1990
Robyn Hitchcock
Eye
(Glass Fish)
by Dave Simpson
Eye occupies much of the same place in the Hitchcock canon as Droolian did in Julian Cope's: being an acoustic collection and not intended to be viewed as a "proper" release. It's ostensibly a bringing-together of songs that have lain previously (and inexplicably) unrecorded.
Eye is similar in vein to much of Bowie's Hunky Dory and Syd Barrett's solo LPs: voice and guitar/piano entwined together in slightly off-axis perspicacity, even hinting at some of the darker fringes of insanity that coloured those records.
"Queen Elvis" (the title of Hitchcock's last US album, although no such trace was to be found upon it!) is an exploration of private habits and secret homosexuality: "See that man who mows the lawn/He'll hang in drag before the dawn".
"Executioner" feature's Hitch's excellent impersonation of Ian Hunter's impersonation of John Lennon. The "executioner" is the person that breaks off a love, and the atmosphere just reeks of bitter anguish, pain and unbridled nastiness. "Linctus House", too, is a malevolent address ("Should I say it with flowers or should I say it with nails?") and "Raining Twilight Coast" is an open wound akin to Crosby's "Compass".
Tightrope-ridden, addictive.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE