Task: Sentiment Analysis
Input (English): 2 1/2 stars-- ok, but a bit overproduced. . "Nonsuch" is one of those records that I think was doomed to failure-- having constructed (with a little help from Todd Rundgren) a thematic song cycle ("Skylarking") and an album of perhaps the best pop music in two decades ("Oranges & Lemons"), the bar was set pretty high for XTC, and in an attempt to reach it, they seemed to have overreached a bit.  It's not that the album is bad per se, it's just so carefully arranged and produced to have lost the edge that made its predecessors so great.    The band seems to have distilled themselves down to midtempo numbers, occasionally finding a bit of a driving electric sound (opener "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead"), but largely sticking to a quieter, balladry style, often primarily piano driven.  Sometimes it works out quite nicely, the lovely, chirping staccato guitars on "Humble Daisy" provide ample support for a simply fantastic lead vocal by Andy Partridge, and certainly the lilting off-rhythm of "Then She Appeared" is downright captivating, but more likely than not, the pieces end up blending one into another as pretty much unmemorable pop songs that are inoffensive and ok but just not attention getting (Colin Moulding's "My Bird Performs", Partridge's "The Disappointed").  To cap things off, the album stretches over an hour long, and by the end of the record, even the more intriguing material ("The Ugly Underneath") seems to blend in with the rest.    It's tough though, becaue none of it is particularly bad, and in fact, all sorts of neat stuff is going on throughout-- great three part harmonies (Brian Wilson style with a falsetto over the top) catch the ear on "Dear Madam Barnum", "Wrapped in Grey" twists and turns every which way, "War Dance" features an intriguing clarinet opening that leads into a set of reeds providing support for Moulding's venomous lyrics... it goes on.  In fact, with such detailed arrangements, everything's guaranteed to be interesting in some regard, but what it lacks is that feeling of spontaneity and energy.  One nice thing is that at least with this reissue and its remastered sound, you can make out the subtleties of the record nicely.    Bottom line, there's a lot better by XTC-- "Nonsuch" is an ok record, but they've done a whole lot more
Output (English): NEG