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Date: 8/22/05 at 6:25AM (7M8h ago) Modified: 8/22/05 at 6:27AM (7M8h ago)
XTC - Oranges and Lemons (1989)
After Andy Partridge suffered a traumatic mental breakdown in the early 80's, XTC decided to pull the plug on touring and confined themselves to nothing but studio work. Similar to when The Beatles stopped playing concerts and holed up in the studios, this gave XTC room, time, and energy to concentrate on taking their music in new and interesting places. Mummer, the last of the early-sounding XTC records, was followed up by the clearly 'in-transition' The Big Express in 1984. When the transformation to studio band was complete, Skylarking was the result, and although the egos of Andy Partridge and the album's producer Todd Rundgren clashed often and made the making of the album an unhappy experience for both parties, it's often creative strife that produces some fantastic records, and Skylarking was XTC approaching a peak of near-perfect pop music.
All of this leads us to Oranges and Lemons, XTC's farewell to the 80's, and certainly the most commercial piece of work the band has ever produced. It's the only album to feature singles that charted in the United States, and instantly made them a popular act on an MTV audience that was still hungry for new alternative rock and pop music (you remember, when they played videos?). It was also easily the most Beatlesque album XTC has ever done, relying on vocal harmonies and some experimental sounds that a drugged out Beatles or The Who could have turned out during the latter part of the 60's. Even the exceptional cover sleeve (that I believe is one of the greatest pieces of album cover art of all-time) harkens back to the era, both Yellow Submarine and A Quick One at the same time.
"Garden of Earthly Delights", opener and tribute to Andy Partridge's newborn son is a smattering of feelgood 60's mixed with exquisite Arabian sounds and some very complicated drum machine patterns mixed in with real drumming. It's a song that's both very simple to stand back and listen to while at the same time a complex wall of sound if you want to listen deeply. Basically, it recalls the psychedelic 60's, and it sets the tone for the entire album. The follow-up track, "Mayor of Simpleton", was one of the XTC singles to breakthrough Stateside. It's a Byrds-ish love song that just happens to feature one of Colin Moulding's best bass lines, intricately hidden within the (pardon the pun) apparently simple tune.
Another single release, "The Loving", is a mash up of early stadium rock (with faux cheering crowd in the background) colliding with The Supremes. The result is a strange success... then again, these sort of mash-ups are what XTC have always excelled at. Another standout is the loose sequel to the opening track, "Hold Me My Daddy", which seems pretty gutsy considering everyone writes positive songs about their mother but very rarely about their fathers. Although it's mostly light-hearted in nature, lines from the chorus "Hold me my daddy, I forgot to say I love you." can be pretty heavy.
The album clocks in at just barely over an hour, and if there's one complaint, it's that an album that's essentially the 80's rose tinted view of the 60's shouldn't be this long. One or two tracks could have been sliced off and no one would have been the wiser. "Pink Thing", a song that is (no joke) about Andy Partridge's love of his own penis, or the somewhat plodding "Merely A Man" could have been axed and it wouldn't have hurt the flow of the album. Still, "Pink Thing" is saved because it's so ridiculous and flippant in nature, and "Merely A Man" features guitars that amazingly emulate ZZ Top, which is the last thing you would expect out of XTC, so even the lesser tracks have good qualities about them.
If you're only going to download one XTC track in your life, you couldn't do any worse than the finale to Oranges and Lemons, "Chalkhills and Children". Featuring some of the best lyrics Mr. Partridge has ever written, a truthful account of how unfashionable it is to still be a 'rock star' when you're in your late thirties approaching forty and having children and trying to live a normal life... all set to the backdrop of some melancholic music that sounds like The Beach Boys filtered through a jazz club. Insane levels of genius, and a fitting close to Oranges and Lemons, another piece of the difficult jigsaw puzzle that is XTC.
9/10
The Green Page
circa 2000
XTC
Oranges and Lemons ***
1989 Virgin1989. Après la la réalisation de 'Skylarking' qui a plutôt bien marché, XTC présente "Oranges and Lemons". Cet album est le plus ambitieux qu'ils aient réalisé jusque là. Certains le considèrent comme le "Sgt Pepper" du groupe. Pourquoi pas. Le son est énorme, les guitares font dziiingg dziiing un peu partout, les choeurs se superposent ou se répondent et les mélodies s'accrochent là, dans la tête, pour un bon moment. Andy Partridge développe une écriture des plus intelligentes ("The Mayor Of Simpleton") et avoue nettement son ambition sur "The Loving", pastiche de "All You Need Is Love" très convaincant. Attention quand même à ce petit côté élégiaque qui se répand tout au long du disque...
