The son of novelist Raymond Hitchcock, Robyn Hitchcock has enjoyed an acclaimed career as an eccentric alt-rock and folk artist. He started his career with the new wave band The Soft Boys, best known for their 1980 album Underwater Moonlight.
The title of the documentary Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death… and Insects indicates his preoccupations. Hitchcock arrived with the stripped-down sound of new wave, but he’s enamoured with the psychedelic 1960s. Syd Barrett‘s trippy weirdness is the closest touchstone, but the jangle of The Byrds and John Lennon’s more sardonic moments in The Beatles are also good references. In turn, The Soft Boys’ Underwater Moonlight influenced R.E.M. and The Replacements.
Hitchcock worked with backing band The Egyptians between 1985 and 1993, with former Soft Boys Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalfe. In comparison, his solo records from that era were stripped back. Hitchcock performed almost entirely solo on 1984’s terrific I Often Dream of Trains and 1990’s Eye.
I’ve covered most of Hitchcock’s 20th-century work so far. I plan to gradually add some 21st-century records. I’ve largely overlooked Hitchcock’s numerous outtakes collections.
Robyn Hitchcock Album Reviews
Black Snake Diamond Role
1981, 8/10
Black Snake Diamond Role is Hitchcock’s first official solo album. But his backing band features former Soft Boys Kimberly Rew, Matthew Seligman, and Morris Windsor, so it’s a gentle step into solo life. It’s a step down from the ambitious Underwater Moonlight but thoroughly enjoyable.
According to Wikipedia, “the inner sleeve of the LP featured an original, cosmic Hitchcock pen-and-ink comic titled The Enchanted Sewer“.
As his solo debut, it’s a great introduction to Hitchcock’s oeuvre. Black Snake Diamond Role features quirky songs like ‘The Man Who Invented Himself’ and ‘Brenda’s Iron Sledge’. The catchiest songs are frontloaded – there’s also the deranged singalong of ‘Do Policeman Sing?’. But the deep cuts are also strong – ‘I Watch the Cars’ steps close to punk while retaining Hitchcock’s tunefulness. ‘Acid Bird’ is subsumed underneath its energetic arrangement, but ‘Love’ is a strong closing note.
Black Snake Diamond Role is an excellent start to Hitchcock’s solo career.
Groove Decay
1982, 4.5/10
Hitchcock’s second solo album is uncharacteristically mainstream. On every other record he made in the 1980s and 1990s, he’s either solo or working with former Soft Boys. But here he works with outsiders – Sara Lee is on bass, and The Waterboys‘ Anthony Thistlethwaite is on sax. Former Gong member Steve Hillage produces Groove Decay, which is strangely mainstream for someone with Hillage’s avant-garde credentials.
I’m familiar with 1985’s reworked Groove Decoy, where demos replace some of the most awkwardly polished tracks from the original. But taste and production issues aside, Groove Decay is Hitchcock’s least interesting set of songs from the 1980s.
The horns work on the funky ‘Grooving on an Inner Plane’, one of the disc’s better songs. And there’s solid atmospheric, Byrds-derived material like ‘Fifty Two Stations’ and ‘The Cars She Used to Drive’. But the best stuff here would be lower-tier on Hitchcock’s other 1980s albums.
Hitchcock wastes his most iconic album cover on one of his less interesting albums.
I Often Dream of Trains
1984, 10/10
Hitchcock recorded I Often Dream of Trains after he spent time away from music, working as a gardener and a journalist. It’s the polar opposite of Groove Decay. Hitchcock recorded it almost completely solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and piano. Musically, Trains is sparse and wintry, while Hitchcock is lyrically incisive.
I Often Dream of Trains is Hitchcock’s peak. He was obviously in a rich vein of songwriting, and the CD issues of Trains add extra bonus tracks like ‘Mellow Together’ and ‘Winter Love’ that are just as strong as the official album tracks.
The unvarnished format allows Hitchcock to dive into his neuroses. The most memorable neurosis is ‘Uncorrected Personality Traits’ – those “that seem whimsical in a child may prove to be ugly in a fully grown adult.” Hitchcock’s also provocative on ‘Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl’. He attacks Christianity on ‘Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus – the song features one of the record’s most memorable choruses.
Trains features the demented singalong of ‘Furry Green Atom Bowl’. But the stately songs like ‘Cathedral’ and the pair of ‘Nocturne’ instrumentals that bookend the record dominate its tones.
