Personally... by far the best "band" album IMO. The cohesiveness, the musicality, the production, and done at such a time when double albums were considered risky to release - and very prog!

The majority of the album still sounds fresh to my ears... sheer bliss!

#3 in my holy trinity

#1 in mine Weasie!

My No. 1 Album of alltime... the reason I became an XTC-ADDICT!! The best legal mood elevating substance known to mankind!

Not in my XTC Top 3, but of course a very very original album with some great songs.

Knuckle Down needs to get much more love. One of my favourites.

You know, I can't believe I just noticed this but my crazy version of the English Settlement CD is not only missing Leisure, but also Down in the Cockpit! On further investigation I notice that it is manufactured in France...

Remember Vortex on Queen Street, doc? I bought it from there!

I defy even Pelle to top this collector's item!

I was listening to this fine album today, for the first time in ages, and was reminded of something that has always bothered me.

In the middle eight bridge in "Leisure", Andy sings "They had retired me 'fore I left school"

The following line is: "Just saw no point in the standing in line"

WHO SINGS THAT LINE?( and the next line after Andys next line)

It doesn't sound like Andy or Colin, and is not "wispy" enough to be Dave.

Can anybody put me out of my misery here?

Andy, Colin & Dave are credited with backing vocals on this track - and it sounds layered, so possibly all three did it?

This is to expound on my comment in the Survivor Game (and also back in the old Forum) that English Settlement sounds a little dated, like it was made in 1981.
While I love the album, I only think that the band was using things being done at the time, such as the rhythms in Its Nearly Africa, Melt the Guns, and Knuckle Down, that would enable someone listening to the album for the first time to say - "hey that sounds like its from around 1981."
Others point out that you can do the same with the Linn drum in Big Express, but, to me, Big Express doesn't sound like anything else made anytime, and I could guess it was from anywhere between 1978 to 2000.
Of course, I like English Settlement better than Big Express, so timelessness isn't the deciding factor in that comparison - English Settlement just sounds better to me, English Roundabout and Snowman especially.
Its just that Black Sea surprisingly grew on me to the point where I seemed to prefer it to ES, which greatly surprised me. In that comparison, I attributed my growing fondness for Black Sea to its more timelessness. I had originally thought Black Sea was too turgid and clunky compared to ES. Actually, its probably just that Black Sea and sides 2 & 4 of COMC are my favorite XTC discs to listen to on the treadmill.

This is undoubtedly my favorite XTC album, and always has been. I grew up listening to XTC, but I always put this LP on the most. Snowman is genius, probably some of my favorite five minutes of music ever recorded. Both Andy and Colin sound like they are at the hight of their music writing abilities, even though bigger things were still yet to come.

My girlfriend is a drummer, and I've been trying to get her into XTC and I think this may be the disc for the job! I can't rate Terry Chamber's drumming much higher, he sounds amazing on this album. Not to mention so does Colin, they were a tight rhythm section.

Given the albums popularity though, what's with the lack of released/bootleged demos? Do they just not exist? Funny enough, this is one album I really don't mind not having demos because it's perfect to me. Dated? I can't really say, I think I'm too biased!

If I had to pick three favorites off of it they would probably be Runaways, Jason And The Argonauts, and Snowman. Difficult choice, but I've always felt that a great album was bookended by GREAT songs. Aside from that, Jason never leaves my head, that riff is from heaven.

I go along with the view that whilst it has some great stuff on it, some really great stuff, it suffers from virtually all the songs being too bloody long. Most of them could lose a minute or two and be none the worse or even all the better for it. A producer with a firm hand and some nous should've cut some of the indulgence.

Hey, but that's just my opinion, what the fuck do I know?