Great Fire

This album has been added to 1 public list:

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  Seven Songs for the Week #145 - 14th Jan 26

  Jason Carty

  I found my old copy of Fossil Fuel, a 1996 compilation of XTC's singles, and have had it in the car. Listened to the whole thing chronologically, and out of 31 singles over 15 years they rarely put a foot wrong. All You Pretty Girls might be the duff one. Anything written about XTC often talks about the "tragedy" that they weren't huge, or their foreshadowing of Britpop. Maybe it's somewhat understandable. Personally I got on board in 1989 as a teen and seeing the Mayor Of Simpleton video on MTV, and then buying the Oranges and Lemons album in the very useful 3x 3inch CD format. What thirty-something men are making pop music for teenagers in 2026, I ask you.

  It is a pity that XTC ceased as a live band in the early 1980s for two reasons: (1) they were very good, check out the transistor blast boxset, and (2) it inevitably affected their popularity. The fact that Great Fire never got to be belted out as part of an XTC set seems a shame.