Wey Wey Hep a Hole Ding Dong: Robyn Hitchcock the song by song, album by album thread

Our votes for "If You Go Away"

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Average: 3.7875

 

Today's song is "Earthly Paradise', written by Robyn Hitchcock and produced by Paul Fox.

Lyric.

Robyn Hitchcock: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars
Andy Metcalfe: bass, mandolin, keyboards
Morris Windsor: drums

Peter Buck: electric guitar

 

Paradise. "So long..." indeed. The album ends with a dud for me: 2/5

 

I dig this one, too...3.9/5

 

I think this may be the longest studio track he's ever recorded. Half as long would have been fine. It's an inauspicious end to a disappointing album which I'm sure I enjoyed a lot more at thee time than I do revisiting it now. I relish these daily delves into the back catalogue but this one's been a bit of a chore. As Robyn's mate the Captain said, glad it's all over.

Earthly Paradise 2/5.

 

Superman played at matching tempos .... meh ... 2.5/5

 

I always forget this track even exists. I've skipped it so many times that in my head the album ends on that last great chord of If You Go Away. It would have been much better that way, IMO.

At half the length this would have been alright but it's just a dull, damp squib to finish the album on.

2/5

 

Arguably the most commercial sounding record in the RH catalog, the irony is what I detect to be a theme of environmentalism running throughout. At least that’s what I heard back when it was released. Not to suggest that Robyn was trying to make a grand statement about the systematic destruction of the world’s natural resources, but subtle lyrical elements are there in many of the tracks on Perspex Island. I don’t doubt it was on his mind during development. Earthly Paradise is the slightly more overt summing up, as if to say “if you didn’t get it by now, here it is spelled out”. I would need to give another close listen to the album to back up anything stated above.

 

I'm glad you're mentioning this. I've had the same hunch while revisiting this album, and that he's using romantic relationships the beauty and degradation of the planet as reciprocal metaphors.

And again, without specific supporting evidence here, I think environmental themes in "alternative" rock were ascendent in the late 80's, early 90's.

 

“Earthly Paradise”—2.5/5. The album ends on something of a long whimper, but most of the points here are for “I hope they/you fry in hell”.

 

Meh 2.5

 

The masses of 12-strings guitar -- like a warm sunny ocean that you swim in while the song is playing. -- a very pretty, meandering waltz...It is a little long, like many of the songs on this album, but I feel like it's ok -- the best album ending songs are either ruminative or irreverent -- this one is the former, thank god because Robyn's irreverence can be a little much.

I quite like the idea of juxtoposing environmental concerns with the earth and relationship, if that what Robyn was doing here on this album: it certainly works on this, but this is a song you have to take holistically and ultimately, it's just the lush, gleaming sound of it that I respond to.

4.1/5

 

Our votes for "Earthly Paradise"
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Average: 2.7556

 

Today, Perspex Island.

I'll hold up the following in days to come:

• Dark Green Energy (b-side)
• Watch Your Intelligence (B-side)
• Lovely Golden Villains (from While Thatcher Mauled Britain)
• Toadboy (from While Thatcher Mauled Britain)
• Lightplug (from While Thatcher Mauled Britain)
• I Wanna Go Backwards (from While Thatcher Mauled Britain)
• Eight Miles High (B-side)
• Chimes of Freedom (from Bad Case of History, recorded 1992)*
• A Day In the Life (Bucketful of Brains flexi-single)
• The Banana Boat Song (From the Kershaw Sessions)
• Open the Door, Homer (From the Kershaw Sessions)*
• Live albums: (to be held up and discussed on the same day:
  • The Kershaw Sessions live album
  • Give It To The Thoth Boys live album/Live Death EP
  • Live at the Cambridge Folk Festival live album

*to be held up with the preceding song on the same day

So on March 8th, we should start on Respect.

 

First of all let me say this: I think that Perspex Island is the best Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians album since Element of Light -- or maybe equal to Globe of Frogs, though song by song it's better..

No, seriously. It seems to have received a mild drubbing here: and I understand that. There is this sense, as I've written, that this is Robyn Hitchcock on prozac: the rough edges sanded away; the low points done away with, sure, but the psychedelic experimentation mostly left out -- which at times has provided sublimely inspired moments. But I get that they were going for a commercial, sunny jangly sound: the association with REM from quite early on and REM's huge success probably something of a consideration at least. Paul Fox, in my opinion, largely did the job that he was hired to do: deliver a commercial album with a little quirk but not too much.

