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From that point on I was hooked, quickly becoming one of his small, but devoted band of followers.<\/p>\n
A charismatic and eccentric performer, Hitchcock is something of a musicians\u2019 musician – Peter Buck<\/strong> of REM <\/strong>has been a frequent collaborator and his latest, self-titled offering, features vocal contributions from Grant Lee Phillips, Gillian Welch<\/strong> and Wilco<\/strong>\u2019s\u00a0Pat Sansone.<\/strong><\/p>\n The 21st album of his 40-year recording career, it makes for a great jumping off point from which to explore the rest of his work, going back to the early albums with The Soft Boys <\/strong>in the 1970s.<\/p>\n Indeed, the heady opening to that decade is celebrated on 1970 In Aspic<\/em><\/strong> from the new record.<\/p>\n In a refreshingly unsentimental re-imagining, the 64-year-old Hitchcock hearkens back to a defining moment in his life \u2013 the almost Country and Western backing highlighting the influence of his new Nashville base.<\/p>\n The past is a frequent visitor to this album, most explicitly on the spacey Time Coast <\/em><\/strong>and Raymond And The Wires<\/em><\/strong>, which recalls a 1960s trolleybus ride with his father.<\/p>\n But if the epic\u00a0Sayonara Judge<\/em><\/strong> can be read as an artist running a rule over the successes and failures of his life, it\u2019s clear Hitchcock\u2019s not ready to call time on his career just yet.<\/p>\n Album opener I Want To Tell You About What I Want<\/em><\/strong> is an ambitious post-punk musical manifesto, in which he sets the world to rights with a mix of straight-talking and surrealism.<\/p>\n As ever there\u2019s a strong late-period Beatles<\/strong> influence, notably on the backward guitar-psychedelia of Autumn Sunglasses<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n One of the strongest songs on the record, it shows his ability to build a song from a single startling image or object, a trick he repeats to great effect again on Mad Shelley\u2019s Letterbox<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more great psych guitar on Virginia Woolf<\/em><\/strong>, which references the suicides, of not only the Bloomsbury Group writer, but later poet and novelist Sylvia Plath<\/strong>.<\/p>\n But this isn\u2019t a gloomy record in any sense, in fact, it\u2019s very uplifting both musically and lyrically.<\/p>\n The affectionate Johnny Cash <\/strong>pastiche of I Pray When I\u2019m Drunk<\/em><\/strong> is another nod to his move to Music City, even if the line \u201cI think about you when I strum\u201d<\/em> owes more to Kenneth Williams than Hank Williams.<\/p>\n While the stylish glam stomp of Detective Mindhorn<\/em><\/strong> contains one of sharpest lyrical images I\u2019ve heard in many a year: \u201cI\u2019m a butterfly that jealous fingers framed\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n Producer Brendon Benson, <\/strong>of Raconteurs<\/strong> fame, adds urgency to the music and Hitchcock appears energised by the talents of a crack backing band, featuring guitarist Annie McCue<\/strong>, bassist Jon Estes<\/strong> and drummer Jon Radford<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Astute, funny and salted with a smattering of righteous indignation, the eponymous\u00a0Robyn Hitchcock<\/em>\u00a0is a great piece of work – a\u00a0genuine pleasure to find him in such fine fettle.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/RH-blue-guitar-sideways-by-Alicia-J-Rose.jpg?resize=640%2C640&ssl=1\")
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