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Lost Horizons (Lemon Jelly album)

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Untitled

Lost Horizons is the second studio album from Lemon Jelly, released in October 2002. The album produced two charting singles in the UK, "Space Walk" and "Nice Weather for Ducks". It was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2003. The album has more organic instrumentation than its predecessor, hence the addition of session musicians.

Like Lemonjelly.ky, several tracks have been used as incidental and ident music by the BBC. Part of the track, "Curse of Ka'Zar", was used by the Turner Classic Movies channel as background music to a promo for their Thirty Days of Oscar month.

Music

The track "Space Walk" is set to a recording of Ed White's 1965 space walk on the Gemini 4 mission.[1] Franglen and Deakin chose to use the sample after listening to an album called ‘’Flight to the Moon’’ (1969); the two were struck by how moving and emotive many of the tracks were. Deakin later said, "'One small step' leaves me cold, because it was so obviously scripted. But the spacewalk… even after hearing it so many times, it's so vivid."[2]

The song "Nice Weather for Ducks" is built around a sample inspired by John Langstaff's song "All the Ducks", from his 2004 album The Lark in the Morn and Other Folksongs and Ballads. This song was based on the popular Dutch children's song, "Alle eendjes zwemmen in het water" (translated: All the ducks are swimming in the water). Franglen later said that he and Deakin were drawn to Langstaff's recording because it "had a gentle madness to it, slightly unhinged".[3] The duo had attempted to clear Langstaff's version for sampling, but were unable to. In the end, they had Enn Reitel re-record the vocal snippet. Franglen, while noting that Reitel's performance was good, said that once the sample was re-recorded its "edge disappeared".[3]

The track "Ramblin' Man" features a conversation between an interviewer (the voice of Deakin—father of Lemon Jelly's Fred Deakin) and "John the Ramblin' Man" (the voice of actor John Standing),[4][5] during which he lists various places from around the world, ranging from "from small Sussex villages to major world capitals."[5] When listed in the order in which the locations are narrated, the message "Bagpuss Sees All Things" is spelled out midway through the song (from Brixton at four minutes ten seconds, to San José at four minutes 31 seconds) using the first letter of each location.[5]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Entertainment.ie[7]
The Guardian[8]
Pitchfork Media(6.6/10)[9]

Lost Horzons received mostly positive reviews from critics, although several critics critiqued the album's near-constant mellowness. Stuart Mason of AllMusic called the album "a delightful but slightly faceless blend of lounge pop, subtle beats, found sound, with mellow jazz influences."[6] A reviewer for Entertainment.ie praised the band for approaching electronica from a new angle, writing, "this London-based duo employ Playschool pianos, acoustic guitars and sprightly beats to create laid-back instrumentals guaranteed to sooth even the most restless of souls. [...] What really marks Lemon Jelly as exciting new talents is their quirky sense of humour, which they use to brighten up their sound with skilful [sic] use of nursery rhymes, brass bands and offbeat samples.[7] Pascal Wyse of The Guardian wrote, "Everything is approachable and purely crafted, but Lost Horizons cheats banality with some choice quirks: Magnificent Seven strings, astronauts chatting, panoramic sound effects."[8] Chris Dahlen of Pitchfork Media felt that the album was a little too saccharine at times, but that it is "the perfect disc to throw on after your four-disc Ultrachill Dub Groove Mix has put the whole party to sleep. It's like eight flavors of ribbon candy, beach balls hitting the ground like hail, and a big plastic clown face that blows helium."[9]

Many reviews singled out "Nice Weather for Ducks" as the album's stand-out track. Mason selected the "dreamy, acoustic guitar-based" song as one of the album's highlights in his review.[6] Dahlen described it as "the most likeable" on the album, and concluded that it is "a happy-slappy lollipop of a song that nicely sums this record up: Sunny, bright, and vaguely irritating."[9] Wysel wrote, "When the flugelhorn arrives on 'Nice Weather for Ducks' it is impossible to believe there is any evil in the world."[8]

Conversely, several critics felt that "Experiment Number Six" did not fit with the mood of the rest of the album. Wysel called it a "pool of darkness" that" comes as quite a shock."[8] Dahlen felt that the song is "is the only break in the [album's] mood." While he enjoyed the song's concept, calling it "so different and sinister that it's more intriguing than the rest of the album", he felt that it was "annoyingly displaced."[9]

Track listing

All songs by Lemon Jelly

  1. "Elements" – 8:41
  2. "Space Walk" – 7:03
  3. "Ramblin' Man" – 7:08
  4. "Return to Patagonia" – 8:41
  5. "Nice Weather for Ducks" – 6:08
  6. "Experiment Number Six" – 5:54
  7. "Closer" – 7:24
  8. "The Curse of Ka'Zar" – 9:01

Bonus track

  • "Pushy" – 6:56

Credits and personnel

Charts

References

  1. ^ Smith 2005, p. 438.
  2. ^ Smith 2005, pp. 438–439.
  3. ^ a b "Interview with Nick Franglen from Lemon Jelly". WhoSampled. 17 July 2012. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  4. ^ a b c Lemon Jelly (2002). Lost Horizons (Media notes). XL Recordings.
  5. ^ a b c "Part Three: People and Places". The Guardian. 16 March 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Mason, Stuart. "Lost Horizons – Lemon Jelly". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  7. ^ a b "Lemon Jelly – Lost Horizons". Entertainment.ie. 12 November 2002. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d Wyse, Pascal (25 October 2002). "Lemon Jelly: Lost Horizons". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  9. ^ a b c d Dahlen, Chris (5 February 2003). "Lemon Jelly: Lost Horizons". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  10. ^ a b Roberts 2006 p. 317.
  11. ^ "Lost Horizons – Lemon Jelly – Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 February 2016.

Bibliography

  • Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 9781904994107.
  • Smith, Andrew (2005). Moondust: In Search of the Men who Fell to Earth. Bloomsbury. p. 438. ISBN 9780747563693.
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