A selection of album
reviews, Oranges And Lemons to Upsy Daisy Assortment.
Sources indicated where known.
LIFE BEGINS AT THE HOP - Upsy Daisy Assortment Review, The Backbeat
A new greatest-hits album proves that XTC are still, pound for pound, the smartest band around.
Film critic David Denby once famously described Woody Allen and Clint Eastwood as "the last serious men in Hollywood -- they just make movies." Much the same probably could be said about England's XTC -- they may not be the last serious men in rock 'n' roll but, indisputably, they just make records. And brilliant ones at that.
Upsy Daisy Assortment is the long overdue greatest-hits album (granted, there was a singles compilation back in 1982) that collects many of them, and what strikes you immediately, especially if you're already a fan, is how consistent the band's vision and execution have been. There is, after all, a span of nearly 20 years between an early hit like "Making Plans for Nigel" and the concluding "Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead." [Memo to the Crash Test Dummies: May you burn forever in hell for the lame cover version you contributed to the soundtrack for Dumb and Dumber.] But even though, superficially, the songs couldn't be more different -- the first a spikily ironic piece of nascent New Wave pop, the second a glorious anthemic protest song with a heart as big as all outdoors -- both musically and sonically they seem very much of a piece. In fact, the whole album feels like that -- as if it were created at one marathon recording session. And what a session that would have been, running the gamut from the Paul McCartney meets Bruce Springsteen blue-collar pop of "Earn Enough for Us," to the Bob Dylan has dinner with John Lennon-ish "Senses Working Overtime," to the deliberately blasphemous kids' song "Dear God" to the unabashedly romantic pop epiphany that is "The Mayor of Simpleton." Face it: There aren't a lot of bands around with as impressive a résumé, so if for some reason -- like you're just being difficult -- you've never really paid attention to XTC's brand of pop smarts before, you more or less owe it to yourself to get on the stick. And Upsy Daisy Assortment is a pretty convenient way to do it. -- Steve Simels
Rating = 9 ("Nearly flawless, a major work")
Upsy Daisy Assortment, Icast - June 1997
Beginning life as a British post-punk pop band in the late '70s, XTC eventually metamorphosed into a kind of New Wave Beatles, exhibiting a mastery of both songwriting and studio techniques as well as the same disdain for live performance that made the post-'66 Beatles strictly a recording entity. This collection represents the best of the crop from XTC's voluminous catalog. While UPSY DAISY concentrates on the catchier, more accessible side of the band's repertoire, there are unusual twists and turns aplenty in every track here.
Singer-songwriters Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding share an uncanny ability for turning strange harmonies, extended melody lines and bizarre lyrics into irresistible pop songs. On "No Thugs In Our House," a young boy's parents reiterate their denial of their son's incipient fascism over a jolly backbeat. The child vocalist on "Dear God" assails the almighty with existential queries to a sinuous, infectious melody. UPSY DAISY makes a perfect introduction to the masterful work of an important band.
XTC Fossil Fuel (Virgin) - Beat Magazine - Sydney - 30th October 1996 Transcription by Colin Wright
** CD of the Week **
XTC - Fossil Fuel: the XTC Singles 1977-92 (Virgin)
Various - A Testimonial Dinner: The Songs of XTC (TWA)
The genius of XTC is that, unlike other staple acts of musicality who in the past have been successful in releasing concept albums (Supertramp, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers INXS etc.), XTC are clever in their issuing of individual concept songs. Almost every one of their single releases has come complete with a sleeve matching the song's lyrical theme, while the music intact was just as onomatopoetic (sic), as exemplified perfectly in the cacophonous climax of Great Fire, the playground ambience of Wonderland, the naval war cries of All You Pretty Girls, the psychedelic strands of Grass, and the alarmic electronic stabs of Wake Up.
With clear pop vision, XTC have sailed the pop charts worldwide, especially renowned for their household tunes Making Plans for Nigel, Generals and Majors, Senses Working Overtime, Dear God and The Disappointed, all of which are included on this greatest hits compilation.
So pertinent is the musicology of XTC, their influence is well audible in recent compositions by Blur, Nancy Boy, Pulp, Tears for Fears et al.
