XTC
DRUMS AND WIRES/ORANGES & LEMONS/NONSUCH
WW
APE
★★★☆/★★★★/★★★★
These latest lavish 200g vinyl reissues capture XTC at the outset and close of their commercial peak, highlighting their many strengths and contrasting rawer roots with polished later years. 1979’s Drums And Wires – here with original bonus 7" – partially shed their unconventional reputation, but even Colin Moulding’s classic Making Plans For Nigel remained idiosyncratic, and there were throwbacks to frantic tendencies on the brisk Helicopter, Roads Girdle The Globe – with its gobby vocals and discordant guitars – and the jagged Outside World. Complicated Game closed things with noisy nihilism. Ten years later, Oranges & Lemons was less self-conscious and frontloaded with singles: the ornate Garden Of Earthly Delights, the typically intelligent Mayor Of Simpleton and King For A Day. African styles also bedecked Hold Me My Daddy, while The Beatles dominated The Loving and Cynical Days. 1992’s Nonsuch revisited such territory, switching The Beatles for The Beach Boys on Dear Madam Barnum and Humble Daisy.