Seattle Post-Intelligencer
February 21, 1992
Robyn Hitchcock Gets More To The Point, In A Way
by Peter Blackstock
Try to talk to Robyn Hitchcock about his music, and you're bound to get sidetracked onto another subject.
Like, say, Armenian cheesecake.
When asked whether he thought his new album Perspex Island was more focused than some of his previous efforts, Hitchcock said yes -- sort of.
"It's like going into a shop and not knowing whether you're going to be able to ask for what you want, or whether you'll just ask for some completely random food that you're not interested in," he said. "I wanted to be able to go in and say, 'I'd like a coffee, please,' rather than going in and finding I'd ordered some kind of Armenian cheesecake."
Anyone who has seen Hitchcock perform wouldn't be surprised by such a response. The English rocker -- a semi-legendary figure in Alternative music for years, but still relatively unknown to the masses -- is notorious for the rambling recitals he spouts off between songs in concert.
Much of his music is equally unusual. But the new album showcases Hitchcock at his most normal. The single "So You Think You're In Love" was as good an example of a straightforward Pop hit as anyone released last year. Only the song "Vegetation And Dimes" comes anywhere near to having a title as odd as previous Hitchcock classics such as "The Man With The Lightbulb Head" and "Eaten By Her Own Dinner".
Song titles can be important in determining the tone of Hitchcock's music. Whereas most artists write a song first and name it later, Hitchcock occasionally works the other way around.
"Sometimes instead of making a list of songs that we're going to do, I make up a list of songs I haven't written yet," he said. "And then I take the ones that sound the most promising and write them. Several songs on this album came from titles."
One of those song titles also became the title of the album. "Perspex is what's called 'plexiglass' in The States," Hitchcock said. "In England, you can buy these little Perspex paperweights with a seahorse (or something like that) inside of them. 'Birds in Perspex' is basically about wanting something that's dead (or frozen) to suddenly reanimate."
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