After wowing fans with last year's "Apple Venus Volume 1" record, legendary British pop act XTC has put the finishing touches on a second collection culled from the same sessions, titled "Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2)," due out on May 23.

Songs and material for both albums were recorded when XTC's Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding headed back into a studio after settling a seven-year dispute with the group's previous label, Virgin Records.

Originally intended as a double album project, XTC eventually opted to keep the electric material off the first "Apple Venus" volume, which contains mostly acoustic and symphonic-based songs.

When it came time to release the plugged-in tracks, the band decided that the new album needed a more distinctive title than "Volume 2," and Partridge says that he found inspiration in an Aztec tome.

We were thinking we need to make a fresh start to some extent," Partridge said. "We needed something shorter and

more electric sounding. We were mixing the album and in a bit of a panic because we did not have a title.

I had bought a book about Aztec art, and there was the phrase 'wasp star,' and it's actually the Aztec phrase for the planet Venus, and I thought, 'Oh, that's lovely.' Wasp star is a great pair of words.

I'm The Man Who Murdered Love" is the first single from XTC's "Wasp Star," and the track will be released to alternative and college radio in the next few weeks.