XTC - Skylarking
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Free Music Notes for Skylarking
Free Music Review: Dear God, Skylarking is XTC's best album
Hit: 4 Stars
Somewhere in between The Beatles/Brian Wilson and Jellyfish, somewhere in between punchy power-pop and psychadelic alter-egos Dukes Of Stratosphear, is XTC's finest work 'Skylarking'. The songwriting duo of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding would make Lennon/McCartney proud, mixing sweet melodies, catchy guitar-driven hooks, with a twinge of late 60's psychadelia. The production on this album is masterful, a balance between breezy multicoloured harmonies, slick Brian Wilson-type lushness, and Nuggets era guitar-chimes. XTC demonstrates musical scope in latter part of the album, dabbling with lounge-jazz-orchestral soundscapes. With an effortless ear for melody, one can see why side-project the Dukes Of Stratosphear was created. In a decade where mediocrity dominated the music scene, 'Skylarking' is a jewel of an album, each track a sparkling gem.Free Music Review: Practically Perfect
Hit: 5 Stars
I can scarcely think of a more perfect album than "Skylarking".A song cycle of dazzling surety and shimmering imagery, XTC's masterpiece blew in like a summer wind in 1987, and to those who discovered it then, will always evoke some memory of that time, as if it were the summer love that got away; it has that kind of magic. Perfectly starting with chirping crickets and a mellow heatwave synth, "Summer's Cauldron" begins things. It is summer in music; just that. "Grass" continues the summer love affair, as Andy Partridge wryly sings of "things we used to do on grass". This sunny love continues with "Meeting Place", and then there is rain. First, as caressing as the summer sun in the lovely, lilting "Ballet For A Rainy Day', but next comes the deluge of "1000 Umbrellas". This is not weather as metaphor, it's simply the imagery of the natural, and it's the cruelty of love reflected in nature that is the simple core of these first songs. These reflect the organic beginnings of love, and Partridge and company weave them together so effortlessly, they seem to have always been there. "Season Cycle" only reinforces this. Then brilliantly the tone changes as the structure of modern life imposes itself on this garden. "Earn Enough For Us" kick starts this change with its bracing opening, and goes on to create a modern prayer of hope "at home, at work, and on the bus" that this now harried man in love can become the work-a-day husband he thinks he should be. The song's fear tinged optimism is real and endearing. Marriage follows with "Big Day", but then love begins to wane, however, and suffocation and sarcasm suffuse "Another Satellite". "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" is a jazzy rondelay of a man seeking freedom and then all of a sudden we're faced with God. "Dear God", of course, doesn't neatly fit in to this cycle; or does it? The very humanness that causes us to struggle with our inner demons in relationships translates quite naturally to an antipathy towards our maker. The rage of impotence in the face of cruelty, natural or unnatural, is the same rage, whether directed towards a failed love, or what we perceive as a failed God. Even without any cyclical connection, "Dear God" stands as an honest, heartwrenching rant that even a Christian, such as myself, can empathize with; anger at what we don't understand. "Dying" and "Sacrificial Bonfire" offer resignation to the fate of all nature and close "Skylarking" with a strange peace. Whether they realized it or not, XTC created something very special, and very rare with "Skylarking"; a complete, compelling and beautiful portrait of the human condition, warts and all. Once heard, you will never forget it.Free Music Review: One of those albums...
Hit: 5 Stars
.. which perfectly conjur up a time and a place. For me, it's travelling from Waterloo to Godalming one Summer in the late 1980s, but that's just me.
I can't remember when I first heard this album, but I'm listening to it again at the moment, and it really is rather good.
Favourites for me are 'The Man who Sailed Around His Soul', Mermaid Smiled' and 'maybe best of all, 'Dying'.
My copy omits 'Dear God'.
Free Music Review: I can't say anymore
Hit: 5 Stars
This is simply one of the best albums made in the past 60 years since the advent of Rock and Roll. One of the best ablums of the 20th Century. I'm not kissing up here. Free Music Review: Spellbinding
Hit: 5 Stars
'Summer's Cauldron' drifts into view with washes of barely audible, pleasent sound, before Andy Partridge's powerful vocals jolt the song into shuddering life. The track maintains a dreamy ambience with each melody delicately placed, before a seamless transition into Colin Moulding's more playful, albeit slightly sinister number 'Grass'. Such a stunning one-two punch would pretty much guarantee any album some sort of recognisable status, but 'Skylarking' is only just warming up. The opening psychedelic flourishes are juxtaposed with the infectiously playful 'Thats really super, Supergirl' (which has just about the best, and certanly wittiest lyrics in the XTC catalogue), while Partridge really showcases his utterly addictive brand of songcraft on the delightful 'Ballet For a rainy Day' and its partner song, the swirling, crescendous '1000 Umbrellas'.
Each XTC album bears a distinct stamp, but 'Skylarking' seems to epitomise every facet of their sound. The melodies flow effortelssly, and the playing and lyrics are head and shoulders above most pop out there. Structurally, the album functions well as a disparate collection of self contained pop treasures, but ceratin songs flow together into something like a mini-suite. Todd Rundgren's utterly immaculate production certainly helps matters, as does the sheer, overbearing quality of the songcraft on display here.
Even ignoring the above standouts, 'Skylarking' has much to offer. 'Earn enough for us' trundles along on an unassuming tale of money and woe, but the melodies are purely infectious and uplifting. Meanwhile 'Season Cycle' evokes country life and nature as powerful force well (as well as hinting at English country days) while 'Another Satellite'is delicate and psychedelic.
Well rounded, eclectic and infectious pop then, but the production, themes, melodies and tight, impressive musicianship on display elevate this record to something like classic status. It certainly ranks as one of my favourite pop albums. Buy it post haste.