But the fact remains that for me there are still at least 6 "great songs" on this -- and the other ones are good. It's actually an unusually high batting average for an A&M-era album. And to be truthful, I think this album would be on of The Egyptians best but for one thing: the mix.

I have two problems with the mix: the first is that the snare and bass drum are too loud. The second i sthat there are too many overstuffed songs. There appear to be a dozen or more guitar tracks on nearly every song, all of them perfectly audible; and there appears to be an organ filling in every conceivable hole (in the music, minds out of gutters) in the music on, like, 8 or 9 of the 11 tracks. On top of that, the overloud (albeit brilliant, Jody Stephens-like) drumming is often added to by quite complex and maybe unnecessary percussion tracks. I'm sure that percussion sounds great in an of itself, but it's puts the music into a tight straitjacket that doesn't allow it to breathe. Now, this gives a very bright, sunny chiming vibe that feels like party music: and generally I like it: and it works extremely well on some tracks, like the first three. The Spector approach works there. But it wears on the ear. The album lacks dynamism, not because of the mastering like modern albums, but because it's just got every element going full blast.

Beyond the first three, several of the other songs have their greatness, in my opinion, rather buried by all these guitars. Maybe one of the reasons why "If You Go Away" works for well to me is that, really, it's very stripped back. There sound like there are a couple of electric 12 strings and that's it: Andy's wonderful bass is more upfront, and you hear the band. I compared a song earlier to Sugar, partially becauses it actually sounded like Sugar to me; but also because I think that Sugar's albums also suffer from the same problem: too many elements put upfront in the mix...it's a commercial sound, but it wears after a while.

If they were going for REM, they missed one of REM's greatest strengths: namely, the fact that those guys, in the Berry years, really knew how to mix a record so that it sounds unique and beautiful and, if anything, they have the opposite problem: they bury elements too much sometimes (think "Kahoutek") in a way that can be frustrating.

Having said that, I can't give a song with so many songs I like less than a, oh, 3.9 but I think this had the potential to be one of Hitchcock/Egyptians' greatest albums and they (whoever they might be) messed it up by focusing too much on a certain samey-sounding commercial mix.

 

I agree with a lot of Lance's piece; while I was very impressed in 1991, overall this album hasn't stayed a favourite beyond the 90s. I have an old friend (female with exceptional taste) who got into the Egs in the early days and whose favourite album of theirs is PI, so clearly the gloss and complexity works for some. For me, as Lance said, the overlays of guitars and other instruments just distracts from some of the musical message, and on 'Side Two' clearly covers up for some under-par songs. Re Peter Buck - with REM, of course, they only had him on guitars, but here the ornateness is a bit too strong - although with Lysander, for me, it's acceptable as I really like the song and its emotional content. The proof of the pudding really is Birds in Perspex - the best track, here the inventiveness is mainly in Robyn's soloes, the rhythm section, the harmonies - and no PB.

As an album it now feels unsatisfying and overegged (the only other RH album I can think of where the ambition outstrips the material is Nextdoorland - but that's a way off yet.) 3/5.

 

Perspex -- as a whole -- suffers because almost all of the songs overstay their welcome. I find it a chore to listen to (even on this revisit) and of the 6 Egyptians albums, this doesn't fight too hard for last place among them. Yes, there are some classic songs on here, but it's overall disappointing and dull to me. 2/5

Luckily, the Egyptians redeem themselves and go out with a bang with "Respect".

 

Perspex Island : Includes one classic track (Birds In Perspex) and three good to great ones (Oceanside, Lysander, If You Go Away). The rest are decent to passable songs made mediocre and/or tedious by overly-fussy but sterile production. Robyn's best music (to my ears) always sounds organic and lively. This album is far too clinical - there is no warmth to it.

I didn't particularly care for this album from day one, but thinking about it that might have also had something to do with me spending a disgusting amount of money on a US import of the CD as soon as it was released (seeing as Queen Elvis never got a UK release I mistakenly imagined PI would suffer the same fate).

This is easily my least favourite Egyptians album, and unlike Eye, reassessing it for this thread has made me like it even less.

Accordingly my score is a personal record low of 3/5.


Much better is to follow with the PI b-sides and with Respect (apart from 'Wafflehead' which joins 'Clean Steve' on my kill list).

