The Washington Post
February 17, 1988
Guitars That Jingle Jangle Jingle
by Mark Jenkins
Among the New Rock constituency that hasn't conceded the primacy of the synthesizer, the most coveted guitar sound is the harmonic Byrdsian chiming exemplified by bands such as R.E.M.. But the younger exponents of this music didn't all learn their Roger McGuinn riffs from battered copies of "Turn! Turn! Turn!". R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, for one, has testified that his richly textured style is largely derived from The Soft Boys, late-'70s English cult rockers whose American influence is widespread, even though none of their records was released here.
Almost a decade since they split, best-boy Robyn Hitchcock is only on his third American studio album (three predecessors were issued in Europe) and his first for a major label.
Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians: Globe of Frogs
Fans of Hitchcock's lush arpeggios and soaring melodies will not be entirely disappointed by Globe of Frogs (A&M SP 5182), the eccentric Englishman's first album since signing with Herb Alpert's -- and Janet Jackson's -- label. Songs such as "Chinese Bones" and "Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)", both of which feature Buck on 12-string, are as dulcet as anything on Black Snake Diamond Role or Fegmania!, Hitchcock's ringingest records. Frogs, though, is his most venturesome disc since 1984's all-acoustic I Often Dream of Trains and his most diverse since 1982's Groovy Decay.
The preferences of devotees aside, that's for the best. Hitchcock's music, if not his ever-idiosyncratic lyrics, skirted the formulaic on his last two records. Peering into this Globe, though, yields plenty of surprises: The ambitious arrangements and production (by Hitchcock and his longtime collaborators, engineer Pat Collier and Soft Boys-turned-Egyptians Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor) feature nontraditional instruments, disjointed song structures and some of Hitchcock's rowdiest guitar work since the early-Softs. "Luminous Rose" is virtually a cappella, save for a droning harmonica and funereal drum. The title song, with its Indian percussion and gliding Robin Williamson-ish vocals, recalls middle-period Incredible String Band.
Characteristically, Hitchcock's big-time debut comes complete with a manifesto that entreats the reader to "bury your television" and declares, "We are all deviants, all alone, and all peculiar." With song titles such as "The Shapes Between Us Turn Into Animals", Hitchcock need hardly have worried that listeners might have thought him unpeculiar. His formulations remain enigmatic -- "Some things go in, some thing go out/And next time 'round I'll be a trout", he notes to conclude "Sleeping With Your Devil Mask" -- but his images can be arresting: "And it rained like a slow divorce", he sings in "Balloon Man". If Hitchcock can continue making records that jump like Frogs long may he rain.
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