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Editorial Reviews

XTC spent the first half of the '80s dropping out of the new wave rat race in favor of cultivating an eccentric English garden. It was a move that mirrored the Kinks ignoring psychedelia for songs about subdivisions and afternoon tea, but when XTC decided to cut loose, they did so by adopting alter egos to create a riotous tribute to the very psychedelia the Kinks shunned. They turned into the Dukes of Stratosphear and cut the EP 25 O'Clock, a brilliant, clever distillation of the sounds of 1967, filled with knowing allusions and outright thievery from psychedelic classics both popular and well-known. For those well-versed in '60s rock, it's irresistible to draw parallels to the Beatles, the Yardbirds, the Move, and Pink Floyd, but 25 O'Clock practically begs listeners to connect the dots through its swirling kaleidoscope of phased tapes, fuzz guitars, murmured voices, and burbling Mellotrons -- and that's not even taking into account lyrical allusions, like how "Bike Ride to the Moon" twists around Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle." All this makes 25 O'Clock something closer to pop art than mere homage, but what makes it enduring -- even strangely timeless -- pop music is how XTC's reinvigorated creativity extends far beyond the mere form to the songs themselves. The six songs on the EP are XTC at their very best, their braininess tempered by the discipline of writing six songs that could have been legitimately seen as forgotten gems from the late '60s (which indeed this EP was initially presented as upon its April Fools Day release in 1985). Although there is certainly considerable pleasure in peeling back the layers of the production to puzzle out the references or simply revel in its sound, what is striking about 25 O'Clock is how joyous and immediate it feels, a trait it shares with the very best pop music -- which it certainly is.

The 2009 reissue of 25 O'Clock -- which is the first stand-alone CD reissue of the 1985 EP -- is expanded by a whopping nine tracks, three of which are demos of tunes from the EP. Of these, only "What in the World??..." feels drastically different (and that's all due to an incongruous disco beat that propels the demo), so the big news is the unveiling of outtakes and demos of unheard songs from the project: there's "Nicely Nicely Jane," a sweet pastoral acoustic ditty that's firmly in McCartney territory; the slow drone "Susan Revolting," whose demo tantalizingly suggests the full-blown dark psychedelia it could have been; the kitschy bellydance pastiche "Black Jewelled Serpent of Sound [Radio Caroline Edit]"; the bright, poppy "Open a Can of Human Beans," which would have fit nicely onto the second half of Oranges & Lemons; and finally, "Tin Toy Clockwork Train," a marching slice of whimsy that perhaps is just a tad too precious to have fit in nicely onto the EP proper but, like all the bonus material here, is a delight that enhances an already wonderful piece of pop. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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