Those passingly familiar with XTC may think of the band’s third full-length album as the one with “Making Plans for Nigel” on it and it’s true that their biggest single at the time (peaking at No. 17 in the UK) was the best cut on the post-punk breakthrough. It was also one of the perpetual second banana, Colin Moulding’s, finest moments in the band’s early discography. Even so, to neglect the other 11 tracks on the original record is to do this then-quartet a true disservice.
Drums and Wires was the platter that added the adjective “angular” to the critical lexicon, with thin, spidery guitar chords (the wires) that chug-a-chugged amidst punishing, pounding rhythms (the drums). The first album released after the departure of keyboardist Barry Andrews (who was given a solo deal by Virgin and was then dropped, later forming Shriekback), there’s no question that the sound is stripped down, but the addition of newcomer David Gregory’s guitar makes up for it and introduces a Byrds-like ’60s sound behind the characteristic passionately hiccuping scat of lead singer Andy Partridge.
Another change in their recording practices was initiated by Partridge, who had always been frustrated by the group’s inability to capture their dynamic live sound on record, an Achilles’ heel that he thought was particularly egregious in the drum department on their previous outings. Upon hearing his production work on The Scream, the debut from Siouxsie and the Banshees, Partridge chose relative newcomer Steve Lillywhite to produce.
The unanimous choice for the first single was the first cut on the record, adopting the industry axiom to always put your best song first. In retrospect, after listening to “Making Plans for Nigel” in the context of XTC’s earlier records and singles, the song was in many ways the group throwing down a gauntlet (or at least a Blue Glove) pointing in a new direction. The song, a social commentary on British life and the pressures being placed on a shy little boy by his family, is introduced by a complex drum pattern from Terry Chambers in which he “played the odd combination of hi-hat, bass drums and tom-toms in reverse, the result of his misinterpretation of instructions from the perennial auteur Partridge. The upshot was a backward-sounding drum pattern that propelled the chiming crunch of the guitar chords, backing the suspicious claims that “we only want what’s best for him” and “he only needs this helping hand.” The bouncy guitar rhythms and the forced-smile sounding vocals provide an eerie counterpoint to the tension produced from the drum parts.
“Helicopter” creates a sonic simulation of its subject matter, and uses the herky-jerky propeller spinning as a metaphor for the chaotic nature of a certain female’s psyche and as an indication of the difficulty inherent in navigating the relationship. “She’s a laughing, giggling whirlybird,” Partridge sings. Anyone who’s ever tried to catch a helicopter seed falling from a tree knows the predicament, and the track trails off with the rhythmic sounds of propellers cutting the tension in the air like so many rotating.
Just as it’s sad that the Sgt. Rock movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger never got off the ground to propel XTC’s “Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)” to the top of the charts, it’s regrettable that their snip-alicious “Scissor Man” could not have been used for Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, even if relegated to the end credits. Introduced by a Byrdsian guitar that interweaves with the other guitar part, the song seems to be sliced apart in the end as if cut up by the scissor man himself.
Moulding’s “Ten Feet Tall” anticipates the acoustic, pastoral approach that would come to be the area of emphasis on later efforts like English Settlement, Mummer and Skylarking and despite a hummable chorus, veers perilously close to smooth jazz on the guitar solo. A semi-electric version of the song would later be recorded for a single b-side, but the group and their label, Virgin, could never come to an agreement as to what would be the follow-up single to get the promotional push after the (relative) success of “Nigel.”
Today XTC are a duo and mainly an exercise for Partridge’s home recording projects, given his 1982 “breakdown” from stage fright and their descent back into relative obscurity after the commercial success marked by their popular peak, the triptych of Skylarking (which featured “Dear God”), Oranges and Lemons (“The Mayor of Simpleton”) and their nadir Nonsuch (“Peter Pumpkinhead”).
The group were always something of an anomaly and had a sound to match.
They traced their origins to classic rock/stoner rock, got their early inspirations from glam like the New York Dolls, T. Rex and Roxy Music, and were snapped up in the label feeding frenzy following the commercial success of early punk rock. But XTC were never really a punk band, and to refer to them as post-punk is also a misnomer. They were always a pop band, as they declared on their early song “This Is Pop,” but their first two records, and only a few of the records they produced following, have the staying power and the timelessness of the songs on Drums and Wires. Regardless, there’s no question that it’s much more than just the classic single “Making Plans for Nigel.”
