Editorial Review:

Album Description:
Finally available as a domestic U.S. release at a lower price, XTC's Apple Box is a 4 cd set containing the complete Apple Works recordings, including 'Apple Venus' and 'Wasp Star,' plus their associated demo cds ('Homespun' & 'Homegrown') which gives a fascinating insight into XTC's recorded works. This package is a square white box with the 'peacock feather' motif varnished in gloss on each box lid. Stunning and beautifully simple. Inside each box is a special content card allowing fans to download two brand new XTC tracks from the band's website, plus a free ringtone for their mobile phone. Each individual cd is packaged with brand new artwork in a cardboard wallet and for the first time all the lyrics to all the songs are available in a 64 page booklet. Also included are new liner notes written by Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding.

Amazon.com:
XTC fans are a patient bunch. With the band only releasing three studio albums--Nonsuch; Apple Venus, Volume One; and Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Volume Two)--in the last 13 years, they've had to be. Now comes Apple Box, Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding's first wholly independent release on their own Idea Records label. Should they bite? Depends on how rabid they truly are. It seems the original idea was to release those last two albums as a double set, but commercial considerations intervened. The two halves of the apple were released separately, along with companion volumes containing the demo recordings that had been circualting among fans for years. This set is XTC's way of putting things right: it's all four albums (AV1 and 2 plus Homespun and Homegrown) in an elegant white box, with complete lyrics, new art, and new sleeve notes. But, unfortunately, no new music. (New copies do, however, come with an access code to download two new songs--Partridge's 'Spiral' and Moulding's 'Say It'--from the band's Web site.) So completists--as well as those who can't wait for the new tracks' future release--will want to pick up Apple Box at once, and those who are just getting to know XTC will find it a convenient way to pick up the band's late-'90s output in one fell swoop. But the vast majority of fans likely bought the contents of the box when they originally came out, and may therefore find the set's attractions limited. --Benjamin Lukoff

Albums Included in Apple Box

Apple Venus, Volume One
Because of record contract litigation, Apple Venus Volume One is XTC's first album of new material in nearly seven years. The now-duo of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding sure seem to have been using their time off to smell the flowers, as their lyrics are ripe with fruit, nuts, dandelions, orchids, sunflowers, and harvest festivals. Billed as the 'orchestral' album that precedes its 'rock' bookend, Apple Venus is XTC's most obvious nod to the lush, intricate sounds of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper (those familiar with 1986's Skylarking know that's a bold statement). Cellos, flutes, and other highbrow instruments provide the backdrop for the flowery lyrics. The whimsical 'I'd Like That' is the perfectly understated pop song that has always eluded Partridge. The album's lone touch of angst comes courtesy of 'Your Dictionary,' which is spiked with four-letter words, but Partridge, ever the genteel Englishman, merely spells them out. Essential? No. Innovative? Hardly. But Apple Venus is a solid, cohesive work by one of rock's most artistic artists. --Bill Crandall

Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Volume Two)
Sidelined by a decade-long 'strike' against their former record label, XTC's Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding nonetheless kept themselves busy writing songs and recording demos during the 1990s. The resulting body of work was divvied up stylistically, with the more pastoral/orchestral pieces consigned to Apple Venus, Volume One (and Homespun, its accompanying home-demo collection). The brash electric guitar flourish that launches Wasp Star's 'Playground' heralds a collection that leans toward the jangly guitars and jagged rhythms of the band's Black Sea and English Settlement prime. Adorned with ornate harmonic flourishes and their trademark pop sophistication, Wasp Star finds creative mainstay Andy Partridge in a distinctly upbeat, romantically intoxicated state of mind (as witnessed by the virtually irony-free 'Stupidly Happy'), yet one in which history-bred suspicions die hard. It's Moulding who seems the most melancholy here, with the gentle romantic prodding of 'In Another Life' and in the downright gloomy take on his hometown's future, 'Boarded Up.' Known for occasional pointed social jabs, XTC's focus has become a bit more philosophical with age, Partridge and Moulding perhaps gleaning the wisdom that the hardest battles are sometimes fought on the home front. But if music this joyous and rewarding is the result, it's been the noblest of struggles. --Jerry McCulley

