The New York Times
August 20, 1996
Brilliant Or Merely Bizarre?
by Neil Strauss
Perhaps the best thing about having an idiosyncratic style is that it usually doesn't go out of date. Robyn Hitchcock sounds just as good today as he did 15 years ago. Though fans debate whether he's certifiable or just eccentric, his songs -- reminiscent of Syd Barrett -- are filled with images that would send a psychoanalyst reeling. On Moss Elixir (Warner Brothers), his first album of new songs in three years, Mr. Hitchcock adds to his legacy as one of Rock's most verbally gifted oddballs, playing Psychedelic Folk Rock on acoustic guitar that manages to be silly, strange, and extremely lucid at the same time. "I was followed home by a weighing machine on DeChirico Street", he sings in "DeChirico Street" before explaining how "The numbers turned to fingers/And the fingers turned to flies/And they buzzed around your portrait". It's a roundabout way to broach the subject of a relationship. But Mr. Hitchcock loves obliqueness and symbolism, filling his songs with devils, slithering animals, and bad weather.
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