Robyn Hitchcock – Robyn Hitchcock (Yep Roc)

 

36 years after starting out on his solo career, Robyn Hitchcock has finally gotten around to releasing his self-titled album. Turns out it was well worth the wait.

Coming from a tradition that includes The Kinks, The Beatles and Syd-Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Robyn Hitchcock has always had a unique, updated take on the 60’s pop/psych sounds that were the basis for classic albums like Revolver and The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.

This latest, self-titled album (his 22^nd) manages to mine those retro sounds yet simultaneously sounds incredibly fresh and vibrant.

Hitchcock sounds both sinister and whimsical on opening track, I Want To Tell You About What I Want. “You think I’m a thug”, he sneers, before he and the music give way to a Pink Floyd-infused workout, even as he sings about cannibal overlords  before breaking into a laundry list of things he wants…world peace, a God of love…what it feels like to be somebody else. Meanwhile the guitar-drive band rocks on, with a suitable swirly organ and groovy bassline.

Track two again begins darkly. Titled Virginia Woolf, it revisits the troubled author’s last moments…”filled her pockets with stones…walked to the river alone:, then moves on to Sylvia Plath. Again, the music is thrilling…a stinging guitar and plenty of Beatle-esque psychedelia

Things take a left turn with I Pray When I’m Drunk. This album was recorded in Nashville, and Hitchcock enlists Grant-Lee Phillips to help him out with a little country honk. Think of this as his Act Naturally. “I think about you every time I strum”, the Englishman sings with a faux southern twang.

Then it’s back to the jangly guitars and acid-drenched backing vocals for Mad Shelly’s Letterbox.

Sayonara Judge is a slower, moody number about losing, among other things, self-esteem. Yet, Hitchcock makes even that sound somewhat soothing.

Fans of 1980’s XTC will enjoy the bouncy Detective Mindhorn, while 1970 In Aspic mourns the end of and era.

By the time Robyn gets to Autumn Sunglasses, he’s in full Revolver mode, throwing in some backwards guitar playing and recalling Pictures Of Matchstick Men.

That same vibe continues through the final track, Time Coast, another psych=pop gem that could easily follow after And Your Bird Can Sing.

Robyn Hitchcock didn’t create this beauty on his own. Producer Brendan Benson (Raconteurs) can take some of the credit along with Gillian Welsh, Wilco’s Pat Sansone and a bevy of Nashville-based studio cats who all combined to produce Hitchcock’s finest album in many years.

Marty Duda