Homespun (The Apple Venus, Volume One Home Demos)
XTC may have spent most of the 1990s locked in a protracted 'strike' against their record label of 15 years, but mainstays Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding continued to compose an impressive body of songs, many of which finally saw the light of day on the elegantly sophisticated Apple Venus, Volume One. This new collection documents--literally and figuratively--those 'lost years,' from doodlings and scratched-out lyrical fragments to rough cassette tapes and multitrack home recordings. The resulting album, whose titles match Apple Venus track for track, is essentially a documentary of the earlier album's genesis, yet one whose compelling viewpoint stands on its own. Though obviously intended for XTC diehards, these stark, modernistic takes are rife with flourishes inspired by everything from Philip Glass to modern jazz. Partridge and Moulding's copious notes are as blunt as they are playfully self-deprecating; good humor is hardly the least of their assets. It would be easy and wrong to characterize Homespun as Apple Venus Unplugged. 'Extra-dimensional' is more to the point. --Jerry McCulley

Homegrown (The Wasp Star Home Demos)
Rather like those school mathematics exams in which you were expected to hand in all your arithmetic doodlings as well as your final answers, Homegrown is XTC proffering the various porta-studio jottings and embryonic ideas which eventually added up to the Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Volume Two) album (a pass with flying colors, lest we forget). Songs don't write themselves. Even seasoned scribes like Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding need to put a bit of elbow grease into it. Thus, every fumbling bedroom troubadour in the land will empathise with Partridge as he mutters and busks his way through a gestative 'The Wheel and the Maypole' or signs off an early draft of 'The Man Who Murdered Love' (nothing like the final version) with a self-questioning 'yeah, there might be something there.' Rest assured--demos or not--this is a highly listenable collection of quality pop with illuminating sleeve notes from the composers in question. Colin Moulding's marital-strife-flavored 'In Another Life,' for example, was inspired by Stanley Holloway, Andrew Gold, and 1970s sitcoms like George and Mildred. --Kevin Maidment









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Disc 1:

1. River Of Orchids
2. I'd Like That
3. Easter Theatre
4. Knights In Shining Karma
5. Frivolous Tonight
6. Greenman
7. Your Dictionary
8. Fruit Nut
9. I Can't Own Her
10. Harvest Festival
11. The Last Balloon

Disc 2:

1. Playground
2. Stupidly Happy
3. In Another Life
4. My Brown Guitar
5. Boarded Up
6. I'm The Man Who Murdered Love
7. Were All Light
8. Standing In For Joe
9. Wounded Horse
10. You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful
11. Church Of Women
12. The Wheel And The Maypole

Disc 3:

1. River Of Orchids
2. I'd Like That
3. Easter Theatre
4. Knights In Shining Karma
5. Frivolous Tonight
6. Greenman
7. Your Dictionary
8. Fruit Nut
9. I Can't Own Her
10. Harvest Festival
11. The Last Balloon

Disc 4:

1. Playground
2. Stupidly Happy
3. In Another Life-Excerpt of original demo
4. In Another Life-Jug band version
5. Some Lovely
6. Boarded Up
7. I'm The Man Who Murdered Love-Early other cassette
8. I'm The Man Who Murdered Love-Tamla demo excerpt
9. I'm The Man Who Murdered Love
10. Were All Light-Early cassette idea
11. Were All Light
12. Standing In For Joe-Lounge version
13. Standing In For Joe
14. Wounded Horse
15. You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful
16. Lie For A Lie-Cassette demo
17. Church Of Women
18. The Pot Won't Hold Our Love-cassette demo
19. Everything Decays-Early cassette demo
20. The Wheel And The Maypole

Rating: - ecstasy
Why have you ignored XTC for so long?
Are you in sync with the rest of the world who plays only, at best, "Senses Working Overtime" by this great band?

