Mummer by XTC

Mummer, XTC's sixth album, finally surfaced on Virgin on 30 August 1983, the first record the Swindon band made after quitting the stage in 1982. Andy Partridge, still recovering from a nervous breakdown, threw himself into life as a studio-only outfit; drummer Terry Chambers, who lived for playing live, couldn't settle, and he walked after two tracks and a B-side, leaving Pete Phipps to finish the sessions with Partridge, Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory. Steve Nye produced.

The title nods to the old mummers' plays, where the actors keep their identities hidden, and the music suits it: pastoral, knotty and a long way from the angular new wave that made their name. Virgin fretted that there were no hits and sent the band back to rework the songs again and again, which held the release up by months. Three singles came anyway: "Great Fire", "Wonderland" and "Love on a Farmboy's Wages".

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