Re: What's Wrong with Lemons and...

[batcave!batman@EBay.Sun.COM (Karl MacRae - The Surreal World of Customer Service)]

> In article <CMM.0.88.606246813.relph@PRESTO.IG.COM> Love-Hounds@GAFFA.MIT.EDU writes:
 >John M. Relph <relph@presto.ig.com> dice:
 >batcave!batman@Sun.COM (Karl MacRae) sez:
 >>...if only they'd quit fooling with this 60's sound. 
 >
 >... the 60's sound is something they love.  Why should they turn their
 >backs on it?  Are they really trying to please their fans?  I think
 >they are trying to please themselves.


	I'm not objecting to the 60's sound, really. 


		And I'm not saying XTC are trying to please the fans.
	What I'm saying is that the *producer* is trying to please
	the fans. He's created some very, very... *accessible* (Ick!)
	This band deserves batter than to be watered down and prettied
	up. They have more fire and emotion than that, and it's been 
	badly dampered by this limp-wristed production.


		*Note*: I'm not saying the record is badly recorded.
	It's not. It's just that the man at the helm had no idea who
	and what he was working with. It's like Elton John's 'Goodbye
	Yellow Brick Roead'; some great songs, ruined by a producer 
	who insisted on mixing the guitars down, adding strings, and
	fading everything out....



 colm@mathcs.emory.edu (Colm Mulcahy) Writes:

>> This thing sounds like a collection of leftovers from
>>'Dukes', 'Skylarking', and 'Mummer'. 

>no, i wouldn't go THAT far. it's less stylized, though it DOES sound very
>beachboyish in places. still, thee are trademark XTC sounds not found on the 
>Dukes albums, and Mayor of Simpleton is a standard XTC hit (lazy bastards !).
>skylarking had the same problems mind you.

	Indeed. Again, mostly due to production, though that time,
at least Todd knew who he was working with. That record sounds like
XTC, with a layer of Todd-izing over it. (I don't play it much, but 
it's wonderfully made!)

>>	...Sorry to get on a soapbox, but I think these guys still
>>have material the quality of 'English Settlement' and 'Black Sea'
>>in them, if only they'd quit fooling with this 60's sound. This record

>well said, i mean the cover of the LP alone is rediculous enough .....

	Hey, the cover's the *best* part! Now *that* is clever
satire!

>it's funny, Andy said that of the 36 songs he submitted to Rundgren, a lot were
>hard edged, and Todd picked out the slicker ones. so andy claimed he would hold
>back the harder edged ones for the next LP. well, where are they now ???!!

	That's what I said. I think they're here, but the hard edges
all got sanded off. Think of how much better most of these songs would
sound if you sped 'em up and recorded 'em in one or two takes? The 
fire and energy would come through then...


	...Ok, enough about that.....


-Karl



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 Karl MacRae     UUCP: sun!batman        ARPA:batman@sun.COM
  Sun Microsystems, Milpitas, Ca. (The armpit of Silicon Valley)
   "And all the world is Biscuit shaped- IT's just for me
	To feed My face!"
		-Senses working Overtime, XTC
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