Apple Venus was a long time coming for us fans. Orchestral sounds stirring he soul, then AV2 with its guitar-churned rock/pop so characteristic of the great XTC. They are indeed my favourite band still currently out-putting. I could have chosen a number of their albums to review but this one is a good package that covers the Partridge/Moulding duo's repertoire well. Too bad no more Dave Gregory as guitarist...

Colin doesn't write as many as Andy but how amazing is his "Frivolous Tonight"? On par with Pet Sounds IMHO. Just enjoy the crescendo neanderthal beat of Easter Theatre turning into bliss...so many other great songs.

Ignore it no more...

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Rating: - Two exceptional albums, a pair of rough draft albums plus 2 new songs
First the two songs included as downloads with this set "Spiral" and "Say It" are extremely good tunes. The pair wouldn't be out of place on "Wasp Star" the second album included with this set. This collects the two albums that XTC released after their protracted strike against Virgin Records. "Apple Venus" features songs embellished with orchestration and some of Andy Partridge's most challenging material. "River of Orchids", "Easter Theatre", "The Last Balloon" and "Greenman" are among Partridge's most accomplished songs. "Your Dictionary" with its nasty post-divorce lyric adds some bite to the album. Even lesser material like "I'd Like That" is charming with a solid melody. It's one of XTC's most accomplished albums even if Colin Moulding's songs aren't quite up to his best standard.

"Wasp Star" is the guitar album that the band probably should have released first. Because they didn't work on it first Dave Gregory left the band feeling as if he had no function in the band's direction. It's just a notch below "Apple Venus" but the best bits are every bit as good. From the distorted guitar that opens "Playground" to Moulding's "Standing in for Joe" the album hardly misses.

The two albums of demos sound roughly the same as their fleshed out counterparts. A couple of the demos for "Wasp Star" actually are superior to the finished versions. The rougher "Wounded Horse" for some reason sounds...more complete than the finished more polished version. "I'm The Man Who Murdered Love" is fascinating to listen to primarily because Partridge includes bits and pieces of the song in various states and the previous version is completely different sounding when compared to the finished version. Even Moulding's "Standing in for Joe" changes substanially from the initial arrangement to the final version. Unlike the Japanese import versions this doesn't include either the bonus disc with Andy and Colin playing three songs from the album explaining their evolution nor does it include the bonus demo for "It Didn't Hurt A Bit".

It does, however, include the code to download two recent XTC songs "Spiral" and "Say It". Both are very good tunes. It's a pity the only way to get both songs is to buy this set. Overall "Apple Venus" deserves 4 1/2 stars, "Wasp Star" 4 and the demo albums 3 each. "Spiral" and "Say It" likewise deserve 4 stars although "Where Did the Ordinary People Go?" from Colin (a song written for "Nonsuch" but withheld until recently)is much better than "Say It" and probably should have been included it is only available from the itunes store at present.

The artwork is nice for the box. If you didn't purchase these separately or need to replace your pair of albums this is a well priced replacement with the added incentive of some new material.

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Rating: - 4 1/2 stars-- a lot of great music, but limited value to older fans.
After their seven year recording hiatus designed to get them out of their contract with Virgin Records, XTC returned with a vengeance, producing two fine and very different albums-- "Apple Venus" and "Wasp Star", originally intended to be released as a double album but split for marketing concerns. Additionally, for each album, a collection of demos ("Homespun" and "Homegrown" respectively) was released. After five years, rights to the material reverted back to the band, and they chose to re-release them together as originally intended, in a boxed set with all four releases contained within.

The albums are about as different as can be-- XTC, reduced to just principle songwriter and guitarist Andy Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding with the departure of Dave Gregory (who apparently was unhappy with the direction the group was taking), produced an album of acoustic guitars and orchestral arrangements ("Apple Venus") followed by a stripped down electric rock record ("Wasp Star"). I'll consider each briefly below (I've reviewed each of the four records in detail under their individual listings).

