Released 12 September 1980 Artist XTC Label Virgin Records Genres New wave, Pop rock | Length 48:56 Release date 12 September 1980 Producer Steve Lillywhite | |
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Recorded June–July 1980 at The Town House, London, England Black Sea
(1980) English Settlement
(1982) Similar XTC albums, New wave albums | ||
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).
Contents
The album reached No. 16 on the UK album chart, No. 41 on the Billboard U.S. 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.
Xtc respectable street
Reception
Black Sea received positive reviews from critics. In an Allmusic review, Chris Woodstra called it XTC's most consistent album yet, both in terms of its full arrangements and unsubtle political commentary. Writing for Rolling Stone, Don Shewey also found the album to be consistent over all—with the exception of "Travels in Nihilon", which he says "strays from the intersection of punk and pop where XTC are most at home". Similarly, David Sinclair, in an overview of XTC's early albums for Q, determined that the arrangements of Black Sea, while complex, were much cleaner than earlier arrangements, such as those found on their debut, White Music. Robert Christgau was impressed by the album's pacing and eclecticism, despite delving into excessively "embellishing herkyjerk whozis" and over-intellect.
In a Pitchfork review revisiting Black Sea, along with Go 2 and English Settlement following their remastered CD release in 2002, Chris Dalen discusses the strengths of Black Sea. In particular, Dalen emphasizes "Sgt. Rock", "Rocket From a Bottle", and "Travels in Nihilon". Dalen also appreciated the placement of the bonus tracks on the CD, following the original track listing of the album. Previous reissues placed the tracks in the middle of the album, interrupting the "flow".
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Andy Partridge, except where noted.
Personnel
Chart performance
Black Sea spent 7 weeks on the UK album charts, reaching No. 16. In the U.S., the album spent 24 weeks on the Billboard 200 album charts and reached its peak position of No. 41 in February 1981.
Album
Songs
1Respectable Street3:37
2Generals and Majors4:05
3Living Through Another Cuba4:44