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Title: Mixed Bag
Review: When listening to this you have to wonder if XTC was not under some pressure to conform to the music industry they lashed out against on Mummer's "Funk-Pop-A-Roll". When my friends would hear "This World Over" they would say "Is that the Police"? Also songs like "Reign Of Blows" and "Train Running Low On Soul Coal" are among the hardest rocking tracks ever to be released by XTC. Coming off the pastoral "Mummer" this was quite a surprise. The release is a lot like a train for the most part, Big, Loud, and Noisy. The irony is that although is is big, bold, and brash, it still was not in step with increasingly pop flavored keyboard driven New-Wave music of the moment. If this was a last chance effort for a stab at rock stardom it is a pretty decent one. Still for a band that had accomplished as much as XTC, and was about to accomplish even more ("Skylarking" and "Oranges and Lemons") this one is not quite up to par with their best.
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