The Boston Globe
October 11, 1990
Hitchcock's Solo Act Has A Bizarre Edge
Robyn Hitchcock At: Nightstage, Monday Night
by Jim Sullivan
No one -- least of all the artist in question -- would argue that Robyn Hitchcock is rockin' in the real world. Oh, his music relates to the real world. Just the way Hitchcock -- on leave from his band, The Egyptians, and touring as a solo-acoustic act -- resembles a folksinger. Sorta. He sings songs about mums and dads and girlfriends (good 'n' bad) and sex and fish and guy friends and Nick Lowe and Bryan Ferry and love and lust and women-wasps and a devil that pops up in your food (and, later, in your bed -- and then you think about strangling him but because you're English you make him coffee and toast instead). See?
Hitchcock's songs usually start with some semblance of reality. And a few -- like the sweet, romantic "Beautiful Girl" and the McCartneyesque "So You Think You're In Love" -- actually stay there. But most are Pop Psychedelic crazy quilts: melodically direct, sonorous songs that take dizzy, logical/illogical leaps. For instance, "Lobsterman", an unrecorded song that closed Hitchcock's sold-out set Monday at Nightstage, may be a pro-life lobster song -- but it might also be an anti-Arnold Schwarzenegger song. Or both. Or neither. With Hitchcock, you're often asking, "What is he going on about?" but at the same time smiling, digging it. Who needs linearity, anyway? Syd Barrett -- the Pink Floyd founder who is Hitchcock's patron saint -- didn't (and look where it got him).
Well, actually, the critically acclaimed Barrett ended up with severe mental problems and exited the Pop music world. This doesn't seem to be a risk with Hitchcock. As strange as it may seem, the handsome, lanky, 38-year-old Brit seems centered, cheerily at home in the bizarre worlds he creates. He's a wordsmith, an entertainer with a skewed attitude and a romantic, Rock 'n' Roll heart.
So: indulge. Enjoy. Imagine the Earth's surface as transparent and dead relatives are shouting dire warnings up at you. Imagine being the star of your own funeral procession and circling the city in an endless motorcade/traffic jam. Imagine love used as a threat and bitterness rolled over to indifference. (Well, some of it isn't so bizarre, and a lot of it is mordant.)
Now, what about all these Rock guys going acoustic? It is an overdone -- if cost-cutting -- trend and sometimes a lame gesture, oozing Hidden Soul & Sensitivity. Not Hitchcock. As a solo act, Hitchcock -- former leader of the star New Wave cult band The Soft Boys -- was anything but treacly. In fact, his 90-minute set had more sweep and emotional kick than his 1988 Boston club stop with The Egyptians (and special guest, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck). Melodically direct and lyrically obtuse, Hitchcock's Monday show punched all the weird buttons in all the right places.
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