Complicated Game: Inside the Songs of XTC

“I LIKE ACCIDENTS. I LIKE TO PUT MYSELF IN THE WAY OF MUSICAL HARM. I LIKE BEING AT THE WHEEL OF THAT MUSICAL CAR, AND AIMING IT AT THE WALL, JUST TO SEE WHAT SHAPE THE CAR’S GOING TO COME OUT. IT MIGHT COME OUT AN INTERESTING SHAPE THAT WOULD HAVE TAKEN ME FOREVER TO DECIDE ON OTHERWISE.” Andy Partridge

Complicated Game offers unique insight into the work of XTC founder Andy Partridge, one of Britain’s most original and influential songwriters. It is also an unprecedentedly revealing and instructive guide to how songs and records are made. Developed from a series of interviews conducted over many months, it explores in detail some thirty of Partridge’s songs—including such well-known singles as ‘Senses Working Overtime’ and the controversial ‘Dear God’—from throughout XTC’s thirty-year career, as well as an extensive interview dedicated solely to the art and craft of songwriting.

While the interviews cast new light on the writing of lyrics, the construction of melodies and arrangements, the process of recording, and the workings of the music industry, they are also filled with anecdotes about Partridge, his XTC bandmates, and their adventures around the world— all told with the songwriter’s legendary humour.

This fascinating book also includes pages from Partridge’s songwriting notebooks and reproductions of his original artwork designs; a guided tour of his hometown of Swindon; and a foreword by Steven Wilson, the guitarist, songwriter, and record producer best known as the founder and leader of Porcupine Tree.