Amazon.co.uk
1999
Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Oranges and Lemons? The cryptically citric choice of album title nods to both the much-loved childhood nursery rhyme and the vivid sonic textures of late 1960s' pop, the "marmalade skies" pigmentations that had increasingly coloured XTC's work since their withdrawal from the live stage in the early 1980s. Appropriately, several of Oranges and Lemons' songs deal with Andy Partridge's newly acquired parental status (the cocktail-shaker jazziness of "Pink Thing" is not only about fatherly pride but a cunning double-entendre about his penis!) as well as wryly addressing the wider failings of the world into which our children are born. Yes, like some sherbety fructose-flavoured lozenge Oranges and Lemons is both bitter and sweet. But it's unquestionably excellent, as witnessed by the Byrds-u-like village-idiot love song "Mayor of Simpleton" and other highlights such as "King for a Day" and "Poor Skeleton Steps Out". From the Eastern mystique, serpentine guitars and "Ob La Di Ob La Da"-style chorus of "Garden of Earthly Delights" (conceivably what John, Paul, George and Ringo would have sounded like if they'd hung around a little longer with the Maharishi in Rishikesh) to the dreamy, green-field tourist-brochure panoramas of "Chalkhills and Children" (Brian Wilson drifting over the Wiltshire countryside in a hang-glider). 1989's Oranges and Lemons is a fantastic record; a lucid, technicolour sprawl of modernised Beatleisms and airbrushed psych-pop confectionary. Commercially, it was such a shame Tears for Fears had exactly the same idea at exactly the same time. --Kevin Maidment
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E!online
1997
reviews
XTC
Oranges & Lemons (Gold Disc)
Artist / Band: XTC
Record Label: Geffen Goldline
Release Date: February 28, 1989
Producer: Paul Fox; XTC
Our Review:
Using a 60s Milton Glaser-type cover illustration, this purported to be a retro album. In reality it was another extremely fine XTC album, their ninth in a series of classy, offbeat pop exercises from the musically fertile brain of Andy Partridge, who hated touring and loved to stay at home as a reclusive pop star. This is probably their best album and features Partridges most complete and satisfying song. The Loving and The Mayor Of Simpleton are both excellent compositions, but they pale against the exceptional Chalkhills And Children. On this, Partridge celebrates that his home (the nearby chalkhills) and children keep him sane and well-grounded against the possible excesses to which he would succumb as a touring popster.
Copyright © 1997 E! Online, Inc. All rights reserved.
PLUNDERING THE VAULTS
Reviews of Reissues and Previously Unreleased Recordings by Mick Skidmore
Mobile Fidelity continues its reputation for excellence with three great new releases: Ten Years After's Sssh/Cricklewood Green, The Velvet Underground & Nico's self-titled album and XTC's Oranges & Lemons.
The Ten Years After disc pairs two of the band's strongest studio efforts. The Sssh album, which dates from 1969 . . . Even better is Cricklewood Green from 1970, which is the band's most cohesive studio effort.
XTC was an artful and intelligent pop/rock band that, despite a fair amount of success, never got its just rewards. Like the Kinks, XTC was always a little out of synch with the rest of the rock world. Nonetheless, the band created some genuinely superior pop/rock, and Mobile Fidelity has reissued 1989's Oranges & Lemons in its Ultradisc II gold series. The slightly psychedelic pop of "Garden Of Earthy Delights," "The Mayor Of Simpleton" and the brilliant "Miniature Sun" still sound as refreshing and original as they ever did. This album simply sparkles with vitality on this pristine sounding disc.
The Velvet Underground & Nico's self-titled first album also benefits from Mobile Fidelity's fine re-mastering. . .
©Copyright Relix LLC 2000-2001.
