Robyn Hitchcock?

I think it's pretty solid the SB Yep Roc box will come out this year, though I don't know the contents. I'm sure some of the killer rarities from the ryko 2CD will go capriciously missing. I assume there will be a vinyl edition.

weird that even the Underwater Moonlight matador reissue seems to be out of print? You can only get it from the sellers on Amazon, anyway ... pretty much the same for everything else. Maybe the box set will spark a Soft Boys craze. More bands need to sound like them.

true... tbh I only heard them for the first time a couple of months back.. they were one of those groups that slipped through my net when I started seriously started getting in post-punk stuff in the late 80's.

They need to include 'Innocent Boy' in the extras this time. Best Softs song to have never seen a legit release IMO. (It was on the Invisible History boot).

yeah! that one is great. kind of ridiculous how prolific a songwriter Hitchcock was then. All high quality stuff -- even the rehearsals on the Underwater Moonlight reissue are gems.

Had a first listen today.

1- Star Of Venus: Great choice for an opener, despite its un-opener-like sombreness. Total fucking gem, maybe the RH song of the young century, definitely in the top 5.

2- The Afterlight: a relative letdown which never quite overcomes the feeling of being a 'Tiny Montgomery' homage.

3- Luckiness: great sound-feel and deliciously unfrantic banjo pluckin, but this list-song doesn't take off. Musical saw all over this track but it's not enough.

4- Ordinary Millionaire: Wow. Just ravishingly beautiful and harmonically interesting to boot. Kate St. John finally plays oboe on an RH song hurray! This is the one for which Johnny Marr wrote the guitar part. Killer.

5- John In The Air: Even better. Robyn finally fucking nails the albion folk ballad mode he's toyed with a few times before (cf The Speed Of Things). Slightly hallucinatory production with an absolutely game-clinching deployment of a forlorn handclap on every upbeat, giving it a kind of raga feel.

6- Propellor Time: ok, here's the bleak minor-mode gtr arpeggio with three part harmony vox number for this album. Does it soar or crawl? It soars. RH has done this kind of song dozens of times before and rarely misses this particular target.

7- Primitive: An exercise in staggered vocals (3 or 4 robyns singing rounds)over strolly acoustic guitars. What the hell is that on the chorus? Some kind of treated accordion? This is awesome. It wins on sheer aural interestingness.

8- Sickie Boy- Chiming Byrdsfest over an interestingly tricky drum figure. Neat chorus that makes you wait two whole measures between its two short phrases. Way catchier than it seems, already worming my ear. Voices-and-drums only reprise of the chorus that sounds genuinely jubilant.

9- Born On The Wind: The old Neil Young/Meat Puppets II midtempo drumbeat arrives for a visit. Musical saw returns, but this time does its thing oh so subtly and much more affectingly. Goes down real easy and inspires contented head-nodding. RH gets in his memorable animal line of the album, ending a verse with 'the Da Vinci Cod'.

10- Evolove: Topical Robyn, taking Creationists to task with a minimum of pretension and more forgiveness than anger (we are very far away from 'Dear God' territory). Not on the level of the foregoing tracks, but good enough to make me wanna hear it again, and a grade above tracks 2 & 3.

So this is a fucking solid record with a better classic/dud ratio than any since Moss Elixir, and some of the coolest engineering of any RH record ever. Five definite keepers, and two more that immediately jump to all-time RH mixtape pantheon. As always with our boy, nice and short, no lengthier than an LP. I'm real happy.

nice! hopefully my copy shows up soon ...

I agree with you close to 100% on those write-ups Jon. "Star OF Venus" is his best opener since "Daisy Bomb". I thought "The Afterlife" was a "Yea Heavy and a Bottle of Bread" homage, but regardless of exact track it's cut-rate Basement Tapes material. Worst song on the record. I woke up singing the title track yesterday.

I forgot to mention abt 'Star Of Venus' in the phrase 'does it make you cryyyy' the cool way he makes the word 'cry' seem like its on a super dissonant note until the backing harmonies join in and make it a'ight. Love that.

I only had one quick listen and reserve judgement until another, but a few of these songs have already been released (not sure if they're different versions): The Afterlight, Luckiness, Sickie Boy. And Evolove is awfully familiar, was that in the "Sex & Death" docu?

And I must take issue with the suggestion that this could possibly be his best since "Moss Elixir" - "Ole Tarantula" was totally ace start to finish (as was "Jewels For Sophia").

great record.

