release date: Sep. 12, 1980
format: vinyl / cd (1987 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: Steve Lillywhite
label: Virgin Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Respectable Street" - 2. "Generals and Majors" - 3. "Living Through Another Cuba" ( live) - 4. "Love at First Sight" - 5. "Rocket From a Bottle" - 7. "Towers of London" - 11. "Travels in Nihilon"
4th studio album by XTC is produced by Steve Lillywhite just like the predecessor. Although, the music is still art pop and new wave like the previous Drums & Wires (1979), this is also very classic pop / rock. On this, Andy Partridge seems to take a stronger role as the band's leading figure. On the '79 album Moulding and Partridge almost shared writing credits but here Moulding has only contributed with two songs (tracks #2 & #4) and Partridge has written the remaining nine compositions.
With Black Sea the band was compared to The Beatles by the English music press, and the writing duo, Partridge / Moulding was like Strummer / Jones of The Clash put on line with Lennon / McCartney, although they never wrote their songs together. It was either Partridge or Moulding who came to the studio recordings with new songs, but I have always thought of this as the band's "Sct. Pepper" album.
Black Sea was my favourite XTC album in the early 1980s. I had it on cassette and played it a lot, although, they were never my favourite band back then. Their music was simply too extravagant and demanding for a young teenager's mind, I guess. In the mid 80s, I simply couldn't listen to the album anymore - I was fed up with it, and thought of it as mostly annoying. Today however, I understand my fascination as well as my later contempt because of its strict, almost narrow form. From a contemporary perspective the production may seem poor but by standards of the time it's really a high-end spacious production. Most new wave and early post-punk albums were truly no masterpieces in that respect but the Lillywhite production takes sound into a new era. The album is one of XTC's most coherent albums and naturally highly recommendable.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]
