The Atlanta Journal And Constitution
January 29, 1992
Hitchcock Shuns "Mad Hippie" Image
by Steve Dollar
Neither lobotomies nor spectral ex-spouses nor ichthyological reveries occupy the lyrics of Robyn Hitchcock's new album, Perspex Island -- which rarely turns as cryptic as its title.
Unlike his past incarnations as a leader of the British cult band The Soft Boys and as a soloist occasionally joined by his group, The Egyptians, the songwriter isn't dabbling in surreal fancies as mind-bogglingly perverse as a passage from Naked Lunch.
Instead, he's penning old-fashioned, jangly Pop songs -- sweetened by Beatlesque harmonies and classic, chiming arpeggios supplied by guest Egyptian Peter Buck of R.E.M. (who helped Mr. Hitchcock shape the new tunes in engineer John Keane's Athens studio last year).
"I was getting a reputation as a, kind of, mad old hippie," says Mr. Hitchcock, talking by phone from his hutch on The Isle Of Wight prior to a tour that opened Tuesday at the 40 Watt Club in Athens and continues tonight at the Variety Playhouse. (No word on whether Mr. Buck or other members of R.E.M. will join Mr. Hitchcock And The Egyptians, but audiences shouldn't be surprised if they do.)
"More than that, I was getting a reputation as someone you couldn't understand," he continues. "It's a bit like bricking yourself up in a wall. You're sealed in there and you can't breathe. Mind you, I'm not rushing around trying to get elected or anything."
Songs such as "So You Think You're in Love" and "Ultra Unbelievable Love" court the MTV mainstream with "exactly the same old stuff," says Mr. Hitchcock. "Folk Rock and The Beatles. Anglo-Saxon '60s-Based Melodic Pop. I think anybody could listen to this stuff. Even Dan Quayle."
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