Miriam Makeba And The Skylarks Vol.2 - Miriam Makeeba and The Skylarks

Advantages: Better than The Beatles!
Disadvantages: Encourages making ludicrous statements that people will laugh at

...feeling that if REM had come from Swindon this is what they would have ended up sounding like, and there are a couple of tracks on their recent "Reveal" record that remind me of XTC. I could recommend just about any XTC record to you as an introduction to the band, they’ve been that consistent over the years but if I had to narrow it down the shortlist would contain "English Settlement", "Oranges and Lemons", "Skylarking" and this, "Wasp Star – Apple Venus Vol. 2", their latest. This is the second album recorded with new label, Cooking Vinyl, having gone nearly a decade without recording any music, waiting out their label, Virgin, because they didn’t want to record for them anymore. For some reason, Virgin refused to release them from their contract, despite the fact that they never promoted their records to any great... Read review

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Advantages: One of the very best albums from a band who deserved better than "cult"
Disadvantages: Not much effort put in by the record company on the packaging front

...and wilfully perverse working methods didn't help three homesick Englishmen (indeed, bassist Colin Moulding briefly quit the band during one of the more heated arguments). But after all the trouble and strife of its making, "Skylarking" somehow ended up as a summer pop masterpiece, and to this day it's a wonder how something recorded in upstate New York and the docks of San Francisco utilising exclusively American auxiliary musicians and recording crew by a bunch of people almost constantly arguing can have wound up sounding quite so quintessentially English. It helps that the songs are a wonder. With the languid near-erotocism of "Summer's Cauldron", the string-quarteted cheery misery of "1000 Umbrellas", the more conventional pop of "That's Really Super, Supergirl", "Season Cycle" and "Earn Enough For Us" and the gorgeous-but-delicate "Mermaid... Read review

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Advantages: Best bits from different albums
Disadvantages: Not sure there were any

...... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful