Coat Of Many Cupboards

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List Price: CDN$ 76.99 (CAD)
  • Lowest New Price: CDN$ 194.50
  • Lowest Used Price: CDN$ 122.43
  • Total New: 3
  • Total Used: 2
  • Total Collectible: 0
  • Total Refurbished: 0
  • Artist : X.T.C.
  • Binding : Audio CD
  • EAN : 0724381190029
  • Format : Box set
  • Format : Best of
  • Label : EMI Music Canada
  • Manufacturer : EMI Music Canada
  • Number Of Discs : 4
  • Package Dimensions : 0.87 inches (Height) x 10.16 inches (Length) x 1.23 pounds (Weight) x 5.51 inches (Width)
  • Product Group : Music
  • Publisher : EMI Music Canada
  • Release Date : 2002-04-02
  • SKU : BB0724381190029
  • Studio : EMI Music Canada
  • UPC : 724381190029

Only a band like XTC--always there but never part of the furniture--could come up with a title as absurd and yet as appropriate as A Coat Of Many Cupboards. While most artists would go to extraordinary lengths to keep their old musical doodles and rejects locked away from prying ears, XTC are only too happy to hand over the keys and show you all the secret compartments. Fortunately, this four CD box set of hitherto unheard home recordings, studio demos, aborted singles, album outtakes and drunken japes as well as TV appearances, radio broadcasts and--in the case of Dukes Of Stratosphear--psychedelic charades makes for a fine old rummage through 15 years of their pop laundry. Thus, it's interesting to hear an extra verse in an early run through the bible-belt-bothering "Dear God" ("see 'em singing holy songs and start piling up the neutron bombs") or contemplating how much better, judging by Andy Partridge's home demo, "Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" could have sounded if they hadn't tagged on that E Street Band harmonica. Baffling, too, to hear how three songs from Drums and Wires were re-recorded as potential follow-ups to their first chart hit "Making Plans For Nigel" but were ignored in favour of the dreary and--seeing as it sunk without trace--prophetically titled "Wait 'Til Your Boat Goes Down". Although comparisons to The Beatles became commonplace in later years, there was something about those early tunes--reading comics in bed on "Science Friction", wanting to be with "all my chums" on "Meccanik Dancing" and partaking of "nuts and crisps and c-c-c-cola on tap" at Church hall youth social events on "Life Begins At The Hop"--that was rather more Enid Blyton's Famous Five than Fab Four. But they did share some of the Moptops goonish wit, as evidenced by "Shaving Brush Boogie" from 1982's much-bootlegged Drunken Jam Sessions, although the public really ought to have heard the marvellous Hawkwind needlework tribute "Silver Sewing Machine". That this belated archaeological anthology will outsell most of those early singles is perverse. But despite their meagre chart history, XTC always did have a much brighter future than British Steel.--Kevin Maidment

- From Amazon.co.uk

C'est tout l'itinéraire de XTC qui est retracé sur ce pantagruélique coffret de quatre CD. De morceaux extraits des débuts avec l'album White Music en 1978 à Nonsuch en 1992, en passant par les classiques English Settlement et Skylarking, le tracklisting regorge de tubes et de pépites essentielles en version souvent inédites jusque-là. Rien ne manque de ce qui fait le charme de ce groupe pop foncièrement british, alimenté par le perfectionnisme maladif de son leader Andy Partridge, un des plus talentueux auteurs-compositeurs influencés par les Kinks et les Beatles. Tout, ici, évoque l'amour d'une Angleterre à l'image de la ville de Swindon (dont trois des membres de la formation sont originaires), petite bourgade sans caractère comme il en existe des centaines. Étonnante, cette somme ne fait pas l'impasse sur le second album que Partridge avait désavoué ; non moins étonnant, "Meccanic Dancing (Oh We Go)", "This Is Pop" et "Are You Receiving Me?" qui figuraient dessus ont depuis acquis un charme singulier, plutôt punk, comme en témoignent leurs paroles loufoques et leurs rythmes saccadés. Le reste s'avère toutefois beaucoup plus consistant, privilégiant les mélodies tarabiscotées dont le hit "Making Plans For Nigel" (sur Drums And Wires) et "Senses Working Overtime" (sur English Settlement) sont emblématiques. Dès lors, leurs chansons étranges n'auront de cesse qu'elles célèbrent une certaine verve pastorale (qui ne rechignera pas de temps à autre au pastiche) nourrie par le folklore des Cornouailles, évoquant cottages et ambiances médiévales. De tout cela, A Coat Of Many Cupboards rend compte avec justesse, grâce à des versions inédites de ces chefs-d'œuvre de concision pop qui ne pourront que séduire les amateurs, mais aussi ceux qui souhaiteraient avoir une vision panoramique de l'œuvre de XTC au sein d'un même coffret. --Philippe Robert

