XTC
Oranges And Lemons
Geffen Records

Well, I don't know how to tell the weight of the sun/And I don't know how many pounds make up a ton/Of all the Grammy Awards XTC has never won/For crafting catchy pop tunes like "Mayor of Simpleton"/From their new LP Oranges and Lemons, which is quite a lot of fun/And of the great rock critics (and needlesss to say, poets), I am not one/but I can pick out a great album when I hear one...

(-not neccesarily "Mayor of Simpleton"
from XTC's Oranges and Lemons LP)

After 11 years, 10 superb LP's (each a masterpiece in its own right), and 5 years since they have quit touring, one would think that XTCer's Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory would be figuring out ways to bow out of the world of pop-music making gracefully. Never has an XTC album gone gold in America, and to to the flippant pop public in England, the guys are too old, too ugly, too strange for some, yet too damn normal (compared to the rest of the UK music scene, that is!) for others, making them a living entry in the "where are they now?" file for most of their potential audience.

But no, things seldom work the way you assume they would when dealing with the never-never world of pop music. XTC has been labelled "the next big thing" by the US music industry, partially due to the success of the controversial agnostic anthem "Dear God," from "Skylarking," the band's last "proper" LP (which preceded "Psonic Psunspot," a psychedelic pspoof the band did under the pseudonym of "The Dukes of the Stratosphear").

Oddly enough, the song that put XTC "on the map" in the US wasn't supposed to be included on "Skylarking" at all. "God" was originally intended to be only a B-Side before popular demand put the cut on the re-released US version of Skylarking. With the release of Oranges and Lemons, and with any luck, XTC's label-mates Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians and Guns N' Roses aren't going to be the only Geffen bands at the top of the US Pop Albums chart.

Spotting "Oranges and Lemons" at your local record store (even if its the supermarket-sized Tower), shouldn't pose a problem. The "Yellow Submarine"-esque cover-art and dayglow oranges and lemons make it jump out away from the stacks of Bon Jovi and Poison LP's, much like the obscene "Disraeli Gears" cover-art parody on the 1985 Dukes of the Stratosphear EP, "25 O'Clock." Picking out "Oranges and Lemons" on the radio is even easier. The splendid superfluous melodies and wonderfully verbose lyrical wordplay makes an XTC track played on the radio stick out like a Rembrandt displayed at a Grade School art show.

Despite its title, first single "The Mayor of Simpleton," may actually suffer from its all-too-clever wordplay, as Top-40 programmers are oft afraid to scare off the Clearasil set. This provides an ironic affirmation of Andy Partridge's assertion that "I don't know how to write a big hit song/But I know one thing, and that's I love you," as he pretends to be an idiot savant of love. The LP's second single, the Colin Moulding-penned "King for a Day," which has been touted as a hit on the level of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," is a 1980's pure pop classic (if there is such a thing). Of the two, "King For A Day" seems more likely to play "kingmaker" for the band on US contemporary-hit radio, due to its familliar sound.

The Dukes of the Stratosphear influence has crept its way into influencing more than just the cover-art, however. Tracks such as "Pink Thing" and album opener "The Garden of Earthly Delights" continue to wallow in the psychedelic trappings of the Dukes' recent projects, while being produced for the 80's, unlike the period-piece production of the Dukes recordings. Nevertheless, "The Garden..." is punctuated by the same loony kitchen sink of sound effects used by The Dukes.

Beatles influences and a longing to return to simpler times abound in Partridge's "The Loving" and "One of the Millions," in which Moulding bemoans "I'm not akin to this eighties thing/Where you look out for number one, before succumbing to the cross-choruses of "I won't rock the boat/He's always saying what he's gonna do." Both songs sound like the timeless pop classics that few since the Fab Four have perfected.

Family relationships are expounded upon with a keen eye for detail (Partridge and Moulding are both fathers) on "Hold Me, My Daddy," and "Chalkhills and Children,"
while lyrical nods to "The Wizard of Oz" abound throughout the album. Authority is given a dressing down on the aforementioned "Mayor...," "King...," and "Here Comes President Kill Again," which echoes "Living Through Another Cuba" from 1980's excellent "Black Sea" collection. Partridge takes the "bulldog on a fence'' approach again in describing England's place in the Cold War, singing about the sad state of watching people who have no alternative other than to elect a war-monger president accepting it as a social norm, as voting becomes a mindless joy to partake in, with the citizens gladly "voting for President Kill again." Quite an odd way to win over American hearts, but not a surprising one, given XTC's history.

So, after 11 years of blending irrepresible wit with keen pop sensibility, XTC is finally set to ascend to their rightful place at the top of the US Pop charts, MTV's heavy rotation, and AOR stations nationwide. If you want to experience the "next big thing," go out and get this LP or CD A.S.A.P.

As Andy Partridge equates each album with a color ("White Music,""Black Sea," etc.), one question I would love to ask Andy is; "How does Gold and Platinum suit you?"
--Doug Mash