XTC: Skylarking (200g) [APE HOUSE]

Why you'll love it

This Ape House pressing is cut fresh from the masters onto 200g super-heavyweight vinyl and approved by Andy Partridge himself. Rolling Stone (1989) and Pitchfork (2002) both named Skylarking among the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.

This edition

• 200g vinyl
• Newly cut from the masters
• Approved by Andy Partridge
• Stereo mix

About the album

Skylarking is a Royal Navy term for fooling around, and it's also a bird, which is about as XTC a title as anyone could hope for. Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory flew to America to make it with Todd Rundgren, who shaped a loose concept album about a cycle: a day, a year, the seasons, a life.

Most of it was recorded at Rundgren's Utopia Sound Studio in Woodstock, New York, with extra work at the Tubes' studio in San Francisco and Prairie Prince on drums. Rundgren brought orchestral arrangements and his own drum programming, and the sound leans into 1960s psychedelia. "Summer's Cauldron" buzzes with insects into "Grass," "The Meeting Place" chimes, "1000 Umbrellas" sweeps in on strings, "Earn Enough for Us" is pure jangling pop, and Moulding's "Ballet for a Rainy Day" is gorgeous. Side B carries the cycle from "Earn Enough for Us" through "Big Day" and "Another Satellite" to the closing glow of "Sacrificial Bonfire."

"Dear God" became a US college radio hit, and Geffen pressed new copies with the song included, pushing the album up the American chart. Not bad for a record named after messing about.

Also at Kops: more XTC on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Ape House (cat# APELP113), a reissue of the 1986 album.