In fact, some of XTC's biggest fans in the music industry have been stimulated to record their own versions of x-tatic classics, under the banner of A Testimonial Dinner. To recite the songs in their original form would not only be unwise but impossible, and to mock or mimic would be futile, hence the likes of Spacehog, Crash Test Dummies, The Rembrandts and They Might Be Giants add their own definitive touch to the epic tracks (respectively) Senses Working Overtime, All You Pretty Girls, Making Plans for Nigel, and 25 O'clock.
(8.9 out of 10 for the original XTC; 7.5 for their emulators)
Antonio Tati - Beat Magazine
XTC Fossil Fuel (Virgin) - Vox Magazine, December 1996
The songs of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding have been as big an influence on Blur as those of Ray Davies, as this timely reminder proves. All 31 of XTC's British singles are on these two discs, from the teenage dancehall fumblings of "Life Begins At The Hop", to the commuter-belt grooviness of "Making Plans For Nigel", to the suburban, staccato of "Respectable Street".
XTC were at their best when marrying Beatles-esque harmonies to pocket portraits of Middle England, as in "Love On A Farmboy's Wages", "Towers Of London" or "The Mayor Of Simpleton". They were a vastly underrated group, as quintessentially English as Madness or Squeeze; Britpop's boffin uncles, in fact.
9/10
Terry Staunton
XTC Fossil Fuel (Virgin) - Bournemouth Advertiser (!)
Joy-double CD XTC compilation! All the 45s and the best of the album tracks, unless you're an absolute anorak this is all you'll ever need. Great songs from the heart of Little England complete with burning melodies, busting choruses and tidy production. Listen and learn ye upstart Britpop types.
**** (Four Stars)
XTC - Fossil Fuel: The Singles 1977-92 - NME, 5 October 1996
A poignant moment: in the midst of the swooping seamongering of "All Your Pretty Girls" (sic), one Andy Partridge sighs deeply, shrugs his shoulders and sings, " Well I don't know how to write a big hit song." (Oh my God - Simon S.) He's correct of course - of the 31 tracks assembled on this here collection, only three bothered the Top 20 of the charts, while only one, "Senses Working Overtime", actually tickled the Top ten. Rock-hard evidence of the man's miserable lack of tunesmithery ability, right? No, not really.
Partridge once claimed that Virgin only retained his band as a tax loss. Certainly, by today's hectic wheeler-dealer standards, XTC have had a fair old coporate innings, delivering no fewer than ten albums to their paymaster's doorstep with another on the way next year. Not bad for a band whose first single was called (harrumph!) "Science Friction", whose early oeuvre reeked suspiciously of art-school japery dressed up in skinny, new wave ties, whose later "mature" releases went all Tears For Fears-shaped, and whose main songwriter was so poorly built for pop stardon that after various nervous breakdowns in the early '80s he decided - in true stage-freaked Scott Walker stylee - that XTC would never play live again.
This, presumably, is what happens to artists with maverick tendencies who've witnessed their work being described as "quirky" three too many times for their liking.
All of which somewhat swerves around the main point, which was that Partridge, supported by the songwriting craft of Wiltshire mate Colin Moulding, ensured that peak period XTC manufactured a formidable series of jaunty, clever-but-not-smartarse and thus classically British records (see "Making Plans For Nigel", "Generals And Majors", "Dear God", "The Mayor Simpleton") which veered between the intelligent and the downright irreverent. At best, they mastered a curious blend of of Trumpton-tickled whimsy and palpitating choruses which sadly all too often seemed to stagger to a halt in the wasteland commonly known as The Top 58.
So, "Fossil Fuel" is a seamless roll from boisterous punk era beginnings - check the vertigo inducing ironically-raised eyebrow that is "This Is Pop" - through a phase of checked-shirt charm and on to the sweet pithiness of the early '90s, all mild-mannered vibes and mellow doominess which, in the case of penultimate track "The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead", was deemed worthy of a "tribute" cover by Crash Test Dummies.
