Goldmine
October 11, 1996
Moss Elixir
by Michael Gallucci
There's a time and place for Robyn Hitchcock. Ask him and he'll probably rant on about flesh, frogs, guys with misshapen heads, or other things that really make little sense to anyone but him -- and generally evade the question.
His latest album, Moss Elixir, is quite like that. It's about the times and places of the enigmatic Hitchcock. Nut you really don't have a clue by the end just what those times and places are.
You are convinced, however, that it's a tripping slice of Bizarro Pop, and a creative lift into Hitch-familiar areas that borders on anything-but-the-obvious. Sans The Egyptians (his fine backing band of the past decade), Hitchcock is in his own zone again, playing kickball with songs that aren't sure if they want to be narrative set-pieces or rambling Pop-poetry -- and make little sense on either level.
Take "Sinister But She Was Happy", "The Speed Of Things", Beautiful Queen", and "This Is How It Feels" (the album's most, um, coherent songs); toss them with a bit of dry wit, sparkling wordplay, and sparse musical accompaniment, all Hitch-style; and you have an idea where Moss Elixir is heading. Which is more than you can say for Hitchcock.
On his best work (like 1991's Perspex Island), Hitchcock found the line where everything could coexist: his Pop, his poetry, his odd takes on the naturalization of events. Here, he mixes up recording methods and twisting stories and struggles to hold them in one place. Songs, in the process, float pointlessly above the ozone.
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