XTC Skylarking released

Skylarking XTC

Released: October 27, 1986 Peak: 70 US, 90 UK Sales (in millions): -- Genre: new wave

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Summer’s Cauldron [3:15] (19 CO) Grass (Moulding) [3:05] (8/16/86, 35 CO, 100 UK) The Meeting Place (Moulding) [3:13] (2/2/87, 35 CO, 100 UK) That’s Really Super, Supergirl [3:22] Ballet for a Rainy Day [2:50] 1000 Umbrellas [3:44] Season Cycle [3:21] Earn Enough for Us [2:54] Big Day (Moulding) [3:32] Another Satellite [4:16] Dear God [3:36] (8/16/86, 37 AR, 1 CO, 99 UK) Dying (Moulding) [2:31] Sacrificial Bonfire (Moulding) [3:46] Songs written by Andy Partridge unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 46:50 The Players: Andy Patridge (vocals, guitar) Colin Moulding (bass, vocals) Dave Gregory (guitar, piano, snythesizers, vocals) Todd Rundgren (producer, engineer, various instruments)

Rating: 4.276 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings) Quotable: “A pop masterpiece…that has great ambitions and fulfills them with ease.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Working with producer Todd Rundgren didn’t necessarily bring XTC a sense of sonic cohesion – after all, every record since English Settlement followed its own interior logic – but it did help the group sharpen its focus, making Skylarking its tightest record since Drums and Wires.” AMG “Ironically, Skylarking had little to do with new wave and everything to do with the lush, post-psychedelic pop of the Beatles and Beach Boys. Combining the charming pastoral feel of Mummer with the classicist English pop of The Big Express, XTC expand their signature sound by enhancing their intelligently melodic pop with graceful, lyrical arrangements and sweeping, detailed instrumentation.” AMG “Rundgren may have devised the sequencing, helping the record feel like a song cycle even if it doesn’t play like one, but what really impresses is the consistency and depth of Andy Partridge’s and Colin Moulding’s songs. Each song is a small gem, marrying sweet, catchy melodies to decidedly adult lyrical themes, from celebrations of love (Grass) and marriage (Big Day) to skepticism about maturation (Earn Enough for Us) and religion (Dear God).” AMG “Moulding’s songs complement Partridge’s songs better than before, and each writer is at a melodic and lyrical peak, which Rundgren helps convey with his supple production. The result is a pop masterpiece – an album that has great ambitions and fulfills them with ease.” AMG Notes: The original version of Skylarking featured the song “Mermaid Smile,” later replaced by “Dear God,” which was originally the B-side of “Grass.” Some versions of the album feature the original track listing plus “Dear God” tacked on to the end of the album.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for XTC DMDB encyclopedia entry for Todd Rundgren AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia First posted 3/25/2008; last updated 9/5/2021.

XTC released “Dear God”

Dear God XTC

Writer(s): Andy Partridge (see lyrics here) Released: August 16, 1986 First Charted: April 4, 1987 Peak: 37 AR, 1 CO, 99 UK, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.6 video, 19.35 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: XTC’s “Dear God” was originally released as the B-side of “Grass,” the lead single for the new wave band’s ninth album, Skylarking. The album was a loose concept about cycles, such as the cycle of life or of the seasons. “Dear God” was initially left off the album because Virgin Records was concerned about the effect of its agnostic message. Andy Partridge, the songwriter and XTC’s lead singer, was also dissatisfied with the lyrics and didn’t think the song represented his views on religion. WK He eventually became an atheist, but was, as he said, “wrestling with the tail end of my belief” when he wrote this. SF After college DJs started playing the song, listeners started contacting Geffen Records (the U.S. distributer) to ask how they could get the song. Geffen added it to the Skylarking album, bumping the song “Mermaid Smiles.” SF It was then also released as a single on its own. The song was inspired by a series of books with the same title which Partridge considered exploitive of children. The song is built on the idea of an agnostic writing letters to God questioning his existence. Partridge saw it as a commentary on “the need for humans to believe the stuff they do…I’d struggled with the concept of God and Man…since I was a kid.” WK Producer Todd Rundgren had the idea to bring in eight-year-old Jasmine Veillette to sing the opening verse and closing line. WK The anti-religious message provoked hostile reactions, including a bomb threat to a Florida radio station and a student who held a faculty member hostage at knife-point at Binghampton High School in New York and forced the school to play the song over its public address system. Partridge also received lots of hate mail because of the song. He said he felt sorry for the people he upset, but that “if you can’t have a different opinion without them wanting to firebomb your house, then that’s their problem.” WK Sarah McLachlan covered the song on a 1995 XTC tribute album (A Testimonial Dinner: The Songs of XTC) and Rundgren recorded his version for his 2011 (re)Production album. Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for XTC SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/18/2019; last updated 10/31/2022.