's promo copies of both discs list the videos as part of each package; it's unfortunate that they ultimately couldn't be included.