As such, the perfect record for punters who instantly recognise The Farmers Boys being played on trailers for BBC nature programmes and who still hanker after a Wah! CD release. Not quite a collection of "big hit songs", then, which is quite possibly why no-one's bothered to include any revelatory sleevenotes for a band who have jangled and journeyed for nigh on 20 years. Shame.
6/10
Simon Williams
Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles Collection - Q Magazine, September 1996.
This was a such a long review it has been given its own page
Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles Collection - Empire Magazine, September 1996. ** Album Of The Month**
When Andy Partridge was called in to produce Blur's second album, the two parties didn't hit it off and the collaboration was aborted. And it seemed so right! This 31-track, two-disc set from 1977 to 1992 fully explains why: theirs was a powerful English whimsy with corking tunes attached, from earlier suburban New Wave pop through to later psychedelic Beatle-isms - the main difference between XTC and Blur is that Blur are largely understood by a discerning chunk of the masses. But if XTC hadn't been in to bat first, who knows?
4 out of 5, Andrew Collins
A Testimonial Dinner - On The Street Magazine - 30th October 1996 Transcription by Colin Wright
Nobody can satisfactorily match the complexity, wit and sheer ability of XTC. This selection of artists are only pale imitators even as they try to pay homage to one of the leading bands of the last 15-20 years (minus the four years that Virgin have kept them out of circulation).
Verve Pipe, four songs in, are the first to actually get a handle on the sound with Making Plans for Nigel. Then Sarah McLachlan takes a tentative bite at Dear God that works more because of the lyrics than her approach. Ruben Blades puts a mambo beat to The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul and completely reworks it in a cool Latin jazz style. Terry of Terry & the Lovemen has a vocal range that's pretty close to Andy Partridge with The Good Things. Listen then buy.
A.S. - On The Street
Through The Hill - Q Magazine, July 1994
If English pop eccentric and Californian ambient composer seems an unlikely combination, then Partridge's dub and psychedelic experiments and recent pastoral direction should provide a clue. Surprisingly, it's Budd who emerges as the dominant character, his spacious, almost motionless creations of piano and organ sounds (replete with murmur and sustain) forming much of the framework. Partridge's contributions (though equally spartan) seem more like deliberate and decorative responses, with their own tensions, rhythms and snatches of pop melody, and played on delicate acoustic guitar, wobbly early sythesizer or percussion. The result is 16 mood pieces (instrumental apart from two brief voice-overs of poetic imagery from Budd) bearing titles like Mantle Of Peacock bones or Bearded Aphrodite - an enchanting and emotive work of complementing contrasts, with the odd sample of distant church bells or more exotic chimes helping to form an integrated whole.
3 out of 5, Ian Cranna
BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert - Q Magazine, January 1993
There's never been an XTC live album before, of course, because in 1982, Andy Partridge's stomach ulcer forced a prudent surrender to stagefright and permanent withdrawal to the studio. Happily, this 1980 recording from Radio 1 is an evocative snapshot. Apart from early favourites, This Is Pop and Making Plans For Nigel, there are seven tracks from the then just-released Black Sea: sharp satires Respectable Street and Generals And Majors, patented Partridge acute-angle love songs Burning With Optimism's Flames and Love At First Sight (sic), and the ground-breaking Towers Of London - which presaged the "new wave folk" of English Settlement and beyond. It seems a totally confident performance, with all fear set aside as the clangour of Partridge and Dave Gregory's guitars provides a rowdy contrast to the verbal depths and intricacies.
3 out of 5, Phil Sutcliffe
Nonsuch, iCast - April 1992
XTC's NONSUCH falls somewhere between the high-polish shine of ORANGES & LEMONS and the pastoral reverie of SKYLARKING. The album also marked the end of the band's dealings with their original label, the beginning of protracted legal maneuverings, and a seven year gap in releases (ended with APPLE VENUS VOLUME ONE in 1999). The generous total of seventeen songs was also the result of the three-year recording gap preceding it. Included are ample rewards ranging from the rocking ("The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead," "Crocodile," "The Disappointed") to the soothing ("My Bird Performs," "Holly Up On Poppy," "Humble Daisy"). As always, a distinctly British sense of place, manner and language pervades the songs (in a manner not unlike The Kink's VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY).
