Skylarking

XTC

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: October 27, 1986
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Geffen Records
• ASIN: B000000OQ3
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,385 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Summer's Cauldron

2. Grass

3. Meeting Place

4. That's Really Super, Supergirl

5. Ballet for a Rainy Day

6. 1000 Umbrellas

7. Season Cycle

8. Earn Enough for Us

9. Big Day

10. Another Satellite

11. Man Who Sailed Around His Soul

12. Dear God

13. Dying

14. Sacrificial Bonfire

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

XTC's frothily Beatle-esque concept album about birth, death, and the passing of the seasons is hardly soft-headed: Its melodic inventiveness and lush orchestrations support bitterness ("That's Really Super, Supergirl"), displacement ("The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul"), and agnostic tirade ("Dear God") as often as it does the pleasures of sun and shower. The greatest achievement of XTC's post-Drums and Wires career, Skylarking is a must-have for the first days of spring. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous, June 3, 2000

By	Rich Bunnell (Milpitas, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This was my first real XTC album (as is the case for many, many people) and when I first put it in, I thought "God....these songs are BORING." I only liked "Dear God" and "Earn Enough For Us," both of which were on their "Upsy Daisy" hits collection, which I played instead. Months later, however, I put in the album for another listen, and it all just....HIT ME. ALL of it. I don't care for "1000 Umbrellas" too much, but every other song is a gorgeous, Todd Rundgren-produced masterwork. My favorites are "The Meeting Place," "Sacrificial Bonfire," "Season Cycle," and the two that I mentioned earlier, but it's pretty much all great. XTC mastered the studio sound here and would continue to do so for the next several albums, though the only time they really hit this high again is on the brilliant "Chips From The Chocolate Fireball" album that they recorded as the Dukes. I have nothing more to say-- I know that by adding a 5-star review I'm just throwing another good opinion into the mush and no one will read this, but the album deserves it, darnit.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Perfect" XTC Album, March 19, 2002

By	el_abrotsky "el_abrotsky" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

Don't let the title mislead you. I do not believe that this is the best XTC album (on most days I'd give that nod to "English Settlement"), but, when you look at the sound, the production quality; the complete absence of flaw in "Skylarking"... you cannot help but call it anything put "perfect".

As much as I couldn't really care less about the whole birth to death concept, it does work insanely well here, if for nothing else then to properly place the tracks from beginning to end. Everything just seems to go where it should. "Summer's Cauldron" is the only song that can really start off this album, in my opinion. "Sacrificial Bonfire" is the only one that could truly finish it off. "1000 Umbrellas" is the only song that could follow "Ballet For A Rainy Day", which, in turn, is the only one that I'd imagine ever following "That's Really Super, Supergirl" (probably the best back-to-back-to-back tracks in any album ever).

The guitar, piano, and orchestral pieces are just so well-recorded or well-produced (perhaps both) here to a point where they both just reach inside and grab your feelings by the throat. Couple this with the lyrics which are among XTC's finest.

This album has a mood to it that just paints the perfect picture of the romantic wuss of a man... trying his best to love but always ending up on the wrong end of things. I can really identify with this and I find myself using this record rather often as a support album for my obsessive antics. It works very well as such for all you hopeless romantics listening.

Not all the songs are absolutely amazing. "Big Day" gets on my nerves. "Dying" is annoying. Actually, now that I think of it... Colin Moulding doesn't really have any big winners except for "Grass" on this album. But on the other hand you have Andy Partridge's tear-inducingly beautiful and catchy as all heck ("Season Cycle" will burrow into your head and live there for weeks if you let it) tracks at every corner.

I could rant all day about this album and its very hard for me to resist that. While not being my favorite (that honor goes to "Villains" by The Verve Pipe), its definitely in my all-time top 10 and has an indescribable effect on the human soul. Buy it, and enjoy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-Constructed Baroque Pop, January 16, 2002

By	Scott McFarland (Manassas, VA United States) - See all my reviews

Todd Rundgren managed to infuriate the band during the recording of this LP, but he did a great job helping them to pick and sequence their material, and to frame it sound-wise and mix it into a beautiful record.

The songs are strong. At least one of Partridge's overly wordy and effete clunkers creeps ("Supergirl") and "Season Cycle" is overly derivative (of the Beach Boys). But the rest of the material is well worth a spin. And Todd the Godd retains his ability to knock out wonderful-sounding LPs (file this one next to Patti Smith's "Wave" and the Psychedelic Furs' "Forever Now").

In the end the arrangements mix strings, an effective rhythm section (Prairie Prince does the drumming), guitars, idiosynchratic vocals, and various other effects into a satisfying stew not unlike something the Beatles might have come up with had they been working together during the late 80's.