Description XTC - White Music (Vinyl, 1982, Epic PE 38153). The 1982 reissue of XTC's 1978 debut album. XTC can be tough to take in large doses. Their relentless desire to always be different can have mixed results. But back when this came out, it was very different and new-sounding, in ways considered 100% positive, more or less, at the time.. Clearly not punk . . . and far, really, from new wave. But certainly not progressive rock either. I've heard the term "art pop" used to describe XTC, and I've adopted it here to describe the genre of this album. It comes the closest I think. White Music does have some straightforwardly good songs, especially "This Is Pop" and "Radios In Motion." There is a cover of Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" which I can best describe as some sort of warped reggae-ska . . . perhaps. It's helpful to remember that this is very early on for the band, and a lot of what made their music really good later on simply isn't present yet on this record. But their excellent musicianship and knack for songwriting are evident here. Everything starts somewhere and XTC starts here (technically 3D EP (also for sale in another listing) came absolutely first, but this is all of the same time and stage of development. There is a simple non-gatefold jacket and a generic white inner sleeve (not pictured). The jacket is in excellent shape for a piece of cardboard almost 40 years old. There is some spine and corner wear but not much. The record sounds great, except for a small skip in "Radios In Motion." The bar code is 0 7464-38153-1. For some reason Ebay won't accept it in the UPC Code field above.