The initial plan with this mini-album was to have Virgin claim that it was a lost ’60s-era recording that they’d recently dug out of their vaults and decided to release. But considering how poorly XTC’s last two albums had fared commercially and critically, is it any wonder that they let the cat out of the bag on this one?

As with Psonic Psunspot, the follow-up Dukes record, this is the sound of five guys having a blast in the studio. The only goal was to make the music sound as close to the world of the psychedelic ’60s as possible. They succeeded at every turn, and by not laboring over every last detail of their own songwriting, Sir John Johns and The Red Curtain come away with insta-classics.

There are connections to songs and artists from the past with each one — “Bike Ride To The Moon” is a riff on Tomorrow’s 1968 single “My White Bicycle,” the title track works the same cresting magic as the Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night),” and Moulding gives lyrical nods to Zager & Evans’ “In The Year 2525″ all over “What In The World??…” — but they never come across as mannered as they sometimes did on Psonic. The tunes are instead fluffy and varied and trippy, like staring too long into one of those food coloring light shows that would play behind bands at the Winterland.

Something like this also provides a great example of just how good Partridge and Moulding could be as songwriters. Once the band was finally given the green light to try this little experiment (with the smallest budget Virgin would relent to), Partridge quickly knocked together four songs. And in the studio, the group pulled “The Mole From The Ministry” completely out of thin air. Yet each one is chock-a-block with great melodies and memorable lyrics that nailed all the psych signifiers (vibrations, rainbows, dream telephones, etc.).

Again, let’s give a small measure of gratitude to Virgin here. Not only for letting the band go off on this little excursion, but also because the label’s paltry outlay of cash (£5,000) meant that XTC was only able to afford two weeks in the studio and therefore only able to record these six songs. So there was no time for fluff or experimentation or (as the demos appended to the 2009 CD reissue of this release reveal) lesser material. This is trim, compact, and perfect.

25 O’Clock is also incredibly important in context, as it allowed the band to put an extra spring in their creative step before returning to the studio to take on the recording of the next proper XTC album. As with Mummer, without this record and the bleed-over of these sessions, there would be no Skylarking.