I'm definitely looking forward to John's xtc reviews (as well as the beach boys after, two of my favourite bands back to back). Though I suspect he doesn't like them quite as much as I do (but then again, few people probably like them as much as I do).

For a band that has so many incredible songs however their albums always tend to have one or two duds or some songs where they were trying to so something really interesting but it didn't all come together. So that makes it a little tricky to make the call on their albums from time to time.
But even at their worst though XTC were rarely if ever, uninteresting. Their biggest sin was usually trying *too* hard, rather than not trying hard enough. And if you ask me, of all the problems a band could have that's one of the best ones.

And they've got an absolutely enormous collection of rarities in their back pocket spread out in all sorts of places that make it a lot of fun to be a fan. They've got hidden gems all over the place.

I'd say their top 5 albums are Skylarking, Psonic Psunspot, Black Sea, Apple Venus, and English Settlement.