Nonsuch, NME, 16 May 1992 - Terry Staunton Contributed by Thomas Hoheisel
Andy Partridge has a unique way of calibrating the success of XTC. Not for him the pie charts and sales curves of The Man, he judges how well he'sdoing by what he can afford for his leafy Wiltshire abode.
His last big hit was 'Senses Working Overtime' ten years ago, which enabled him to build a kitchen extension. When XTC were last with us in 1990, Andy was hoping the 'Mayor of Simpleton' single would get him a new stair carpet. Sadly, the record fell just short of the Top 40 and he had to make do with "a generous round of drinks".
Andy will no doubt be highly chuffed with the success of 'The Disappointed', the first single from 'Nonsuch', and if the rest of the album is anything to go by he'll soon be fitting luxurious shagpiles in every room of Chez Partridge.
There is nothing particularly exciting or ground-breaking about 'Nonsuch', it's just another extremely good XTC album with the usual fractured guitar melodies coupled with cute and curious lyrics about what a nice place England is. Oddly enough, it's the Americans who buy most of this stuff.
Partridge strolls through familiar territory of misfits and miscreants, orchards and omnibuses. Colin Moulding offers similar on his four songs, only in a slightly less bumpkinesque voice. Andy sang about his son Harry on 1990's 'Oranges And Lemons' album, this time he offers 'Holly Up On Poppy' about his daughter and her rocking horse. In some people's hands this would be twee rubbish, but what's endearing about Partridge is his resolute "couldn't give a f---" attitude to it all.
XTC left the rock'n'roll rat race years ago and chart their own course with total disregard for the usual trappings of pop stardom. 'Nonsuch' is the sound of Andy Partridge making home improvements, and this album would be an improvement to anyone's record shelf.
(7 out of 10)
Nonsuch, Musik Express 5/92 (Germany's
leading pop monthly. Author unknown.)
Contributed and translated by Thomas Hoheisel
The Fab Three of British pop have released an album which is beyond compare in its stylistic diversity. For instance, 'My Bird Performs' - penned by Colin Moulding - is probably the most beautiful song Paul Simon never wrote. 'The Smartest Monkeys' compares favourably to The Police's best moments. Scenic, elegant 'Bungalow' reminds me of late thirties movie decadence. Andy Partridge, too, offers two potential hit singles - the compact 'The Disappointed' and the sublime 'Books Are Burning', focussing on British Muslims burning books by Salman Rushdie. In songs like these, XTC use the charm of the sixties to question the zeitgeist of the nineties. A brilliant album.
(6 out of 6)
The XTC legacy: The Chicago Tribune, Sunday, May 3, 1992
XTC emerged as a quirky new wave band on the pithy White Music (1977, ***). Go 2 (1978, **½) continues in the same adrenalized, adenoidal vein without the peaks of its predecessor: "Radios in Motion," "This is Pop" and especially "Statues of Liberty."
Drums and Wires (1979, ***½) is among the more accomplished records of its time--edgy, brisk and sarcastic, with pop gems such as "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Life Begins at the Hop."
Black Sea (1980, ****) marks the end of an era with an exclamation point. From here on out, the band's writing would become even more complex and personalized.
The double-album length English Settlement (1982, ***) delves into more elaborate arrangements, broader social issues and longer songs with mixed results. One of the problems, as with most subsequent XTC records, is that it's overstuffed, with 15 songs instead of, say, the best 10.
Waxworks (1984, ****) recaps the band's best early work. Mummer (1983, **½)combines lilting love songs with clumsy social commentaries. The Big Express (1984, **) is XTC at its most cynical and grating.
Skylarking (1986, ****) is lush and beguiling, drawing the listener into its world before exiting on a note of death and nihilism. The kaleidescopic Oranges and Lemons (1989, ***) is nearly as good, opening with the aptly titled "Garden of Earthly Delights," but undercuts itself with some mid-album dross.
Rag and Bone Buffet (1991, **) is a collection of leftovers some of which should have stayed in the vaults.
