Drums & Wires

XTC | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 19, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000000OMR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,752 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Making Plans for Nigel

2. Helicopter

3. Day In Day Out

4. When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty

5. Ten Feet Tall

6. Roads Girdle the Globe

7. Life Begins at the Hop

8. Chain of Command

9. Limelight

10. Real by Reel

11. Millions

12. That Is the Way

13. Outside World

14. Scissor Man

15. Complicated Game

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky and Frenetic, May 24, 2000

By 

Ken Rose (St. Louis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drums & Wires (Audio CD)

For those who have listened to XTC's later work (Skylarking, Nonsuch, Apple Venus) this work must seem to come from another band, indeed another planet. The band has spent the last 17 years, it seems, perfecting its Beatles imitation. Now it's time to see where they started. While XTC's first two albums (White Music and Go2) seemed hell-bent on destroying every pop convention and stretching the listener's ear to the breaking point, Drums and Wires is the band's first real attempt to construct a new sound out of the ruins of pop cliché they laid around them. Manic, frenzied beats and sharp, jangling chords give the album not only its name but its feel. Drummer Terry Chambers makes his presence felt from the opening riff of Nigel. His complicated rythyms intertwine with the instruments with precision. This album proves the loss suffered when he wandered off 4 years later to be replaced by session drummers. None of the songs after his departure had the same kick in the teeth. In many ways this album represents the best and worst of XTC. Andy Partidge's odd voice is deliberately strangely ennunciated. The lyrics disturbing, but show unique wit. "Now she's away from Convent, she's grown wild. She's growm from a nice young lady to a child." "When you wake up sticky in the morning, you'll find out an important piece is gone." But for anyone who has a fondness for '80s music, this '79 album is an absolute must. Anyone who has Adam Ant, Oingo Boingo, early Police, English Beat or Devo and not this album in their collection also has a big, gaping hole.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A revelation from Swindon, October 13, 2001

By 

sich (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drums & Wires (Audio CD)

It's the summer of 1979. You've just graduated high school. You're eighteen and know everything about EVERYTHING, especially music. Then one day, quite by accident, you discover you don't know ANYTHING. It seems that somewhere in merry old England (the armpit of Swindon, I believe) a group of four very sharp young men have created something unlike anything you've ever heard before. Each cut on the album proves to be stranger, fresher, and more glorious than the last. In Roads Girdle the Globe, the guitars sound like steamrollers, the drums like jackhammers. In Millions, the band transports you to the exotic far East, dips you in the Yangtze, rinses years of radio pablum from your spongey little brain. All with guitars ad drums... like the Beatles' loopy cousins sending messages from a parallel universe... Drums and Wires is a freaking revelation. And you know what? Twenty-plus years later, it's still as fresh as the day it was released. It still beats the hell out of anything being recorded today. Drums and Wires is pure XTC. Buy this album, and play it LOUD.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The blossoming of XTC, May 24, 2001

By 

Nathan M DeHoff (Absurd City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drums & Wires (Audio CD)

Sometimes, when I haven't listened to this album in a while, I forget how great it is. This is often regarded as the first "true" XTC album, as it begins to create the "Beatle-based pop" sound for which the band is now (somewhat) famous, rather than the organ-heavy pseudo-punk of the first two albums (which are also good, by the way). It kicks off with XTC's first hit single, "Making Plans For Nigel," followed by the frantic "Helicopter." Other highlights include the tongue-twisting "Outside World" (about not wanting to know what depressing things are going on in the world, a subject with which I can often identify), the cautionary fantasy (or mockery thereof, perhaps) of "Scissor Man," and the world-weary "Complicated Game." There are also odes to the overwhelming feeling of being in love ("When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty" and "Ten Feet Tall"), and social commentaries on such issues as factory work ("Day In Day Out"), lack of privacy ("Real By Reel"), and devotion to the automobile ("Roads Girdle The Globe"). A great aspect of this album is the way that the music fits the mood of each song. "Making Plans For Nigel" is mechanical; the whirring sounds of "Helicopter" bring an actual helicopter to mind; "Roads Girdle The Globe" is noisy and droning; and "Complicated Game" is delightfully paranoid. I wouldn't say this is XTC's best work (that would be Skylarking), but it is an all-around wonderful album.