XTC
All music and lyrics by Andy Partridge except...
"King For A Day,""One Of The Millions," and "Cynical Days,"
all music and lyrics by Colin Moulding
Produced by Paul Fox and XTC
Released February 27, 1989
XTC:
Andy Partridge: Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars
Colin Moulding: Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Bass Guitars, Acoustic Guitars
Dave Gregory: Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars, Piano, Keyboards, Synthesizers
with
Pat Mastelotto: Drums, Percussion, Electronic Percussion
Mark Isham: Trumpet
After such a brutally and unforgivably long winter, it is time to bring in the sunshine!
Have you ever been so anxious to hear a new piece of music from a long cherished artists that the anticipation is almost overcoming? As you could gather, I have experienced that very sensation more times than I could possibly recount to you. But in the case of the album that I am about to celebrate and commemorate, just shortly after the official 25th anniversary of its release, my anticipation completely took me over and practically seeped into my dreams as I could not wait to hear it.
The band is XTC. Hailing from the town of Swindon, England, XTC entered our public musical consciousness via the New Wave scene of the late 1970's and early 1980's, under the dual songwriting leadership of guitarist/singer Andy Partridge and bassist/singer Colin Moulding and featured a musical palate that combined herky jerky post-punk rock rhythms with a hugely melodic soundscape and a extraordinary literary slant to their lyrics that is so sadly missing from music currently. After experiencing a few band line-up changes and the severe trauma brought on by Andy Partridge's crippling stage fright, XTC retired from touring entirely in 1982 yet for the following twenty three years of their career, XTC became a studio band creating increasingly lush, endlessly creative, richly timeless and, as far as I am concerned, flat out essential albums for anyone's music collection time and time again to great critical acclaim but unfortunately to low album sales and chart positions aside from a few minor hit singles like "Making Plans For Nigel," "Senses Working Overtime," and "Life Begins At The Hop." Their 1989 release "Oranges & Lemons" grandly sits near the very tip-top of their hugely impressive discography and I am so honored to celebrate it for you at this time.
XTC entered my life quite auspiciously at the age of 13 and via a once close Middle School companion named Naomi Spector. I honestly do not exactly remember how we first met and she did eventually transfer away from my school early in High School but for a couple of years, she and I somehow became extremely close friends. Naomi was precisely the type of girl my parents did not approve of and she annoyed them to no end, a point they quite often made clear to me in no uncertain terms, a friction that did cause considerable tension at home. Naomi was aggressive and more than a little persistent. We would talk on the phone for hours on end and within seconds of hanging up, she would call me right back, thus angering my parents even more. Naomi did tend to have a flair for the dramatic as well and she was a person who seemed to be so left of center from my friends and most definitely myself. She was so far ahead of me in terms of music and film having heard and seen many things that I had not even considered to expose myself to yet. She was much more "worldly" than I (as much as one can be worldly at the age of 12) through her overall attitude, frequent excursions into harsh profanities even with adults present, and she was one of the few people I knew at that time who was being raised by a single parent and was often left to her own devices, an aspect which did lend her quite a bit of mystery for me. And still, with her freckles, lushly flowing red hair and soft facial features, there was a tenderness she often revealed to me during quieter moments as we spent copious amounts of time together doing nothing after school as I awaited my Mom's arrival to take me home...and only then would Naomi typically leave school and presumably return to her home. Naomi and I were never "boyfriend/girlfriend" but I do wonder if we could have been. On school bus field trips, we often sat together holding hands and Naomi was also the girl who gave me my very first kiss (of course something she had already experienced at her previous school).
Sometime in 1982, Naomi gave me two gifts that altered my life forever. There was, of course, the aforementioned first kiss, and on my 13th birthday, she gave me the XTC album "Black Sea" (released September 12, 1980) as a present. Both gifts scrambled my brains, albeit in completely different ways as the reaction of one was immediate gratifying while the other took years to fully resonate. If I only knew where she was today, I would graciously thank her for both.
I had never even heard of XTC before she placed the record album into my hands and truth be told, while listening to the "Black Sea" album for the first time, I discovered that XTC was indeed quite a bit like Naomi herself. They were left of center alright, defiantly so. While I did like the overall attack of their crash of guitars and pounding drums, XTC sounded more abrasive than I was accustomed to, and frankly, it was to the point of being almost bratty. Andy Patridge's howling vocal delivery was conducted through a flurry of lyrics that were either presented passionately or if he were in the throes of some sort of seizure. On very first listen, I just did not get it. I frankly didn't even like it. And I could not understand why Naomi thought I would like this band in the first place. But, as it often was between herself and I, she proved herself to be right once again but the realization took quite a bit of time.