I Often Dream of Trains is Hitchcock’s finest record, and set him up for a long and productive career.
Fegmania! (with The Egyptians)
1985, 9/10
Following I Often Dream of Trains, Hitchcock recruited the backing band The Egyptians. He reconnected with former Soft Boys Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalfe. He also recruited keyboard player Roger Jackson.
Hitchcock told Magnet Magazine in 2008 that “Morris Windsor, Andy Metcalfe and I had played in the Soft Boys in the late 1970s, and after a break reconvened in the mid-1980s. By then we were more in control of our playing, I was more in control of my songwriting, and the musical climate was ready to receive us. This lasted until Nevermind came out, at which point “alternative” rock went one way and we went the other. Then I became a folk singer, which was where I’d come in two decades before.” Along with I Often Dream of Trains, Fegmania! captures Hitchcock’s peak as a songwriter, but it’s different in presentation; punchy pop/rock songs instead of a completely solo recording.
There are a ton of Hitchcock classics on Fegmania!. Some of the most memorable pieces emphasise his eccentricity – ‘My Wife and My Dead Wife’, and the psychedelic spoken parts of ‘The Man With the Lightbulb Head’. I don’t know that Hitchcock has ever written anything else as uplifting and anthemic as ‘Heaven’, even if the key chorus line is typically idiosyncratic – “You’ve got arms and you’ve got legs and you’ve got heaven”. There’s a great sequence of songs at the start with ‘Egyptian Cream’, ‘Another Bubble’, and ‘I’m Only You’. Even the minor material like ‘Strawberry Mind’ is energetic and tuneful.
Fegmania! is a gem, even in the context of Hitchcock’s impressive catalogue.
Gotta Let This Hen Out (with The Egyptians)
1985, 8/10
I don’t always bother covering live albums on this site, but Gotta Let This Hen Out! is among the more entertaining. It was recorded at The Marquee in London, shortly after the release of Fegmania!. It’s an energetic jaunt through an already stellar catalogue. It’s named for a line from the 1981 b-side, ‘Listening to the Higsons’. ‘Higsons’ is featured on the record and includes the line “gotta let this heat out”.
Hitchcock had already released seven studio records by this point, if you count The Soft Boys’ Invisible Hits, so there was plenty of great material to draw from. Songs like ‘The Cars She Used To Drive’, from Groove Decay, benefit from a more urgent live treatment. Metcalfe’s bass propels ‘Brenda’s Iron Sledge’, while it’s fun to hear ‘Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl’ get the full band treatment. Later versions have come with more tracks – there’s a Yep Roc reissue with some 1989 tracks at the end, like ‘Freeze’ and ‘If You Were a Priest’.
Like most live albums, Gotta Let This Hen Out isn’t essential, but it’s often worthwhile.
Element of Light (with The Egyptians)
1986, 8.5/10
Element of Light continues Hitchcock’s hot streak in the mid-1980s. It’s a different record from Fegmania! It’s more studio-based, with an atmospheric sound and slower tempos, which provides more room for Metcalfe’s bass.
It features some of Hitchcock’s wildest flights of imagination. A gay nudist magazine he found in a junk shop inspired ‘Ted, Woody and Junior’. Hitchcock wrote the standout track ‘Airscape’ about his favourite beach, Compton Beach on the Isle of Wight. According to Wikipedia, Hitchcock was inspired by learning about the erosion of the cliffs, and imagining the ghosts of people who had walked the cliffs centuries ago now suspended over the water.”
‘Airscape’ is my favourite here, but most songs are strong. ‘Winchester’ is pretty and stately. ‘Bass’ builds around a terrific Metcalfe bass line and has some of Hitchcock’s silliest wordplay – “The looming mullet and the wily bream/Are at the window with a quiet scream.” The swirling organ and group harmonies in ‘Ted, Woody and Junior’ are lovely.
The mid-1980s was clearly a creative time for Hitchcock and CD editions of Element of Light feature quality bonus tracks. The largest deviations from the album’s sound are particularly notable. The b-side ‘Tell Me About Your Drugs’ is a catchy rocker where the members swap instruments, while the ‘The Can Opener’ is a silly but entertaining skit.
Globe of Frogs (with The Egyptians)
1988, 7/10
Hitchcock’s first major label record is glossier than its predecessors. But it’s also less accessible – the songs are often dissonant and Hitchcock relies more on novelty than before.
