Oranges & Lemons (1989)

After these 50+ years I think we all find trying to define “psychedelic” like the six blind men and the elephant. XTC arguably hit their lysergic trails in the mid-‘80s, when principals Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, and Dave Gregory formed a side band, the Dukes of Stratosphear, who released two albums in 1985 and 1987 (25 O’Clock and Psonic Psunspot). They found their sources in Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play” and Tomorrow’s “My White Bicycle,” the side of psychedelic with short songs, trippy lyrics, and child-like scenes. Because of the timing, it seems likely the Dukes were inspired at least in part by the ongoing so-called Paisley Underground, a California-based neo-psychedelic moment in the ‘80s featuring such acts as the Bangles, the Dream Syndicate, Green on Red, the Rain Parade, the Three O’Clock, and others. Between the two Dukes albums came XTC’s Skylarking, produced by Todd Rundgren, which is fairly classed as psychedelic itself. But Partridge and Rundgren reportedly chafed in the studio on that one—though it is considered by many to be the single best XTC album—and it’s possible Partridge & co. saw Oranges & Lemons as a kind of makeup corrective opportunity. Or maybe, as the band’s second double-LP after English Settlement, it’s a dumping ground at large for another of their bigger tranches of musical ideas. The album looks and sounds to me like Peter Max and the Beatles circa Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour. In a year that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and the coming of Stone Roses, Oranges & Lemons fit, but it also felt more awkward and mannered. It’s explicitly the buoyant, colorful side of psychedelic. Not entirely innocent—album opener “Garden of Earthly Delights” winks broadly with the lines “Just don’t hurt nobody / ‘less of course they ask you.” But, in general, the word is: playful, thy name is Oranges & Lemons. It might have benefited from a trimmed-down 40-minute version (like some other or many other XTC releases), but it does have good stuff, and when it came my way at some point between the earthquake World Series and the Berlin Wall it was approximately just what the doctor ordered. Now it seems to me less psychedelic, when you take it closely song by song, and more just an XTC goof with the usual ups and downs and perhaps little agreement about which is which. So keep it shaggy and long—that’s psychedelic too. Some curious details here (scrutinizing synchronicity also psychedelic): three consecutive songs on the vinyl side 1 (bearing in mind I knew the album and I bet most do as an hour-long CD) put political offices in their titles: “Mayor of Simpleton,” “King for a Day,” and “Here Comes President Kill Again” (which, despite harking to LBJ and/or CIA black ops, still feels playful—paranoia as just another goof). Perhaps more strained, “Poor Skeleton Steps Out” and “Scarecrow People,” separated by “One of the Millions” on side 2, lend some vibe of Washington Irving and a cartoony version of an already cartoony 19th-century American horror. “Across This Antheap” has a notably solid groove. “Pink Thing” is another libertine note that makes me go hmmm. I seem to hear a lot of Beatles every time I play Oranges & Lemons lately, and it’s hit and miss, but, as with most XTC albums, there’s a lot to unpack here.