Rave Recs Favorites Contest: Talking Heads v. XTC

[mad rhetorik]

Match 2, Post-Punk/New Wave Division: Talking Heads v. XTC

Polls close 4/20.

[MindGoneHaywire]

XTC. Not even close. The only plus I see for the Heads here is that they were doing it first.

[3-LockBox]

No contest. XTC hasn't put out a bad album, ever. The Talking Heads have.

[nobody]

I'm surprised this one is so close. XTC just never did much for me. I'm actually always a little perplexed when people sing their praises. On the other hand, the Talking Heads really opened up whole new worlds of music to a lot of people and pout out a great string of interesting records than managed to innovate while remaining fun to listen to.

[DariusNYC]

I think XTC are an excellent band with several fantastic albums under their belt. I think the first four Talking Heads albums transcended that, though. And their subsequent albums were excellent as well. Their sound got so expansive by 1980; it really worked to a world beat. The Heads understood hip-hop, they understood funk, they understood African and eastern sounds, they understood folk and country and of course punk. Their music, for all the annoying pretensions of David Byrne, was a big tent. XTC's music is generally cramped and airless in comparison. XTC were brilliant pop formalists, working their wonders in the British pop tradition. They were not followers, nor did they really engage in or influence the main currents of the music; they just did their thing so well (and of course their thing evolved over the years). Good for them; they're one of the best bands of the 80s. Talking Heads were more than that for me.

[Dave_G]

I voted for XTC too.

Just overall a little better, albeit different band from Talking Heads.

BTW the latest TH cd, "No Talking, Just Head", is very good.

Dave

[mad rhetorik]

XTC got more responses than the Talking Heads, so based on the precedent set by previous tiebreakers I'll declare XTC the winner of this match.

If I'm getting so many ties in just the prelim matches, I must be doing something right.