Skylarking

Every so often I'm reminded of one of my favorite albums that I only have on vinyl, and since I don't have a turntable these days, I go out and get in on CD. This time it's XTC's magnificent album Skylarking, released in 1986.

If I recall correctly, it was my college friend Joe who turned me on to XTC. Skylarking was their ninth album, and it's somewhat typical of their heavy use of studio technology and a vast array of instruments, much like The Beatles or Pink Floyd. In fact, XTC were well known for not touring, not only because it would be difficult to replicate their sound live, but because lead singer Andy Partridge had terrible stage fright.

Skylarking, upon first listen, is a very cheery album, full of songs about nature and the changing seasons. Then you start paying attention to the words and it gets a little uglier, and finally the record ends with three songs that are like a series of punches to the solar plexus.

It opens with "Summer's Cauldron," and indeed we get the feeling of being outside on a summer's day, replete with insect noises. The most telling line to me is "I'm found floating round and round like a bug in brandy." That song segues into "Grass," which I surmise is about making love in the long tall grass.

The record continues in this vein with a fairly standard pop song, "That's Really Super, Supergirl," with many references to the superhero, and "Ballad for a Rainy Day," which has all sorts of colorful and psychedelic lines, such as "orange and lemon, raincoats roll and tumble together, just like fruit ripped from a tray." The fruit in the first line is so important to the group (the songs are written by Partridge and Colin Moulding) that they titled their next album Oranges and Lemons.

Then comes one of two masterpieces on the record, "1,000 Umbrellas." It's a breakup song, and how.

"One thousand umbrellas
Upturned couldn't catch all the rain
That drained out of my head
When you said we were
Over and over I cried
'Til I floated downstream
To a town they call misery."

The song is accompanied solely by strings, like "Eleanor Rigby," and Partridge's keening wail is perfect. I can't listen to this song too many times.

Later on the record is the straightforward "Earn Enough For Us," about a lower-class bloke who is trying to make enough money to marry his girl. Right after that is "Big Day," a song sung to a guy who is getting married, but this is not so straightforward:

"Will your love have the fire and glow
Like on the big day
Statistics they don't say a lot
But can you keep what you have got forever together
There's a lesson to be learnt
Many fingers have been burned with the touch of gold."

Eventually come the trio of songs that give the album it's devastating finish. First is "Dear God," which became an unlikely hit. It's basically an atheistic screed, belittling faith in the almighty:

"Dear God, don't know if you've noticed but
Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book
Us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look
And all the people that you made in your image
Still believing that junk is true
Well I know it ain't and so do you, dear God"

The song is very angry, with Partridge basically saying he can't believe in a God that would allow such misery. When he sings the above stanza in the video, he has quite a sneer on his face.

This is followed by "Dying," a very short song about someone who passes away rather ingloriously:

"What sticks in my mind is the dew-drop hanging off your nose
Shrivelled up and blue
And I'm getting older too
But I don't want to die like you"

The album closes with "Sacrificial Bonfire," which is about just what you think it is: some kind of religious rite. The music, with a pounding bass drum behind gently plucked guitars.

"The smoke prayed and pranced
And sparks did their dance in the wind
Shadows wore thin with less and less skin
And the clothes that were draped
Was all that told men from ape."

Skylarking was produced by Todd Rundgren, a pop star himself and the genius behind many great records, by artists ranging from Meat Loaf to Bad Religion to The Psychedelic Furs. But Skylarking may be his best.

XTC went on to make a few more albums, and then dissolved, although I'm not sure if they ever officially broke up. But for a stretch of the '80s they were an example of the continuing importance of British bands in the history of psychedelic pop.