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Of course, there's also the fact that both JJ & Hugh were so strung out during the writing of 'Feline' that it took an absolute age to write the album, and they probably weren't in much of a clear-minded state to even try their hand at a calculated attempt at writing an album full of smash hits. If the band (including Hugh) were really bothered about having hits, wouldn't they have made a much safer album in the wake of 'Golden Brown'? You'd think so. I'm not convinced that any other song on the album could be classed as a potential hit or even a single. Even more overlooked is the fact that 'Feline' only contains one obvious hit single in 'European Female'. For all Hugh's talk of being pissed off that 'La Folie' was a single instead of 'Tramp', and having to "talk the band into putting out 'Strange Little Girl' in order to salvage the situation", what tends to get overlooked is the fact that they followed up the La Folie album with an album ('Feline') that was just as creative as anything they'd released. The commercial success of 'Golden Brown' didn't affect The Stranglers creativity, though.
XTC were quite popular on the American college circuit and must've known that a tour of the US in the late 80's may well have seen their popularity rise significantly, meanwhile the Stranglers could never find a market in the USA which naturally upset Cornwell in a big way, Unbroken69 wrote:I wonder had XTC continued to play live and tour how that would've affected their album sales and their creativity and perhaps if the Stranglers hadn't had the commercial success with Golden Brown would that have affected their creativity. I find it hard to imagine how they would have replicated some of their later work in a live environment without it sounding like a pale facsimile of the recording. In hindsight (which of course is always a wonderful thing), I think them stopping touring was the right thing. Whoever did that most likely saved XTC's careers and enabled the band to continue to make more albums. Even then, the American success of 'Skylarking' had very little to do with the band, more an American DJ who one day thought it'd be a great idea to flip the single over and play 'Dear God' instead of 'Grass'. It's very easy to forget these days now that 'Skylarking' is seen as one of the "great albums of all time" that it only made it to #90 in the album chart - that's right, number 90. and maybe if 'Skylarking' hadn't taken off in America they probably would have done. I'm honestly VERY surprised that XTC managed to stay so long on Virgin without getting dropped - not because of the quality of the music, but because they were painfully low sellers after they quit touring. StanInBlack wrote:Today, I would probably rank the XTC studio albums (not including the Dukes) in this order: a lot of what's in between I find very hit and miss, and not played, performed or produced as well as the albums that came before it). Wasp Star (starts off great with 'Playground', ends fucking excellently with 'The Wheel & The Maypole', which for me is an all-time Top 10 XTC favourite. Go 2 (very underrated, find myself listening to this one more and more with each passing year)ġ2. could have been trimmed down to a single album and I wouldn't have complained)ġ0. Oranges & Lemons (the most '80s sounding of all their '80s albums. Mummer (this would be up there with the first four had some of the B-sides like 'Toys', 'Jump' and 'Gold' been included on the album proper)ĩ. but the excellent tracks really ARE excellent)Ĩ. English Settlement (half excellent, half not-so-excellent. Apple Venus (love it, but have to be in the mood for it)ħ. The Big Express (quite possibly their most underrated album)Ħ. (starting with my all-time favourite four)ĥ. Today, I would probably rank the XTC studio albums (not including the Dukes) in this order:
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