- Chronique amazon.fr

Tracks:

  • Disc 1

    • 1: Science Friction (CBS Demo)
    • 2: Spinning Top (Live @ Eric's, Liverpool - 1977)
    • 3: Traffic Light Rock (Live @ Eric's, Liverpool - 1977)
    • 4: Radios In Motion (From White Music)
    • 5: Let's Have Fun (White Music out take)
    • 6: Fireball XL5/Fireball Dub (White Music out take)
    • 7: Heatwave Mk.2 Deluxe (White Music out take)
    • 8: This Is Pop (Single version)
    • 9: Are You Receiving Me? (Go 2 out take)
    • 10: Things Fall To Bits (Go 2 out take)
    • 11: Us Being Us (Go 2 out take)
    • 12: Life Begins At The Hop (First rehearsal - extract)
    • 13: Life Begins At The Hop (First recording, unused)
    • 14: Making Plans For Nigel (Demo from Swindon Town Hall)
    • 15: Ten Feet Tall (From Drums and Wires)
    • 16: Sleepyheads (Drums and Wires out take)

  • Disc 2

    • 1: Meccanik Dancing (Live @ The Marconi Club, Sydney,1979)
    • 2: Atom Age/Hang Onto The Night/Neon Shuffle (medley) (Live @ The Marconi Club, Sydney,1979)
    • 3: Life Begins At The Hop (Unused US single recording)
    • 4: Reel By Real (Unused single recording)
    • 5: When You're Near Me I Have Difficulty (Unused single recording)
    • 6: Helicopter (DJM version) Unused US single recording)
    • 7: Towers of London (Rejected single recording)
    • 8: Generals and Majors (Rehearsal tape)
    • 9: No Language In Our Lungs (From Black Sea)
    • 10: Sgt. Rock Is Going To Help Me (From Black Sea)
    • 11: Paper and Iron (Live @ The Lyceum, London, 1980)
    • 12: Crowded Room (Live @ The Lyceum. London, 1980)
    • 13: Senses Working Overtime (Early work tape)=20
    • 14: Snowman (Live @ The Hammersmith Odeon, 1981)
    • 15: Ball and Chain (Unused single recording)

  • Disc 3

    • 1: Punch and Judy (Unused single recording)
    • 2: Fly On The Wall (From English Settlement)
    • 3: Yacht Dance (Live on The Old Grey Whistle Test,1982)
    • 4: Jason and The Argonauts (From English Settlement)
    • 5: Love On A Farmboy's Wages (Demo)
    • 6: Wonderland (Home demo)
    • 7: Ladybird (From Mummer)
    • 8: All You Pretty Girls (Home demo)
    • 9: Wake Up (Home demo)
    • 10: The Everyday Story Of Smalltown (From The Big Express)
    • 11: Grass (Demo)
    • 12: Let's Make A Den (Home demo)
    • 13: The Meeting Place (Home demo)
    • 14: Dear God (Band demo)

  • Disc 4

    • 1: Brainiac's Daughter (from Psonic Psunspot version)
    • 2: Vanishing Girl (from Psonic Psunspot version)
    • 3: Terrorism (Home demo)=20
    • 4: Find The Fox (Home demo)
    • 5: Season Cycle (From Skylarking)
    • 6: The Troubles (Home demo)
    • 7: Mayor Of Simpleton (Early work tape)
    • 8: King For A Day (Home demo)
    • 9: Chalkhills And Children (From Oranges & Lemons)
    • 10: The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead (Early home demo)
    • 11: Omnibus (From Nonsuch)
    • 12: The Disappointed (Home demo)
    • 13: Bungalow (From Nonsuch)
    • 14: Didn't Hurt A Bit (Nonsuch out take)
    • 15: Books Are Burning (Live on the BBC's The Late Show, 1992)

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