- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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The balance of the album is crammed to capacity with placeholders for more fully developed ideas.
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Wasp Star adheres to the bouncy melodicism and skewed humor that's been XTC's stock in trade for 25 years.
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It's a great bunch of songs, and it solidifies the notion that XTC are back from the wilderness and ready to rock the show.
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This is a surprisingly decent album, as good as anything they've ever made.
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"The Wheel and the Maypole" might be the greatest song the band has ever recorded...
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A return to the gorgeously crisp electric pop Partridge has been writing for more than 20 years.
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Its boisterous, melodic rock is invigorating to hear from a storm-weathered, 24-year old band.
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One of the most unassuming, instantly pleasing efforts of XTC's career.
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These twelve songs are streamlined, uncluttered miniatures.
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This record is really nothing more than a collection of sharp, witty, well-constructed pop songs.
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A romp as vigorous as any since 1982's English Settlement.
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Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) finds Partridge and Moulding at the top of their game, making the collection a fitting match for past XTC triumphs...
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They make often wistful, often wry, but always intelligent pop.
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XTC proudly displays its roots while subsuming them into a larger sound, one that is wholly their own.
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Nine of the album's dozen songs were written by Partridge, and each unfolds like an act of a melodious Shakespearean play -- lyrics drenched in imagery and metaphor, plots twisting through the experience of love and betrayal.
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Dense with upbeat, guitar-based songs, Wasp Star brings to mind the best of mid-'60s pop (think the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Kinks).
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 11 out of 12
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Mixed: 0 out of 12
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Negative: 1 out of 12
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HappyM.Jan 3, 2006One of XTC's best!
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WillyPDec 20, 2005Partridge is the rare artist whose songwriting abilities continue to grow into middle age.
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TravisC.May 22, 2002