Oranges & Lemons (album)

in the studio, 1988 Since 1982's English Settlement, XTC had withdrawn from concert touring. Studio experimentation and 1960s influences increasingly showed in their records, culminating in the 1985 mini-album ''25 O'Clock'', which saw the band adopting retro-psychedelic personas as "the Dukes of Stratosphear". The trend continued into XTC's Skylarking (1986), becoming one of the best-selling records of their career. However, the group still "languished in relative obscurity" and in turn, Partridge resented that his suggestions were repeatedly undermined by Rundgren. After Skylarking, Partridge suffered a brief writer's block. He recalled "getting really worried. I wrote a few things and I thought it was shit. Then suddenly loads of stuff started coming out, and it wasn't shit." Both ''25 O'Clock and Psonic Psunspot'' outsold the latest XTC albums of the time (1984's The Big Express in the former's case). They then contributed a newly recorded song, "Happy Families", to the John Hughes film ''She's Having a Baby'' (1988). In early 1988, XTC began rehearsing material for their next LP. At the suggestion of A&R executive Jeremy Lascelles, young American producer Paul Fox was recruited based on the strength of a Boy George remix that the label commissioned of him. Partridge disliked the original track but enjoyed Fox's remix: "It was really shiny, powerful and impressive." Fox subsequently flew to England and met Partridge at his home: "He was obviously a huge fan of the band and was willing to translate what we wanted onto tape." He offered them a cheap studio rate in Los Angeles, which the band accepted. Another reason for recording in the US with an American producer, guitarist Dave Gregory said, was that the US had become "our biggest market". XTC, accompanied by the Moulding and Partridge families, arrived in Los Angeles on 12 May and stayed at the Oakwood Apartments in north Hollywood. The families returned home after two months; Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding then shared an apartment for the remainder of their stay. ==Music and lyrics==

{{Quote box|quote=It's sort of the idea that all of the songs could be singles in some sort of bizarre perfect universe. Oranges & Lemons is primarily a pop and rock album, although a variety of other styles are plundered throughout, such as jazz, reggae, hard rock, In Stereogum writer Rob Ham's description, the intention was to filter the Dukes aesthetic using contemporary instruments and technology; as a result, most of the album's songs, and especially Partridge's, are arranged in a maximalist fashion exemplified by the first song, "Garden of Earthly Delights". Gary Ramon of Record Collector concurred that "while a 60s edge was detectable, the sound was firmly rooted in the Eighties." He acknowledged that it was their first work in which they were conscious that they had a record-buying audience, particularly in the US. External stresses affecting the group included their ongoing litigation against former manager Ian Reid. Colin Moulding remembered, "it was about to come to a head, and that was the worrying thing ... If we hadn't had a relatively successful record with Oranges and Lemons at that time, we would have been in deep shite". ==Production==

Setting and atmosphere (pictured 2008) contributed percussion samples and other aspects of the album's production. He was frustrated that his suggestions to Fox were almost always deferred to "the songwriter", which meant either Partridge or Moulding. Both Gregory and Moulding characterised Fox as subservient to Partridge's studio indulgences, which they termed "Andy-ness", and felt that it had a negative effect on the album's sound. Mastelotto similarly recalled that engineer Ed Thacker would complain, "Jesus Christ! What's going on in the mix? I don't even have any tracks left!" Guests who visited the sessions included Elvis Costello, who was next door recording his album Spike (1989), KROQ disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer, Chris Squire of Yes, David Byrne of Talking Heads and actor River Phoenix. Partridge has said that Phoenix was an "utter and anal" fan of the band, and urged him to phone a friend who was "also a big fan", Keanu Reeves. Equipment and mixing Moulding used primarily a Wal bass with a Fender P-Bass as backup. Partridge played a Squier Telecaster and a Martin D-35. Fox, who had a background as a session keyboardist, supplied the group with numerous digital and analogue synthesizers (mainly an Emulator III and a Roland Super Jupiter). A variety of drum machines were also used and mixed in tandem with Mastelotto's live drumming. Care was taken to ensure that the percussion was tuned to each song. The group also frequently used the "warp" feature of an Akai sampler to bend percussion notes. Many details, such as different hi-hat patterns, were not chosen until the mixing stages—when it was decided to include all of them. Partridge reflected that "the finished songs" were perhaps "a little too busy all the time ... But it was a case of, you just left everything in the mix to perhaps weed out later, but didn't in fact weed out. ... But, that's okay -- it was fine for us at the time". Gregory thought "we probably did a little too much on one or two of the songs, but ... it's a great album, a really great collection of songs." Partridge did not attend all of the album's mixing sessions due to a bout of depression spurred by the Reid litigation. "Literally half a million pounds had gone flapping out the window to various parties and it depressed me incredibly," he remembered. "I started to drink heavily in those last few weeks and went off the rails a bit. I had to get back to England to calm myself down." He left them with "a long list of requirements ... in the mixing" and returned home on 7 October, likely with Moulding, while Gregory stayed for the end of mixing. Work on the album was completed when the group approved Fox's final mix on 22 October. By then, the project had gone at least £30,000 over budget. ==Songs==

