Word: songs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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MANDY PATINKIN: MANDY PATINKIN (CBS). The Broadway (Sunday in the Park with George) and movie (Alien Nation) actor lets fly with a fearlessly melodramatic song cycle chosen from sources as various as Stephen Sondheim and Al Jolson. Some of the tunes are a bit florid, but the best (like Anyone Can Whistle) have a delicacy that lingers...
Although every XTC album contains its fair share of love songs, the group seems to have gotten a little sappier and a little more conventional on Oranges and Lemons. "The Mayor of Simpleton'"s lyric silliness ("I can't have been there when brains were handed 'round or get past the cover of your books profound") is somewhat offset by Partridge's fast-paced vocals, but with its bouncy rhythms and annoying chimes, it's still more of a junior high dance song than the XTC we know and love. Ironically, although "Mayor" proclaims, "Well I don't know...
...Loving" is another example of XTC's overly sentimental lyrics and catchy beat without substance. "All around the world," Partridge croons, "every boy and every girl need the loving." This song wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for its cheering crowd effects and guitar sols that recall memories of Styx concerts...
...Chalkhills and Children" also achieves a meditative tone in a slow, heavy journey over a dream landscape which makes a statement about the danger of fame. Moulding's attempt at thoughtfulness, however, falls flat in "Cynical Days," a song resembling a pre-teen poem of depression: "Another see-through scheme, people are shallow. The dark night's closing in, my dark thoughts follow." By forcing Partridge's voice to assume a lilting tone, "Cynical Days" leans more toward the laughable than the depressing...
Still, despite some lyrical weaknesses and tendencies toward the conventional, Oranges and Lemons is a stronger return for XTC that one might have hoped. With a majority of its songs hard-hitting and energetic, it should become a favorite of XTC fans. One can only pray that "The Mayor of Simpleton" won't be the only song to make the band famous in the next few years...