The Houston Chronicle
August 24, 1997
Uncorrected Personality Traits
Robyn Hitchcock
Rhino
by Steve Crawford
Marilyn Manson is so scary, you know, with all that makeup and those creepy videos and "I'm down with Satan" stuff.
But Marilyn Manson wishes he were as creepy as Robyn Hitchcock. Unlike your everyday "Antichrist Superstar", Hitchcock doesn't really go out of his way to be strange. He just is.
This is a man who has penned an ode to a bass, as in the fish (in the aptly named "Bass"). And don't forget the witty ditty about how he maintains relationships with his current wife as well as his recently deceased -- and still present in the attic -- former spouse (in the equally aptly named "My Wife and My Dead Wife").
Most unsettling of all is the music backing such surrealist lyrics: bright, engaging melodies and Hitchcock's arch, bemused, so veddy British vocals. It seems he'd as soon poison you as he would serve you tea. Actually, he'd probably do both at the same time.
Uncorrected Personality Traits compiles the best of Hitchcock's work from 1980 to 1987 before he signed with A&M Records. It includes some of his best work -- the peppy "Egyptian Cream", the urgently perverse "If You Were A
Priest", the spare, haunting instrumental "Heart Full Of Leaves".
The title track is Hitchcock at his most twee, reciting a textbook litany of, well, uncorrected personality traits and their consequences in a sing-along style more suited to a nursery rhyme.
It's unfortunate that the compilation covers only Hitchcock's early years. His music since has become more polished and accessible, even as he has continued looking in dark corners for lyrical ideas. Regardless, Uncorrected Personality Traits is a solid, well-picked introduction to Hitchcock's gleefully absurd music.
3 stars
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