Nonsuch (1992, ***) contains a few soft spots-"The Smartest Monkey" is another social commentary that falls flat and "Then She Appeared" finds the band repeating itself--but the vast majority of the 17 songs are dazzlers, mix of Broadway pomp, McCartneyesque sing-song, lilting melodies, delightful odes to everyday pleasures and humbling introspection. Though the first single is the estimable "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead," the should-be hit is Partridge's "Dear Madam Barnum."
Greg Kot
Nonsuch - Vox magazine
The fiery core of XTC's elaborate pop has gradually chilled over their past few albums, as songwriter Andy Partridge's pre-occupation with the social and intellectual decay of the '80s and '90s has hardened into the Beatley structure and Beach Boys harmonies of his songs like a particularly pervasive permafrost.
Nonsuch is arguably XTC's darkest album yet, whether taking a direct course to the target - as in 'Wardance', and almost funky tirade against jingoism - or spinning typically uncomfortable word webs around their objective, such as you'll hear on their hymn to meathead sexual politics, 'Omnibus.'
Long-time fans of the Swindon combo will initially find Nonsuch rather one-dimensional by comparison with their last album - and career masterpiece - Oranges And Lemons, and there's more filler-material here ('That Wave', 'Then She Appeared').
At best, though, this is an album precisely of it's time. 'Bungalow' (a sad reflection on sea-side retirement built brilliantly around cinema organ) and 'Rook' (as powerful a picture of alienation verging on madness as, say, Patti Smith's 'Land') very much chart the mental and physical landscape of the current recession.
Though XTC's detractors will continue to label them clever for cleverness's sake, a quirky New Wave joke curling fast at the corners, I'd like to hear one or two of the currently-favoured guitar bands shoe-gaze their way into this sort of cerebral territory.
8/10
XTC - Nonsuch, Imports Section - Q Magazine, March 1997 - David Quantick
Their last album to date and the one no-one remembers, Nonsuch (named, aptly, after a vanished Elizabethan palace) is very much malt XTC, a fine blend of various styles matured to an extraordinary refinement. So no hits then, but 17 excellent songs, a couple of their best singles (The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead, covered by Crash Test Dummies, and the lovely The Disappointed) and a brilliant sense of three men living in Swindon making music very much for themselves. Dear Madam Barnum find Andy Partridge lyrical and polite in his pissed-offness while Holly Up On Poppy proves that you can write songs about your children and not look a total gurning jackass and Crocodile remninds the listener that this is the same XTC who made Drums And Wires. Nonsuch was maded in 1992; perhaps now that half a decade has elapsed, they might make a new album?
4 stars out of 5
Nonsuch - Q Magazine, May 1992
If EMI's takeover of the Virgin label results in the culling of the company's roster, it will be interesting to see where that leaves XTC. No group has remained on the label so long without finding a commercial niche, although 1989's Oranges And Lemons enjoyed some success in the States thanks to Dear God (I think not - Simon), a track the British label saw fit to omit, and no group more exemplifies the seam of English eccentricity on which Virgin was built. Produced, although you wouldn't know it, by Gus Dudgeon, Nonsuch contains 17 dense, melodic, intelligent and occasionally irritating pop songs, most of them from the pen of Andy Partridge. Colin Moulding's contributions are fewer and sparer, more inclined to know where to stop than major productions like Partridge's furious Rushdie affair anthem Books Are Burning. The level of XTC's invention is evidenced by the arrangements of the guitars and the layers of backing vocals but there's a tendency to underscore the lyrical message of tunes like Wardance which is tiresome.
Q Rating: 3, Reviewed By: David Hepworth
Nonsuch - Select magazine
Andy Partridge once likened XTC to the ravens at the Tower Of London - nobody at Virgin knows what they're there for, but somehow it wouldn't be the same without them.
'Nonsuch', like their last communiqué from parallel England, 'Oranges And Lemons' (1989), is a prime example of what keeps XTC as peripheral as they are loveable.
