Pop
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday November 27, 2010
ORANGE JUICECoals To NewcastleBox Set(Domino/EMI)RATING: 4/5It is only a slight exaggeration to say that without Orange Juice we wouldn't have had the Smiths, Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura and Franz Ferdinand (or, among others, our own Hungry Kids of Hungary and John Steel Singers). It's true that the Glaswegian band's mix of insouciance and wit and love of pop and soul is evident in the work of all those bands.Still, a couple of minor hits in Britain was as much as Orange Juice got before breaking up in 1985 to a loud chorus of indifference. But the artists they inspired and the music critics who grew up enamoured of them have insinuated the name and influence into discussion in the years since.Now there's a chance to hear exactly what we've been talking about. This beefy collection of six CDs and a DVD is a delight, collecting the four official albums, rougher, unreleased recordings and BBC sessions. On it, you hear a band that wanted to be simultaneously Velvet Underground, Al Green, Bacharach and David and a post-punk band with attitude. Sometimes they missed but the crazy thing is how often they made that ridiculous combination work.The joyous free-falling pop of You Can't Hide Your Love Forever is kids at play; the sophistication of Texas Fever and The Orange Juice is men quick on their feet. But even in the sometimes uncertain steps of the album that came between the first two, Rip It Up, there are things as immediately funny, funky and sexy as I Can't Help Myself. Very tasty. LIKE THIS? TRY THESEVelvet Underground, The Velvet Underground; Belle and Sebastian, Dear Catastrophe Waitress
© 2010 Sydney Morning Herald