Side one {{listen "Garden of Earthly Delights", the album's psychedelic opening song, is written as a children's guide to the world. "Mayor of Simpleton" adopts a jangle pop style. It developed as a reggae tune and went through numerous different versions. He settled on its final arrangement after discovering a C major to D major picking pattern that he thought resembled Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (1976). Unlike many other XTC songs, he instructed a specific bass part to Moulding: "Colin had to work very hard to get that bass line. It's very precise. It took me a long time to work it out, because I wanted to get into the J.S. Bach mode of each note being the perfect counterpoint to where the chords are and where the melody is. The bass is the third part in the puzzle." "King for a Day" was composed from an alternate guitar tuning. Moulding credited Partridge with the "bell-like" counterpoint melody, and recalled that the backwards effect on the guitar may have been accidental. Virgin earmarked the song as potentially the album's lead single and commissioned a number of remixes for the song. Moulding said he had no input on these alternate versions and remembered that they "really stretched the budget to the limit". "Here Comes President Kill Again" is a sociopolitical song Partridge described the middle section as a simulacrum of the Beatles' 1968 self-titled album. Side two "The Loving" is a singalong anthem Mastelotto recalled the sampled crowd noises at the beginning was his suggestion to Fox, except he meant the crowd to be much smaller in size. The song initially began as a "Madonna feel -- kind of a rock beat, very tight-sounding" until they later did "a few more takes of [the song], completely live -- the opposite of what we'd done earlier". "Poor Skeleton Steps Out" features a samba-style rhythm, glockenspiel and numerous slowed down voices. Partridge said of its percussion: "things that you might think are drums and percussion on that song may be things like guitars with paper threaded through the strings ... And something that sounds like a vacuum cleaner starting up is an electronic cymbal set to 'ascend,' and there's also a sample of a tabla playing along." He remembered that David Byrne, when he visited the session, was impressed with the track's guitar textures and use of tabla. According to music writer Geoffrey Himes, the song "recalls the music-hall feel and 'Babbitt' theme" of the Beatles' "Nowhere Man" (1965). It contains a reference to Jimmy Swaggart in the lyric. {{listen "Cynical Days" was described by a CMJ New Music Monthly reviewer as Moulding "finding his symmetrical vocal/bass compositional counterpart recalling Mummers more disjointed approach". Like "One of the Millions", the band played live without a click. Moulding said: "I wasn't feeling cynical when I wrote it. I think it had more to do with the melancholy nature of the chords. Sometimes you play something and these sentiments descend on you." Later, he expressed dissatisfaction with the track, calling it too "loungey". "Across This Antheap" is a track built on "Latin percussion, my swampy, pulled Bluesy guitar, and Colin's burping little bass". Gregory wanted the song to be the album's closing track but his suggestion was vetoed. Fox considered it a potential single and urged Partridge to include "'a kind of tacky, brassy-sounding keyboard," which I really didn't like, but he said, 'Yeah, it's so awful, it's almost ironic!' I just found it awful-sounding. ... I thought, 'He's had some good decisions as we've gone along so far—maybe he's right!'" "Chalkhills and Children" is the album's closing track and is its mellowest song. Beach Boy Brian Wilson was played the track during an appearance on Rodney Bingenheimer's Rodney on the ROQ. When the song was over, Bingenheimer mentioned that Partridge was a big fan of Wilson's, to which Wilson tersely replied "Yeah." Leftover A couple of Partridge's rejected Skylarking songs were offered for Oranges & Lemons, but were again rejected. He said: "Maybe it was fate that they wouldn't rise up. They are probably too weak and best left to die." Similarly, his "In Another Life" was recorded and released for Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) (2000). Other songs demoed were Partridge's "Living in a Haunted Heart", "Blue Beret", "Everything", "Was a Yes", "My Paint Heroes", "This Is the End" and Moulding's "Skeletons", and "Way of the World". "Living in the Haunted Heart" received a lukewarm reaction from bandmates. "My Paint Heroes" was a tribute to Joan Miró, Henri Rousseau, and Salvador Dalí. "Skeletons", according to Moulding, "doesn't connect. It was a half-hearted attempt to tell my kids to watch what they do but I'm not very good at demos." The band also worked on Moulding's "The World is Full of Angry Young Men", from the Mummer sessions, rerecording the piano, guitar, and vocals. ==Title and artwork==