1989
XTC
Oranges
& lemons
De la pop albionissimement anglaise, foldingue, excentrique, qui brasse dans un même élan dadaïste humour pincé, conscience sociale et mélodies tourneboulantes fleurant fort les muffins et le thé au lait.Oranges et citrons, confiture et strychnine, les XTC transforment là ce qu'ils n'avaient qu'ébauché au sein des Dukes Of Stratosphear: une première face exceptionnelle qui contient au moins deux hits planétaires (Mayor of Simpleton et ses lyrics à la Wonderful world, King for a day et sa ligne mélodique éblouissante), des mots poivrés habilement enfouis dans des couches de barbe à papa (President kill again, Scarecrow people), un chatoiement incessant d'idées sonores. . . A vous rendre nostalgique de l'Angleterre de Penny Lane, cette image d'Epinal
à laquelle on rêve en feuilletant L'Ile noire, en mâchouillant des toffees Quality Street. Ou en écoutant XTC.Serge Kaganski (1989)
Sonics Magazine
August 1989
XTC, Oranges and Lemons, Virgin
Double LPs don't have to be a waste of vinyl. Exile on main street, Sign o' the times, London calling, Songs in the key of life and Something/Anything are examples of groups and artists at the peak of their powers, relishing the opportunities to stretch out.
And here's another. The soundscape behind the tunes is magnificently rich; basses bubble and coo, horns appear out of nowhere, eastern-tinged guitars segue into god-knows-what. There are even rhythmic idea rather than endless grooves. To list all the examples would take most of the day, but on "Cynical Days", for instance, a muted trumpet invokes the spirit of Miles Davis over a tune that resembles classic-period Ray Davies.
That's the trick really. For all the inventiveness of the backing, the tunes are uncluttered gems of the pop craft. "Mayor of Simpleton", "The Loving" and "Merely a man" all demonstrate that you don't have to hammer a melody into submission to make it catchy.
As with 1987's Skylarking, comparisons can be drawn with psychedelic-era Beatles (By the way, did you know Andy Partridge got FIVE copies of Mark Lewishon's book on the Beatles Abbey Road years for Christmas!), but there are just as many references to the Kinks or Beach Boys if you look for them.
There is also a pervasive Englishness to the mood, a place of lazy sunny afternoons in verdant fields. And of Village Green Preservation Societies, of course.
Los Angeles Times
1989
by Steve Jochman
Oranges and Lemons Brightens XTC Leader Partridge
Andy Partridge, the leader of the English band XTC, pulled a bottle of herbal anti-stress pills out of his pocket.
Uh-oh.
Partridge's stage fright has kept the band from performing since 1982. Would the problem extend to into interviews too? After all when Partridge, who leads a cocooned existence at home in Swindon, England, did rounds of interviews for the band's 1987 album Skylarking, he seemed uptight.
On his mind at the time were his contentious relationship with Todd Rundgren, who produced the album, and the Bible Belt reactions to his controversial atheistic anthem "Dear God."
But as Partridge settled on a sofa in an office at the David Geffen Co. complex in Hollywood, the singer-songwriter-guitarist was anything but gun-shy, or any kind of shy.
That should come as no surprise to anyone who has heard XTC's latest album, Oranges and Lemons, a 15-track package full of bright, clever and often Beatlesque songs that are as colorful as the title and the Peter Max-like cover art. The album falls somewhere between the pastoral pastels of Skylarking and the tributes to psychedelia that XTC has done under the name the Dukes of Stratosphear.
And a good portion of the double album's 15 songs elaborate on what Partridge - the principal writer in a trio that also includes bassist-songwriter Colin Moulding and guitarist Dave Gregory - stated in "Dear God.
Likewise, in the interview, rather than soften or back off from what he started two years ago, Partridge barged straight ahead. He has no regrets that "Dear God" stirred up controversy, in the process drawing the most widespread attention of anything the band had released in its 10-year history. Rather, he felt sorry the that the song wasn't more disturbing to the Christian faithful.
"I'd like to go back to the religious theme full-blown sometime in the future when people have forgotten the hoo-ha of 'Dear God' - or the attempt of 'Dear God'," the 35-year old Partridge says. "it's such an enormous thing, it's impossible to do in 3 1/2 minutes."
New songs like "Merely a Man" (in which Partridge places the Wizard of Oz on a par with Jesus and Buddha) delineate Partridge's belief that religion is a "man-made subject". Partridge seems to relish the fact that while many in the pop world are earnestly seeking the meaning of life, he is intent on saying there is no great meaning in life.
"Christians are like filmgoers," he said. "They're like people who go to magic shows. Human beings want to believe in God, flying saucers, ghosts, or the 'I Ching'. They want Buddha, they want splatter movies, they want anything they can believe in, that's going to be their magic. They wouldn't be humans if they didn't have a burning desire for magic...
