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

Don't worry if you don't have the time!

Side Three - I generally only play a couple of tracks - 2.5/5. For me this has a parallel with 'Two Halves' LP from the end of the Soft Boys in 1981 - a bit of a damp squib (or squid in Robyn's case). I don't share the general enthusiasm for this revival - saw them live with a friend in 2001 and after the first half we thought the gig was a bit uninspiring. But a few album tracks were excellent. Evil Guy incidentally was a live recording (Fillmore, San Francisco!), so just a bonus really.

The live tracks on the free 45 were Underwater Moonlight and Only the Stones from Hollywood (kind of a parallel with the free EP that came with Elvis Costello's Armed Forces, released on the very same Radar label that.......).

Robyn Sings. I heard it once. I'll stick with Bob.

 

I quite like Side Three and think five of the tracks are better than five on Nextdoorland, so it was a welcome addition. 3.5/5.

Less keen on Robyn Sings. I've never been much of a fan of his Dylan covers; too faithful and reverential. The recreation of the 1966 gig must have been fun to attend but I've probably only ever listened to it once all the way through. As @chrism1971 says, you can't beat the real thing. 2.5/5.

 

Collated ratings for Nextdoorland (recalculated)

1. I Love Lucy 3.3333
2. Pulse of My Heart 3.8857
3. Mr Kennedy 4.9667
4. Unprotected Love 3.9714
5. My Mind Is Connected 3.6143
6. Sudden Town 3.95
7. Strings 2.8143
8. Japanese Captain 2.8429
9. La Cherité 3.9143
10. Lions And Tigers 2.58

Nextdoorland 3.3 (now including a few late votes, too)
Average by song: 3.58729

 

Collated ratings for Only the Stones Remain half-album:

1. Only the Stones Remain 4.6
2. Where Are the Prawns (version 2) 3.225
3. The Bells of Rhymney 3.13
4. There's Nobody Like You 4.2833
5. Innocent Boy 3.44

Average: 3.7457

 

Studio Albums, color*-coded for your enjoyment:

Note: I've now added the half album Only the Stones Remain.

A Can of Bees 3
Underwater Moonlight 4.7
Invisible Hits 3.9 (song average)
Only the Stones Remain 3.7457 (song average)
Black Snake Diamond Role 4.275
Groovy Decay/Groovy Decoy 2.1571
I Often Dream of Trains 4.8574
Fegmania! 4.3385
Element Of Light 4.37
Invisible Hitchcock 3.4573 (song average)
Globe of Frogs 3.1278
Queen Elvis 4.2167
EYE 3.5643
Perspex Island 2.9929
Respect 4.3786
You and Oblivion 3.7284 (Song average)
Moss Elixir 3.925
Jewels For Sophia 3.1556
A Star For Bram 3.24
Shadow Cat 3.0415 (Song average)
Nextdoorland 3.3

Ranked:

1. I Often Dream of Trains
2. Underwater Moonlight
3. Respect
4. Element of Light
5. Fegmania!
6. Black Snake Diamond Role
7. Queen Elvis
8. Moss Elixir
9. Invisible Hits
10. Only the Stones Remain
11. You And Oblivion
12. EYE
13. Invisible Hitchcock
14. Nextdoorland
15. A Star For Bram
16. Jewels For Sophia
17. A Globe of Frogs
18. Shadow Cat
19. A Can of Bees
20. Perspex Island
21. Groovy Decay/Groovy Decoy

11 more albums and one EP.

*(u)

 

Robyn Sings

If I make a huge mega playlist of all Robyn Hitchcock songs(original or otherwise) he has ever released and I then play that playlist on random then any of these songs would sound good if it happened to come up amid the 500 songs or so that make up Robyn’s oeuvre.
As a concerted listen it is an incredibly tiresome though. I do give him kudos for tackling some songs which frankly only Dylan can sing: I share his love for “visions of Johanna”, but the fact is that is a song that only Dylan can sing. And the fact that he compounded this by doing masterpieces like “desolation Row “or “tangled up in blue “really took a lot of guts. His passion is real and his love for Dylan is palpable.

I don’t think I can finish this. Each individual song night average a 3 (some are very good) Usually the lesser known ones.

but I have to give the entire an album a 2/5. Assuming I finish it. It is a chore. Cutting it down to a single disk would help.

 

Disc two is much better even though the sound is worse. Still 2/5.

 

"Robyn Sings" -- is fair at best. It's nothing I ever go back to. I appreciate it, but don't like it much. 2/5 seems right.

 

Side 2

Is good enough to make me forget how weary I am of Robyn after the last six CDs.
4.2/5

 

Side Three has some great stuff on, but also some forgettable bits. As both it and Nextdoorland are out of print, it would be nice if they were all reissued on one set. 3.5/5 for the EP as is.

Robyn Sings is pleasant enough, but totally inessential. The fact that he did a covers album at this point and that several of the Soft boys songs were mediocre suggests that he had a bit f serious writer's block around this time. I do enjoy the version of Tell Me Momma and some of the other electric songs.
2/5

 

Forgot to mention the covers which are one of the best things about Nextdoorland and Side Three - by Lal Hitchcock who was responsible for Underwater Moonlight - excellent weirdness and a refreshing change from the choice between RH's graphics or winsome photos taken by loved ones. The gothic poses with the dripping candles etc on the back cover of the LP are also very atmospheric and I believe have been copied by someone else more recently, as usual I can't remember who.

 

Our votes for Side Three:

1-0
2-0
3-1
4-3
5-0
Average: 3.425

 

Our votes for Robyn Sings

1-0
2-2
3-1
4-0
5-0
Average: 2.1667

 

Studio Albums, color*-coded for your enjoyment:

Note: I've now added the EP Side Three.