''-inspired cover illustration was redrawn from a 1965 Milton Glaser pop poster. A working title for the album was Songs of Sixpence. Oranges & Lemons derives from the traditional English nursery rhyme of the same name, Partridge interpreted the nursery rhyme to be about financial debt and said that the title "sort of, in a bizarre way, describes California as well". The idea for a pop art-style sleeve came from Dave Gregory, who expressed fondness for the sleeve to the Who's A Quick One (1966), while the lettering was inspired by Andy Williams' Love, Andy (1967). Its cover illustration was intended to resemble the work of Heinz Edelmann, the art director for the 1968 Beatles film Yellow Submarine, and is reflective of the substantial portion of the album that pays homage to the Beatles' psychedelic period. ==Release==

Released on 27 February 1989 in the UK and one day later in the US, Oranges & Lemons became their highest-charting album since English Settlement, rising to number 28 in the UK and number 44 in the US. Additionally, it combined with Skylarking for the group's best-selling albums to date. Lead single "Mayor of Simpleton" reached number 46 in the UK According to him, this stripped-down convention had fallen out of style since the 1930s, and he suggested the idea to avoid potential issues with more complex sound mixing. This inspired the network to invite more artists to perform stripped-down sets, calling the series "unplugged". A similar acoustic tour was planned for Europe, but cancelled when Partridge discovered that their pro bono Paris date would be broadcast from a sold-out 5,000 seater venue. The album's release coincided with the band resolving their legal disputes against Reid with an out-of-court settlement. They agreed to let Virgin pay off their remaining debts in exchange for a less favourable royalty adjustment and a promise to record four more albums for the label. Afterward, the band tried to coax Partridge back into regular touring but were unsuccessful. It was estimated that a three to four-week US tour leading to a gig in Madison Square Garden could have earned each member about $100,000. Moulding intimated: "It annoyed me that we weren't getting anywhere with Andy because we could all see he'd got over his stage fright problem. Now he was just making excuses." ==Critical reception==

Contemporary Oranges & Lemons was met with critical acclaim. A reviewer for CMJ New Music Monthly declared it to be another album of the band's "ever-winning, ever-esoteric pop" and "as good as any in their catalogue," highlighting "Mayor of Simpleton", "The Loving", "Merely a Man", and "King for a Day" as its best tracks. Michael Small of People compared it favourably to the Beatles' White Album: "Almost every song contains at least one catchy pop riff or chorus. Then those bright tunes abruptly shift into minor keys or unusual rhythms and harmonies." Conversely, Melody Makers Bob Stafford felt that although the record includes "a handful of great pop songs ... there is simply too much going on most of the time ... as a double [LP], it allows for too much mediocrity and silliness, meandering tunes, and unnecessary techno plonks." Gary Ramon called it an "uneven" collection containing "the weakest" songs of Moulding. Among retrospective reviews, Oregano Rathbone of Record Collector wrote that Oranges & Lemons was "an appropriately sunny thing on the surface, at peace with itself and the world, yet seething with a bracingly chilly English subtext of proudly acknowledged failings ... thwarted ambition ... existential anomie ... and political disillusionment". The Quietus Nick Reed said that while the album contains several of the band's best songs, "whether or not this album holds up for you depends on how much you like the band's boisterous side." AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the LP "lacks the singular focus of Skylarking, but at its best, it's just as impressive as its predecessor. ... sonically rich and filled with immaculately crafted songs". ==Track listing==

Original vinyl The songs appear in the same order on the CD releases, except for a special edition with three 3" CDs containing five songs each, which switched around "Cynical Days" and "Across This Antheap" to accommodate the limited run time of 3" CDs. 2015 expanded edition In 2015, an expanded CD and Blu-ray edition of Oranges & Lemons was issued on Partridge's Ape Records label. It included new 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes by Steven Wilson. • 2015 5.1 mix • 2015 stereo instrumental mix • 2015 stereo mix • Flat transfer of original 1989 mix • Album in demos and work tapes form – all running orders as above ==Personnel==

XTC • Colin Moulding – vocals, bass • Andy Partridge – vocals, guitar • Dave Gregory – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards Additional musicians • Pat Mastelotto – drums • Mark Isham – horns on "Here Comes President Kill Again", "One of the Millions", "Merely a Man", "Cynical Days" and the intro to "Across This Antheap" • Paul Fox – keyboards • Franne Golde – backing vocals on "Poor Skeleton Steps Out" Technical • Paul Fox – producer • Ed Thacker – engineer • Clark Germain – assistant engineer • Joe Fiorello – assistant engineer • Tim Weidner – assistant engineer • Andy Partridge – sleeve • Dave Dragon – sleeve • Ken Ansell – sleeve • Sheila Rock – inner sleeve photography Adapted from original vinyl sleeve notes. ==Charts==