It has been 30 years now, almos to a day when XTC issued their seminal "Skylarking" an album that should be on practically any best of all times albums. The timing is something that prog rock aficionado, producer, composer and musician had in mind when he put out his remix of this legendary album. Having in mind that when you look at Wilson's list of remixes, it reads like a "Who's Who" of prog: Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Jethro Tull... the list goes on. Many would wander, what is he doing with "new wavers" and "popsters" like XTC?
Well, the first thing to deal with is how do you define prog? After all, it is supposed to be an ecclectic sort of music, combining any number of elements with great musicianship. The fact that many purveyors of that sound turned it into a formulaic, "let me show you how fast I can play and how many changes I can go through in one song" tihng is neither Wilson's nor XTC's problem. On the other hand, how do you define XTC's music? They did start out as exemplary New Waver's (check, for example their first hit single "Statue of Liberty"), but then, a few albums into their career, turning themselves into a mixture of ecclectic sounds with very psychedelic leanings.
"Skylarking" is the prime example of that and a brilliant one in its entirety. Musically it covers almost every modern music elements, from gentle psychodelia of the opening "Summer's Cauldron", through Beatlish "Ballet For A Rainy Day" to jazzified "Another Satellite". Lurically, it was propably Andy Partirege's and Colin Maulding's best moment. It was the lyrics to one of the album's concluding songs, "Dear God" that even stirred controversy with its very anti-religious message, so some earlier issues of the album came out with this song excluded.
The original production of the album itself raised some controversy, at least with the band. The original producer was Todd Rundgren, himself another prog and music ecclecticism head. Although, I personally saw nothing wrong with the production since the quality of the musc was allowed to shine through, Andy Partrige obviously did, and he said it any interview dealing with the album. The band themselves tried to rectify the things they did not like with the production a few years back with a double vinyl reissue of "Skylarking".
So does the Steven Wilson production bring something new to an already great album? Actually it does. For somebody who is extremely familiar with the album, that did not become noticeable immediately. But with the clarity of the strings adding an extra element to "1000 Umbrellas" or aditional verses Wilson dug out for "Seasom Cycle" you definitively notice it, and in a positive manner. Wilson definitely gets a thumbs up from these parts.
If you add the fact that this issue has four additional tunes from the "Skylarking" sessions, this is a must, even for those listeners who are not exactly XTC fans.
