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Critic's Review
Mark Deming, All Music Guide
Psonic Psunspot, XTC's second go-round as their psychedelic alter egos the Dukes of Stratosphear, sounds a bit more like an XTC record than their previous experiment in the lysergic, the 25 O'Clock, though that isn't a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. The songs are a shade more concise, the real flights into the aural wilderness are generally limited to the intros, outros, and occasional between-song bit of business, and both Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding (trading here as, respectively, Sir John Johns and the Red Curtain) allow their traditional musical personalities to shine through more clearly (besides, Partridge sings like Partridge at all times). But if many of these cuts sound like XTC tunes, they're great XTC tunes; "Vanishing Girl" is one of Moulding's best pure pop songs, and "You're a Good Man Albert Brown" at once gives Sgt. Pepper what for and works as a sequel to "Respectable Street." And when the Dukes do let their freak flag fly, the results are lots of fun, especially the Syd Barrett parody "Have You Seen Jackie?" and the propulsive "You're My Drug." Like wow, man.