"Apple Venus" ends up being in my assessment the better of the two-- I tend to prefer my XTC overarranged, and what they managed was not so much a rock band plus orchestra but rather an integrated and natural feel. Listening to "Homespun", I suspect this is because the orchestra concept was around from the beginning-- opener "River of Orchids", which is nearly all orchestra, appears this way on the demo as well (albeit with synths). The album proves remarkably diverse, from the apathetic "Your Dictionary" (Partridge exorcising the ghosts of his divorce), moody and contemplative ("I Can't Own Her"), near-baroque ("Knights in Shining Karma") to quirky electric faux-orchestral (Moulding's "Fruit Nut") and ends up being one of the strongest records in the band's catalog. "Homespun", while proving to be interesting, often times sounds virtually identical to the final takes and is the kind of thing only a diehard could love (on the other hand, if you're not, why would you be looking here?).

"Wasp Star" seems to suffer mostly from the missing presence of Dave Gregory-- while it's quite an enjoyable record in its own right, you can hear in a number of places where it would really have benefitted from Gregory ("The Wheel and the Maypole"). Partridge's pieces end up being primarily riff based rock, though often quite good riff based rock (sharp pop "Stupidly Happy", fractured country blues "Wounded Horse"), whereas Moulding tends towards more experimental stuff (quirky "Standing in For Joe"), but some of the material just isn't as memorable as the others ("You and the Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful") and while it's all quite listenable, it's not all the kind of stuff you'd get excited about. "Homegrown" as a demo recording ends up being in its own way more interesting than the album-- several pieces are presented in multiple demos ("I'm the Man Who Murdered Love", "Standing in For Joe") and some are dramatically different then their final album version ("Some Lovely" which became "My Brown Guitar") and this provides a superb portrait of the band's creative process.

All of this is packaged in a white box with each disc help in its own slip case and extensive liner notes by Partridge and Moulding. But if you've already got the album, there's not much in the way of value here except for the ability to download two new tracks from XTC's website with this purchase, one from each songwriter. Partridge's "Spiral" is an exciting and explosive electric rock piece, a praise of vinyl that comes off as pure ecstacy and is among the best of his compositions. Moulding's "Say It" is a lovely crooned ballad more in the form of "Apple Venus" that in my assessment is the best piece released by him since his contributions on "Oranges & Lemons".

IF you've already got the albums in here, it's kind of hard to rationalize the purchase, but if you don't, the set is lovely and the music within (including the downloads) is fantastic. It's just a shame they didn't include the instrumental versions of the albums that were recently released.

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Rating: - The original albums the way they were intended to be released
If you're an XTC fan you no doubt have these releases individually so don't feel the need to upgrade unless you absolutely have to have the two new songs that can be downloaded. Originally Apple Venus and Wasp Star were supposed to be a single double album but due to time constraints, issues with cost and their record company they were released independently of each other. Both are stunning albums both in terms of quality and contrast--for those who don't know Apple Venus is the acoustic/orchestral album that had been in Andy Partridge's veins since Skylarking. Wasp Star is the power pop album that the band had always been threatening to make--brimming with rich melodies and guitar riffs.

This set repackages those albums with their two albums of demos. The redesigned packaging features wonderful illustrations by Andy and Colin, a deluxe 64 page booklet discussing the making of the album and lyrics as well as two new songs for download "Say It" and "Spiral" (one from Andy and one from Colin). "Spiral" continues the power pop trend of "Wasp Star" while "Say It" would have fit in nicely with "Boarded Up" or Colin's contributions for "Apple Venus".

There's another edition that features these songs on a CD sampler along with a t-shirt. This is available at XTC's website and Andy & Colin will autograph these editions (as well as anything you purchase there). Is it worth it? For the hardcore XTC fan the answer is yes. If you've already got the other albums but can wait for the two songs to be available at itunes (or somewhere else in the future) the answer is probably no.

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Rating: - I resent this
I am a long time XTC fan but I have to say that more than perturbed that there are 2 new songs available only if you purchase this box set. I love XTC but I will not spend $57 for 2 songs no matter who it is.