Skylarking

Have revisited Skylarking for the first time for several years (upgrading music to iPod generation)I am moved to write my first ever Amazon review.

Skylarking it certainly a contendor for "greatest album ever written award". Lyrically perfect - gorgeous vignettes of everyday life devoid of any cynicism. Musically lovely as well - almost pastoral, so subtle, superbly evokes the mood of the lyrics.

Andy Partridge in fine voice - is there a more distinctive voice in rock and pop? And two fine songwriters - Colin Moulding's contributions may be fewer than Andy's but I have alway felt he has the songwriting edge. Anyone who wrote Making Plans for Nigel and Majors & Generals deserves instant induction in a music Hall of Fame.

Overall - I don't think I have ever been as moved by listening to an album as I was when I replayed this last month. No other band gets close to XTC for wearing their heart on their sleeve.

So go on world, buy it now....

There's a lot of hyperbole about how wonderful this album is on these pages and id just like to concur with every thing that's been written., apart from the guy wittering on about the sound. All I can say to that is it sounds fine to me. This is an incredible album and if some dastardly person ever held a white hot hat pin to my eyeball and demanded I name the best XTC album I'd probably plump for this one.....or maybe "English Settlement", any way this is one of the great pop albums of all time. The fact it sold so poorly is a folly so preposterous it would take Stephen Hawking to get his head round it.
The interesting thing about "Skylarking" is that it was recorded in a fractious atmosphere with Andy Partridge and producer Todd Rundgren getting on about as well as a mongoose and a snake. Perfectionist Partridge found Rundgrens more spontaneous recording methods irksome and this led to a major fall out with Colin Moulding as well . That the result is an album as musically rich and erudite as "Skylarking " suggests more bands should record their music in an environment of implacable hostility.
Opener "Summers Cauldron" ushers in on a miasmic mix of birdsong, chirruping crickets and wobbling keyboards segueing into "Grass" which features luxurious exotic textured keyboards and could be a sly nod to drug use or the salacious ditty it appears to be. Mouldings "Meeting Place" starts with ominous clanking industrial noises, utilised because the band didn't have a drummer at the time and is a sublime atmospheric pop song. The way the melody dips at the end of each line is like that hollowed out stomach feeling you get on a roller coaster. The orchestral stomper "Ballet for a Rainy Day" revels in its vertiginous string arrangement, as indeed does "! 000 Umbrellas" a witty break up song. "Season Cycle" asks big questions about nature and omnipotence in a sparkling pop nugget while the vivacious "Earn enough for us" decries the daily grind and uncertainty that family life can bring in a spree of exuberant guitar." Big Day" is a mournful take on a wedding day but "Another Satellite" is a wonderful slightly queasy song with a heartbreaking middle eight and acute personal lyrics. "Mermaid Smiled" enters jazzier waters with twinkling sun dappled percussion. The style is switched again for "The Man Who Sailed around His Soul" which features a doo wop finger clicking rhythm and chunky double bass. The chilly mordant "Dying" is a hushed lament on age and mortality and sees Moulding proclaiming "I don't want to die like you" to the unfortunate subject of the song. More lush orchestration features on "Sacrificial Bonfire" a dramatic and stately conclusion to this album originally.
However a new track has been added since it's re-issue in 2001 and praises the lord, pun very much intended it's the fantastic "Dear God" Partridges acidic tirade against the existence of a supposed divine being who allows so much pain and misery in his name. The opening verse is sung by a young girl before Partridge enters the fray getting increasingly more vexatious until his proclamation that "I can't believe in you"
If god does exist than I'd like to thank him very much for the existence of this album, if he doesn't, and I'm with Andy Partridge on that one, then I'll just thank anyone involved with this superb album. Cheers

'Skylarking' on release reached the heady chart position of No 90!!! Never trust public taste, this was XTC's 'Seargeant Pepper' in magnificent technicolour, so good that the wise men from Swindon could afford to omit 'Dear God' on it's original issue.

The concept of the record traces the madness of an English summer's day from daybreak in 'Summer's Cauldron' with the sound of buzzing flies and twittering birds, seguing into the classic hit single (THAT NEVER WAS) 'Grass' and Barratesque childlike introspections on the follow-up 'The Meeting Place', right through to the final significance of 'Sacrificial Bonfire' with it's pagan-like overview of 'Burn out, bring in the new'; the sound of a bonfire being lit increasing the drama and suspense before the final chorus comes in. Side two is even better with the jazzy 'Prisoner' sound of 'The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul', which was performed in style on The Tube's tribute to said programme.

Todd Rundgren, producer and Andy... produced a masterpiece I don't XTC have ever bettered. That's saying something!