Lost Horizons is the second studio album from the British electronic duo Lemon Jelly, released on 7 October 2002. Released by XL Recordings and produced by Nick Franglen, the album generated two charting singles in the UK, "Space Walk" and "Nice Weather for Ducks"; the latter has often been called the album's stand-out track. The album, which is built around a mix of organic instrumentation and idiosyncratic samples, was met with largely positive reviews by music critics, although it was somewhat criticised due to its near-constant mellowness.
In the United Kingdom, Lost Horizons peaked at number 20 on the Official Albums Chart, whereas in the United States, it peaked at number 24 on Billboards Top Electronic Albums component chart. The album's two singles, "Space Walk" and "Nice Weather for Ducks", were also successful, peaking on the UK Singles Chart, at number 36 and 16 respectively. The album was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and Brit Award in 2003, and was eventually certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry for shipments exceeding 100,000 copies.
Music
Lost Horizons opens with "Elements", which "blends acoustic guitars, flugelhorns, synths, skittering breakbeat rhythms, a folksy harmonica, and ... a falsetto 'doo-doo' chorus". 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."
"Ramblin' Man" features a conversation between an interviewer (the voice of Michael Deakin—uncle of Lemon Jelly's Fred Deakin) and "John the Ramblin' Man" (the voice of Standing), during which he lists various places from around the world, ranging "from small Sussex villages to major world capitals." The song "Nice Weather for Ducks" is built around a sample inspired by John Langstaff's song "All the Ducks". This song was based on the popular Dutch children's song, "Alle eendjes zwemmen in het water" (translated: "All the ducklings 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". 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".
Artwork
The artwork for Lost Horizons was created by bandmember Fred Deakin and his London-based graphic design company Airside. The sleeve features a three-dimensional landscape of a city and countryside: The cover features the landscape during the day, which depicts the countryside as vibrant and the city as dull and grey. Conversely, the interior of the sleeve features the same landscape at nighttime; in this piece, the countryside is dark and the city is illuminated. The cover was designed by Airside member Sam Burford, which Deakin then turned into a computer-generated image.
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|rev2 = Blender
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|rev3 = Entertainment Weekly
|rev3score = B
|rev4 = The Guardian
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|rev6 = Pitchfork
|rev6score = 6.6/10
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|rev9score = A
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Lost Horizons received mostly positive reviews from music 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." 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." Almost six months later, on 22 July 2003, it was certified Gold, denoting shipments of over 100,000. and a Brit Award.
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Credits and personnel
Band members and production