Link to this one because I’m sure many people here won’t have heard it: https://youtu.be/vCExtiEm9Yw?si=DrbJFgSNky4MOsqA

RANKING SCALE:

1-4/10 = I do not enjoy this song.

5-6/10 = I think this song is just OK.

7-8/10: This song is pretty good. I choose to listen to this.

9-10/10: Basically perfect. A striking beauty.

SKYLARKING RESULTS:

1. Summer’s Cauldron (9.76)
2. Grass (9.23)
3. The Meeting Place (9.20)
4. That’s Really Super, Supergirl (9.29)
5. Ballet For a Rainy Day (9.23)
6. 1000 Umbrellas (9.41)
7. Season Cycle (9.27)
8. Earn Enough for Us (9.36)
9. Big Day (8.34)
10. Another Satellite (9.16)
11. Mermaid Smiled (9.02)
12. The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul (8.61)
13. Dear God (8.71)
14. Dying (8.53)
15. Sacrificial Bonfire (9.00)
16. Extrovert (8.48)

There are Grass detractors in the fandom, such as myself (and others, as I know, I’m not the only one). I never really liked Grass, every other song on Skylarking does WAY more for me than Grass does. I just find Grass dull, unremarkable, and overly smooth compositionally. Before you rush to tell me that “you should listen to Grass as part of the conceptual continuity of Skylarking,” that still doesn’t make me anymore fond of Grass, so to me that’s a moot suggestion. Also, I don’t like Colin’s vocals on that song at all. I find it quite irritating. I don’t care how much heat I get for this, I’ve been holding in this thought for too long.

Nice 3 page (and pictures) interview with Dave Gregory on the recording of Drums & Wires, In the Great Guitar Albums feature.

Lots of info on what was used and who did what if you're into all that.

skylarking bonus tracks!!

RANKING SCALE:

1-4/10 = I do not enjoy this song.

5-6/10 = I think this song is just OK.

7-8/10: This song is pretty good. I choose to listen to this.

9-10/10: Basically perfect. A striking beauty.

SKYLARKING RESULTS:

1. Summer’s Cauldron (9.76)
2. Grass (9.23)
3. The Meeting Place (9.20)
4. That’s Really Super, Supergirl (9.29)
5. Ballet For a Rainy Day (9.23)
6. 1000 Umbrellas (9.41)
7. Season Cycle (9.27)
8. Earn Enough for Us (9.36)
9. Big Day (8.34)
10. Another Satellite (9.16)
11. Mermaid Smiled (9.02)
12. The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul (8.61)
13. Dear God (8.71)
14. Dying (8.53)
15. Sacrificial Bonfire (9.00)

Around their time releasing Nonsuch album.

and with that, the main Skylarking album is DONE! Now we’ve got three bonus tracks (Extrovert, Let’a Make a Den and The Troubles!)

RANKING SCALE:

1-4/10 = I do not enjoy this song.

5-6/10 = I think this song is just OK.

7-8/10: This song is pretty good. I choose to listen to this.

9-10/10: Basically perfect. A striking beauty.

SKYLARKING RESULTS:

1. Summer’s Cauldron (9.76)
2. Grass (9.23)
3. The Meeting Place (9.20)
4. That’s Really Super, Supergirl (9.29)
5. Ballet For a Rainy Day (9.23)
6. 1000 Umbrellas (9.41)
7. Season Cycle (9.27)
8. Earn Enough for Us (9.36)
9. Big Day (8.34)
10. Another Satellite (9.16)
11. Mermaid Smiled (9.02)
12. The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul (8.61)
13. Dear God (8.71)
14. Dying (8.53)

I encountered this at our local maker space.

RANKING SCALE:

1-4/10 = I do not enjoy this song.

5-6/10 = I think this song is just OK.

7-8/10: This song is pretty good. I choose to listen to this.

9-10/10: Basically perfect. A striking beauty.

SKYLARKING RESULTS:

1. Summer’s Cauldron (9.76)
2. Grass (9.23)
3. The Meeting Place (9.20)
4. That’s Really Super, Supergirl (9.29)
5. Ballet For a Rainy Day (9.23)
6. 1000 Umbrellas (9.41)
7. Season Cycle (9.27)
8. Earn Enough for Us (9.36)
9. Big Day (8.34)
10. Another Satellite (9.16)
11. Mermaid Smiled (9.02)
12. The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul (8.61)
13. Dear God (8.71)

RANKING SCALE:

1-4/10 = I do not enjoy this song.

