Orange Juice signed off with a flourish with their final single having the very tongue-in-cheek title of Lean Period. It was issued in 7″ and 12″ formats in a brown paper bag (the reverse side of the 7″ version is pictured above), a 12″ format with a printed sleeve and a limited 7″ edition that came with an additional flexi disc with two live tracks.
Despite all this, it staggered around the nether region of the charts but as this was a time when the charts were measured on a Top 100 it meant, in official terms, that Lean Period actually spent three weeks in the official rundown – entering at #78, rising to #77 and then leaping, salmon-like to the giddy-heights of #74 in October 1984.
mp3 : Orange Juice – Lean Period
mp3 : Orange Juice – Bury My Head In My Heads
mp3 : Orange Juice – Lean Period (12″ dub version)
mp3 : Orange Juice – Rip it Up (live)
mp3 : Orange Juice – What Presence?! (live)
The flexi disc recordings are very lo-fi, ripped as they are straight from those fragile and flimsy bits of plastic and so you’ll have to turn the volume right up. There are superior versions available via the Coals to Newcastle boxset but I thought I’d stay true to the blog’s principles.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I was sad to see Orange Juice go, although the album this was from made sure they left on a high note. And wasn’t it just inspires to end with this title in a brown paper bag?
A brilliant way to say goodbye on so many levels. Way to bring out the flexis!
This was one of the records that I got from Chris, whose dad used to be the music critic on the Daily Record but by this time was the TV guy but still got sent loads of records and had a cupboard full that Chris would let me rifle through and I would give him a donation to his Buckie funds if there was anything I wanted.