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Label: Caroline
Release Date: 2002-05-14
List Price: $15.98
Buy Now: $3.77 - $13.99
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(Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered)
Additional Info: Tracks Reviews
XTC's Best Record (4 stars)
There's something about Oranges and Lemons that really grabs you. Maybe it's the occasional socially and politically conscious songs imbedded in the verdant matrix of lush chamber pop or the sheer literacy of that chamber pop itself that makes this record stand out among the rampant hubris and pretension of the late 1980's. There's as much going on musically here as you'd find on any other record of that, or any other decade. And while that approach gets tiresome fast in less capable hands, XTC manages to keep the steady current of jazz and pop at a bracing constant as it rolls and boils over fifteen tracks.
Other reviewers have complained that the record suffers from poor quality production. To me, Oranges and Lemons sounds like a record made in 1989. It's true some of the production sounds dated. But as long as you're comfortable with the way Elvis Costello's Spike sounds, you shouldn't be too inconvenienced by Oranges and Lemons.
Frankly it's the year 1989, and all that portends, that creates the compelling basis for Oranges and Lemons. In a year when Milli Vanilli and Paula Abdul dominated the pop charts, a record like Oranges and Lemons fell like manna on a starving American population and a single like "The Mayor of Simpleton" provided the perfect succor in an adult contemporary desert of "Another Day in Paradise" and "Wind Beneath My Wings." (Of course the UK top pop scene was actually doing comparatively well, with Elvis Costello, The Stone Roses, and Morrissey composing the upper echelon, but I'm writing as an American who vividly remembers 1989.)
|  | | | A modern pop masterpiece! (5 stars)
This is a truly "GREAT" album. No qualifications or descriptions can do it justice. The songs are all top-notch, but it is the arrangements and production that nudge this one up to another plane. The band's previous LP "Skylarking" was a remarkable display of what Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding could do as songwriters. They let their Beatle-freak flag fly high and proud, and unleashed an album with depth, maturity and, most importantly, Style. Their next one is definitely the "White Album" to "Skylarking's" "Sgt Pepper." The song structures are more complex, the harmonic language is far more challenging, the playing (especially Moulding's cerebrally meandering bass) is far more involved. All of these traits are good things. When combined with Paul Fox's sparkly, imaginative production, XTC ends up with an album that aims as high as any more well known modern pop masterpieces, and which comes so damn close to sheer perfection, that its' minor flaws (one or two weaker songs) only render "Oranges and Lemons" more endearing. This is a contemporary classic if ever there was one. | | | | Mostly Oranges-Maybe Lemons -You Decide... (4 stars)
Yes. Yes. What can I say about "Oranges and Lemons" that you haven't already heard from the reviews on this page? ALOT! Seers are not known to shirk their appointed duties from the Eternal Force of the Universe you know. Not that their take is any more or less valid than my own. I never profess to be omnipotent --- but I am getting closer! And that, after all, is important!
This selection presented itself at a time in my life when all the doors (previously known that were locked) were suddenly flung open. Yes. Your beloved Metamorpho was fresh from the battle with evil and, unfortunately, it had depleted my mind, heart and soul. No folks. I was nothing like the carefree spirit that all my fans know and love today. Very depressing. But, even though evil won (in some sense), I also won for I morphed into Metamopho, who helps humanity (in some way) move towards a spiritual better tomorrow. And, in even that, evil, ironically, helped something good move through the universe. Do you know what I'm talking about? Probably not. Does it even matter? Probably not!
I have hard work ahead of me. I have to try to explain "Oranges and Lemons" and that daunting task is going to be incredibly hard. Why you ask? How bold. That is because the main impetus behind all this is Andy Partridge - and his musical excursions are equal that of your Metamorpho on his more manic days of writing. No. Scratch that. Metamorpho must use his energy left over supply just to keep up. But, you see me complaining?
XTC's vast song paintings move you over plains. Delightful at times, psychedelic at times, but with a mind mania strictly their own. In this, you could move to a song like "Garden of Earthly Delights", with it's off kilter-rubber band Hieronymous Bosch time drift message of "you'll be alright" to a shifted melodic melody like "Scarecrow People", that warns you all to forget your prejudices lest you wind up like scarecrow people too. Ingenius and..... perhaps genius. A band like XTC never lets you rest on your laurels.
I can not negate the talent here. However, that said, some of these tunes hit, and some do not. Possibly because that all are experimental in their own right. I do not mean to suggest that there isn't some coherence to the compositions here. There definitely is. But,your mind has to be opened to the shifts and changes that present themselves. Some are easy. Some take work. Thus, the listening experience impels you to take a detour of what your mind has, thus far, taken of what musical sense, or evolution, should take. In essence, their are sometimes pleasant turns in the road, and some not so pleasant. So, be forewarned.
For the most part though - we have the pleasant pop tune of "Mayor of Simpleton", the regal military march of "Here Comes President Kill Again" (a politcal observation?), "The Loving", a universal observation and the horn filled lament of "Cynical Days". The naughty, spritely ode to "Pink Thing" is an extra added laugh. Just one of the things that make this such an interesting overall selection.
