The Washington Post
April 20, 1990
Hitchcock's Eye Gazes Upon Absurd
by Mark Jenkins
"Napolean wore a black hat/Ate lots of chicken/And conquered half Europe/Was captured by the British/Imprisoned on Elba/He died on the phone", begins "Cynthia Mask", which kicks off Robyn Hitchcock's new album Eye. The ex-Soft Boy's previous all-acoustic album, 1984's I Often Dream of Trains was his most personal record to date, and the title of Eye (I?) certainly suggests that it will continue on that track. Instead, however, the absurdism of "Cynthia Mask" sets the tone.
For all its Lewis Carrollisms, last year's Queen Elvis had a grounding in reality that made it the most affecting Hitchcock album since Trains. Thus Eye which actually debuts the song "Queen Elvis," seems a bit of a retreat. Recorded with just guitar, piano, and voice in San Francisco in 1988 and 1989, it's pleasant enough, but it's clearly slight. Trains proved that an all-acoustic Hitchcock album needn't be a collection of oddities (like this album's intensely Lennon-flavored "Executioner") and first drafts for a real Hitchcock album. But that's just what most of Eye sounds like.
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