"I Am Kurious Oranj" is the eleventh studio album by English post-punk band the Fall, released on October 24, 1988, through Beggars Banquet. Its release followed a successful year for the group, marked by the "accessible" album The Frenz Experiment and several charting singles. However, internal strife plagued the band, with Mark E. Smith increasingly reliant on alcohol and speed, and his marriage to lead guitarist Brix Smith nearing its end. Despite her significant contributions to the album's most acclaimed songs, including "Overture From Kurious Oranj," "Van Plague?" and "Bad News Girl," she was excluded from the writing and publishing credits.
The album was intended as the soundtrack for the ballet I Am Curious, Orange, a collaboration with dancer Michael Clark. Much of the music was pre-written by Brix Smith and bassist Steve Hanley. A live version was recorded during an Edinburgh Festival performance of the ballet, later released in 2000 as I Am as Pure as Oranj.
I Am Kurious Oranj combines studio recordings with live tracks from performances in Edinburgh in August 1988. The opening track "New Big Prinz" and its alternative version "Big New Priest" are based on "Hip Priest" from the group's 1982 album Hex Enduction Hour, which was also used as a backing tape in the ballet. "Jerusalem" adapts William Blake's hymn using Hubert Parry's original music, though Parry is not credited. "Last Nacht" is a remix of "Bremen Nacht" from The Frenz Experiment.
The track "Dead Beat Descendant" was written for the ballet and performed live but did not make it onto the album; it was later re-recorded for the Seminal Live compilation. The album's title is derived from Swedish director Vilgot Sjöman's films I Am Curious (Yellow) and I Am Curious (Blue), and it appears as I Am Kurious, Oranj on some packaging formats.
