Has it really been 34 years? Yes, yes it has. Returning to it makes one thing clear; this album is still as good as it was back in 82, and is rightly considered the definitive work in XTC’s vast catalogue. It deserves more than just a place in that band’s pantheon of great albums; it’s truly worthy of a place in the greatest records of all time, by anyone.

The story goes that Andy Partridge conceived the album as a way to stem the tide of heavy touring that the band was enduring at the time, on the back of the previous two albums Drums and Wires and Black Sea. He was sick of it… literally. Health issues had manifested in mental stress and he wrote English Settlement as a less ‘live-friendly’ album, loading it with more complex arrangements and toning down the heavy edge that had been a staple of their recorded and live sound. The result is an opus of beautifully layered songs, sometimes floating, other times still punching, but always effective in their ability to make you appreciate the complexity of those layers, iced with lyrics that could not be taken lightly in the geo-political climate of the Cold War.

Even after at least 20 years of not listening to this album, it was not so much a revelation, but more a joyous homecoming where everything familiar hasn’t aged a bit, yet reveals qualities that you may not have appreciated the first time around. English Settlement has only gotten better with age, and if you need a place to start your XTC journey, this is it.