The Rocket
November 18, 1998
Robyn Hitchcock
Storefront Hitchcock
(Warner Bros. CD)
by Charles R. Cross
Robyn Hitchcock's new album is the soundtrack to the new Jonathan Demme film Storefront Hitchcock. It's essentially Demme's attempt to remake Stop Making Sense, but this time using Robyn Hitchcock's live show as the framework rather than the Talking Heads'. Both the film and the soundtrack succeed at capturing Hitchcock at his best, and this CD will be a treasure for fans.
The CD will also be a good introduction for those not familiar with the quirky English singer-songwriter (who frequently hangs out in the Northwest). Hitchcock covers some of his best songs and includes a great rendition of "The Wind Cries Mary". Other highlights are "1974", "Beautiful Queen", and "Alright, Yeah".
Since this is a live recording, the CD also captures Hitchcock's between-song banter, which is a big part of his charm and the reason Demme was attracted to him in the first place. His rants and jokes about everything from religion to spleens are entertaining and funny, though they won't wear well on repeated listenings. Fortunately, the chatting has been indexed on the CD so on further listenings you can program them out (assuming your CD player has that capacity).
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