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Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
I have been experiencing a synæsthetic perception of Robyn Hitchcock's music that is coming into sharper focus over the last few weeks -- I am understanding listening to the music and lyrics as as a kind of movement across a landscape and through tunnels and passageways. I'm wondering if I can expand this into a way to relate to music in general -- I believe I have experienced it before though I have never given voice to it or quite understood what was going on.
posted evening of April 22nd, 2007: Respond
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The more I listen to this record, the more it is growing on me. I ordered it after I heard Deni Bonet playing with Robyn at the January 9, 2004 show -- looked in his catalog and this was the record she made an appearance on. Then on first listening I was a little disappointed to hear that the only song you hear a lot of violin on is the first. It took a couple of listenings to get past that to the point of hearing the record's greatness... The order of the songs and transitions between songs seems less important on this record than it did on Perspex Island. The songs are all beautiful and there is a common thread linking them but less of a sense of overall narrative structure. Bob and I are going to try learning to play "Alright Yeah" -- found tablature for it at The Asking Tree. (Hitchcock says "All the songs on this album were there for a purpose, not just to create the right texture." And, here is another interview from when the record came out.)
posted evening of April 22nd, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Moss Elixir
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Friday, April 20th, 2007
This album is more political than I have thought of Robyn's work as being. The "before they bomb the children" line is really affecting -- the way he juxtaposes layers of meaning really draws you into his psyche. This reviewer I was reading described a Hitchcock show (negatively characterized it which did not really make sense) as taking a hour and a half vacation in his psyche. The characterization seems to me exactly correct but is strikes me as an appealing quality of listening to his music and chat. I want to figure out how to describe the physical sensation of listening to this music -- that would strike me as a sort of criticism that would be possibly worth reading. So I guess I will use this web page as a vehicle for that endeavor for a while. If you'd like to check out the series of posts I did recently about the record Perspex Island, they are here. I'm starting a series of posts about Moss Elixir now. Unfortunately I do not have comments working but if you feel like communicating in this regard, drop me a line.
posted evening of April 20th, 2007: Respond
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"I gotta split/ -- It's a quaint old fashioned way to leave the room" what a fantastic line that is! This lyric is hilarious. Like it fits together but the logic is a little otherworldly. It stands out from the album rock and roll in the middle of a lot of choral and sweetly poetic songs.
posted evening of April 20th, 2007: Respond
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I'm reading Jennifer Egan's first novel, The Invisible Circus, now, and liking it a lot. I really admired the scene in which Faith told her sister she had been at an invisible circus, and Phoebe was put out about not being invited along -- it sounded real when it could easily have been precious and forced. I recently read most of Zadie Smith's latest novel On Beauty and found it enjoyable, but didn't really think it stood up to The Autograph Man and White Teeth.
posted evening of April 20th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about The Invisible Circus
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Monday, April 16th, 2007
I was talking with Gerald tonight and he asked me to expand on my understanding of Perspex Island as a frozen moment of time. Rambling around some, I got around to calling it a "frozen moment" -- when "time" is added the static island vanishes. I'm flailing around a little because it seems to me like on the record, motion is clearly and repeatedly presented as a good thing -- but with motion there can be no Earthly Paradise. I mentioned how a lot of Hitchcock's songs (maybe none on this record?) are about decay, another way for Earthly Paradise to vanish and one that is unambiguously bad. Also talked about the "please don't let me get away" lyric in "Ride".
posted evening of April 16th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Perspex Island
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So here are some of the albums that I have been listening to and am meaning to write about: - Olé! Tarantula (2006) -- this is the record that re-alerted me to the existence of Robyn Hitchcock. Bought a copy at the Knitting Factory show.
- Spooked (2004) -- I learned about this record when I was watching the documentary, the night before the show; and bought it at the show.
- Perspex Island (1991)
- Moss Elixir and Mossy Liquor (both 1996) -- when I was listening to this show I heard Deni Bonet playing fiddle on some of the songs -- immediately took a look at her web site and found that she is on one of his records; this be it. Also her two solo cd's, Acoustic, OK? and Bigger is Always Better are on my list.
- Robyn Sings (2002) -- a double album of Dylan covers by Hitchcock. And look at the track listing!
- I Often Dream of Trains (1984) -- classic Hitchcock. I bought the cd at the KF show.
posted evening of April 16th, 2007: Respond
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Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Boy oh boy, this is post #700 on my humble blog! Here is a link to the whole Perspex Island song by song series of posts, in the proper order.
posted evening of April 15th, 2007: Respond
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This song ends the record in a pretty unsettling way. The title is an obvious reference to the "portable Avalon" of Perspex Island, the state of loving and being loved -- the song is bidding farewell to Perspex Island -- "there's nowhere else that I could go, that means that much to me." The one-two punch of "If You Go Away" and "Earthly Paradise" serves to deflate the easy bliss that I had gotten built up by the narrative arc from "Oceanside" to "Ride". Leaves me totally uncertain about the attainability of Perspex Island. "The bastards that destroy our lives are sometimes just ourselves."
posted evening of April 15th, 2007: Respond
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The opening chords of this song strike fear into my heart. After the lush warmth of "Ride", the icy, alienating intro is shocking; and it lasts long enough for me to start developing paranoid fantasies about what's going on behind the music. When Hitchcock starts singing he sounds decades older than on any other song on the record. The lyrics to this one throw me a bit. I can't really relate "It's corporation time" which seems really central to the meaning of the song, to the rest of it, so I'm left wondering about it. The modulation at the end of the song is very pretty, and "I don't believe in anything, at all" continues the string of mind-blowingly lovely choruses.
posted evening of April 15th, 2007: Respond
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