(the songs that sounded familiar were in a documentary on hitchcock that was made last year or the year before, where it showed him recording some of these in his house)

hitchcock played evolove at robin ince's lessons in carols for godless people shows, which was broadcast on bbc4 over xmas...

Well, what I meant exactly was 'highest gem-to-dud ratio since Moss Elixir'. Ole Tarantula and Jewels For Sophia are both great and have very high highs, but contain a few songs each I never want to hear again.

It doesn't mean those can't be better albums, in a way. I mean, I rate Da Capo higher than Forever Changes even though Da Capo has a whole LP side of utter dudliness (no 'Revelations' challops please, you know it sucks).

Delighted by the new album, last night I finally got round to buying I Often Dream Of Trains Live In NYC off eMusic. I was at this concert, it was breathtaking (full disclosure I got all teary during 'Autumn Is Your Last Chance') and the live recording fully lives up to my memory of the event. Superbly recorded, with excellent sense of how the three musicians were spaced around the stage. Arrangements range from respectful of the original to completely rethought and transformed ('Winter Love', for example, becomes a weird psych-folk dreamscape with echoes, guitar fade-ins, and wordless melisma). Terry Edwards and Tim Keegan are fucking fantastic throughout. I like how Robyn just leaves out the album tracks he's bored with and replaces them with contemporaneous outtakes like 'That's Fantastic, Mother Church'.

The physical release is a DVD/CD combo which I would totally want if I hadn't been at the show-- this performance was really fun to watch and there was a minimal but evocative stage set.

Encores include the unfortunate 'Up To Our Nex' but you can't have everything...

this is nice as always

i'm not digging it quite as much as ole tarantula and there's no single song as good as 'goodnight oslo' but i'm glad he's still continuously making good albums

i'm not digging it quite as much as ole tarantula and there's no single song as good as 'goodnight oslo' but i'm glad he's still continuously making good albums

This pretty much sums it up for me after a couple of listens, though I know in time his albums reveal themselves. Immediate favorites are "Ordinary Millionaire", "Sickie Boy" and "Evolove", with the middle bits "John In The Air"/"Propellor Time"/"Primitive" slowly growing on me. I never really liked "The Afterlight" much, and "Born On The Wind" is like a light bit of fluff.

Post Egyptians studio albums ranking for me:
1) Ole Tarantula
2) Jewels For Sophia / A Star For Bram
3) Moss Elixir / Mossy Liquor (though all this stuff is much better live)
4) Goodnight Oslo
5) Propellor Time
6) Spooked
7) Luxor

Not counting live albums (Storefront, I Often Dream Of Trains In NY), covers albums (Robyn Sings) or retrospective stuff (I Wanna Go Backwards, Luminous Groove, Obliteration Pie, Shadow Cat, This Is The BBC). Am I cheating by grouping the respective outtakes albums with their source?

Jeez, 17 major releases in 14 years. Hadn't thought about it but he sure is prolific! Good thing his hit/miss ratio is much, much better than Robert Pollard.

there's no single song as good as 'goodnight oslo'

Yes there is. Top 5 RH songs since 2001, in my estimation (no particular order):

Goodnight Oslo
Authority Box
Sometimes A Blonde
Narcissus
Star Of Venus

Out today in the States! Get it while it's hot. And it is hot.

YES, IT IS.

On RH's website is the news that Mike Heron will open for him on his imminent UK dates. This warmed my heart. The Robyn/ISB dna-overlap is not noted often enough. I saw RH do a moving cover of 'Chinese White' several years ago and there's a live boot of him performing an equally wonderful 'The Yellow Snake' in the early 90s.

Also a nice eulogy to Alex Chilton on his site.

my copy of propellor time hasn't shown up yet :(
Very cool that he's touring with Mike Heron! I posted a video of Robyn and Richard Thompson covering ISB on some other thread sometime last year ... "First Girl I Ever Loved" ...

Whoa! I have been kind of keeping note of how many ISB songs he's covered over the years-- there was an ISB tribute album that never came out which he did something for, and he played something in live accompaniment to Joe Boyd reading from his new book, but i can't remember which song now...

Off topic but has anyone heard the new Joe Boyd remasters of the first few ISB albums on Fledg'ling label? That news was exciting to me...

yeah, i just read about that ... I haven't heard them, though I dunno if I need to replace the Ryko remasters from the 90s. Those sound pretty OK to me! No bonus material, right?

here's that vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gVzYlGFQTE

See I have the Collector's Choice ISB editions that came out in the early 00s as 2CD sets. They are nice and warm sounding but a little rough in places. I almost wonder if they are well done vinyl rips.

