This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, XTC should be blushing from ear to ear these days.
Both England’s Futureheads and Scotland’s Dogs Die in Hot Cars spend most of their debut discs blatantly raiding Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding’s back catalogue. But at least they divide up the spoils quite fairly. The Futureheads make off with the spiky guitar licks, twitchy new wave grooves and yelpy vocals of XTC’s first four albums.
Dogs Die, meanwhile, lay claim to the janglier, rootsier twee-pop of later XTC (they even have a song called Apples And Oranges), with a dash of Talking Heads’ hip-swivelling ethno-grooviness and quirky alienation for good measure. Admittedly, both of them pull it off rather handily and engagingly. But as catchy as they are, it’s tough to listen to these discs without ending up in a lengthy and unsatisfying game of Name that XTC Tune.