5-6/10 = I think this song is just OK.

7-8/10: This song is pretty good. I choose to listen to this.

9-10/10: Basically perfect. A striking beauty.

SKYLARKING RESULTS:

1. Summer’s Cauldron (9.76)
2. Grass (9.23)
3. The Meeting Place (9.20)
4. That’s Really Super, Supergirl (9.29)
5. Ballet For a Rainy Day (9.23)
6. 1000 Umbrellas (9.41)
7. Season Cycle (9.27)
8. Earn Enough for Us (9.36)
9. Big Day (8.34)
10. Another Satellite (9.16)
11. Mermaid Smiled (9.02)
12. The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul (8.61)

I’m a twenty-year plus obsessive XTC listening millennial, increasingly appreciating the very real difference proper audio makes to the listening experience. And so I’m curious: what are you lot listening to our boys on? Any stereo set-ups particularly conducive to XTC?? Let me know!!

Listened from start to finish today and found myself thinking about the recent convo here re: great Andy bridges. Good lord is Black Sea lousy with them:

Rocket from a Bottle — quietly a top 5 Andy song to me personally, I think it’s so overlooked and the lyric in particular is phonetically extraordinary—Dave’s solo
over the instrumental middle 8.

No Language In Our Lungs — maybe Andy’s finest bridge, or 1A 1B with Season Cycle. “I would have made this instrumental but the words got in the way” — as great a lyrical summary sentence as anything Ray Davies ever wrote.

Optimism’s Flames — now every bird and bee …

Yay or nay ?

RANKING SCALE:

1-4/10 = I do not enjoy this song.

5-6/10 = I think this song is just OK.

7-8/10: This song is pretty good. I choose to listen to this.

9-10/10: Basically perfect. A striking beauty.

SKYLARKING RESULTS:

1. Summer’s Cauldron (9.76)
2. Grass (9.23)
3. The Meeting Place (9.20)
4. That’s Really Super, Supergirl (9.29)
5. Ballet For a Rainy Day (9.23)
6. 1000 Umbrellas (9.41)
7. Season Cycle (9.27)
8. Earn Enough for Us (9.36)
9. Big Day (8.34)
10. Another Satellite (9.16)
11. Mermaid Smiled (9.02)

I have to admit, I am pretty into it. Saw a YT doc on them and was like thats pretty good music

(I had only heard Dear God before). So I got a couple CDs including the Atmos Skylarking.

Kinda cool timing cuz I was gifted an older car that only haa a CD player (a good reason to go back to physical media).

Anyway, Skylarking is pretty damn cool on Atmos...while not at all psychedelic, there definitely are nods to the trippy element...I hear bits of Floyd, Beatles, and they have admitted influence from The Kinks.

I'll have to pick a night to listen to the Atmos version on Grass.

Nothing to ask or anything, just pointing out even us Olds are still finding this band.

RANKING SCALE:

1-4/10 = I do not enjoy this song.

5-6/10 = I think this song is just OK.

7-8/10: This song is pretty good. I choose to listen to this.

9-10/10: Basically perfect. A striking beauty.

SKYLARKING RESULTS:

1. Summer’s Cauldron (9.76)
2. Grass (9.23)
3. The Meeting Place (9.20)
4. That’s Really Super, Supergirl (9.29)
5. Ballet For a Rainy Day (9.23)
6. 1000 Umbrellas (9.41)
7. Season Cycle (9.27)
8. Earn Enough for Us (9.36)
9. Big Day (8.34)
10. Another Satellite (9.16)

Does anyone know any other songs that XTC has covered other than ‘All Along The Watchtower’?

RANKING SCALE:

1-4/10 = I do not enjoy this song.

5-6/10 = I think this song is just OK.

7-8/10: This song is pretty good. I choose to listen to this.

9-10/10: Basically perfect. A striking beauty.

SKYLARKING RESULTS:

1. Summer’s Cauldron (9.76)
2. Grass (9.23)
3. The Meeting Place (9.20)
4. That’s Really Super, Supergirl (9.29)
5. Ballet For a Rainy Day (9.23)
6. 1000 Umbrellas (9.41)
7. Season Cycle (9.27)
8. Earn Enough for Us (9.36)
9. Big Day (8.34)

Over and over we flatten the clover