 Andy Partridge Fuzzy Warbles Volume 2 is more consistent in mood than Volume 1, featuring overall less slap-happy tomfoolery and more moments of quiet awe. This one features the astounding demo for "25 O'Clock," as well as nice (though similar-to-final) demos of "Then She Appeared" and "Summer's Cauldron." The Lovin' Spoonful sendup "It's Snowing Angels" crops up, one of the "bubblegum" songs Andy Partridge was supposedly making an album of in the 90s (a few were released through John Flansburgh's Hello Recording Club). Hopefully more of these will be included as subsequent volumes are released. Other nice moments are the arch "Young Marrieds" (incidentally, are any white British pop songwriters for marriage?), "Ship Trapped in the Ice" (a diatribe against Virgin Records dressed up as a bouncy pop song) and the hilarious faux-dub answering machine message "No One Here Available." The Fuzzy Warbles discs are a hell of a lot of fun, and have resurrected my admiration for Andy Partridge and XTC. Suddenly Partridge seems like much less of a bitter, misanthropic old coot and more like a (sometimes overly) jovial uncle. He's done himself a service by peeling back the mystery to reveal himself to be, simply, a fun guy in love with music.
Review by Suzie Cant |