Have not been able to compare the Rykos vs the Collector's Choice.

yeah, now that I think of it, not all of my ISB discs are Ryko ... Wee Tam/Big Huge and Hangman's definitely are, but I'm not sure about the others.

Here's Robyn in the back of a cab singing "Born On The Wind"

http://www.blackcabsessions.com/sessions.php?id=1270049878&type=1

Further listens finds the first 3 and "Born On The Wind" the weak tracks and the rest pretty damn impeccable and better than "Goodnight Oslo" overall though I need to listen to all the Venus 3 albums back-to-back.

Wait wait my friend the first 3 includes Star Of Venus! You must have misspoke!

I'm with Jon on that one. Don't think 2 and 3 are all that but the opener is gorgeous. Also Goodnight Oslo > Propellor Time > Ole Tarantula.

Ok, I just listened to the last 3 albums back-to-back and here's my quick'n'dirty analysis:

Ole Tarantula:
"Belltown Ramble" and "Red Locust Frenzy" are the only forgettable tracks and "Museum Of Sex" is a bit loopy. Otherwise, the rest is classic and the opening pair of "Adventure Rocket Ship" and "Underground Sun" are amazing; "Embryo Twirl", which was a bonus track left off the album, is a must-hear with drop-dead gorgeous "double track" chorus.

Goodnight Oslo:
Starts off well with "What You Is" and "Your Head Here". I'm love/hate about "Saturday Groovers" and "Up To Our Nex" - I kinda like both but they're just a bit stoopid. "I'm Falling" and "Hurry For The Sky" are good but then the whole second half is pretty forgettable aside from the title track, though "Intricate Thing" is solid lyrically. "Goodnight Oslo" is the single best track on these 3 albums.

Propellor Time:
Sorry esteemed Fegmaniax, I still feel the same - "Star Of Venus" just doesn't do much for me. And the more I listen, the stronger the center 3 songs (John In The Air/Propellor Time/Primitive) become. "Born On The Wind" is alright I guess but disposable, and I wish he didn't do that voice-over at the end of the wonderful "Sickie Boy" (Rieflin's drumming is full of great little touches on that track that are utterly captivating). I think this has jumped up to his 3rd best release since the Egyptians.

Don't you think they segmented the tunes sort of, Ole = the indie-rock one, Propellor = the folk one and Oslo = the bits with horns and female backup singers that didn't fit the other two.

my copy still hasn't shown up yet! Laaaame.

Ole Tarantula:
"Belltown Ramble" and "Red Locust Frenzy" are the only forgettable tracks

'Belltown Ramble' is so close to being great, I love the phrasing and loping groove of it, but the lyric trajectory just loses me completely once he starts the whole Tamerlane/4 horsemen trip, which annoys me so much now that I can't play the track. Agreed 'Locust' is just Robyn minor-arpeggio-by-numbers; contrast it with the inspired 'Propellor Time' born from the same mood.

Otherwise, the rest is classic and the opening pair of "Adventure Rocket Ship" and "Underground Sun" are amazing; "Embryo Twirl", which was a bonus track left off the album, is a must-hear with drop-dead gorgeous "double track" chorus.

'Embryo' is a really odd but unmissably beautiful song. It reminds me of 'Lions and Tigers' off Nextdoorland in that I still can't get a fix on my feelings about it after a zillion listens. I blow hot and cold on 'NY Doll'-- sometimes it moves me and other times it feels flat and clunky.

The thing about the whole album is how great all these songs sounded live on the first and second Venus 3 tours. So much energy and joy. It was like Robyn's Rolling Thunder tour or something. And there are a lot of audience recordings from those tours on archive.org, so that's what I almost always listen to the last few years when I want to hear these songs (I esp. recommend the Beachland Ballroom cleveland, Slim's portland, The Gov, and cat's cradle shows).

Goodnight Oslo:
Starts off well with "What You Is" and "Your Head Here". I'm love/hate about "Saturday Groovers" and "Up To Our Nex" - I kinda like both but they're just a bit stoopid.

Totes agree on the first two. I'm just hate about 'groovers' and 'nex' at this point. Worst songs on any of these three albums. "Saturday Groovers' is almost BRAVE in its lameness.

"I'm Falling" and "Hurry For The Sky" are good

I rate these two very highly, even better than the first two tracks imo.

but then the whole second half is pretty forgettable aside from the title track, though "Intricate Thing" is solid lyrically. "Goodnight Oslo" is the single best track on these 3 albums.

Yep. The title track is just amazing. For me it's in a tie with 'Star of Venus'.

