Metro Shuffle: Darediablo, XTC

XTC – English Settlement double lp
Uploaded to Flickr by dereck von

On the evening commute home, I listened to Darediablo’s “Bells of Goliard.” That is one powerful tune. I found it on Lala, but the share functionality didn’t seem to be working. Too bad.

Then XTC’s “English Roundabout” popped up. The song is off “English Settlement,” a record released in 1982 and produced by Hugh Padgham. I’m having trouble finding documentation on this, but I recall my art rock cousin or somebody telling me the record was the result of the band experimenting with new instruments. They wrote 15 songs in a weekend or something.

This quote from guitarist Andy Partridge comes from from Chalkhills:

Andy: “I gave away my acoustic guitar in a TV contest and had to buy a new one, suddenly all these new tunes flowed out! Colin gets fretless, Dave goes 12-string, Terry still ‘just ‘its ‘em’.

Whatever the story, I’ve been listening to English Settlement since college, and I have yet to tire of it. There aren’t too many of those in your record collection.