Comments for XTC, Mummer

The album where Colin, Andy & Dave re-discover the Beatles and psychedelic, pastoral roots. Wonderful, and to think that "Skylarking" was only 3 years away...! Got me through the dire 80's, did XTC.

For me this is their most significant album in that it charted the course for a new complexity and a density of musical ideas that has been their trademark since this album. "Love On A Farmboy''s Wages" is not only one of the best songs in Andy Partridge''s important songbook, but it sets the standard for all their subsequent work, through "Big Express", "Skylarking", "Oranges And Lemons" and the nadir of their career, the wonderful "Nonsuch". "Mummer" is the album that really made this band start to matter. Up until then, they were catchy, but klunky rock/pop with the "new wave" tag leftover from the late seventies weighing them down. "Mummer" positioned them as a complex pop band with none of the goofy posturing from past days. Although each album has been progressively better since the LP''s original release (the original album only had 10 tracks!), this is a landmark because it got them on track.