Propellor Time:
And the more I listen, the stronger the center 3 songs (John In The Air/Propellor Time/Primitive) become.

Hell yeah. That string of middle tracks is when this record makes you just stop whatever you doing and listen. On headphones I just stopped working altogether and went bewitched. No supervisor noticed, luckily.

I wish he didn't do that voice-over at the end of the wonderful "Sickie Boy" (Rieflin's drumming is full of great little touches on that track that are utterly captivating).

Yeah the voice over isn't fatal for me but I could really do without it. Apparently there was a 7" version of 'Sickie Boy' which omits the voiceover but is also a different and perhaps less awesome mix of the track. I would like to hear it.

Wanted to say I just listened to Mossy Liquor for the first time in years and years (I have the vinyl, but have been turntableless for a while). It's available digitally from iTunes and eMusic now, sounding absolutely gorgeous (a more appealing soundstage for me than on the official album). Most importantly, the version/arrangement of 'Beautiful Queen' on here shits all over all other versions from a great height. The version of 'Devil's Radio' is also superior to the Elixir one, though by not as great a margin. And two of the songs exclusive to this release are top-rank RH: 'Each Of Her Silver Wands' in its original solo electric britfolk type arrangement, and the amazing, impossible to explain 'As Lemons Chop'. Now that you can cherry pick your tracks from this album there's no reason to hesitate.

Yeah, Mossy Liquor is great -- I also love that instrumental "Shuffling Over the Flagstones" .... I should get the digital version, since I'm in the same boat as you as far as turntables go. Well, I've got one but it sucks.

btw, my friend is in the process of digitizing a few live Hitchcock tapes that we made back in the mid-90s. Can't wait to hear them again -- will post on my blog when they're ready to go.

If you only wanna spend 2 bucks get 'Beautiful Queen' and 'As Lemons Chop'.

ooo exciting xpost!

oh, and i think i've got that 7-inch version of sickie boy ... does yr webmail work?

bro nod to tylerw!

More Phantom 45s up at his website: http://www.robynhitchcock.com/phantom45s/
Also, Robyn has jumped on the hipster cassette bandwagon!
As a special treat for the fans, we are excited to announce that the Robyn Hitchcock Webshop has an extremely limited number of Propellor Time, the all-new release from Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, on hand made cassettes. Only 100 cassettes were made and each copy is hand assembled and is individually autographed and numbered by Robyn. But don't delay, we only have 40 cassettes to offer and this item will be gone from the Robyn Hitchcock Webshop forever. Here's a peek at what you can expect if you are lucky enough to get this ultra-rare collectable.

Robyn's facebook page linked this this morning...

http://bit.ly/robynhitchcockrarities

propeller time has successfully been my gateway back into hitchcock, who I loved when I was in high school but who I decided I couldn't stand when I got too cool for him around 1993. It looks like I managed to miss maybe two poor records (moss elixir and luxor) but everything else I've heard post-egyptians is so good, I really regret not being on top of these earlier. I particularly like Sophia/Bram, and those biographical songs (I saw nick drake and ny doll) are really great writing, not the sorts of things I would have expected him to turn out. The venus 3 records are just excellent pop records, certainly better than anything REM have managed in many years. anyway, I hope he tours this in the US so I can see him again; I haven't since around the time eye was released. He was actually my first 'club' show in 1988 or so.

maybe two poor records (moss elixir and luxor)

Yes on Luxor, not exactly on Moss Elixir. The songs are great but the studio versions are missing something. Find a bootleg from 94/95 and you'll get much better versions. In particular, he did a career retrospective tour right before the album came out and after the Rhino reissues - one of these days (soon!) I'll digitize my cassettes and give them to Tyler for his blog.

yes please!
in other news, i have yet to receive Propellor Time! I ordered it direct from his Web site ... I've gotten in touch with them, and they say that demand has outstripped supply at the moment, and it should be sent out soon. I'm sure it's racing up the charts ...

Hmm...95 era tapes you say. (Says the man with a digitized recording of a tape he made of RH at McCabe's in summer of 1995...)

heyyyy, ned. we may have talked about this before, but we were probably at the same McCabes shows. saw him there at least four times 94-95 ... hook me up w/ that tape! pleeze? :)

This was the first set on September 23, 1995, if that helps!

akm, moss elixir is one of his best records i'd say

ha, yeah, i think i was at both early shows that weekend in 95 ... i believe my friend has a tape of one of those nights, too!

Drop me a line with your e-mail address and you'll receive something soon...