I listened to "Black Sea" intermittently over the next few years, finding myself eventually charmed by songs like "Towers Of London," "Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)" and "No Language In Our Lungs." Additionally, I did catch more XTC songs here and there when my radio listening graduated to Chicago's peerless WXRT-FM, but my second official introduction to the band arrived during my first year of college in 1987. During that time, my entire world was completely overtaken by the musical legacy of Todd Rundgren as his music provided me with my personal soundtrack and I was purchasing practically anything that had his name on it. This of course led me to XTC's most celebrated album "Skylarking" (released October 27, 1986), a gorgeous song cycle that Rundgren produced and is also quite infamous for the inclusion of the surprise b-side college radio smash hit "Dear God,"which eventually ended up replacing the track "Mermaid Smiled" on the album in subsequent editions. Furthermore, much has already been written about the behind the scenes turmoil in the making of the album as Rundgren and Andy Partridge clashed so frequently and powerfully that it has taken many years for Partridge to concede and realize that Rundgren's skills and suggestions helped XTC achieved the glory that is "Skylarking."
As with "Black Sea," I just did not quite get "Skylarking" upon first listen but the album was decidedly less abrasive, even more overtly melodic and the equally overt "Beatle-esque" qualities were certainly a draw. And slowly but surely, I began to succumb to its succulent beauty, and ultimately, what the beauty of XTC actually was in its entirety. I eventually poured over the album and that experience led me to the sonic boom that was "Chips From The Chocolate Fireball," which XTC released in August 1987 under the pseudonym of The Dukes Of Stratosphear. Collecting the 1985 EP "25 O'Clock" and the full album "Psonic Psunspot," The Dukes Of Stratosphear finds XTC in full blown psychedelia as they combine their own influences with those of 1967 era Beatles, Beach Boys, The Kinks, Pink Floyd and whatever else they could think of into a phantasmagorical musical stew that blew my head apart and I listened to CONSTANTLY!!! I played tracks from it on my radio show as often as I was able and I pestered my friends with it, as I could not believe the glory that I was hearing and I wanted everyone to hear what I was hearing too!
This was the point where I realized more than ever what XTC was all about and what gifted songwriters and musicians they happened to be, so seemingly untouchable that they were truly in a class of their own making. And this very realization, many years in the making, made me more prepared than ever for whatever musical project would arrive next.
On the morning of Tuesday, February 27, 1989, I was sitting in my English class located in Science Hall, enduring another fatuous lecture from my verbally flatulent Professor, just counting the minutes until class was over and I could race to the now defunct Discount Records on State Street the moment they opened and purchase XTC's (then) next musical statement, "Oranges & Lemons." When I arrived at the store and held the CD in my hands, the sight of the "Yellow Submarine" inspired artwork of the cover just enlivened my every synapse and I could not get back to my dorm room fast enough to hear it--that is if my roommate did not have his portable CD player with him. Thankfully, upon entering the room, I saw that his CD player was sitting silently upon our desk. I tuned in the stereo, inserted the disc and pressed "PLAY."
Dear readers and listeners, I want to impress upon you as best as I am possibly able, that XTC's "Oranges & Lemons" is the perfect antidote to a long and harsh winter as it is a sunshine filled bouncing ball of perfectly produced and executed psychedelic pop that not only picks up from where The Beatles left off circa 1968, but it is also a timeless work that not only confirmed this album as being one of the very best of the 1980's, but also that XTC was unquestionably one of the finest bands the New Wave/post-punk rock era ever produced. "Oranges & Lemons" opens with three tracks so warmly euphoric that they are almost powerful enough to summon the first crocuses to spring forth through the frozen wintry ground by sheer force of will. But it was the first 19 seconds of the album that made my head spin around so brilliantly that I had to hear it again before I could move forwards.
The spectacular sonic swirl of "Garden Of Earthly Delights" begins the album and opens with what sounds like the din and bells from a Middle Eastern bazaar and then explodes into a furiously paced "Welcome to Earth" ode that is a pastiche of accelerated percussion, DEEP bass, and a guitar solo that sounds as if it is flying on its own magic carpet. It is a song that commands you to rise to your feet and dance...that is, if you can keep up with it, before it eventually settles down into a coda that conjures a stroll through pastoral India.
"The Mayor Of Simpleton" is the album's glorious second track, a love song so blissful, so beautifully written, so humorous and heart lifting that it plasters a smile upon your face by its first notes. Andy Partridge's songwriting gifts could not be more evident as he utilizes a severely clever literary wit to present a tale of a young suitor who has "Never been near a university/Never took a paper or a learned degree" and is unable to "Get past the covers of your books profound" trying to win his enchanted crush's heart. I truly dare you to find a song more delightfully rapturous than this one as you will fall in love with this song just as we hope the intended young lass falls for the song's narrator when he sings "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."
