XTC 1980 "Black Sea"

Ooooo....let's get aboard the way back machine....all the way back to 1980. This was a top album for me that year...hell...still is. XTC....."Black Sea". Oh, the memories.  Released on September 12, 1980, it spawned five singles - "Generals And Majors", "Towers Of London", "Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)","Love At First Sight", and "Respectable Street". I still think it's one of the more consistent albums by XTC, it's not as raw as the previous album Drums and Wires, but it's still totally all about the big drums and sharp guitars. This was one of those albums I just nearly wore out.....it was on my turntable constantly. I'd been an obsessive Beatles über-fan since childhood....and XTC was one of the first groups that I felt I could honestly call "Beatlesque", in their approach to writing pop songs that felt fresh, original, and loaded with memorable hooks. American XTC fans were an odd lot. Punk, new wave, and other alternative pop didn't get major airplay in the US at all. It seemed that most of the XTC fans that I knew were cut from a different cloth that most other fans of the British music that was being released in those years......usually a little broader in their musical tastes and outlook...sometimes even a bit snobbish about what they were into. This album has aged well. I feel that every cut still stands on it's own. It always ends up near the top of my favourite LPs of the era....and not just because of the memories it brings back to me. Give it a listen....if it's new to you, excellent. If you remember it....listen again.....it is sooo worth the time.....Enjoy.

Here's the link:

http://www.4shared.com/file/D5OCuYcH/black_sea.html

Here's the track list:

Respectable Street
Generals and Majors
Living Through Another Cuba
Love at First Sight
Rocket From a Bottle
No Language in Our Lungs
Towers of London
Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)
Burning with Optimism's Flames
Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)
Travels in Nihilon
CD BONUS TRACKS:
Smokeless Zone
Don't Lose Your Temper
The Somnambulist