Drums & Wires [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

XTC | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 6, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 1979
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Caroline
• ASIN: B00005ATHI
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,406 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #31 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > New Wave

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zany and brainy, March 29, 2006

By 

Chet Fakir (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

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

On their third album it's bye bye Barry Andrews and organ and hello Dave Gregory and XTC achieve their "classic sound", ie one that lasted through Black Sea and English Settlement. On Drums And Wires Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding really came into their own as songwriters and Terry Chambers first displayed his peculiar and inimitable THUD WHACK drumming style. The freneticism of the first two albums was tempered by a growing and unique musical sophistication, yet there's an economy of style that reflects that these songs were supposed to be played live in front of actual people. Andy Partridges' crippling stage fright was still several years off and the complex arrangements of Skylarking even farther. My introduction to XTC was the second album Go2 and so when Barry Andrews was kicked out I didn't know what to expect. Well what I got was one of the nuttiest and finest albums these clever pop hooligans ever made. From Colin Mouldings' early hit Making Plans For Nigel to Andy Partridges' most loopy song Helicopter, it's sheer mad genius.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yep., September 3, 2004

By 

Stephen Ashley Holt "thrdgll" (South Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

I first heard this one during a very intense, shall we say "chemically altered" state of mind in my impressionable teens. To this day Complicated Game still frightens me a little.

This is a terrific album, one that spotlights XTC at the height of their oddball inventiveness. Sadly, the more Beefheartian aspects of their creativity would soon give way to more traditional song structure, and a tendency to overwork and overproduce their sound. I'm afraid they'll never record anything as twisted and brilliant as Roads Girdle the Globe or Millions again.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ecstasy, February 11, 2011

By 

Joker (Michigan) - See all my reviews

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

Drums & Wires (1979) is a fine album by XTC. I first heard of this band back in 1983 when they released English Settlement and their single Senses Working Overtime. This band doesn't really strive hard for hit songs. Instead, they just put out albums that are solid throughout. I like to think of them as a band that gives some and takes some. What I mean by that is they have influenced and inspired other artists (such as The Police, for example) with their unique sound that blends pop, punk, new wave, funk, and even reggae, but at the same time THEY have been influenced by other artists. But, everybody out there is influenced by something. Still, XTC has a sound that's really like no other pop or new wave band. Their music is like a tossed salad - everything is thrown in, it seems. Drums & Wires is a good example of this.

My favorite songs on this album are Ten Feet Tall, Complicated Game, and Millions. I find Andy Partridge's vocals on Complicated Game amusing but above all, different.

I recommend this album as a good starter album if you're just getting into XTC.