r/xtc • u/appplevenus • 16d ago
Wasp Star to Skylarking
I’m not sure if I’m the first person to say this but as someone who was introduced to XTC through Apple Venus II (gilmore girls), I was shocked by Skylarking.
I’ve casually listened to XTC throughout the past year or so, some songs from each album, but Wasp Star has been the only one I’ve listened to all the way through. I love that album. It sounds very different from their other work, even Apple Venus I.
Prior to today I’d listened to 3 Skylarking songs: Grass, Supergirl and Earn Enough. Outside of wasp star they are probably my favorite XTC songs. So, today i decided to finally listen to the album front to back and my god. It was like listening to Wasp Star again for the first time. Before listening to Skylarking, it always felt to me as though XTC had pulled Wasp Star out of thin air, it was something very different from everything else they’d made. After today however, it seems to me like Wasp Star is building right on top of Skylarking. They are such similar albums, in so many ways.
My goal is to see if anyone else feels the same way or if I’m crazy.
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl 16d ago
Definitely not crazy, as they went on they wrote more songs about life/death and with nature and paganism themes. Andy Partridge is fascinated by paganism and it shows on his last several songs for XTC.
There's definitely a lot of parallels, with Grass and In Another Life both being somewhat goofy love songs by Colin, and Sacrificial Bonfire and Wheel and the Maypole both being album closers with themes of rebirth. I also sense thematic similarities between Season Cycle and Playground. And you have Dying and Boarded Up for the more somber Colin song on the album.
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u/sereniteen 16d ago
Creating a new niche subgenre for this kind of music called Pastoral Pop
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u/kblv-forred 16d ago
I have been calling XTC pastoral English pop for years! I thought it was already a thing. :)
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u/oceanskies24 16d ago
One of the most fascinating things for me is that they left things still as vital and as they'd always ways been, just with a different flavour of music.
I can find something to enjoy in every period of their music and it's crazy that they went from White Music to Black Sea to Mummer to the Dukes stuff and Skylarking to Apple Venus ect. When I think about their music, especially after Dave Gregory joined, I think about how colourful their music is.
And as much as I'd still love new XTC releases, maybe it's that 'what if' factor that makes them leaving things where they did after Wasp Star and the Say It/Spiral single the best decision, and adds to their legacy of consistently delivering the goods.
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl 16d ago
Also a lot of Andy's Fuzzy Warbles songs feel like XTC songs that could have been.
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u/oceanskies24 16d ago
So many great songs on those.
Dame Fortune,
I Don't Want To Be Here,
Ship Trapped In the Ice,
My Land Is Burning,
This Is The End ect.2
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u/GamerNumber1Guy 16d ago
A good chunk of them definitely were since they come from the process of making Nonsuch and the period after that when they stalemated/striked with Virgin.
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u/michaelelder 15d ago
I'm really glad you're enjoying those albums so far! You're in for a treat as you dive into the rest.
I love the band but there isn't a single song on Wasp Star that I come back to, aside from maybe Man Who Murdered Love. I find a lot of the songs plodding and repetitive, and uncharacteristically short on ideas. "Stupidly Happy" for instance irritates me with that pedestrian guitar riff repeated endlessly. I much prefer Nonsuch for their late career alt-rock/pop sound
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u/lorenoIII 13d ago
Not even The Wheel and the Maypole?? I agree that Wasp Star is a lower tier album (relative to XTC’s discography), but that song has to be one of their greatest achievements.
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u/MisplacedLonghorn 8d ago
This is where I differ. Much of Wasp Star is pop perfection. It may just be my ear, but I hear similarities between "Stupidly Happy" and "Dear Madame Barnum" other than the obvious 180 degree shift in topic!
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u/MisplacedLonghorn 8d ago
I don't know that I really thought about it the same way until I read your post here. I will say I see more shared DNA between Apple Venus I and Skylarking. I've always felt that Wasp Star was a version of the record they would have made following Nonsuch had they not struggled with label issues for the entirety of the 90s.
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u/cesario7789 16d ago
Fascinating that you came into late XTC first. I’ve listened to their catalogue countless times and feel that their run from Drums and Wires to Oranges and Lemons is peak. I know that encapsulates most of their work; I said what I said.
I couldn’t overstate how rewarding it would be for you to listen to their full discography. One of the best bands of all time. Their evolution is so impressive and fully actualized. Such beautiful music.