XTC: Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

Maybe there's something to be said for corporate skullduggery after all. Having spent years in recording limbo thanks to disputes with its label, XTC managed to emerge, minus a member, to produce one of the best albums of its career, last year's Apple Venus Volume 1. A largely acoustic set marked by stunning string arrangements and expansive song structures, it featured XTC at its most soaringly ambitious. Though no less an album for it, the largely electric companion piece Wasp Star concentrates on other aspects of the band: It's not as overwhelming, but it's even easier to sing along to it. Exceptionally gifted pop songwriters, Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding have crafted an album that at times hearkens back to their early days. "Playground" and "Stupidly Happy" wouldn't be out of place on Drums & Wires, while "You And The Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful" could easily have been culled from The Big Express. Not that they don't sound just fine where they are, on one of the most unassuming, instantly pleasing efforts of XTC's career. Like its immediate predecessor—and the band's work in general, for that matter—Wasp Star alternates among whimsy ("Church Of Women"), wide-eyed appreciation of nature ("We're All Light"), disappointment, and undisguised bile. There's nothing quite as bitter as "Your Dictionary," but "Playground," "I'm The Man Who Murdered Love," and "Wounded Horse" have an edge that hooks can't disguise. A confirmation of XTC's return to full power, Wasp Star shows that its commitment to making mature pop for mature people has never been stronger or better executed.