XTC - Oranges & Lemons (2 LP) 1989 Original Pressing New Old Stock Vinyl-SEALED

$

49

Dr. John's Spin Factory is proud to offer up a sealed (new old stock), original, 1989 pressing of XTC's "Oranges and Lemons."  If this title suggests music that is at times sweet and sometimes sour, you're at least partially on the right track.  However you wish to describe it, if you appreciate and seek out intelligent, witty, well produced, socially poignant music, then you need this album!  Musical craftsman and band leader Andy Partridge, the man whose brilliantly labelled, three-letter, double entendre of a band (XTC = ECSTASY) that could well have stepped into the void left by John Lennon and the Beatles were it not for poor Andy's intensely crippling state fright, added "Oranges and Lemons" to an already impressive, unbroken string of mind expanding albums that began with "Drums and Wires" and continued with "Black Sea," "English Settlement," "Mummer," "The Big Express," and "Skylarking." (And let us not forget their foray into the realm of pop psychedelia produced between "The Big Express" and "Skylarking" under the alter-ego moniker, "Dukes of Stratosphere.")  I cite all those albums because more than any other band in my musical growth, every new XTC album (that I awaited with near drooling eagerness) took my listening joy to new and different heights.  All I can say is...I'm so very sorry for poor Andy's stage fright...  Now, I've probably already said too much.  Nonsense!  Let's not let that stop us!  Here to say a good deal more (because this was one of the smartest, most inventive bands of their generation regardless of music style), is the review of XTC's "Oranges and Lemons" from Allmusic.com.  "Skylarking was an ambitious yet concise record, one that recalled such graceful concept albums as Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper, so it wasn't entirely a surprise that XTC embraced psychedelia on its double-album follow-up, Oranges & Lemons, especially if their celebrated Dukes of Stratosphear side project was taken into consideration as well. Oranges & Lemons lacks the singular focus of Skylarking, but at its best, it's just as impressive as its predecessor. Instead of reveling in the form of psychedelic pop, as they did with the Dukes, XTC bring the genre's sensibility to the mature pop of Skylarking, spiking it with a wry, occasionally absurd sense of humor missing from its predecessor. The result is a record exploding with details, not the least of which are backward guitars, sound effects, and head-spinning eclectic arrangements. It's sonically rich and filled with immaculately crafted songs, but Oranges & Lemons falls just short of being a tour de force, since each song feels like an island -- they work well as individual tracks, but they don't form a cohesive statement. However, that's a minor complaint, because Colin Moulding and Andy Partridge in particular are in peak form, contributing some of their very finest songs in "Garden of Earthly Delights," "The Loving," "One of the Millions," "Merely a Man," "Pink Thing," and the elegiac "Chalkhills and Children." Such songs make the relative weaknesses of the album well worth enduring."  Okay!  Now I've said quite enough...For everyone reading this, I wish you may fall in love with XTC's music as I did some 45 years ago...Please go enjoy yourself some Oranges and Lemons!  All the best--Dr. John