XTC: The Greatest Band Ever! - All Albums Ranked

[@davidmarshall4936]

Hi George, thanks for your informative and very enthusiastic XTC ranking video. I have not been a huge fan of the band but do have in my collection Black Sea and English Settlement on CD and Waxworks/Beeswax on vinyl. You have inspired me to give these another listen and investigate further albums. Keep up this great work. All the best, David.

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Thanks David, you are certainly off to a flying start with those ones. I hope you enjoy investigating as much as I did.

[@brucybabyy7355]

i have to give Venus pt 1 another spin.

[@toddhill7483]

Excellent video. XTC my favorite band since 1980. 1 Black Sea 2 Drums and Wires 3 English Settlement 4 Skylarking 5 Apple Venus Volume 1 6 Mummer 7 Nonsuch 8 The Big Express. And love the cd bonus tracks, Red Brick Dream, and Blue Overall. 9 Dukes of Stratosphere Chips from the Chocolate Fireball 10 White Music 11 Go To 12 Oranges and Lemons 13 Wasp Star And I concur. NO bad albums to be found.

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Thank you very much for sharing. Another one for Black Sea up top. That one certainly seems to be the favourite overall - and that is a good thing 🙂

[@davidsimon2096]

Thanks George. I'm a huge XTC fan too although predictably my favourites are different to yours. Black Sea has always been for me the absolute pinnacle. I'm glad you included Beeswax and I agree the B-sides for the English Settlement could have fitted on the album and in my opinion were actually better than some of the album tracks. I also love the Waxworks album as it is such a perfect summation of their work up to and including English Settlement.I used to have a cassette of Waxworks backed with Beeswax and listened to it constantly.

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Thank you David. It would seem that Black Sea seems to be many people's favourites for sure. It's a wonderful album. Glad you have love for Beeswax. I agree that certain tracks could have gone on ES. Bump the three tracks on side 2 up to four and include Blame The Weather for starters.

[@garymcghee2249]

Really enjoyed that George. They are the greatest band ever and as such its natural to change your own ranking let alone other people's. I'd have Black Sea in the top three, and Mummer not quite so high, but that might change over time!

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Thanks Gary. I do love to hear other people's rankings here. They are never the same, with so many quality releases.

[@ArturoGofunkez]

Fantastic video! Your love for the band shines through. The time flew by watching this. I find it amazing that every XTC ranking video is so different. I've never seen anyone rate Mummer so highly, but I do find that it's grown on me more and more over the years. I just listened a few weeks ago and thought "This is better than I remembered." My top tier albums would be English Settlement, Skylarking, Black Sea and Apple Venus, but Drums & Wires, Nonsuch and Oranges & Lemons are behind those. I feel the same about Mermaid Smiled and Dear God. Mermaid Smiled is brilliant and I found Dear God a bit bland and predictable, and the video was played to death on MuchMusic (the Canadian version of MTV). Thankfully the original Canadian pressing (where I am) had the same tracks as the UK. However, our English Settlement was a single LP with 10 songs. A travesty! Where would you rank The Dukes of Stratosphear if you tried to fit them in?

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Thank you for your kind comments. I'm glad the video didn't drag, it is a long one! Good to hear you own opinions on the tracks and albums. Opinions are all over the place aren't they. Each album having their own identity. I have the Dukes albums and like them a lot, great stuff. Difficult to rank them in that list, probably 'middle teir' if being honest.

[@brucybabyy7355]

great episode! i would flip oranges & nonesuch. i do love the original skylarking, but i prefer Andy's remix of it on CD. English settlement is my fave and to me definitive XTC. i bought this as a UK import. ( i live in Canada ) it was literally all i played for at least a month. i still have the copy and it still sounds as fresh today as it did back then. it is pronounced MUMMER it has some thing to do with Halloween or something like that. cheers!

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Thanks for your kind comments. Glad to hear you got English Settlement as an import. Wasn't it released as an abridged single album in North America? Not good 😞

[@brucybabyy7355]

@@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934 it was on vinyl a travesty cds corrected that

[@philgascoigne5467]

A great, heartfelt ranking of one of my favourite bands albums! I think Oranges and Lemons is overproduced, Todd Rundgren would have done a better job. Also, it’s nice to see Mummer get a high placing. Thanks for posting.

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Thanks Phil 🙂

[@toddhill7483]

I agree that Todd would have worked wonders on Oranges and Lemons. But can you imagine the emotional toll 2 albums would have taken on Andy and Mr Rundgren!

[@edlawn5481]

I remember originally feeling let down by "Nonsuch", but over time, it has become my favorite XTC album, Andy's songwriting on it is just brilliant.

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Thanks Ed. The good tunes are truly great on Nonsuch, some wonderful moments.

[@mikespins5894]

I just discovered your channel and subbed you up, thanks for doing a ranking on XTC I must admit they are a band I need to learn more about, so thanks for the great info. I mainly talk rock vinyl on my channel and post a few concert clips, thanks again have a great week, Peace.

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Hi Mike, thank you very much for the view and the sub. I will check you channel out 🙂

[@nottssundayvinyl4064]

Thanks for making this video, George. Big XTC fan here and I was interested to hear your take. Did you know that other acts, including Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, had turned down a version of the cover of GO2?

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

Hi, thanks for your comments. I was aware that Hipgnosis had offered this around, but did not realise their biggest customers has said 'no'! Similar to 10CC declining Presence apparently. Have you seen the excellent documentary on Hipgnosis called Sqaring the Circle?

[@TheProgCorner]

I LOVE XTC!!!!!!!

[@georgeprior-vinylshowtell4934]

I'm glad to hear it 😊

[@Dannyraytheschenkerlounge]

WOW. That looks like it was emotionally draining! I got into XTC about 10 yrs back, bought a handful of albums and never really got any further. I’ve not had the fully immersed “click” with them yet, but i will say Nonsuch, Black Sea, and English Settlement are stone cold classics. The other couple i have i don’t really connect with. Yet.

[@flexiblestrategist9922]

One of my top bands for sure.