Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)
Studio album by XTC
Released 23 May 2000
Recorded April–December 1999, Idea Studios, Wiltshire and Chipping Norton Recording Studios, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Genre Pop rock, rock
Length 50:54
Language English
Label Cooking Vinyl
Producer Nick Davis
XTC chronology

Apple Venus Volume 1
(1999)		 Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)
(2000)
Singles from Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)
  1. "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love"
    Released: May 2000
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 75/100 [1]
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [2]
NME (7/10) [3]
Pitchfork (8.0/10) [4]
PopMatters (9/10) [5]
Q [6]
Robert Christgau [7]
Rolling Stone [8]

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) is the fourteenth and final studio album by the English band XTC, released on Cooking Vinyl/Idea Records on 23 May 2000. It is the second volume of the Apple Venus set and reached the UK Top 40 albums chart.

At this point, guitarist and singer Andy Partridge and bassist and singer Colin Moulding were the only two band members left. The duo therefore utilised session musicians on every track to fill in the musical elements that they were incapable of performing themselves. Partridge's daughter Holly made her singing debut on record singing backup vocals in the song "Playground"; she now sings and plays guitar in the English pop-rock group The SheBeats.

In 2002 XTC released an instrumental version of the album entitled Waspstrumental.

The song "Stupidly Happy" has been featured in an episode of the British teenage drama Skins, and in 2011 it was used in an advertisement for DFS.

Track listing

UK CD: COOKCD 194

All songs written and composed by Andy Partridge, except where noted. 

No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Playground"    4:17
2. "Stupidly Happy"    4:13
3. "In Another Life"  Colin Moulding 3:35
4. "My Brown Guitar"    3:51
5. "Boarded Up"  Moulding 3:23
6. "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love"    3:44
7. "We're All Light"    4:39
8. "Standing in for Joe"  Moulding 3:42
9. "Wounded Horse"    4:11
10. "You and the Clouds Will Still be Beautiful"    4:18
11. "Church of Women"    5:06
12. "The Wheel and the Maypole"    5:55

Personnel

with:

Production

Chart performance

Chart Peak
position
UK Albums Chart [9] 40
Billboard 200 [10] 108

References

  1. ↑ "XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Volume 2)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  2. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  3. ↑ "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". NME (IPC Media). Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  4. ↑ Hooker, Zach. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Pitchfork. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  5. ↑ Schabe, Patrick. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". PopMatters. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  6. ↑ Aizlewood, John. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Q (Bauer Media Group). Archived from the original on 27 September 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  7. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Robert Christgau. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  8. ↑ Moon, Tom. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Rolling Stone (Jann Wenner). Archived from the original on 11 April 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  9. ↑ "XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Chart Stats. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  10. ↑ "XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Billboard 200. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 16 June 2011.