Colin Moulding steps up to the plate for the album's outstanding third track "King For A Day." While Moulding is not as prolific as Partridge and typically possesses fewer songs per XTC album, he is entirely about quality over quantity as his songs can stand toe to toe with Partridge's any day of the week. "King For A Day" takes a shuffle groove, a guitar line that bounces from speaker to speaker, and kind of updates Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" to create a song where dark subject matter can be transformed into pure musical gold that is infectiously joyous to hear while thought provoking and speaks to the spirit. It is a song that you can sing along with instantaneously as its melodies will plaster themselves to your brain.
Over the course of 60 full minutes, "Oranges Lemons" simply continued to reveal itself as one of the great double album as the sheer breadth of material keeps you captivated for every second of every song. Andy Partridge's "Lennon-esque" acerbic wit and bile comes to the surface in the anti-war "Here Comes President Kill Again," and the overly political "Across This Antheap" and "Scarecrow People." And he is able to miraculously shape shift his songwriting gifts to serve up the acoustic funk of "Poor Skeleton Steps Out," the enormously moving Father/son reconciliation "Hold Me My Daddy," the near lounge jazz of "Miniature Sun" and even the either touching or cheerfully puerile "Pink Thing," which could be read as an ode to a new born son or an ode to his own...ahem...member ("When I stroke your head I feel a hundred heartbeats high")!
Colin Moulding's remaining two tracks on the album are equally magnificent. The extraordinary "One Of The Millions" has got to be the jauntiest song I've heard about crippling insecurity and emotional paralysis as it see-saws along through "Magical Mystery Tour" sonics courtesy of the cyclical guitars, Mark Isham's trumpets, the surround sound drums and percussion and Moulding's bass guitar work which practically leapfrogs through the entire track. On the flipside, the melancholic"Cynical Days," featuring Dave Gregory's empathetic keyboard washes and Mark Isham's despondent trumpet, gracefully cements the sorrowful lyrics with stunning sophistication.
The album concludes with "Chalkhills And Children," a track that sounds as luxurious as anything Brian Wilson conceived during The Beach Boys' "SMiLE" era. It is a soaring tune that explores the transportive power of imagination and how life's responsibilities and one's family provide the gentle anchors to keep us grounded. With the repeated refrain of "Even I never know where I go when my eyes are closed," the "Oranges & Lemons" album fades, floats and drifts off into the ether like a child's balloon lost in the clouds.
Dear readers and listeners, after hearing this album for 25 years now, it just strikes me more and more how masterful a band XTC actually was and how shameful that they never really saw their day in the sun as richly as they deserved. Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding proved themselves as masterful songwriters and musicians and Dave Gregory, while not a songwriter, showed that he was the band's crucial secret weapon as his elegant arrangements, keyboard word and blistering guitar heroics elevated absolutely every single song to its highest peaks. Augmented for this album by Drummer, session musician and (then) future member of King Crimson, Pat Mastelotto performed valiantly and with an elasticity that was purely athletic and attaining Mark Isham, a formidable musician and composer in his own right, for his brass work must have been some sort of coup.
I believe that every album possesses a story and certainly not one exclusively limited to the musicians, producers and the songs themselves. The best albums convey and hold stories that extend outward to the listeners that cherish them and my story contained with "Oranges And Lemons" has remained as powerful as it was when I listened to it the first time. As I hold the CD right now, it is as if there is a certain set of memories contained within my DNA that instantly spring to life. I have already recounted to you the day I purchased the album. But even afterwards, literally just one day after purchasing it, I came down with a nasty cold that kept me from my classes and my most generous roommate, left his CD player in our room so I could keep listening to the album, which I did, on repeat, all day long for I loved it so much. It is an album that has enriched me, enlivened me, uplifted me, and has filled me with the dreamlike hope that great music can quite possibly change the world.
XTC's "Oranges & Lemons" is an unorthodox, idiosyncratic, unconventional and quintessentially British album that is also dynamically melodic, wholly accessible and completely universal. For those of you who have heard this album, you already understand everything that I have described. But for those of you who have not heard it, I urge you to seek it out and play it loudly and summon the warmth of spring to fully arrive, if not in actual temperatures and the sight of green grass but in terms of your spirit. For I can guarantee, once you hear tracks like the utopian anthem "Merely A Man," with its thunderous bass, propulsive drums, soulful guitars and "Penny Lane" influenced trumpets, you will feel as if you are in the center of a parade even if there is no one else around. Or even better yet, there's "The Loving," which seemingly resurrects Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for a return performance, and Andy Partridge announces "The loving's COMING!!!!" Man, you believe it!!!! You truly believe!!!!
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