XTC: A Coat Of Many Cupboards : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

A Coat of Many Cupboards is essentially a collection of oddities from oddities. XTC are rock's greatest unpopular pop band, and they carry that cross because they've never quite been able to bring themselves to streamlining a song's arrangement or a lyric -- and, oh yeah, they stopped touring twenty years ago. Like their recent Homespun and Homegrown demo releases, this four-disc box set shows the band's Virgin Records output in various stages of undress -- before dual singer-songwriters and studio perfectionists Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding can fuss with them. There's a solo take of "Senses Working Overtime," which finds Partridge fumbling over hit frets and his falsetto; a super-jumpy live run through the jerky dance track "Meccanik Dancing" recorded in Australia; and a charming early draft of "Mayor of Simpleton," with plenty of "do do do dos" subbing in for unwritten lyrics. Of course, the real treasures are the unearthed B-sides like Moulding's restless pop cacophony "Sleepyheads" (a Drums and Wires outtake) and Moulding's bouncy ditty "Didn't Hurt a Bit" (a Nonsuch outtake). What's in Cupboards is a must for all XTC fans. The rest of you are urged to buy all their records -- they're being re-released soon.

BILL CRANDALL
(April 2, 2002)