There are very few people who I would find inspiring. It's a very contemplative, very meditative music, but I think it's also a very personal, very pictorial thing. It's you sitting down with a scrapbook or a picture book on your own. It's obviously not something you do with 15,000 other neo-Nazis punching the air in a stadium. On the face of it, Budd and Partridge are improbable partners.
Stylistic contrasts are just as evident.
While XTC records have shown flashes of an introspective, instrumental side of Partridge, Through the Hill does seem weighted more towards Budd's signature sound. Partridge's guitar echoes the dominant resonance of the piano. At the same time it isn't really the inner turmoil of my dark closet. Andy is there turning the lights on, while I have a tendency to dim things down. Frankly, these were fairly naked duets.