XTC – Black Sea
(Virgin Records 1980 V2173)
Matrix No’s: A3/B2 – UK Pressing
Sleeve in Excellent+ condition
– some wear to edges/corners
No Paper Bag outer
Lyric Insert in Nr MINT condition
Vinyl in Excellent+ condition
Would be Nr MINT but there’s a mark in the first 2 tracks which gives an intermittent click
XTC were a New Wave / pop band from Swindon, England, active between 1977 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits “Making Plans for Nigel” (1979) and “Senses Working Overtime” (1982), but are perhaps even better known for their long-standing critical (rather than commercial) success.
Black Sea is the fourth studio album by the English band XTC, released on 12 September 1980. It spawned five singles—”Generals And Majors” (released 9 August 1980 and reached No. 32 on the UK singles chart and No. 104 on the Billboard Pop chart), “Towers Of London” (released 10 October 1980 and reached No. 31 on the UK singles chart), “Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)” (released 5 December 1980 and reached No. 16 on the UK singles chart), “Love At First Sight” (released 23 January 1981 in Canada only) and a re-recording of “Respectable Street” (released 13 March 1981). The band re-recorded the song to change a few words as per the BBC—who ended up never playing the clean version anyway.
The album reached No. 16 on the UK album chart, No. 41 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 album chart and No. 1 on the New Zealand album chart.
Early copies of the album came with the sleeve enclosed in a lime-green paper bag. There was an additional version that came packaged in a black plastic bag with the XTC logo in silver printed on one side.
The band’s name is hidden in the cover artwork. The seagull, ship’s mast and moon spell out XTC.
Virgin media mogul Richard Branson appeared in the “Generals and Majors” video.
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Andy Partridge, except where noted.
UK LP: V 2173
| Side A | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |||||||
| 1. | “Respectable Street” | 3:38 | ||||||||
| 2. | “Generals and Majors” | Colin Moulding | 4:05 | |||||||
| 3. | “Living Through Another Cuba” | 4:44 | ||||||||
| 4. | “Love at First Sight” | Moulding | 3:08 | |||||||
| 5. | “Rocket from a Bottle” | 3:30 | ||||||||
| 6. | “No Language in Our Lungs” | 4:53 | ||||||||
| Side B | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |||||||
| 1. | “Towers of London” | 5:24 | ||||||||
| 2. | “Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)” | 4:17 | ||||||||
| 3. | “Burning with Optimism’s Flames” | 4:16 | ||||||||
| 4. | “Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)” | 3:57 | ||||||||
| 5. | “Travels in Nihilon” | 7:04 | ||||||||
Personnel
- Terry Chambers – Tama drums, Snyper drum synthesiser, free form vocals
- Dave Gregory – guitars, synth, piano, vox humana
- Colin Moulding – vocals, Epiphone Newport bass
- Andy Partridge – vocals, guitar, synth
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