The Last of the Warbles
Oct. 14th, 2006 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatWith the recent release of Volumes 7 and 8, Andy Partridge's Fuzzy Warbles series is finally complete. They are now offering the complete set at a discounted price, which might be a good deal to anyone who's interested but hasn't ordered any of the volumes. There's also a collector's album you can get, which sounded pretty cool, but not really worth the price for me.
As for the quality of the final two volumes, they don't seem to have quite as many quality unreleased songs than some of the earlier ones. Volume 7 does have "Open A Can Of Human Beans," the new Dukes of Stratosphear song that was recently recorded for charity. It's hardly as full-on psychedelic as the Dukes were on their earlier songs, but it's still really cool. The same volume also has three songs from XTC's proposed bubblegum project, namely "Candymine," "Visit To The Doctor," and "Cherry In Your Tree" (a different version of the latter from the one on the Carmen Sandiego compilation). According to the liner notes, these tracks "are all that remain of the original gum demos," which makes me curious about some of the other titles I remember seeing mentioned in connection with the project. I remember reading that one was called "I Am The Kaiser," which really sounds more like the title of a Falco song than a bubblegum number. {g} "Standing In For Joe" was also originally written for the bubblegum project, but it's much less metaphorically dirty than the other three I've heard. Of course, it's also the only Colin Moulding song I've heard from the project, and he generally doesn't seem to be as much into the innuendo as Andy.
Volume 8 has the melancholy (and unintentionally personal) "I Gave My Suitcase Away," which is really cool. Also good is "The Bland Leading The Bland," and the personalized songs for Wes Long and someone named Karen are interesting.
As for the demos of officially released XTC songs, they're mostly very close to the finished recordings. They obviously needed some polish, and there were some lyrics altered and instruments added, but it largely seems like Andy has a pretty good idea as to how he wanted these songs to sound when making the demos. More interesting to me are the really early demos, from when Andy was just sketching out the songs. There are a few of these included in the Warbles series, but not on these last two discs.
My overall review of the series is that it's pricy, but worth it in the end for XTC fans. Hey Andy, now that you're done with these, how about a new XTC album? It's been almost as long since the last one as between Nonsuch and the first Apple Venus, and the band was on strike at that point.
As for the quality of the final two volumes, they don't seem to have quite as many quality unreleased songs than some of the earlier ones. Volume 7 does have "Open A Can Of Human Beans," the new Dukes of Stratosphear song that was recently recorded for charity. It's hardly as full-on psychedelic as the Dukes were on their earlier songs, but it's still really cool. The same volume also has three songs from XTC's proposed bubblegum project, namely "Candymine," "Visit To The Doctor," and "Cherry In Your Tree" (a different version of the latter from the one on the Carmen Sandiego compilation). According to the liner notes, these tracks "are all that remain of the original gum demos," which makes me curious about some of the other titles I remember seeing mentioned in connection with the project. I remember reading that one was called "I Am The Kaiser," which really sounds more like the title of a Falco song than a bubblegum number. {g} "Standing In For Joe" was also originally written for the bubblegum project, but it's much less metaphorically dirty than the other three I've heard. Of course, it's also the only Colin Moulding song I've heard from the project, and he generally doesn't seem to be as much into the innuendo as Andy.
Volume 8 has the melancholy (and unintentionally personal) "I Gave My Suitcase Away," which is really cool. Also good is "The Bland Leading The Bland," and the personalized songs for Wes Long and someone named Karen are interesting.
As for the demos of officially released XTC songs, they're mostly very close to the finished recordings. They obviously needed some polish, and there were some lyrics altered and instruments added, but it largely seems like Andy has a pretty good idea as to how he wanted these songs to sound when making the demos. More interesting to me are the really early demos, from when Andy was just sketching out the songs. There are a few of these included in the Warbles series, but not on these last two discs.
My overall review of the series is that it's pricy, but worth it in the end for XTC fans. Hey Andy, now that you're done with these, how about a new XTC album? It's been almost as long since the last one as between Nonsuch and the first Apple Venus, and the band was on strike at that point.
