The Daily Athenaeum
August 25, 1999
Hitchcock Pleases With Obscure Rock
The London Rocker Collaborates With Friends To Create An Album Full Of Great Musical Numbers
Robyn Hitchcock
Jewels For Sophia
Warner Bros.
Rating: 8
by Bruce Sachs
Robyn Hitchcock is one of the guys who has been around forever but nobody knows who he is. This London rocker has released numerous albums since 1981, yet few have heard his music.
His latest release, Jewels For Sophia, is the perfect album to get the unacquainted introduced to Hitchcock.
Jewels For Sophia is full of wonderfully obscure Rock numbers. Hitchcock couples his beautiful writing ability with collaborations from other established artists.
Grant-Lee Philips (formerly Buffalo) assists on two songs and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck plays electric 12-string guitar on three tunes. Also, Scott McCaughey, Kurt Bloch, Tad Hutchison, and Tim Keegan gathered in Seattle with Hitchcock and laid down the first session of tracks for the album. In addition to the variety of musicians, four different producers shared the workload on the 12 tracks.
The collaborations give each song a unique sound. Hitchcock is always heard at the front, but the music shifts from track to track with a nice creativity.
Jewels For Sophia is full of so many quality songs that it's hard to pick out the best ones. Some are slow balladesque numbers ("I Feel Beautiful") while others are fast-paced catchy tunes ("Viva Sea-Tac").
The first track, "Mexican God", catches the ear quickly. The tune consists only of Hitchcock on vocals and Jon Brion on bass and drums. Brion controls the song with his instruments by setting the tempo of the music. Charming lyrics and heavy beats lead the listener into the album with a nice start.
"Viva Sea-Tac" is just one of the up-tempo tracks with catchy lyrics. On the song, Hitchcock sings about the Seattle-Tacoma area. After hearing "They've got the best computers and coffee and smack", the line will pop in your head every time you hear about Seattle.
At times, Hitchcock sounds like Bob Dylan with a British accent. His lyrics are clever, complex and, at times, strange, but nearly all are immensely entertaining. When Hitchcock plays harmonica in "You've Got A Sweet Mouth On You, Baby", Dylan quickly comes to mind, and there are instances when the title track flows like "Highway 61 Revisited" or "Subterranean Homesick Blues".
The combination of beautiful songwriting and crisp instrumental support make Jewels For Sophia a must-have for fans of smart, lyric-driven Rock. Some songs are too profound (or weird) to attempt to understand. For instance, "Antwoman" is bizarre and "The Cheese Alarm" is nothing more than an ode to the joys of cheese.
"The Cheese Alarm" opens with "Roquefort and Gruyere and slippery Brie/All of these cheeses they happen to me". The song doesn't make much sense, but sounds really nice. For all its strangeness, however, it does conclude with some sort of meaning. "Half the world starving and half the world bloats/Half the world sits on the other and gloats ... Would you give it all up for some real peace of mind?".
Even if some of the songs don't make much sense, all are interesting. If a song doesn't make much sense, the music is so entertaining that the listener forgets about the lyrics and just listens to the rockin' sounds.
So, pick up Jewels For Sophia and just listen to the music.
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