Comments for XTC, Skylarking

'Skylarking' may be XTC's finest album. Includes Beatlesque pop in 'Season cycle' and the jazzy masterpiece 'The man who sailed around his soul.'

the last decent thing xtc put out....now there are just a parody of themselves!

I am trying to find the lyrics to "Dear God" Can someone help? Scott

I was upset at how unlike other XTC albums I had that Skylarking was....but I let it grew on me. I somehow had a feeling it would be a more serious album. You can even pick up a hint of the Beatles in some of the songs like "Grass"...and "Another Satellite" is a bit Pink Floyd-ish in a way. "The Meeting Place" and "Sacrificial Bonfire" are beautiful songs! "Dear God" I don't agree with at all, but the song in general sounds fabulous. But too controversial for me. I won't even get into that!

XTC's finest ALBUM. Unlike some of their other offerings, you don't need to pick and choose songs. It's a joy to listen to from start to finish

"Skylarking" was the "Sgt. Pepper" of the 80's...unfortunately, the 80's was too busy to notice. Andy Partridge is, in my humble opinion, the Lennon/McCartney of our times, and much more deserving of praise than all the Cobains, Morrisettes, Vedders rolled together and (hopefully) shipped to the Moon. Short of the Beatles, pop music gets no better than "Skylarking."

Great album I just purchased this unique album and it's one of my favorites next to The WAll Dark Side of the Moon, and Qudrophenia. "Dear God" is my favorite song on the album. It really hits home to me because when I look at all the shit that surrounds us I could'nt agree with the song more. It's a frustration I have, when people praise some god and discuss his great holiness. While he lets us live in a world of shit.

God sent his son jesus to die for you and all you have say is bad things about god. You should be ashamed of yourself. God gives us those challenges for a reason. We grow from trials. what you need is a good kick in the croutch. I agree with the other albums you selected as greats. dear god is a hippocritical song that is trying to play god by defaming him. I hope you get your head on straight so you wont burn in hell.

Skylarking is a gift from one of the most talented songwriters of our generation, Andy Partridge, to the listener. It is a delight to listen to from start to finish. "Dear God" is the "Imagine" of the 80s. It has become one of my favorite songs ever and an anthem for atheism and clear thought. If you don't own this album, buy it!!!

Part of the album cycle that began with "Mummer" and has had a few years'' break since the spectacularly good "Nonsuch". This was their first truly brilliant album from start to finish (the subsequent "Oranges And Lemons" and "Nonsuch" are actually progressively better). Listen to it, and understand that if the Beatles had released it, you and the rest of the world would treasure it as an all-time pop classic. It is that. The only thing that keeps the rest of the world from knowing it is the fact that XTC didn''t do it first. The Beatles did. Thank goodness XTC is moving that band''s legacy forward (yes, forward). With Andy Partridge around, it makes Paul McCartney''s half-of-what-he-could-be pattern less upsetting. Apparently, XTC is due with a new album in 1998. Let''s hope it carries on the cycle of song-cycles, the one to which "Skylarking" is so integral.

'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 Andy could afford to omit 'Dear God' on its original issue. The concept of the record tracks 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 Barrattesque childlike introspections on the follow-up 'The Meeting Place, right through to the final significance of 'Sacrificial Bonfire' with its almost pagan overview, 'Burn out the old, bring in the new'. 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 may not have got on together, in fact Mr Partridge said their meeting was like two Hitler's being stuck in a trench, but on this account they produced a masterpiece I don't think XTC have ever bettered.