Wasp Star Apple Venus Vol. II - Indie Rock Album by The Apples in Stereo | Perfect for Road Trips & Chill Vibes

XTC - Wasp StarIf a Wasp Star is something that both stings and shines, this is an accurate characterization, and great title, for XTC's long-awaited new disc. Long-awaited, at least by me, who was overjoyed to see no less than three new discs from XTC when I recently did a search on Amazon's music offerings. I had no idea that there were problems with a strike and a contract, something I first heard of by reading other reviews, but I found this dismaying, seeing how companys' intervention in artists' work brings about such frustration and hindrance to the creative process. It is all the more dismaying when it harms or hinders the work of what I consider to be one of the greatest bands since the Beatles and alongside R.E.M. and Jethro Tull (now you have a glimpse of my taste in music).But enough politics. The music is fantastic! I was captured from the first chords, and by second and third hearings was getting the goosebumps I get when really excited by a piece of music, something that hasn't happened in a long time. I first heard XTC by chance on local radio when a wonderfully different song was aired (different from all the local crap and the pop station drivel). It was "Chalkhills and Children". After hearing who they were I picked up the Oranges and Lemons disc and from then on have collected and immensely enjoyed them all. This latest disc, without the second guitarist Dick Gregory and just Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding, is pleasantly familiar XTC material, but this time 'round paradoxically both more simple and more complex.Somehow, I get the impression that this disc is practically a self-parody of what XTC can do. There is a lot of similarity to previous stuff of theirs, especially in the disc's opening guitar riff, reminiscent of the opening of Nonsuch's "Peter Pumpkinhead". Perhaps the band is saying to their former record company (Virgin) that they can produce this kind of high-quality pop-rock progressive music with eyes closed. But this is sub-text. The music is great!And if the price for getting this disc was to "let the finicky musicians do their own [presumably non-commercial] thing" with "Apple Venus", some record-company executive's gotta be either nuts or senile to have stood in the way (if that's the way things were), 'cause "Apple Venus" is no less fantastic, and WAY more interesting. But that's another, long-winded review...A track by track, quasi-academic commentary would probably be tiresome, so I'd just say that this disc has restored my enjoyment of what might be characterized as non-classical people music. It doesn't thrumb me senseless with electronic mock tribal rhythm loops; it doesn't insult my sensibility by pandering to some low-common denominator. It's honest, direct, infusing, happy, groovy, free, fun, deep yet accessible, progressive yet unpretentious. It is another great disc to "discover", that is, listen to, be impressed, get into more and more, until you're glad to have 'found' such a cool bloom among the thorns and want to confound your friends with what they inevitably take as unfounded enthusiasm. No matter; this disc (and its 'sisters') is one of the most enthusing to come round in a long time.