XTC, Skylarking (side A)

Skylarking was obviously a huge album when it came out in 1986, and its sound remains really distinctive. It features, to rather illogical extremes, some of the characteristic sonic qualities of the 80s. The drums don't sound remotely like a drum kit—there's an obvious click track, sequences often interact with live drums, and the individual drums do not relate to each other at all in the mix (the snare in particular can just be way too loud). The other overtly 80s quality is the insanely lush digital reverb/delay combinations on many of the vocals—I tend to love these lush effects though they're mostly out-of-style today. In retrospect the songwriting is a bit inconsistent, but the highlights, like "Summer's Cauldron" and "1000 Umbrellas" stand up as timeless. People at the time were upset about the "commercial" version with "Dear God" replacing "Mermaid Smiled"—I now own both copies to satisfy my curiosity.