White Music by XTC

White Music, XTC's debut album, came out on Virgin on 20 January 1978, just three months after their 3D EP, and it's the Swindon band at their most wired and wiry. John Leckie produced, and Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding split the songwriting and singing, with Barry Andrews' carnival keyboards darting around Terry Chambers' pounding drums. They were lumped in with punk, but this is new wave that won't sit still: jerky rhythms, ska and dub flavours, vintage pop hooks and art-school weirdness jammed together at high speed.

It reached 38 on the UK Albums Chart. "Statue of Liberty" was banned by Radio 1 over one cheeky lyric, and "This Is Pop" was re-recorded in April 1978 as a single, a manifesto title if ever there was one. The album was first going to be called Black Music, after black comedy, until Virgin and the band's manager talked them into White Music, as in white noise.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.