"What's my magic? I think it's kind of unraveling all this stuff myself. My magic is getting rid of the magic and getting through the magic to embrace the nothing other than have fun before you die, because you don't get a chance when you do die."
Partridge says that there is another kind of magic in his life: parenthood. He and his wife have a 3-year old girl and a 1 1/2-year old boy. That inspiration is as prominent on the album as his feelings about religion.
"I get into it in a big way," he said of being a father. "Even if I'm not so active, I"m a good mountain for them to climb on - a very interesting angular mountain. They can stand on my face, one of those dads."
Most important, he said, parenthood has helped him put his career in perspective.
"It's humbled me about this music thing. When you make kids, making music or making anything else goes way down the ladder...I've Frankensteined some life up. After that, writing more songs is sort of a jolly little hobby."
[Thanks to Amanda Owens]
Musician
Issue #127, May 1989
Rock Short Takes
XTC
Oranges and Lemons
(Geffen)It's only natural to be suspicious when an act as self-consciously clever as XTC delivers such an engaging tribute to the bliss of ignorance as "The Mayor of Simpleton". Don't think the band disingenuous, though; deep down, this album is as heartfelt a celebration of simple melody as XTC will ever make. That's not to say the lads don't indulge themselves occasionally - "Here Comes President Kill Again", for instance, is packed with stupid political puns - but from "Scarecrow People" to "Garden of Earthly Delights", "Oranges and Lemons" is sheer idiot glee. - J. D. Considine
[Thanks to David Oh]
Tower Records' Pulse!
April 1989
by Brent Milano
By now you've doubtlessly read stacks of raves on XTC's new double album, Oranges and Lemons. Here's some more: This is simply a record that we can't imagine anyone not liking, unless you've got a real problem with brilliant songwriting, personal-yet-universal lyrics, great singing and nifty guitar sounds. XTC can absorb '60s tricks as well as anyone — who else writes convincing peace-and-love songs in this cynical year? — but it doesn't stop there. There weren't many '60s bands who worked tributes to King Sunny Ade and Ladysmith Black Mambazo into a straightahead pop song, as XTC does on “Hold Me My Daddy.” Side two is the best (especially “Poor Skeleton Steps Out”), but there's nary a dull spot among these 60-odd minutes — and this ain't bandwagon-jumping, since we were nearly as ecstatic over 1986's Skylarking.
[Thanks to John Relph]
The Western Front
April 21, 1989
ALBUM REVIEW
By Jeremy Meyer
staff reporter
CREATIVE XTC HANDLES SUCCESS
ENGLISH BAND TASTES FRUITS OF HARVEST
After each album from so-called cult bands from early 80s, such as R.E.M., The Replacements or XTC, critics, fans and cynics always say, "this latest album is the one to make them superstars."
To longtime fans this means one thing -- sell out.
But with some bands who are intelligent enough to handle success, breaking into extreme popularity may not spell doom to their creativity. XTC is one of those rare bands. Even though the band's latest album, Oranges and Lemons, has enough hits to keep it hovering in Billboard's top 10 for several weeks, don't expect its songs to be converted into Pepsi commercials.
Oranges and Lemons will undoubtedly boost the band's public appeal, simply because it's chockful o' hits. Band leader Andy Partridge and his bass-playing buddy, Colin Moulding, know how to write a pop song similar to the Fab Four. They combine humor, infectious melodies and radiant harmonies, making them one of the most creative bands currently existing on this planet.
Oranges and Lemons showcases the band's abilities with songs that will satify the rocker, the popster or the burned-out Beatle fanatic.
The album begins with a psychedelic rave-up, "The Garden of Earthly Delights," sounding peculiarly similar to the band's parttime, pseudo-group, "The Dukes of Stratosphere," [sic] a semi-comical band the group poses as. Partridge, a recent father, says to his kid, "This is your life, and you'll do what you want to do. Just don't hurt no one, unless, of course, they ask you to."
The next song, "The Mayor of Simpleton," the first single off the album, is a radio programmer pleaser. The lyrics proclaim the love for someone, even though the singer may just be an Average Joe. The song's highlights are Partridge and Moulding's silky harmonies.
The album's focus is domestic, as members of the band have settled down from their frenetic punk days and have sprouted families and suburban lifestyles in their native town of Swindon, England.
The album's songs contain odes to children and fathers, warnings about psychotic presidents and, of course, love songs.
Songs such as "Merely a Man," showcase Partridge urging the band and listener to reach "Higher," as Penny Lanesque's trumpets complement the driving guitar groove.
