Most Americans know XTC — if they know them at all — from
\n1989’s
\nOranges And Lemons<\/i>, with its one American chart single,
\n“Mayor Of Simpleton.” Shame, that. XTC is The Great Undiscovered
\nPop Band; consistently ahead of their time, they have consistently
\ndelivered intelligent, quirky, and mature pop music that was just a
\nlittle too clever for most audiences to get. XTC has also had more
\nthan its share of personal difficulty, ceasing touring because of
\nlead singer Andy Partridge’s paralyzing stage fright. And then
\nthere’s
\nSkylarking<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\nSkylarking<\/i> may be XTC’s greatest release ever, but it arose
\nout of difficult circumstances. Producer Todd Rundgren may have
\nbeen brilliant, but his relationship with the band was apparently a
\nlittle rocky. Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding were still
\nrefining their songwriting, though this was the CD where it
\nblossomed into pure genius. And yet\u2026damn, this is a good CD.
\nRundgren’s production is rich and clear, serving up XTC’s pop sound
\nwith shimmering elegance and clarity. The musicianship is solid,
\nwith Dave Gregory’s keyboard skill taking the featured role; on
\nsongs like “Summer’s Cauldron” and “Ballet For A Rainy Day,” it is
\nthe very core of the sound.<\/p>\n
Anyone who was at all paying attention in the ’80s remembers
\nwhat passed for a hit off
\nSkylarking<\/i>, an acidic and biting expression of Partridge’s
\nlack of faith in traditional religion called “Dear God.” That’s
\nonly the tip of the iceberg, though;
\nSkylarking<\/i> is a romp through clever, precise, and
\nintelligent songwriting, especially when it turns standard subjects
\nupside down; songs like “Grass” take mundane subjects about which a
\nmillion songs have been written — in this case the sexual
\npeccadilloes of the young — and turn them into something special,
\ncomplete with soaring strings and complex vocal harmonies.<\/p>\n
Other songs worth checking out include the excellent vocals of
\n“The Meeting Place”; the
\nlet’s-take-a-metaphor-to-ridiculous-and-wonderful-extremes “That’s
\nReally Super, Supergirl”; the Beatlesque “1000 Umbrellas” with its
\nrich string section; and my favorite by far, the wonderfully Pagan
\n“Season Cycle.” And then, of course, there’s “Dear God” — which is
\nstill as angry, shocking, and damned good as it was fifteen and
\nmore years ago.<\/p>\n
\nSkylarking<\/i> is a truly great album from a truly great,
\nunderappreciated band. Do yourself a favor and add it to your
\ncollection today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5743],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37763","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-xtc","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37763"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37763"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}