Partridge's pop eye is as keen as ever, and 'The Disappointed' - hey-ho poignancy in which Andy P is elected unwilling king of all those who lost in love - might even be a hit. But he's too honest to build in enough jollity. Incipient jingoistic Euro-fascism turns up on 'Books Are Burning' and 'Wardance' and the songs are deft enough not to tumble into Bragg-style polemicism. Instead 'Nonsuch' and Partridge are amiably self-deprecating throughout.
Good on him, too.
4/5
Oranges and Lemons - J.D. Considine, Musician, May 1989 Contributed by Martin Monkman
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.
Oranges and Lemons - David Wilson, Magazine Unknown, 1989
The catchy Arabian nights of The Garden Of Earthly Delights open the latest XTC album, a double album at that. The raw edges are all smoothed, the eccentricities are less eccentric. It's still uniquely XTC, but only just. The first side gives you that buzz that tells you you're listening to something special. The most recent single, The Mayor Of Simpleton is good singalong stuff, while King For A Day sounds like Simple Minds and the closing track is like George Harrison circa Sgt Peppers. Through side two and three, XTC begin to tire, becoming MOR, the arrangements offer a curious blend of instrumentation but nothing can disguise the lack of good tunes. On side four a resurgence is hailed by a sleazy trumpet solo and by the finale we've welcomed both The Moody Blues and The Beach Boys to good effect. XTC offer all their influences without detracting from some good songs, but they find it difficult to tart up the pedestrian numbers. In total, this really would have made a good single album.
Sides 1&4 - ****, Sides 2 & 3 - **
Oranges And Lemons - Q magazine
No, XTC haven't reformed, 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 Dukes Of Stratosphear. Wacky '60s psychedelia has always been a discernible glint in Partridge's eye and with the Dukes 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) 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 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 1967-68.
The various horn arrangements, and particularly the one on President Kill Again, are the most strikingly Peppery quotation. The rolling, upbeat melody of The Loving has an unmistakably McCartney-esque feel too, and a lyric which 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 naiveté 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 My 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 it's 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.
4/5
Oranges And Lemons - source unknown
Knowing English whimsy and good-humoured pure pop - who needs 'em?. Me for one. Teetering along the fine line between "clever" and "clever-clever", between being funny and being a joke, XTC deliver. Big melodies! Wondrous guitars! Drinking tea as we dance decent madrigals in the sun dappled Wiltshire afternoons of our minds, long-time believers will shrug off the sneers of the unknowing people who think XTC uncool for being enthusiastic and child-like at the same time as they grow old.
XTC's liberal brand of social concern may, like the band themselves, be deeply unfashionable. A protest song like President Kill has rather uncomfortable overtones of Gabriel-era Genesis, an irritating air of helpless hippy hand-wringing. A song like Pink Thing may be embarrassing. A band like XTC may never be wholly perfect. Thankfully tunes like XTC's usually are.
8/10
Oranges And Lemons - Sounds, 1989
It takes a while to perfect the ultimate pop recluse technique and Andy Partridge continues to plug away, this time playing the XTC card as opposed to the paisley-patterned Dukes of Stratosfear variant. The result is his most successful stylised brew since 'English Settlement'.
Which, typically XTC, means affectionate pastiche all round. The sleeve has the boys in their own Yellow Submarine fantasia, Partridgeland presumably. There's also effusive puns plus some soppy, naive and utterly inspired moments of pop brilliance.
'Garden Of Earthly Delights' has Maharishi-mania period Beatles battling against Prince, who plays 'Kashmir' to Andy's popular theme of childlike innocence versus the big bad world. Whatever music sparks Partridge these days, the oft-cited Fab Four are only part of the story.
'Merely A Man' features some especially flamboyant guitar that one could attribute to any of the Purple One's many acolytes and the final mantra, 'Chalkhills And Children', is quite obviously a dream about Brian Wilson circa 'Pet Sounds'.
This is all fair, above board and par for the Partridge. What is striking is how techno-friendly XTC currently sound. Recorded in LA, 'Oranges And Lemons' has nary a whiff of that once familiar bucolic whimsy. Instead it layers on the gloss, at times excessively so; 'Miniature Sun' rambles the free-form road to nowhere that Partridge used to navigate a lot better.