Oranges and Lemons is distinctly different from the band's 1986 album, Skylarking, which was a technically smooth, flowing album, but lacked the punch of the new one. XTC chose Todd Rundgren to produce Skylarking. Rundgren, a pop music wizard, clashed personalities with Partridge, producing an album which lacked the typical XTC manic-groove.
For Oranges and Lemons, the band linked up with Paul Fox, a producer who has recorded hits for Boy George. Fox was less restrictive than Rundgren, letting the band's creativity take over in the studio.
If you've heard the album and are waiting to see the songs live, expect to wait a long time. Partridge likes touring about as much as Alaska likes Exxon. In 1982, when the band opened for the Police, Partridge had a nervous breakdown and decided to retire from touring.
Recorded music will be the closest the band's ever-increasing audience will come to XTC.
Don't expect a sell-out either, because the band members are too busy creating intoxicating pop songs and playing with their kids to appear alongside Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood in beer commercials.
[Thanks to James Isakson]
Chicago Tribune
Thursday, March 16, 1989
TEMPO
Home Entertainment
by Chris Heim
BEST OF NEW ALBUMS
XTC Oranges and Lemons (Geffen)
It is hard to resist once again comparing XTC to the Beatles when their ninth and newest album has a cover that resembles an outtake from Yellow Submarine. But it is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that this latest work most closely resembles. Like that Beatle classic, Oranges and Lemons is a riot of musical colors-from the Arabic modalities of "Garden Of Earthly Delights" and the surprising Afro-pop coda of the nakedly emotional "Hold Me My Daddy," to the delicate reverie of "Chalkhills and Children," which pays homage to the Beach Boys. Andy Partridge provides the album's sweet "oranges" with their '60s-styled "all you need is love" bouquet, while Colin Moulding's Lennonesque "lemons" bear the more acrid aroma of these "Cynical Days." Taken together, XTC's latest crop offers a refreshingly tart and wondrously rich harvest of intelligent and challenging pop.
[Thanks to David Crosby]
1989
XTC
Oranges And Lemons
No, XTC haven't re-formed, they never actually broke up. After releasing Skylarking three years ago Andy Partridge and his faithful cohorts Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory took another pseudonymous step sideways to record a second album as the The Dukes Of Stratosphear. Wacky '60s psychedelia has always been a discernible glint in Andy Partridge's eye and with the The Dukes of Stratosphear he pursued it to the point of whimsical silliness and beyond.
So, having thoroughly demo-ed the idea (and incidentally generated more sales than he did with some of XTC's later output), Andy Partridge is back with a new, considerably improved XTC product: a 15-track CD length album (or vinyl double) of psychedelic pop pastiche, but pastiche so powerfully drawn we ought really to call it a tribute. There's no mistaking to whom this lively compliment is directed either since it's been carried through all the way to the Yellow Submarine-style cartoon on the sleeve. Oranges And Lemons is obsessed with The Beatles, or more precisely Paul McCartney, circa 1967-8.
The various horn arrangements, and particularly the one on President Kill Again, are the most strikingly Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band quotation. The rolling, upbeat melody of The Loving has an unmistakably Paul McCartney-esque feel too, and a lyric which Andy Partridge himself has called All You Need Is Love in another form. The album's nursery rhyme title, surrealist nonsense ditties such as Poor Skeleton Steps Out and the opener, Garden Of Earthly Delight, all reinforce the tone of madcap naivety which was such a marked feature of British psychedelia in general and The Beatles in particular.
That said, there's an imaginative energy about Oranges And Lemons which rescues it from the straitjacket of being charmingly retro. This is partly down to a voracious musical appetite which finds XTC helping themselves to South African choral stylings on Hold Me Daddy, and dropping in and out of jazz, reggae, hard rock and so on. But the album's great strength is a simpler one-the songs. The single Mayor Of Simpleton for instance may carry echoes of So You Wanna Be A Rock'n'Roll Star by The Byrds, but that's not where it gets its quivering freshness or why it sounds so extraordinarily full of itself.
Exuberantly catchy but densely layered and mercifully free of that whiff of self-conscious art school cleverness which has blighted XTC in the past, these songs are thrilling before you catch their sophistication. It may be under the influence of many things but the finest hour celebrated here belongs finally and firmly to XTC.
Q Rating:
Reviewed By: Robert Sandall
[Thanks to Christopher Marrinan]
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26 April 2008
