Los Angeles Times
February 14, 1988
Winter Album Roundup
Hitchcock's Hothouse
*** Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians, Globe of Frogs, A&M
Checklist: **** "Great Balls Of Fire", *** "Good Vibrations", ** "Maybe Baby", * "Running On Empty"
by Kristine McKenna
In the tradition of inspired Pop eccentrics, British musician Hitchcock writes songs that read as aural snapshots of a strange and exotic landscape that exists nowhere but in his own head. Combining a dazzling command of the English language with an innovative synthesis of disparate musical motifs, Hitchcock is a gifted original who has a good shot at rising above his present cult status. Though this prolific artist is well-established as in the American college and Alternative market, this is his first LP for a major American label, and it will be interesting to see how A&M handles this oddly unsettling record. Hitchcock takes a rather dark view of existence, and though he cloaks his fatalism in gallows humor and pretty daisy-chain lyrics, his underlying pessimism comes through loud and clear in these ten psychedelic vignettes -- all of which are rather creepy. Nonetheless, one can't help admiring the feverish imagination that goes into creating Hitchcock's claustrophobic hothouse of the mind.
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