Which XTC?

[Jeff Dalton <jeff%aiva.edinburgh.ac.uk@Cs.Ucl.AC.UK>]

> I have my first XTC album, 'Skylarking' [...] and I *really* like
> their stuff.  I'm wanting to get my hands on some more, and wondered
> if anyone could give me a good tip on the next one to try.  Does XTC
> have a 'Sgt. Pepper', 'Dreaming', or 'PG III' that no fan should miss
> out on??  Any comments would be appreciated.

I'd be surprised if there were as great a consensus on XTC as there is (or
seems to be) on Kate, Peter, and the Beatles, but anyway...

I would suggest _Black Sea_ and then their 1st LP, _White Music_, which
together with what you already have would cover nearly their full range
styles.

The best thing about 2nd LP (title forgotten) is the cover, but it's 
a *good* cover.  The 3rd, _Drums and Wires_, is similar to _Black Sea_,
but not, in my opinion, as good.  _English Settlement_, the one after
_Black Sea_, presents the problem of chosing between the UK (double lp)
and US (different song?) releases and so should wait until you want to
buy them all.  After that, we get to _Mummer_ and _Big Express_.  I've
never liked them as much as the earlier ones, but then you may not want
to listen to me because I don't like _Skylarking_ as much either and it's
closer to them them than it is to what came before.

-- Jeff