Editorial Reviews
Music Review:
Music Review
Boys Will Be Boys Pt.1 [CD-single] [Import]
Heifetz Collection, Vol. 7 (1949-1951)
Music: BBC Radio 1 Live [Live]
Live in the Mix [Live] [Import]
Kiss Me, Kate (1948 Original Broadway Cast) [Cast Recording] [Original recording remastered]
Amazon.com
Mummer, from 1983, was the first fruit of the British pop combo's "pastoral" period, but merely proved to be the inaugural chapter in XTC's mercifully brief midlife crises. A commercial flop, stalling outside of the U.K. Top 50--a major setback considering the bridgeheads established in both the British and American charts by the preceding Black Sea and English Settlement albums--Mummer was considered something of an artistic disappointment at the time. Even so, any record that contains such moments of delicious rural innocence as the folksy "Love on a Farmboy's Wages" ("shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in") or the mangled, chamber orchestra pyromania of "Great Fire" is worth a listen, while the addition of several alternately odd and poppy B-sides only adds to the intrigue. The poorer cousin of the subsequent Skylarking, perhaps, but well worth reassessing now that time has passed. --Kevin Maidment
Album Description
Remastered reissue of 1983 album. Virgin Records. 2001.