So long as he sticks to pop, though, and keeps Colin Moulding well away from the songwriter's chair - his weak compositions invariably disrupting what sense of cohesion might have otherwise transpired - Andy hit's some contemporary nails quite squarely on the bonce. That 'Mayor Of Simpleton' failed to chart begs a lengthy public inquiry.
Not that XTC will worry. As Andy muses on the aforementioned 'Garden', "Some will even drop you but hearts are made of rubber, so you'll be alright." Their heart remains distinctively durable, dependably ecstatic.
3 3/4 out of 5
(Simon's note: One Sounds reader, Danny Storr of Edinburgh, was so incensed by the dismissal of Colin's contribution to Oranges And Lemons in the above review that he sent the following letter to the magazine:-
"Having listened to XTC's magnificent new album 'Oranges And Lemons', I feel compelled to disagree violently with your reviewer's assertion that Colin Moulding should have been kept of the songwriter's seat.
His three compositions are easily as strong as Andy Partridge's, and 'One Of The Millions' is easily the strongest on the album.
The strength of XTC is that they have two good songwriters, and I feel that Colin Moulding is the best songwriter currently around. It was he who wrote 'Making Plans For Nigel', as well as other wonderful songs as 'Ball And Chain', "Majors and Generals(sic)', 'The Big Day', etc.
I am sure he will accept an apology in blood.")
Oranges And Lemons - Melody Maker
"I may be the Mayor of Simpleton but I know one thing and that's I Love You." It's a wonderfully effervescent single, a slice of the finest bubble-pop amid the general clamminess of Simon Mayo's breakfast show. Andy Partridge has a neat dig a the critics who have always labelled XTC too clever by half and comes up with an Eighties version of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World". "Mayor Of Simpleton" is a masterwork of, uh, simplicity.
Which ought to bode well for a refreshingly tight LP, yes? No. If "Mayor" is Angel Delight then most of this LP - a sprawling double which could easily have been trimmed to a single - is one of those unappetising yoghurts you find for half price in Sainsbury's at 5:30; kiwi fruit and cauliflower, mango and anchovy. There's simply too much going on most of the time. Take "Poor Skeleton Steps Out" - once you're past the awful title there's a glockenspiel, slowed down voices, a hoover being switched on, girlie backing and a whistling solo all married to the slightest of tunes and underpinned by Partridge's sneering drawl. At the end of the song a backing voice pipes up with "Better watch out, here comes bony boy" and it's reminiscent of nothing more than Bill Oddie's "hilarious" songs in "The Goodies". "Garden Of Earthly Delights" is equally lumpen, "Across The Antheap" and "Pink Thing" quirky and tiresome. Quirky! Come the New Wave revival, XTC will clean up!
Maybe I'm too harsh, "Oranges And Lemons" does include a handful of great pop songs. All three Colin Moulding songs are splendid: "Merely A Man" is cut from the same froth as "Mayor Of Simpleton", and includes the very same trumpet as "Penny Lane". "The Loving" is Andy Partridge's best song, though conversely it is a distant cousin to Peter Frampton's "Show Me The Way", with wah-wah overload and crowd screams (for XTC? Must have been "Razzmatazz).
For a group whose career highlights are "Love On A Farmboy's Wages" becoming a Radio 2 favourite and Peter Glaze singing "Making Plans For Nigel" on "Crackerjack", "Oranges And Lemons" is suitably eclectic. At it's best it sounds like a Seventies reading of Sixties pop. Todd Rundgren's influence obviously went further than producing "Skylarking". But as a double, it allows for too much mediocrity and silliness, meandering tunes and unnecessary techno plonks. Not enough simplicity. "Oranges And Lemons" is too clever by half.
Oranges And Lemons - NME
It pains me to say this, but Andy Partridge has just written the first great pop song about a penis. 'Pink Thing' is a song on which Partridge scats and wails with a gentle cheerfulness quite rare in pop. Pink thing spit in my eye he demands over light and bucolic guitars.
This is, however, as may be, (Partridge claims the song is about his son, as well. Damn). "Oranges And Lemons" contains 14 other songs on it's double slices of vinyl and few of them share 'Pink Thing's playfulness and invention. There are no stiffs here (oh, sorry), it's just that the majority of songs jangle and harmonise and quote the mid '60s and old XTC tunes far too often to justify this record's length.
