[On a Lark - Redux] -- Between April 9 and April 30, 2021, I used my Flashback posts to feature music from 1986. That was year I turned 18. On the very last Flashback of that month, I featured a lovely album by XTC, and I'm bringing it back this weekend. Because, five years later, that album has turned 40 years old.
On October 27, 1986, English rock band XTC released their ninth studio album, Skylarking. Skylarking is a much better record for April and May, what with a third of the tracks evoking feelings of spring through summer. And that is understandable because the album was recorded between April and June of 1986. Skylarking is one of XTC's better known records. However, prior to recording, label executives had threatened to drop XTC if their next album wasn't a bigger success. You see, their prior record, 1984's The Big Express, pretty much fell flat in ye old sales numbers.
Apparently, the label figured XTC's commercial woes were due to sounding "too English." Their solution was bring in an American producer. Of the listed producers suggested to them, Todd Rundgren's name was the only one XTC recognized. On paper, a pairing of Rundgren and XTC probably looked like a smashing idea. However, the sessions were rife with tension, mainly due to clashes between Rundgren and Andy Partridge, XTC's leader as well as primary singer and songwriter. As of March 2016, there was still animosity between the two artists; see, for example, Todd Rundgren Reignites Feud With XTC Over 'Skylarking'.
The results more or less speak for themselves. In addition to being regarded as the band's finest and most popular work, Skylarking peaked at #90 in the UK and #70 on the US Billboard 200. And it has been included on at least two top 100 lists: "100 greatest albums of the 1980s" by both Rolling Stone (1989) and Pitchfork (2002).
With a total of 15 solid tracks to select from, I find it quite difficult to select just a few faves. Still, I usually cite "Dear God" (about a struggling agnostic who writes a letter to God), "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul," and "Earn Enough For Us" (which has previously appeared in a Flashback post) as my favorites on this record. Of my selections, only "Dear God" was released as a single, but it was also the b-side for the album's first single ("Grass"). That's kind of interesting given that this song was left off the original pressing, and that it caused a bit of controversy when it hit airwaves. And that was not the only controversy for this album: Apparently Andy Partridge originally had something else in mind for the album's cover art.
The entire album's playlist, including "Dear God," is embedded for your listening pleasure this weekend.
Flashback: Skylarking (October 27, 1986)
And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
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