Drums and Wires

Moulding wanted to drop the band's quirky nonsense and write more straight-ahead pop. The album was recorded at the newly built Town House studio in London with producer Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham, and it named itself for the emphasis on guitars and big drums. It was the first record with Gregory, who had replaced Barry Andrews. Eight of the twelve songs are Partridge's and four are Moulding's. The sleeve, designed by Partridge and drawn up by Jill Mumford, turns the XTC logo into a face.

It reached number 176 on the Billboard 200, their first album to chart in the US. Pitchfork ranked it at 38 on its 2004 list of the best albums of the 1970s, and its writer Chris Dahlen called it a "triple-jointed sock hop" that out-charms its contemporaries. Early UK copies came with a bonus single of Chain of Command and Limelight.