 

In addition to all of the fantastic work on managing this thread, thanks Lance for a refreshing take on PI. It's given me something to think about WRT an album I tend to dismiss. I don't know if I'll ever rate it above Queen Elvis, but as always with Robyn, it's worth a listen.

 

Perspex Island is my least favourite Egyptians album too. The first three tracks and She Doesn't Exist are very good, the rest is paste.

It's one of the few RH albums I would describe as dull. Lyrically it's not a patch on his previous releases while musically and production-wise it tries far too hard to be liked. Despite its aspirations, I doubt it would have garnered too much new interest (the R.E.M seal of approval notwithstanding) while long-term fans like myself found it rather bland.

I totally agree that the forthcoming B-sides are much better than most of the LP. It's interesting that the next album was a "getting it together in the country" effort away from the big studio setting overseen by, one suspects, a more collaborative producer; and all the better for it.

If Perspex Island was by anyone else I'd give it 3.5/5 but as it's a Robyn Hitchcock album and we expect greater things, it only merits 2.6/5.

 

It's really interesting to see the different takes on Perspex Island. I'd never thought about the environmental theme running through it before, but there's definitely something in that. I think Lance nailed it in describing the problems with the mixes too.

For me, this is half of an excellent album grafted to half a mediocre album. Even the songs I'm not as keen on are decent nice melodic pop songs, but they needed some good editing. The bloated length of several of them really detracts from the songs for me, the most chronic example being Earthly Paradise of course.

I first heard the album about 15 years ago, and was aware of the fairly low ranking it had among Robyn fans. With low expectations, I was presently surprised. If it was by someone unknown I'd probably be thinking "Who is this Beatley pop? It's great!", but there is a bit of that unique Hitchcock quality lacking, particularly on side 2.

3.2/5, bumped up above a 3 because the strongest songs are so good. It's just a shame that some naff ones and the heavy production let them down a bit.

 

Perspex Island—3.25/5. Despite a few choice cuts, this still remains my least favorite Egyptians album. The production leaves me cold but above all, I really think the issue is the lack of inspired songwriting on half of the tracks. I’m not bothered by the ersatz commercialism or pop sheen, a criticism that I think is a bit overstated. A few songs are just too meandering and overstay their welcome. This reassessment has definitely recovered a couple of overlooked gems for me, but I’d reach for many other RH albums over this one.

 

Our votes for Perspex Island:

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Average:2.9929

 

Today's song is "Dark Green Energy", written by Robyn Hitchcock and produced by Paul Fox.


This was released on the CD single So You Think You're In Love in the UK; and also on the Ultra Unbelievable Love promo singles. It was also released on Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians' Greatest Hits in 1996.

This song is obviously a straight up duet with Michael Stipe and I assume that Peter Buck is adding his guitar, but I haven't found any actual line-up notes online.

Lyrics below are my approximation.

I find the rain above the clouds
Afar the light, beyond the shroud
The natural grey Still the best
Don't close your eyesTil Your dead

The world is full
of sap and oil
Until it bursts just like a boil
And it is mine
It is yours
It's in my spine
Through your pores

See my dark green energy

This light of mine never fails
It's very dark, never pales
From every tree across the land
Into your mouth, into your hand
Temptation crawls just like a fly
Into your heart, into your eyes
Here's some for me and some for you
I love you, bye, you know I do

See my dark green energy

 

I like it better when Stipe's does a duet rather than aa cameo: if it's a duet it doesn't distract like a subtle backing vocal does.

Maybe because of the presence of Stipe and maybe because the guitar sounds like a lot like "Endgame" from Out of Time, this one sounds much, much more like REM than any of the other songs.

And I note that the mix that I believe ruined the great album that Perspex Island could have been is incredibly restrained and REM-like, if you will -- I don't get blaming Peter Buck for the guitar oversaturation on Perspex Island as nothing he has done ever sounds like that: he and Berry were the minimalists of REM, with Stipe and Mills the Brian Wilson-y over producers (only without Wilson's fleet genius ability to make the complex sound simple and sweet.).

No, it's Fox that bears the blame, I'm afraid because Robyn and Andy never get that heavy handed, either.

Best not to analyze it too much, but for whatever reason, this is better than all but a couple of the songs on Perspex Island , once again proving that Robyn Hitchcock, and company have no idea what to pick for their albums -- and the strange mix of romantic relationships and environmental concern that was mentioned above seems nowhere clearer than in this song.

5/5