However, we shall deduct two point because XTC have offered us a long and unwieldy object (sorry again), and look at the good bits. There is 'Mayor Of Simpleton' which ought to chart with it's jingling melody. Never mind that it's yet another Partridge "Cor I'm crap" tale - it is a fine single.
XTC's lyrical concerns - world leaders are useless, war is wrong, the countryside is brilliant - flourish as ever, joined by the strange and sweet "Hold Me My Daddy", a less offensive versh of "The Living Years" complete with fake high-life ending, and "Poor Skeleton Steps Out", a rattling (natch) number whose lyrics are too inane to concern us here.
I miss the variety XTC used to have, the way they could take on folk or Beatlage or chart pop or whatever, and this record's bulk gives me more of what I don't want; one can only hope that XTC will stop the jangling soon and get their fingers out.
In the meantime, I would like to see Andy Partridge's 'Pink Thing' pulled out and standing up where it belongs, out in the public where we can all admire it. I know, I know.
7/10
(Simon's note: in the issue of the NME which included the above review the rating system for all albums was based on the review's editors evaluation of previous XTC releases. I've included the rating plan below:-
An ecstatic guide to the NME marking system: 10 Senses Working Overtime 9 Generals And Majors 8 The Big Express 7 Skylarking 6 Complicated Game 5 Love On A Farmboy's Wages 4 No Thugs In Our House 3 Ball And Chain 2 Are You Receiving Me? 1 Dear GodOn the same page They Might Be Giants "Lincoln" album scored a "Skylarking").
Oranges And Lemons by DEBBY LEVINSON, The Tech online news service, March 17, 1989.
How many groups start out with punk fervor and end up regressing to Beatlesque pop? Not many, I'll bet, except for XTC, whose guitar thrashings spiced up early recordings like White Music and Drums and Wires and whose last album, Skylarking, was a musical trip through Pepperland courtesy of producer Todd Rundgren. XTC did show their psychedelic side in two releases by their alter egos, the Dukes of Stratosphear, but they were never accused of consciously copying the Beatles until recently. Their latest release is the double album Oranges & Lemons, and it should clear up any remaining doubt about where their sympathies lie; the cover is a swirling mass of cartoonish colors and absurdly stretched images a la Peter Max, and some of the songs are so obviously homages to the Beatles it's a wonder that they weren't credited to Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr.
The most apparent Beatles imitations here are probably "The Loving," which begins with cheering (see "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band") and the overtly political "Here Comes President Kill Again" (alias "Because"), which damns both Americans and British for their international meddlings in the name of saving the world from communism. Not that the songs aren't catchy or worth listening to; "Mayor of Simpleton," the current single, is charmingly naive in sentiment, and "Chalkhills and Children" casts a slow, peaceful musical spell.
There is one limiting factor to Oranges & Lemons -- the best songs are all on the first two sides. XTC had already created the world's most perfect double album in 1982's English Settlement, and Oranges & Lemons seems stuffed with filler by comparison. Peel away a few extraneous songs, and this could become a highly enjoyable Beatles tribute album.
Oranges And Lemons from the Daily Mail 'Rock' Column, March 22, 1989 - contributed by Mick Casey
XTC's first recording in three years, the double LP, single CD, Oranges and Lemons (Virgin), has finally arrived and settled happily into its new home on my turntable.
As more then hinted at by the imitation Yellow Submarine cover, the group has finally allowed its Beatle influences to take over completely.
The result is a fascinating mish-mash of psychedelic whimsy and sparkling tunes. Anyone who has heard the single The Mayor Of Simpleton will have heard one of year's best singles so far. Only occasionally does inspiration fail.
If XTC left you with their Rustic Period back in the mid-Eighties, now is definitely the time to rediscover them.
If you have never heard them at all, now's the time to find out what you are missing.
Marcus Berkmann
Oranges And Lemons - Tower
Records Online
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 Partridge's 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.
All original work is acknowledged as being the copyright of the originator.
