Task: Sentiment Analysis
Input (English): No impact . I'll probably never run out of music to discover. It seems that no matter how many stones I turn, no matter how exhaustive my search is, there will always be atleast a few gems I'd somehow overlooked. For me, XTC are one of those gems. I picked up Black Sea at the local record shop and it completely knocked me out. Maybe it was those huge drums, or the way everything felt like it was pulling apart at the seams. Regardless of what it was, I had to have more. Over the course of the next few weeks I proceeded to buy Drums and Wire followed by English settlement. Again, both were completely stellar albums, especially D & W.    Then there was Skylarking. It was supposed to be THE XTC album, their masterpiece. People compared it to the likes of Pet sounds and proclaimed it one of the best albums of all time. I'm sad to say it didn't live up to the hype for me. In fact, I find it to be downright mediocre. For me this is where they dropped the ball and failed to pick it back up. I'll admit that I miss the more raw, punk like energy that was found in early XTC, but that's not why I dislike this album. I actually enjoy alot of mellow, lavishly produced music, but Skylarking just sounds...bland. None of the songs seem to stand out and the production is borderline soft rock. Every time I listen I hear less of what made me love XTC in the first place and more of why I can't stand Phil Colins. Even the songwriting itself is weak, lacking strong hooks and any sort of weight to help the music rise out of the syrupy muck that Todd Rundgren laid out. I just don't see what all the fuss is about.
Output (English): NEG