XTC's second volume of Apple Venus songs is a very different listening experience from that found on the orchestral/folk album Apple Venus, Vol. 1. Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Vol. 2), released just over a year after its predecessor, is a louder, more electric collection. It isn't as raw as it might have been, however. The fact that XTC doesn't play live undoubtedly contributed to a lack of "rough around the edges" energy -- the sort of gritty sonic realism touring bands strive for on their albums. Yet this may be the best album the band has constructed since English Settlement back in 1982. It has considerably more muscle than the critically acclaimed Skylarking (1986) without sacrificing any of the deft musicality of that release. This album proves that XTC deserves the backhanded compliment Rolling Stone reviewer Tom Moon paid them when he said they were "rock's greatest unpopular pop band."

Wasp Star launches with an appropriately raucous guitar and drum riff on "Playground," a song that documents the petty torments that come with a child's first truly social experience -- "You may leave school but it never leaves you." But Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding love crisp harmony and infectious melody too much to have their songs fit neatly into the Creed/Nickelback new millennium rock mold. At the same time, XTC's songs don't have that "je ne say nothing" quality that launched all the 'N Sync clones on their chart topping trajectories. So "Playground" undermines both its rock and pop tendencies by being too smart and too clean. Too XTC, in other words.

The musical influences on Wasp Star are more varied than has been the case on most earlier XTC disks. Of course, the album contains the requisite Beatles references; "My Brown Guitar" has plenty of the lads from Liverpool buried in its grooves, right down to the Sgt. Pepper applause sound effect that follows the final chorus. Meanwhile, "Stupidly Happy" is built on a Rolling Stones-style guitar and drum backbone, though the vocals are a tad subdued to sound much like Mick.

"Wounded Horse" has a Neil Young electric/country edge to it that meshes very well with the sexually charged lyrics -- "Well I stumbled and I fell/Like a wounded horse/When I found out/You'd been riding another man." Then, in the middle of "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love," Partridge belts out, "Oh, it's the middle of the song" and there's that perfect degree of snide, self-referential confidence that sets XTC apart.

XTC are frequently said to be too clever for their own good but with the success of bands like Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Radiohead, perhaps there's hope that XTC can find a sizable new audience in the 21st century. What they'd need to do is to produce great music on a regular basis. But, with a five-year gap since Wasp Star was released, it doesn't look like they're planning on mega-stardom any time soon.

I'd like to wrap up this review with a verse from "We're All Light," track seven on Wasp Star: "Don't you know,/'bout a zillion years ago/Some star sneezed/Now they're paging you in reception/Don't you know,/Jack and Jillion years ago/Some dinosaur dropped the pail/When it saw our reflection."

For the time being we'll have to wait patiently for more XTC and take solace in the fact that the boys in the band have been quoted as saying, "we'll continue to make records."

- Rambles
written by Gregg Thurlbeck
published 3 December 2005