Mummer

1983's 'mummer' was the first fruit of the swindon combo's 'pastoral' period, but merely proved to be the inaugural chapter in xtc's mercifully brief mid-life crises. a commercial flop, stalling outside of the uk top 50 - a major setback considering the belated 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.