Black Sea

Black Sea is the fourth studio album by the English band XTC, released on 12 September 1980. It spawned five singles—"Generals and Majors" (released 9 August 1980 and reached No. 32 on the UK singles chart and No. 104 on the Billboard Pop chart), "Towers of London" (released 10 October 1980 and reached No. 31 on the UK singles chart), "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" (released 5 December 1980 and reached No. 16 on the UK singles chart), "Love at First Sight" (released 23 January 1981 in Canada only) and a re-recording of "Respectable Street" (released 13 March 1981). The album reached No. 16 on the UK album chart, No. 41 on the Billboard U.S. album chart and No. 1 on the New Zealand album chart. Early copies of the album came with the sleeve enclosed in a lime-green paper bag. There was an additional version that came packaged in a black plastic bag with the XTC logo in silver printed on one side. The band's name is hidden in the cover artwork. The seagull, ship's mast and moon spell out XTC. Virgin media mogul Richard Branson appeared in the "Generals and Majors" video.