Wasp Star (Apple Venus Vol. 2)

Limited 200gm vinyl LP pressing. Song lyric sheet included. Newly mastered by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering from tapes approved by Andy Partridge. Wasp Star, the band's final album (to date), employed far more of the intricately arranged, guitar driven, XTC sound which Dave Gregory had helped to develop from his point of arrival with 1979's Drums & Wires. While not as strikingly different as Apple Venus Vol. I, it was intended as the 'other part' of that album and writing sessions and was subtitled Apple Venus Vol. II. The songwriting had matured immeasurably from the band's 1977 White Music debut, but the early promise of an innovative, fresh, approach to the possibilities of pop songwriting and recording inherent in that debut had been carried through every album of the band's career with Wasp Star merely the latest, possibly last, instalment.