Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	75/100 ^[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[2]
NME	(7/10) ^[3]
Pitchfork	(8.0/10) ^[4]
PopMatters	(9/10) ^[5]
Q	^[6]
Robert Christgau	^[7]
Rolling Stone	^[8]

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) is the fourteenth and final studio album by the English band XTC, released on Cooking Vinyl/Idea Records on 23 May 2000. It is the second volume of the Apple Venus set and reached the UK Top 40 albums chart.

At this point, guitarist and singer Andy Partridge and bassist and singer Colin Moulding were the only two band members left. The duo therefore utilised session musicians on every track to fill in the musical elements that they were incapable of performing themselves. Partridge's daughter Holly made her singing debut on record singing backup vocals in the song "Playground"; she now sings and plays guitar in the English pop-rock group The SheBeats.

In 2002 XTC released an instrumental version of the album entitled Waspstrumental.

The song "Stupidly Happy" has been featured in an episode of the British teenage drama Skins, and in 2011 it was used in an advertisement for DFS.

Colin Moulding's songs were all older material presented for previous albums but rejected due to space or other considerations. "Standing In For Joe" was originally written for aborted 'Bubblegum' album project in the early 1990s and "In Another Life" was originally demoed for Oranges & Lemons.

Track listing

UK CD: COOKCD 194

All tracks written by Andy Partridge, except where noted.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Playground"		4:17
2.	"Stupidly Happy"		4:13
3.	"In Another Life"	Colin Moulding	3:35
4.	"My Brown Guitar"		3:51
5.	"Boarded Up"	Moulding	3:23
6.	"I'm the Man Who Murdered Love"		3:44
7.	"We're All Light"		4:39
8.	"Standing in for Joe"	Moulding	3:42
9.	"Wounded Horse"		4:11
10.	"You and the Clouds Will Still be Beautiful"		4:18
11.	"Church of Women"		5:06
12.	"The Wheel and the Maypole"		5:55

Personnel

Colin Moulding – vocals, bass guitar, harmonica on "In Another Life", guitar on "Boarded Up"
Andy Partridge – vocals, guitar

with:

Caroline Dale – cello
Nick Davis – keyboards
Simon Gardner – flugelhorn
Patrick Kiernan – violin
Peter Lale – viola
Holly Partridge – backing vocals on "Playground"
Prairie Prince – drums (2, 3, 4, 12)
Chuck Sabo – drums (1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
Kate St. John – oboe
Matt Vaughn – programming
Gavin Wright – violin

Production

Haydn Bendall – recording engineering
Nick Davis – producer, mixing, recording engineering
Simon Dawson – mix engineer
Alan Douglas – recording engineering
Barry Hammond – recording engineering
Bob Ludwig – mastering
Leonard B. Johnson - A&R Coordination

Chart performance

Chart	Peak position
UK Albums Chart ^[9]	40
Billboard 200 ^[10]	108

References

↑ "XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus, Volume 2)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". NME. IPC Media. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ Hooker, Zach. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Pitchfork. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ Schabe, Patrick. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". PopMatters. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ Aizlewood, John. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Q. Bauer Media Group. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ Christgau, Robert. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Robert Christgau. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ Moon, Tom. "Review: XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. Archived from the original on 11 April 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ "XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Chart Stats. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
↑ "XTC - Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)". Billboard 200. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 16 June 2011.

XTC

Andy Partridge Colin Moulding Barry Andrews Terry Chambers Dave Gregory

Studio albums	White Music Go 2 Drums and Wires Black Sea English Settlement Mummer The Big Express 25 O'Clock Skylarking Psonic Psunspot Oranges & Lemons Nonsuch Apple Venus Volume 1 Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)

EPs	3D - EP

Compilation albums	Waxworks: Some Singles 1977–1982 Beeswax: Some B-Sides 1977–1982 The Compact XTC Chips from the Chocolate Fireball Explode Together: The Dub Experiments 78-80 Rag and Bone Buffet: Rare Cuts and Leftovers Drums and Wireless: BBC Radio Sessions 77–89 Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977–92 Upsy Daisy Assortment Transistor Blast: The Best of the BBC Sessions

Box sets	Coat of Many Cupboards Apple Box

Demos Remixes	Homespun Homegrown Instruvenus Waspstrumental

Singles	"Statue of Liberty" "Life Begins at the Hop" "Making Plans for Nigel" "Senses Working Overtime" "Wonderland" "Dear God" "Mayor of Simpleton" "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead"

Related articles	Discography The Dukes of Stratosphear Urgh! A Music War A Testimonial Dinner: The Songs of XTC Fuzzy Warbles Take Away / The Lure of Salvage

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