Day After Day #33: Senses Working Overtime

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Senses Working Overtime (1982)

A few days ago, I wrote about the woefully underappreciated Big Star. Another act that fits that description is XTC, although they certainly lasted a lot longer and got much more attention than Big Star ever did. But the XTC story is full of ups, downs and controversies as the band navigated a 34-year career. 

Formed in 1972 in Swindon, England by guitarist Andy Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding, the band was originally known as Star Park, then the Helium Kidz. They went through a glam phase before rebranding in 1975 as XTC. They cut their hair and started writing punchy, short songs and were lumped into the punk/new wave scene in the U.K., although they chafed at both labels. Their first album, White Music, came out in January 1978 and a followup, Go 2, was released in October of that year. 

Adding guitarist Dave Gregory after their keyboardist left, the band recorded Drums and Wires with producer Steve Lillywhite and released Drums and Wires in August 1979. The first single, "Making Plans for Nigel," had a big guitar and drums sound that was very "new wavy" and got attention across the pond. It was a big hit on the radio in Toronto, where I was a young twerp at the time; both me and my little brother loved it. The song ended up hitting #12 on the Canadian singles chart and hit #17 in the U.K. The group's next album, 1980's Black Sea, also did well, with "Generals and Majors" getting a lot of airplay; the album hit #41 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S.

XTC did an extensive stadium tour opening for the Police and Partridge was struggling with mental problems as a result. For their next project, Partridge decided to create a more complex album that would result in less pressure to tour. English Settlement came out in February 1982 and its lead single "Senses Working Overtime" was an immediate hit. The album was a double LP in the U.K. but only released as a single LP in other territories including the U.S. 

The Partridge-penned "Senses Working Overtime" became the highest charting single XTC ever had in the UK, reaching #10 as the album hit #5. The hook was based on Manfred Mann's 1964 song "5-4-3-2-1." It was a lot different than the band's previous singles, opting for a more acoustic, poppier direction. It's just a brilliant, sunny joy ride of a song that never fails to get yer head bobbing; a real toe-tapper, as the olds say.

"And all the world is football-shaped/It's just for me to kick in space/And I can see, hear, smell, touch, taste/And I've got one, two, three, four, five/Senses working overtime."

Of course, it's not all sunshine and moonbeams. Ever the snarky lyricist, Partridge draws a distinction between the "innocents" and the "guilty ones," who he says can "all sleep safely" early in the song. Later, he sings the innocents "can all live slowly" while the guilty ones "can all die slowly." Partridge said in an interview that he wrote the song about how all five senses are working overtime taking life in, and it's too much. He stumbled on a medieval-sounding chord and then wrote the song so the person is struggling with life's woes but still in wonderment at the world around him.

Unfortunately, XTC was unable to capitalize on the popularity of the single and album. The band had scheduled its first headlining tour but Partridge's stage fright caused an English tour to be canceled and later, the same happened with the U.S. tour. The cancellation left the band in debt, at which point they realized their manager had been ripping them off, taking loans from Virgin Records and borrowing against XTC's royalties. The band's inability to tour didn't help matters and ultimately, they never saw any publishing royalties over the course of their 20-year contract with Virgin.

After Partridge took time off to recover, the band became a studio-only entity and resumed making albums. They scored some radio and video hits over the years and for 1989's Oranges & Lemons, they did an acoustic U.S. radio tour and even played "King for a Day" on Late Night With David Letterman, their first performance in front of a live audience in seven years. There were only three more albums released over the next 11 years and the band partnership remained intact from a business perspective, but Partridge and Moulding went their separate ways as musical partners. Moulding and drummer Terry Chambers released an EP in 2017 under the name TC&I and played a couple of shows. 

XTC had a long, strange trip, but thankfully, they left behind plenty of great music to remember them by.