A Can of Bees 3
Underwater Moonlight 4.7
Invisible Hits 3.9 (song average)
Only the Stones Remain 3.7457 (song average)
Black Snake Diamond Role 4.275
Groovy Decay/Groovy Decoy 2.1571
I Often Dream of Trains 4.8574
Fegmania! 4.3385
Element Of Light 4.37
Invisible Hitchcock 3.4573 (song average)
Globe of Frogs 3.1278
Queen Elvis 4.2167
EYE 3.5643
Perspex Island 2.9929
Respect 4.3786
You and Oblivion 3.7284 (Song average)
Moss Elixir 3.925
Jewels For Sophia 3.1556
A Star For Bram 3.24
Shadow Cat 3.0415 (Song average)
Nextdoorland 3.3
Side Three 3.425

Ranked:

1. I Often Dream of Trains
2. Underwater Moonlight
3. Respect
4. Element of Light
5. Fegmania!
6. Black Snake Diamond Role
7. Queen Elvis
8. Moss Elixir
9. Invisible Hits
10. Only the Stones Remain
11. You And Oblivion
12. EYE
13. Invisible Hitchcock
14. Side Three 3.425
    
15. Nextdoorland
16. A Star For Bram
17. Jewels For Sophia
18. A Globe of Frogs
19. Shadow Cat
20. A Can of Bees
21. Perspex Island
22. Groovy Decay/Groovy Decoy

11 more albums and one EP.

*(u)

 

Today's song is "If You Know Time", written by Robyn Hitchocck. ( I almost forgot!)


"If You Know Time" was recorded live at WFMU in New Jersey by The Soft Boys in October 2002; it was released on the album Tunes On Toxic Terrain in 2004.

Robyn later re-recorded a solo version of this, with a different arrangement, Spooked. I will hold that version of the song up separately.

 

"If You Know Time" by the Soft Boys is fantastic (even though it sounds more like The Egyptians to me.)

5/5

 

Sounds a bit like the Egyptians but lacking the fuller harmonies, great song though - 4/5. Phrasing and melodies remind me of Belltown Ramble, yet to come. RH threw away these songs but recorded and album of tepid Dylan covers.....

 

I've never heard this version before. It's a decent song which, if polished up in the studio with the band, could have been a great addition to Nextdoorland. It's one of the better tracks on Spooked in my opinion.

If You Know Time 3.5/5.

 

Time -- enjoyable and would have like to hear a studio version with this band. 3/5

 

If You Know Time 5/5 - Love this version of it.

 

If you know time - great version. 4/5

 

"If You Know Time"

1-0
2-0
3-1
4-2
5-2
Average: 4.2

 

Today I'm going to start holding up songs from Luxor, Robyn Hitchcock's 23rd album.

Luxor was self-released on Robyn's Editions PAF! label in March 2003 on his birthday. The album was largely self-produced and self-played, though Robyn's old friend Jon Brion makes an appearance. Most of the album was recorded by Pat Collier at The Gravity Shack in London, though a couple of songs were recorded by the likes of Jon Brion and Scott McCaughey.

I looked for some information, for some interviews or articles from this time, but didn't find much other than this tidbit from Trouser Press (who I thought went out of business like forty years ago, but apparently have some kind of online thing.)

Other than that, not much info. The few reviews I can find are positive, if not exhuberant.

I assume there were interviews and articles at the time but they may have been confined to online publications that no longer exist. I've been thinking about that, lately, how nothing online is certain; much of the information that can be found at our fingertips might disappear into the aether. It's worth spending ten seconds or so thinking about before shrugging your shoulders and moving on.

Anyway, the track-list was:

1. The Sound of Sound
2. One L
3. Penelope's Angles
4. The Idea of You
5. You Remind Me of You
6. Luxor
7. Keep Finding Me
8. Maria Lyn
9. Round Song
10. Ant Corridor
11. Idonia
12. The Wolf House
13. Solpadeine

IN addition I intend to go over the following:

• A Man's Gotta Know His Limitation, Briggs [solo version] {Wig In a Box: Songs From And Inspired by Hedwig And The Angry Inch, 2003, also on Obliteration Pie 2005, recorded 2002}
• Are "Friends" Electric {from Queer Street - No Fish Is Too Weird For Her Aquarium Volume III, 2003}
• Madeleine {Obliteration Pie, 2005, recorded 2002}
• Let the Sun Begin {Obliteration Pie, 2005, recorded 2002}
• City of Women {Obliteration Pie, 2005, recorded 2003}
• I Fall Into Your Eyes {Obliteration Pie, 2005, recorded 2003}
• My Dreams Are Scars {Obliteration Pie, 2005, recorded 2003}
• Butterfly {Obliteration Pie, 2005, recorded 2003}
• Queen Elvis {Obliteration Pie, 2005}
• Funkytown (Steven Greenberg) {Obliteration Pie, 2005

So I guess, if all of these songs stream, I will start on Spooked on July 16th. If they don't...earlier.

 

Today's song is "The Sound of Sound, written and produced by Robyn Hitchcock; recorded by Pat Collier.

Lyric.

Robyn Hitchcock: vocal, guitar

 

"The Sound of Sound" has fantastic sound, and I think the melody is very odd in an appealing way. It's a very low-key way to open this album. Sometimes I feel that whenever Robyn does a stripped back "me 'n' my acoustic" album, he's pushing the reset button. Which badly needed to be pushed, IMO.

3.8/5