Los Angeles Times
June 23, 1985
New Kids In Town: The Hitchcock Touch
by Craig Lee
Band: Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians.
Personnel: Hitchcock, vocals, guitar; Morris Windsor, drums; Andy Metcalfe, bass; Roger Jackson, keyboards.
History: Hitchcock was a co-founder of the English group The Soft Boys seven years ago. At a time when Punk Rock was the rage, The Soft Boys were playing twisted Psychedelic Pop tunes. Though the group drew an avid cult and critical following, it never made the commercial breakthrough it deserved, and the band dissolved 3½ years ago (Soft Boy guitarist Kimberley Rew is now with Katrina And The Waves). Hitchcock's first real solo album, Black Snake Diamond Role, is considered an underground classic. Lack of response to his next album, Groovy Decay, caused a disillusioned Hitchcock to temporarily quit the music scene. The retirement didn't stick. Hitchcock collaborated with The Damned's bassist, Captain Sensible, on his solo outings, and last year Hitchcock released a critically acclaimed solo-acoustic album, I Often Dream of Trains. Later that year, the British miners' strike prompted Hitchcock to reunite with the Soft Boys' rhythm section for a benefit recording of the protest song "The Bells of Rhymney". The old chemistry clicked again, and the reformed Soft Boys, now known as Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians, released a new album, Fegmania!, in February. The album is being distributed in America by Slash Records. R.E.M. has just picked Hitchcock to open for the group on its upcoming tour.
Sound: Hitchcock's latest album is probably the most delightfully tuneful and lyrically absurd record to come out of the whole psychedelic revival movement. Taut guitar chording, inventive keyboards, and pretty vocals can't disguise Hitchcock's mad-hatter tales like "Egyptian Cream" (about a lotion that causes sex changes), "My Wife and My Dead Wife" (an ambiguously schizophrenic love paean to either a ghost or a corpse), and "The Man With the Lightbulb Head" (about a character who claims, "I turn myself on in the dark"). Hitchcock is goofy and witty, though hardly a fool -- his music is carefully crafted and he's couched his mind-bending lyrics in clean, inviting Power Pop and Folk Rock textures that sound like an inspired meeting between The Byrds, Syd Barret and The Bonzo Dog Band. A real trip.
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