The original album as it appeared back in 1986 (it sure doesn't sound like an 80s album) does not include Dear God which was actually a B-side to the Grass single. Dear God became a college radio hit in the U.S. and that resulted in it being included in the U.S. album at the expense of Mermaid Smiled. The initial UK and US CD releases reflect this difference, with the Gold Ultradisc following the latter's track listing. It is only after remastering, that the latest releases (Japanese paper sleeve and this one) contain both songs with Dear God being tagged on at the end (the Japanese paper sleeve edition does not list the track). Sequence-wise, I prefer the latest incarnation as it offers the best of both worlds and generally sound better after the remastering (the Gold CD stills sounds superior but lacks Mermaid Smiled).

XTC play quirky and intelligent pop with shades of Squeeze and the Beatles. Early XTC sounded a little different, having more punk and new wave elements in them. The best albums pre-Skylarking include Black Sea and Drums & Wires. Notable post-Skylarking releases include Oranges & Lemons and their last studio album Wasp Star (Apple Venus Vol. 2). Skylarking stands out from all their other albums in that it follows a concept - pastoral meditation on the cycle of life and death. It is quite likely that this is down largely to Todd Rundgren's production and vision. If you study his other work (including his own albums) as well as other artistes he has produced (prime example being Hall & Oates' War Babies), you will see that unity and flow are the twin pillars of his production technique. This however should not detract from the writing skills of Partridge and Moulding, which turn up many gems here including Grass, Ballet For A Rainy Day and Dear God. Of course, there was the inevitable clash of egos between Partridge and Rundgren (an example being Partridge's annoyance that Rundgren chose almost, if not all of Moulding's offerings for the album - other XTC albums feature about 3 songs from Moulding; Skylarking has 5).

Reluctant concept album? XTC's Sgt. Pepper? Whatever the label, this is one fine album that has to be listened to from start to finish and then back again. It is another one of those 'cyclical' albums that deserve a wider audience, much like Love's Forever Changes and The Byrd's Notorious Byrd Brothers.


"Skylarking": The Holy Grail of Pop Music   May 24, 2002
Gavin B. (St. Louis MO)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

XTC has always forged an idosyncratic career path which has delighted their fans and left others puzzled. There is a perception that the band is essentially a studio creation of a group of gifted reclusive musicians who refuse to tour because they can't cut it as a live band. In the early 90s I saw Aimee Mann coax the nortoriously stage phobic Andy Partridge out to play a few songs and he turned out to be a riveting performer as he blazed through a half a dozen XTC songs and blew the roof off the joint. Still XTC refuses to tour in support of their releases and leaving them with a hand full of devotees who count their XTC albums among their most precious possessions. "Skylarking" is the Holy Grail of lost treasures of 1980s music. I've heard a lot of comparisons to "Sgt. Peppers", but folks, this is better than the Beatles tour de force. "Skylarking" is as close to high art as pop music will ever get.

"Skylarking" is a song cycle which depicts a young man's rite of passage through the seasons of love into heartbreak and eventually disillusionment. Todd Rundgren is the cement that keeps "Skylarking" from imploding under the weight of it's big ideas. Todd's studio brilliance begs the question of why he was never able to jump start his own career. The remastering has added even more clarity to what was a "crisp as an autumn morning" original master. Todd's separtion of the vocal tracking rivals some of Brian Wilson's most inspired harmony mixes of the "Pet Sounds/Smiley Smile" era. There are charming locaction sounds like chirping crickets and singing birds that capture the esessence of XTC's eccentric pantheistic vision. If you are reading this review, you are probably among the converted. If there was any justice in this world, "Skylarking" would be grounds enough for XTC to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I have a feeling Andy and Colin could care less, but I do.


One of the great albums of our time!   March 12, 2005
M J Heilbron Jr. (Long Beach, CA United States)
17 out of 22 found this review helpful

This, simply put, is a masterpiece. It is an album that feels like a single, organic whole, yet each song is a vital, essential piece. Start to finish, the songs one after another are a delight; continually surprising...
...and they haven't aged a millisecond. This thing sounds as great as it did almost 20 years ago!
I used the word "organic" intentionally, as there's sort of a thematic link between many of the songs...lyrical as well as in tone.
Acoustic instruments blended with synthetic insect noises and real (?) bird chirping lead one song into another.
Song titles include "Summer's Cauldron", "Season Cycle", "Ballet for a Rainy Day", "1000 Umbrellas".
XTC's sense of humor pops up here and there, especially with the giggle, "That's Really Super, Supergirl",
Midway through the album, the single "Earn Enough For Us" just explodes from your speakers/headphones. It's a great, simple song, and shows off the band's ability to go loud and uptempo.
"The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" is a finger-snapping jaunty tune that reminds me of the album Joe Jackson did AFTER his breakthrough, "Night and Day", called "Body and Soul". I recommend searching that one out if you particularly enjoy this song.
The album closer has to go on the list of the most dramatic and exhilarating pop songs ever. Not shying away from controversy, "Dear God" begins as a child "reads" a letter to God, questioning his presence.
Then Andy Partridge comes in, and he performs the song as if it's a dramatic scene in a stage play. Listen to his rage and frustration build through the verses, the band creating this ever-increasing wall of sound behind him, to the point where you can barely stand to listen...you feel despair, loss of hope, everything...
...until the shattering climax.
And to those who may be offended...you haven't listened to it yet. You won't be offended if you check it out. He may be explaining his doubt about God, but he's speaking directly to Him, isn't he?
I'm not religious at all, and I still think this is one of the more spectacular singles ever recorded...and a tremendous finale to one of the great albums of our time.


XTC Skylarking GOOD ALBUM   March 21, 2005
joe larkin (pa)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Skylarking, XTC had traveled from the urban to the rustic. A concept album about an English summer day, Skylarking sounds like the warm, luscious post-Beatles masterpiece Paul McCartney never made. Goaded by tyrannical producer Todd Rundgren, a fellow Beatles fanatic, XTC slipped the bounds of current trends once and for all. Alive with invention and impossibly sensual, the album is pure rock & roll Wordsworth. The lively heresy "Dear God," a fluke college-market hit, didn't make Skylarking a major success, but it did prompt unusual interest in its successor. Oranges and Lemons, from 1989, reimagined Sgt. Pepper's on XTC's home ground, England's mystical West Country. Oranges was Skylarking with more psychedelic studio effects, and it includes "Pink Thing," singer Andy Partridge's love song to his penis. The XTC career arc - from gawky new-wavers to bumpkin savants to special-reserve songwriters for the listening cognoscenti


ARGUABLY the best.....   December 1, 2004
C. Cooper (Brooklyn, NY United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Arguably, this is XTC's best. XTC has used Andy Partridge's "strictly studio" mentality quite to their advantage--listen to the way "Summer's Cauldron" and "Grass" bleed right into one another, as well as "Ballet for a Rainy Day" and "1000 Umbrellas." This is really an album that works as a whole and still allows us to enjoy the songs individually. I'm really torn between this album and The Big Express--although, there really is no sense in arguing over which XTC album is the best....