Oranges and Lemons

By XTC

Geffen Records, 1989

They said XTC was dead. After years spent in and out of mental institutions, fans and critics believed lead singer and lyricist Andy Partridge was permanently committed. After a soaring success with the 1986 album Skylarking and its hit single "Dear God," the group was reportedly breaking up.

Suddenly, things are looking up for this English band, which has just released a strong new album and a possible Top 40 hit. Rumor has it XTC is even planning an American tour this summer, in spite of the group's decision years ago to quit touring because of Partridge's frequent nervous breakdowns on the road.

XTC's new album, Oranges and Lemons, released last week, is a departure from the smoothly orchestrated Skylarking. Instead of presenting gently coasting instrumentation, the group returns to the hard-hitting style of 1984's The Big Express and its earlier albums. Oranges and Lemons features a fair number of XTC's traditional energetic social statements, although it does show a suspicious tendency toward bouncy, top-40ish love songs and includes, not surprisingly, one or two utter failures.

The album starts off strongly with a dose of XTC's typical weirdness in "Garden of Earthly Delights." Dave Gregory's electric guitar adds an Arabian Nights effect above a barrage of tambourines, drums, and other percussion. Partridge's lyrics show a rare optimistic view of life ("This is your life and you be what you want to be. This is your life and you try it all,") while his voice stretches from one end of the scale to the other in a carefree lesson of the world's goodness.

The band is most successful on Oranges and Lemons when it does what it does best: performing hard-hitting rhythms accompanied by Partridge's elastic vocals and social statements. "Poor Skeleton Steps Out" is an excellent example of XTC's characteristically choppy beat, ehhanced by xylophone effects in this anti-sexist, anti-racist song about the confines of human flesh. This theme is continued in "Across This Antheap," a song which criticizes humanity's tribalism with lyrics like "Still segregating 'cause we insects are too proud" and "The stars are laughing at us as we crawl on and on across this antheap." Partridge again performs vocal acrobatics with "Antheap's" frantic beat, and Gregory comes through with a strong edge on the guitar.

One of the best songs on the album is "Merely a Man," which contrasts with "Skeleton" and "Antheap" in its optimism for mankind. Partridge suggests that "With logic and love we'll have power enough to raise consciousness up and for lifting humanity higher." This is one of the few instances on Oranges and Lemons that Colin Moulding has a chance to come through with a powerful bass line, making the song one of the album's strongest in spite of Gregory's unneeded and sometimes overdone guitar solos.

Although every XTC album contains its fair share of love songs, the group seems to have gotten a little sappier and a little more conventional on Oranges and Lemons. "The Mayor of Simpleton'"s lyric silliness ("I can't have been there when brains were handed 'round or get past the cover of your books profound") is somewhat offset by Partridge's fast-paced vocals, but with its bouncy rhythms and annoying chimes, it's still more of a junior high dance song than the XTC we know and love. Ironically, although "Mayor" proclaims, "Well I don't know how to write a big hit song," it may be the album's first Top 40 hit.

"The Loving" is another example of XTC's overly sentimental lyrics and catchy beat without substance. "All around the world," Partridge croons, "every boy and every girl need the loving." This song wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for its cheering crowd effects and guitar sols that recall memories of Styx concerts in the 70s.

Unlike the other love songs on Oranges and Lemons, "Miniature Sun" takes a reflective tone, comparing love and betrayal to the sun's heat. Partridge's voice rises and falls to create a spooky effect reminiscent of Skylarking's "1000 Umbrellas."

"Chalkhills and Children" also achieves a meditative tone in a slow, heavy journey over a dream landscape which makes a statement about the danger of fame. Moulding's attempt at thoughtfulness, however, falls flat in "Cynical Days," a song resembling a pre-teen poem of depression: "Another see-through scheme, people are shallow. The dark night's closing in, my dark thoughts follow." By forcing Partridge's voice to assume a lilting tone, "Cynical Days" leans more toward the laughable than the depressing.

Still, despite some lyrical weaknesses and tendencies toward the conventional, Oranges and Lemons is a stronger return for XTC that one might have hoped. With a majority of its songs hard-hitting and energetic, it should become a favorite of XTC fans. One can only pray that "The Mayor of Simpleton" won't be the only song to make the band famous in the next few years.