In closing - XTC, I feel, is an entity all of it's own. They will not appeal to certain segments of listeners such as Sinatra would not. I am in that rare class that can listen to both. Well, I'm a Seer- what do you want? XTC went through a phase whereby they could out psychedelicize the psychedelics of the past. And, that meant really doing it! In some ways - yes. In others - overkill. So this has some things that are great- and others that miss as well. But, in the final analysis, this was an album that made me forget about the evil I dealt with and gave me some hope for the future. I cannot argue with that. And the creativity here is formidable. Very formidable! If your mind can shift like continental shifts - give it a listen. There are things here worth hearing.
Chalkhills and Metamorphos........ ;)
| | | | XTC's lone tragic misstep (2 stars)
Riding on the momentum of their surprise hit "Dear God" and its frighteningly excellent album "Skylarking," XTC seemed poised to take on the world by the late 80s. Armed with a crazy budget, a hip/successful young LA producer, and uber-posh LA recording studio, XTC set out to make the ambitious, double-length catastrophe "Oranges and Lemons."
As a fanatical XTC-obsessive, I've returned to "Oranges and Lemons" many times, but it consistently proves to be an awkward, unfocused, self-indulgent mess. Many of the songs sound half-baked and forced, like underdeveloped ideas that shouldn't have seen the light of day. Others sound awkwardly grandiose and hollow. The main problem is that the songs just aren't there. Whereas "Skylarking" and prior albums overflowed with inventively catchy, engagingly melodic, stylistically varied pop songs, the well seemed to have run dry for "Oranges and Lemons," on which the trademark sharp pop is largely replaced by uninspired fumbling. The problem stems partly from producer Paul Fox, who made the fatal error of indulging Andy Partridge's myriad excesses, rather than keep him focused as Todd Rundgren did with "Skylarking."
Adding insult to injury, this album was created in a glossy, big-budget studio with a hip, mullet-sporting LA studio-hack producer/engineer, complete with drums played by the guy from Mr. Mister, and it SOUNDS like it. The gloss effectively covers up XTC's usually abundant soulfulness, giving us a soulless, aggressively slick, MOR sound. Puzzlingly, guitarist Dave Gregory's typically moving and intricate guitar solos tend to come off like slick, hollow, arena-rock, session-guy posturing here.
Naturally, since this *is* XTC we're discussing, there are a few good songs, notably the commercially successful single "Mayor of Simpleton," with its swirling electric 12-string and dizzying bass line. Moulding's creative "Cynical Days," is a lush standout. "Miniature Sun" is noteworthy as a surging, fiery yet interestingly complex ball of energy, but hindsight reveals the demo version (found on the "Fuzzy Warbles" series) is way more direct and emotionally driving. "The Loving" is pleasant but trite, as is Moulding's "King for a Day," (and the latter's musical and lyrical similarities to Tears for Fears' "Everybody Want to Rule the World" didn't go unnoticed). And these are just the decent tunes, only a few of which truly fire on all cylinders. Much of the rest of "Oranges and Lemons" ultimately buries itself under its own awkward, over-frosted weight.
Clearly, XTC wasn't ready to make a new album, and they desperately needed a taskmaster like Rundgren to make them go back to the drawing board. "Oranges and Lemons" remains a dark stain in an otherwise spotless career and isn't a good place to start. I'd highly recommend starting with superior albums like "Skylarking," "English Settlement," and "Black Sea."
| | | | XTC's tart collection of Oranges & Lemons. (5 stars)
"Never been near a university,
Never took a paper or a learned degree,
And some of your friends think that's stupid of me,
But it's nothing that I care about.
Well I don't know how to tell the weight of the sun,
And of mathematics well I want none,
And I may be the mayor of simpleton,
But I know one thing,
And that's I love you.
When their logic grows cold and all thinking gets done,
You'll be warm in the arms of the mayor of simpleton."
XTC's bittersweet psychedelic set, Oranges & Lemons (1988), is the band's most commercially successful album, resulting in two singles, "The Mayor of Simpleton" and "King for a Day." XTC includes Colin Moulding on vocals and bass, tortured artist, Andy Partridge on guitar and vocals, Dave Gregory on guitars, vocals, and keyboards, and Pat Mastelotto on drums. This album combines a Beatlesque pop sound with a thinking-man's lyrics (e.g., the classic double-entendre of "Pink Thing"). It was recorded during Partridge's failing marriage and relationship with a fan (Erica Wexler), and also confronts dark themes of existential angst played against sunny melodies that would make both the Beatles and the Beach Boys envious. This album/CD has never sounded better.
The digitally remastered setlist includes:
1. Garden Of Earthly Delights (2001 Digital Remaster)
2. Mayor Of Simpleton (2001 Digital Remaster)
3. King For A Day (2001 Digital Remaster)
4. Here Comes President Kill Again (2001 Digital Remaster)
5. The Loving (2001 Digital Remaster)
6. Poor Skeleton Steps Out (2001 Digital Remaster)
7. One Of The Millions (2001 Digital Remaster)
8. Scarecrow People (2001 Digital Remaster)
9. Merely A Man (2001 Digital Remaster)
10. Cynical Days (2001 Digital Remaster)
11. Across This Antheap (2001 Digital Remaster)
12. Hold Me My Daddy (2001 Digital Remaster)
13. Pink Thing (2001 Digital Remaster)
14. Miniature Sun (2001 Digital Remaster)
15. Chalkhills And Children (2001 Digital Remaster)
G. Merritt | | | |
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