Nonsuch (album)
| Nonsuch | ||||
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| Studio album by XTC | ||||
| Released | 27 April 1992 | |||
| Recorded | July–October 1991 | |||
| Studio | Chipping Norton Recording Studios, Oxfordshire, England | |||
| Length | 63:29 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Producer | Gus Dudgeon | |||
| XTC chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Nonsuch | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Q |  |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Select | 4/5 |
Nonsuch (styled as NONSVCH.) is the twelfth studio album by the English band XTC, released on 27 April 1992. In a 1992 MTV interview, Andy Partridge said that he had selected the name of the album after encountering a drawing of Nonsuch Palace and, thinking that the archaic word "Nonsuch" meant "does not exist" rather than, as he later learned, "unique". The album title may have derived from a couplet in the lyrics of the final song of Oranges and Lemons (their previous studio album) "Chalkhills and Children":
I'm skating over thin ice
while some nonesuch net holds me aloft
The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. "The Disappointed" was nominated for an Ivor Novello award. The album reached No. 1 on the Rolling Stone College album chart and No. 97 on the Billboard album chart in the U.S. It was the band's second consecutive Top 30 success on the UK album chart, reaching 28.
The album produced two singles: "The Disappointed", which reached No. 33 on the UK singles chart, and "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead", which reached No. 71. The band also wanted to release "Wrapped In Grey" as a single, but despite filming a video the release was vetoed by Virgin, prompting the band to go on strike.
Two promotional videos were made. A UK-only video for "The Disappointed" (the band also did a lip-sync performance of this song on Pebble Mill at One) and "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead," which received much airplay on MTV that summer.
The band performed "Books Are Burning" live with drummer Dave Mattacks on The Late Show on BBC-TV in April 1992.
The album cover is a picture of Nonsuch Palace in Surrey, from the book A Short History of Ewell and Nonsuch, by Cloudesley S. Willis. The palace no longer exists, but its former grounds included the present-day Nonsuch Park between Ewell and Cheam.
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