Roger Jackson had departed The Egyptians, leaving them as a three-piece, but they are augmented by R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook. Tilbrook provides harmonies on the excellent ‘Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)’, while ‘Chinese Bones’ has remained one of Hitchcock’s most popular live songs.
I enjoy ‘Balloon Man’, a minor hit that Hitchcock has largely disowned, but other songs like ‘Sleeping With Your Devil Mask’ and ‘The Shapes Between Us Turn Into Animals’ rely on their quirky titles for hooks. But otherwise, Globe of Frogs is a record of weird odds and ends. Hitchcock dabbles with extremely slow tempos and minimal psychedelia on ‘Luminous Rose’ and the title track.
There’s enough good material to make it worthwhile, but Globe of Frogs is a bizarre major-label debut, perhaps Hitcock’s least approachable album.
Queen Elvis (with The Egyptians)
1989, 7.5/10
After the weirdness of Globe of Frogs, Queen Elvis is more like what you’d expect from a major-label Hitchcock record. There’s a strong lead single in ‘Madonna of the Wasps’, and Hitchcock strikes the right balance between solid songcraft and eccentricity.
It’s not as consistent as his first two records with the Egyptians, but it’s solid. The track ‘Queen Elvis’ doesn’t appear on the album – it was saved for Hitchcock’s 1990 solo album Eye.
Peter Buck is back to guest on ‘Madonna of the Wasps’, the closest-sounding the Egyptians came to a hit single. The side two opener, ‘One Long Pair of Eyes’, is almost as good, with fluid piano from Metcalfe. The second side is stronger than the first – there’s the agreeably eccentric royal fantasy of ‘Veins of the Queen’. The acerbic bridge of ‘Freeze’ is also a highlight, with Hitchcock spitting out “I know who wrote the book of love/It was an idiot, it was a fool/A slobbering fool with a speech defect and a shakin’ hand.”
Queen Elvis would have made a better major-label debut for Hitchcock, more tuneful and accessible than Globe of Frogs.
Eye
1990, 7/10
Still with the Egyptians, Hitchcock released his second solo album in 1990. Eye uses the same colour palette as I Often Dream of Trains. Trains had a couple of cameo appearances, but Eye is completely solo.
Despite appearances, Eye is not a simple sequel to Trains. The songs on Trains were concise and sparse, giving the album a distinctive feel. But Eye lacks the charms of its predecessor – some of these songs are irritating.
The pattern is set by the opening tracks. ‘Cynthia Mask’ is a terrific opener, with pretty piano and lyrics about Neville Chamberlain. But ‘Certainly Clickot’ is arguably the most irritating song in Hitchcock’s entire catalogue.
The good songs are impressive. It’s worth wading through Eye to hear gems like ‘Raining Twilight Coast’, ‘College of Ice’, and ‘Glass Hotel’. But the bad stuff is among Hitchcock’s worst, like his tortured vocals on ‘Agony of Pleasure’. ‘Beautiful Girl’ might have worked nicely on Trains, but it feels underdeveloped here.
At the start of the CD era, artists felt obliged to make 60-minute albums – Eye would have benefited from a 40-minute runtime.
Perspex Island (with The Egyptians)
1991, 6.5/10
Perspex Island is another move toward the mainstream from Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians. It was produced by Paul Fox, who gave a bunch of alternative acts, like 10,000 Maniacs and XTC, a glossier sound around this time
Fox takes the mainstream sound too far on Perspex Island, taking the edge off a serviceable bunch of songs. Like the previous two records, Peter Buck guests on guitar. He’s joined by Michael Stipe, who harmonises with Hitchcock on ‘She Doesn’t Exist’.
The most mainstream songs are the most memorable. Hitchcock plays it straight with the tuneful power pop of ‘So You Think You’re In Love’, a #1 modern rock hit. There’s also ‘Ultra-Unbelievable Love’, a buoyant riff-rocker that’s hard to take seriously from the usually cynical Hitchcock. But if you can get past the production, there are impressive deep tracks – ‘Oceanside’ is a great opener, ‘She Doesn’t Exist’ is delicately pretty, while ‘Child of the Universe’ is psychedelic and fun.
Perspex Island is a promising bunch of songs, let down by bland mainstream production.
Respect (with The Egyptians)
1993, 7/10
Respect is Hitchcock’s final album with the Egyptians. It’s less band-focused and more acoustic and folk-based. It probably wouldn’t sound radically different if Hitchcock had used session musicians rather than Windsor and Metcalfe.
