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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2005
Andy Partridge had an idea. Take all the advances made in dual-guitar chord shapes and interlocking rhythm/bass/lead playing over the last three albums, apply them to effortlessly melodic, Beatlesque songs and arrangements, and ADD SOME REALLY LOUD DRUMS. I don't just mean "loud," I mean *LOUD*. Blow-your-ears-back loud. Loud like a used-car salesman's tie loud.
Black Sea is the type of album The Beatles would have made had they been frustrated, nerdy intellectuals rather than suave handsome Liverpudlians: painstakingly crafted, catchy songs stuffed with over-literate lyrics and matched to an awe-inspiring crash-boom-bang rhythm section (courtesy of drummer Terry Chambers and producer Steve Lillywhite).
The spectacular VIOLENCE of much of this album is a phenomenon of sound, precisely because even at its most apoplectic (the white-hot "Travels In Nihilon," "No Language In Our Lungs") or even EPILEPTIC (no word better describes the immortal "Burning With Optimism's Flames," which stutters and spits and crams so many lyrics into each phrase that Partridge has to literally stop the band each time before starting into the next one) it's still extremely controlled. The sound concept never overtakes the melodies, or the songwriting, and none of the songs ever escape from their authors.
XTC, at their best (and this is probably their best), were like delightfully gregarious mad scientists: witty and talkative, more than a little insane in their willingness to fuse avant-garde musical concepts with old-fashioned songcraft, but always in complete command of the science and technology of their art. Black Sea therefore represents more than just a platter full of sharp, clever songs - it represents the achievement of an intellectual ideal. To the benefit of us all.
Black Sea is the type of album The Beatles would have made had they been frustrated, nerdy intellectuals rather than suave handsome Liverpudlians: painstakingly crafted, catchy songs stuffed with over-literate lyrics and matched to an awe-inspiring crash-boom-bang rhythm section (courtesy of drummer Terry Chambers and producer Steve Lillywhite).
The spectacular VIOLENCE of much of this album is a phenomenon of sound, precisely because even at its most apoplectic (the white-hot "Travels In Nihilon," "No Language In Our Lungs") or even EPILEPTIC (no word better describes the immortal "Burning With Optimism's Flames," which stutters and spits and crams so many lyrics into each phrase that Partridge has to literally stop the band each time before starting into the next one) it's still extremely controlled. The sound concept never overtakes the melodies, or the songwriting, and none of the songs ever escape from their authors.
XTC, at their best (and this is probably their best), were like delightfully gregarious mad scientists: witty and talkative, more than a little insane in their willingness to fuse avant-garde musical concepts with old-fashioned songcraft, but always in complete command of the science and technology of their art. Black Sea therefore represents more than just a platter full of sharp, clever songs - it represents the achievement of an intellectual ideal. To the benefit of us all.
