Upsy Daisy Assortment

XTC | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 17, 1997)
• Original Release Date: June 17, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000000OWS
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,435 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Life Begins at the Hop

2. Making Plans for Nigel

3. Generals and Majors

4. Respectable Street

5. Senses Working Overtime

6. Ball and Chain

7. No Thugs in Our House

8. Love on a Farmboy's Wages

9. Funk Pop a Roll

10. This World Over

11. Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her

12. Grass

13. Dear God

14. Earn Enough for Us

15. The Mayor of Simpleton

16. King for a Day

17. Chalkhills and Children

18. The Disappointed

19. The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I can't complain, but I will, August 14, 2000

By 

punkviper (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Upsy Daisy Assortment (Audio CD)

As great as this Best Of is, and it IS great, if you are really interested in hearing ALL the best stuff, you owe it to yourself to pick up the Fossil Fuel 2CD set via import. It has every song present here, plus more that are quite indispensable. I did buy this CD, and loved it. Then I heard people talking about the import 2CD version, and decided to lay down the sheckles for it. What I found was perfection! There are SO many songs as good as or better than what is present on Upsy Daisy. So measure your desire to hear all the best that XTC has to offer, and don't be surprised if you buy this and end up trading up to the superior Fossil Fuel 2CD set!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair Compilation, July 7, 2006

By 

WillieB - See all my reviews

This review is from: Upsy Daisy Assortment (Audio CD)

XTC's music is full of great writing, arranging, playing, witty lyrics, and pristine production. Pop music with an attitude. This "sweetest hits" collection, drawing from eight studio releases between 1979 and 1992, would be a good introduction if you don't want to buy (my opinion) their essential studio albums ("White Music", "English Settlement", "Skylarking", "Oranges and Lemons"). The issues I have with this release is there is not one song represented from their first two releases, and like any fan, the songs selected are not exactly what I would pick.

Previous reviewers have pointed out, the lyrics to "Respectable Street" on this disc are altered. The words changed were... abortion to absorption, contraception to child perfection?, and sex position to proposition. If these words are so offensive, another tune should have been selected so the artist's lyrics stay intact. Why butcher the artist's vision? It's puzzling that the bold lyrics of "Dear God" were not changed, but the lyrics above were. Nevertheless, this is a fair compilation from an awesome band.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beginner's Primer to XTC, April 2, 2003

By 

Laura G. Carter "Castlebreaker" (Reidsville, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Upsy Daisy Assortment (Audio CD)

I've come to XTC late, but, since being turned onto them a couple of months ago, I can say I'm not only hooked, I'm obsessed. As a result, I've been buying up every CD they've ever made, including this one, "Upsy Daisy Assortment." So far, in all my purchases, I have yet to be disappointed.

"Upsy" is a perfect CD for the beginning XTC lover. It takes the listener over the pop "transistor" hits ("Making Plans For Nigel", the scaled-down version of "Respectible Street" - for its original lyrics, see their album "Black Sea"), then introduces the ear to some of their more Beatle-esque works, which are equally brilliant ("Love On A Farmboy's Wages", "Grass"). In between are the controversial ("Dear God"), the flat-out rockers ("No Thugs In Our House") the sad and dreamy, exquisitely-crafted ballads ("This World Over") and the just plain "I've-Never-Heard-Anything-Like-This-Before" ("Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her").

If you like this CD - and I can't see how you could fail to, particularly if you're as sick of what passes for well-crafted pop music these days as I am - move along to "Drums and Wires" and "Black Sea". And - of course - "English Settlement". Once you've gotten those under your belt, go exploring through the group's new boxed set, "Coat of Many Cupboards", which features 40+ alternate, rejected and rehersal versions of a broad spectrum of this band's musical legacy.

The world needs more XTC.