"Peter Pumpkinhead" may be a good dude, but musically speaking, if I could be king for a day, I'd rather spend my time with the mayor of Simpleton and XTC's much better back catalog.
Yeah, I always thought of this as a lesser variation of "Mayor of Simpleton." And Andy's best songs are ones he's less lyrically obvious. Though, I think the album this is from, Nonsuch, is one of their best and seriously underrated. It's quite experimental while maintaining a Beach Boys-esque lushness.
I went and listened to this song this morning, much like your posts prompt me to do each week, and I didn't mind it all that much! I can see what you mean about the harmonica though.
I didn't mind it overall, but it felt like a letdown after the songs I'd covered from their previous album, so my bias probably colored my review a bit. Regardless, they're still pretty great; their back catalog has a lot of good stuff.
Great pick, Matt! For some reason, I always think this song is on "Oranges and Lemons," even when I know better. Maybe I just tend to group it in with 'King For a Day,' and 'Mayor of Simpleton' since they were (sorta) in the same era.
Yeah, I always thought of this as a lesser variation of "Mayor of Simpleton." And Andy's best songs are ones he's less lyrically obvious. Though, I think the album this is from, Nonsuch, is one of their best and seriously underrated. It's quite experimental while maintaining a Beach Boys-esque lushness.
I have not listened to the whole album yet, so I'll be curious to see if the rest of it exceeds “Pumpkinhead.”
I went and listened to this song this morning, much like your posts prompt me to do each week, and I didn't mind it all that much! I can see what you mean about the harmonica though.
I didn't mind it overall, but it felt like a letdown after the songs I'd covered from their previous album, so my bias probably colored my review a bit. Regardless, they're still pretty great; their back catalog has a lot of good stuff.
Great pick, Matt! For some reason, I always think this song is on "Oranges and Lemons," even when I know better. Maybe I just tend to group it in with 'King For a Day,' and 'Mayor of Simpleton' since they were (sorta) in the same era.
I think stylistically all of those songs are definitely “of that era” of late 80s/early 90s, so that's understandable to lump them together.
So the Dummies were covering XTC? I thought it was something they came up with.
Same. I was surprised by that as well.
The Dummies are from Winnipeg, Canada, like I am.