Hitchcock told MTV’s 120 Minutes, “We very much played the corporate game on the last few records…. It wasn’t us who was presented; it was like being in drag.” Hitchcock has disowned Respect, but it sounds fine to me—John Leckie’s production has aged gracefully.
Respect is a sombre affair, influenced by the death of Hitchcock’s father. There’s a bunch of low-key folk tunes, bookended by two oddities. These oddities are ‘The Yip Song’, a stream-of-consciousness song with a nagging chorus, and the weirdness of ‘Wafflehead’, ending the Egyptians’ career on a decidedly offbeat note. There’s a series of well-written tunes in between – more sombre and death-focused than usual. The most minimal arrangements are often most successful – ‘Arms of Love’ and ‘Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom’ are gorgeous.
Respect might have worked better as a Hitchcock solo record, but it’s a respectable end to the Egyptians’ career.
Moss Elixir
1996, 8/10
Hitchcock’s work in the 1990s was informed by his father’s death. Moss Elixir is only his second album since 1991, and like Respect it dwells on mortality. ‘You and Oblivion’ is a striking example.
The green and gold lettering indicates another stripped-back album, but it’s livelier than Eye. A full band features on tracks like the lead single ‘Alright Yeah’. Violinist Deni Bonet also appears, including on the opening ‘Sinister But She Was Happy’.
I’ve always done things in bits and pieces—right from the Soft Boys up to Queen Elvis. We tended to only work in one studio in one town, we had certain haunts. But it was all in little bits so you can listen to what you’re doing, take it away and live with it for a couple of months and then go in and overdub and mix it.
Robyn Hitchcock, https://tapeop.com/interviews/17/robyn-hitchcock/
Hitchcock’s writing is still vibrant more than a dozen albums into his career. ‘De Chirico Street’, about metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, is surprisingly jazzy. The electric guitar and violin arrangement of ‘I Am Not Me’ is striking. The opening ‘Sinister But She Was Happy’ is the most memorable song, full of Hitchcock’s offbeat imagery – “like a chandelier festooned with leeches.”
Moss Elixir is a hidden gem in Hitchcock’s catalogue.
Storefront Hitchcock
2000, 6.5/10
Director Jonathan Demme attended a Hitchcock show and offered to make a music video with him. Demme was famous for movies like Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, and made Stop Making Sense with the Talking Heads. This became a full movie, shot in New York in 1996 in an abandoned clothing shop. Hitchcock returned the favour by guesting in several Demme movies, including his remake of The Manchurian Candidate.
The soundtrack slipped out a couple of years after the movie. Hitchcock is accompanied by Deni Bonet on violin and Tim Keegan on guitar. The setlist is surprisingly esoteric and shies away from Hitchcock’s best-known songs. Most songs are relatively recent, although Hitchcock reaches back to Fegmania! for ‘I’m Only You’. There’s a Jimi Hendrix cover (‘The Wind Cries Mary’). Several songs weren’t yet released when the movie was released, while another couple have never turned up on a studio record.
It’s not Hitchcock’s most dynamic set, but his between-song patter is entertaining, like his reference to “spleen a-go-go”. The new songs, ‘Let’s Go Thundering’ and ‘Where Do You Go When You Die?’, are both worthwhile, enough reason for hardcore fans to track this down.
Storefront Hitchcock is a serviceable live album with a couple of interesting, otherwise-unavailable songs.
Jewels for Sophia
1999, 7.5/10
Jewels For Sophia is like a compilation. Hitchcock recorded it in three different locations. Half of the tracks were with Jon Brion and Grant-Lee Phillips in Los Angeles. Three tracks were recorded with Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey in Seattle. Meanwhile, the London-based tracks include Kimberley Rew – the pair hadn’t collaborated since Black Snake Diamond Role.
By this point, Hitchcock’s transcended his Syd Barrett and Bob Dylan origins and is a great songwriter with a unique style. ‘I Feel Beautiful’ provides an offbeat skew on a love song. He takes his insect fascination to a new extreme with the kinky ‘Antwoman’.
Despite all the guests, some of the most memorable instrumental moments come from Hitchcock, like the guitar squall at the end of ‘The Cheese Alarm’.
Jewels for Sophia is another strong record from Hitchcock. He’s so consistent that it’s easy to take him for granted.
10 Best Robyn Hitchcock Songs
Brenda’s Iron Sledge
Cynthia Mask
Antwoman
Flavour of Night
Sinister But She Was Happy
Autumn is Your Last Chance
10 Best Songs by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
