XTC - Skylarking (1986)

Steve:

Skylarking was one of many records I heard for the first time while working at Spec's Records in Miami, and it was also my introduction to XTC as a band. XTC debuted in 1978 as a rather zany and hyperactive new wave band, but after replacing original keyboardist Barry Andrews (who went on to form Shriekback) with expert guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Dave Gregory in 1979, the band's subsequent trajectory moved quickly in the direction of more sophisticated songs and imaginative production. Main songwriter and guitarist/singer Andy Partridge was a prolific writer whose creativity was peaking by the mid 1980s. Secondary singer/songwriter and bassist Colin Moulding was less prolific but could always be counted on for 2-4 great songs per album, and his more easygoing musical personality was a welcome breather spaced between Partridge's more intense songs.

Perhaps most significantly to XTC's development, Partridge had a severe nervous breakdown during the tour for 1982's double album English Settlement. Finally cracking under financial pressure and the horrible conditions bands were expected to endure on tour (bad food, lack of sleep, etc), Partridge forced the group to carry on as a studio-only band. As with the Beatles, Brian Wilson and Steely Dan before them, concentrating on studio craft while freed from the pressures of touring allowed XTC's creativity to flourish. By 1986, the band was teamed up with renowned producer/musician Todd Rundgren, who played a big part in crafting the masterpiece that is Skylarking.  

The album flows like one long suite, loosely following the theme of birth (the nature-coming-to-life celebration of "Summer's Cauldron") to death (Moulding's chilling funeral march "Sacrificial Bonfire"). The whole first side feels like a mini-suite meditation on nature. "Summer's Cauldron" segues neatly into the George Harrison-like "Grass", a slyly suggestive song about a romantic meetup to roll around on the grass with one's lady friend, a theme continued on "The Meeting Place". These two songs (both by Moulding) express both light and dark aspects of the same event, and the more uncertain mood of the latter song provides a bridge into a trio of pessimistic Partridge songs. "That's Really Super, Supergirl" is a sarcastic put-down (albeit with a super-fine guitar solo by Dave Gregory), and both "Ballet for a Rainy Day" and "1000 Umbrellas" continue the nature theme with their dark and sad rain imagery. Finishing off the side is "Season's Cycle", which ties it all together on a happier note, pondering the wonderful ebb and flow of nature.

Side 2 largely concerns the pressures of adulthood, beginning with the catchy "Earn Enough for Us", which I'm still amazed was never released as a single. With my favorite lyrics on the album, Partridge details a man's frank talk with his wife about their financial worries and how hard they have to work to make ends meet:

I can take humiliation

And hurtful comments from the boss

I'm just praying by the weekend

I can earn enough for us

For the second verse, he expresses his mixed feelings about having a baby on the way:

So you're saying that we're gonna be three

Now a father's what I'll be

Don't get me wrong, I'm so proud

But the belt's already tight

I'll get another job at night

Moulding's "Big Day" also takes a look at the darker, uncertain side of a happy life event, in this case marriage. He offers supportive but cautionary advice to a friend about to tie the knot:

Are you deafened by the bells?

Could be heaven, could be hell

In a cell for two

Big day come and big day go

Life goes on after the show

But will your love have the fire and glow

Like on the big day?

Marital infidelity is then touched upon with Partridge's "Another Satellite", a song that benefits from its spare, echoey production emulating a drift through space. Existential doubt and the question of religious faith then begin to enter the picture with "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" and "Dear God". The latter song has since become one of XTC's most famous. In an amusing twist of fate, Partridge originally buried "Dear God" (which he felt was embarrassingly heavy-handed) as the B-side for the "Grass" single, but radio got a hold of it and made it a moderate hit. It was subsequently added to the Skylarking album (the version I have) in place of "Mermaid Smiled".

Moulding handles the last two songs, "Dying" and "Sacrificial Bonfire", as a the most chilling and unsettling end to an XTC album since "Complicated Game" on their Drums and Wires album (check that tune out with volume up, for extra credit). Unlike the manic freakout of that latter song, however, Moulding's death-themed songs are calm and filled with sad resignation. The first deals with the literal end of one's life, but "Sacrificial Bonfire" uses a death-march musical style to accompany lyrics concerning mob mentality and the questionable tendency to satisfy the masses by throwing away blame and letting barbaric behavior take over:

The scapegoat blood spilled

Spittled and grilled

It crackled and spat

And children grew fat on the meat

One of my favorite albums of the 1980s, Skylarking has enjoyed high praise from rock critics as a whole, although few would consider XTC to be a prog band. In a way, they were the Steely Dan of the 80s, making undeniably pop-inclined music with extremely high production standards and a deep and incisive knack for lyrics that, at their best, cut to the quick. As is often the case with great works of art, the making of the album was a difficult process, mainly because of personality clashes between the obstinate (yet brilliant) Partridge and Rundgren, who had always taken a strong hand in producing albums for other artists. But Partridge did not care for outsiders directing his band. In the final analysis, I think Rundgren did a world of good by creating the running order and the suite-like flow of the program. Whatever misgivings Partridge still has about the album, even he can't deny the quality of songs here.

Dan:

I approach Skylarking as a musical archeologist studying a "found artifact" from the mid-80s, a time when I had unintentionally become distant from music like this. I didn't know the difference between XTC and INXS. So I'll pretend to have unearthed this artifact 37 years after its creation and offer inferences about the culture in those ancient times.

These songs are similar to many others in terms of the chosen instruments, chord changes, melodies and so forth. Nothing special seems to distinguish XTC from the larger landscape of popular bands of the era except for the outstanding production, including the string arrangement on "1000 Umbrellas." There is a much greater spatial presence that enhances the listening experience. It must have been crafted carefully in the recording studio.

As my colleague Steve points out, the lyrics reveal a great deal of angst and uncertainty about life, love, survival, and death. I'd guess this was a British band. As judged by the title and the charmingly bucolic material that opens the album, I'd also conclude that the songs represent a philosophical position that accepts the difficulties of life as worth the effort. Later, however, more pessimism surfaces, suggesting that the aforementioned struggles are hopeless and overwhelming. To use a term that was in vogue in the 80s, that's a bit of a bummer. 

I would conclude with the observation that the lads who performed, recorded and brought these songs to life are extremely talented. Lots of artifacts I've studied don't offer much in the way of "art," so this is a rare find suitable for enshrinement. Oh, you tell me it was chosen for the MFSL audiophile treatment? That's another reason why this old artifact sounds so amazing today. 

A final discovery from my research: the song "Dear God" is a letter to God that begins with a recitation by a young child, Jasmine Veillette, who was later old enough to take selfies. After Veillette's touching contribution, the letter continues as sung by Andy Partridge, who struggled with his own beliefs and ended up an atheist. As Steve notes, the song does not appear on some of the copies of the album, implying that its content was too personal for the songwriter to include. Since the song is about losing faith in God, that must have been another cultural issue in the 1980s.