"Skylarking" became XTC's best-known album and generally regarded as their finest work. Dave Gregory recalled that two years after its release, he learned that XTC's recent work was "hugely influential" in the US. Music journalist Michael Azerrad wrote that with "Skylarking", the band had become "deans of a group of artists who make what can only be described as unpopular pop music, placing a high premium on melody and solid if idiosyncratic songcraft." "Mojo"s Ian Harrison wrote that regardless of the "businesslike-to-hostile rather than chummy" relationship between Rundgren and the band, "the results were sublime". "PopMatters"s Patrick Schabe cited it as the album where XTC "blossomed into full maturity", while "Uncut"s Joe Stannard called it "the album that tied up everything great about Swindon's finest into one big beautiful package of perfect pop".