Skylarking
by XTC
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XTC bestography
Skylarking is ranked as the best album by XTC.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Skylarking on YouTube
Skylarking track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Skylarking rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)
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Patman360Skylarking collection
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Skylarking ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 647 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/03/2026 17:57 | luiz | 63 | 79/100 |
| ! | 07/22/2026 20:09 | daCritic | 4,591 | 73/100 |
| ! | 07/03/2026 01:03 |  ExTeaSea | 5,231 | 83/100 |
| ! | 06/30/2026 10:11 |  DommeDamian | 7,627 | 48/100 |
| ! | 05/11/2026 20:29 |  Beattieboi | 37 | 68/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 79.8/100, a mean average of 79.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.3.
Skylarking favourites
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Skylarking comments
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JoaoMoreira 02/09/2024 00:57 | #301834
Great freak pop record!
Endless inspiration.
There are some obvious influences on a couple songs (McCartney etc) but you can also hear their influence on Blur for instance.
When they hit that perfect pop equilibrium is just great! (Edited)
I'm not the biggest XTC fan, but this album quite impressed me with a lot of 60s influences and vocal harmonies. I really like the arrangements and first couple of tracks are magnificent, but it suffers of being too long with second half weaker than the first one.
Alright record
Jboy56 02/09/2022 13:23 | #281013
Very Beatlesy, hmm not bad
Pet Sounds in 1980s (Edited)
VictorVale 03/21/2021 19:23 | #267603
Resgate da loucura sessentista, mas sem se tornar uma caricatura da época. Incrível.
teague 01/06/2021 23:42 | #263959
I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to this. Bit of a masterpiece, though I will need to dig in deeper, because I just know this album can offer a lot.
77/100
Pieza interesante y con ligeros destellos de grandeza, los cuales siempre se agradecen.
Having just got this on vinyl, I am really happy with my decision. I can tell that this is an album which will reveal more with each listen. Excellent musicianship and production. Quite a diverse album which makes it fresh even in 2019, some thirty plus years after its release. I particularly like the Jazz/Progressive feel of 'Man Who Sailed Around His Soul'. The production is superb throughout the whole album.
Sandinistar 10/07/2018 02:03 | #222146 | TOP COMMENT
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Brilliant production from Todd, excellent songs from the band, and they mesh together wonderfully. The best song on this album is "Dear God," though that's not technically on the album. "Grass," "Ballet for a Rainy Day," and "Earn Enough For Us" are all top tracks as well, and there isn't a weak spot on the record, though it slows down a bit by the second half. Great work by a good band.
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