Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - 1986 - Element Of Light

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4 out of 5

Element Of Light was Robyn Hitchcock's 5th solo studio album and his second with The Egyptians. In many ways Element Of Light is a logical progression from Fegmania!, but there is a lot of creative growth here too. Whereas the previous album often went for an energetic folk-rock sound, Hitchcock and his band go for a more smoothed out, dreamy effect this time out (not to say that there's no bite to the music here and there). Further disproving Hitchcock's reputation as a Syd Barrett wannabe, Hitchcock includes a distinct Lennon vibe to this album, a little bit musically but definitely vocally and lyrically.

The album opens with its best track, "If You Were A Priest." It's almost as catchy as R.E.M.'s contemporary breakout hits on Document, but Hitchcock's somewhat blasphemous (yet genius) lyrics doomed the track never to play on anything but college radio. Hitchcock treads strange lyrical ground on the poppy "Ted, Woody, And Junior." "Winchester" effectively introduces the dreamy side of the album and it's another classic Hitchcock track.

The aforementioned Lennon sound is most noticeble on "Somewhere Apart," which is either a homage or a ripoff of the Plastic Ono Band album. Many other bits on the disc recall Lennon lyrics or vocals such as the lyrics of "Never Stop Bleeding." There is still plenty of Barrett influence most apparent on tracks like "Bass" and "Lady Waters And The Hooded One." Element Of Light closes with the fun little confection "Tell Me About Your Drugs," which is practically a compete return to the sound of The Soft Boys. I guess Hitchcock wanted to throw his old fans a bone.

Element Of Light's production better fits Hitchcock's music than on Fegmania!, but it's still not completely inspired. There is a strong dreamy atmosphere adorning several tracks here, but some of them like "Raymond Chandler Evening" and "Never Stop Bleeding" end up sounding practically the same. Still, the 80's-ness from the last album is much more smoothed out and for me is an improvement.

Once again, there is a clutch of bonus tracks on the Rhino reissue. This time they are all demos and live tracks except for the basically pointless spoken word "The Can Opener." The others are fun for comparision's sake, but add little to the album. I do like the demo for "Raymond Chandler Evening," and I'd like the spare "Leopard" demo if it didn't sound horrifically out of tune.

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Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Element Of Light

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - 1985 - Fegmania!

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.5 out of 5 (4.5 for the lyrics)

Robyn Hitchcock is often cited as being Syd Barrett's successor, but I feel that this is a bit of a misnomer. Hitchcock possesses a similar vocal range and often writes similarly twisted lyrics, but his sound contains a lot more control and purpose, and also throws in more than a fair share of folk rock, especially The Byrds' 12-string electric jangle.

On Fegmania!, Hitchcock practically reformed his legendary new wave band The Soft Boys, albeit using them for entirely different means. A good 75% of this record is strong 80's indie jangle rock which is not dissimilar from early R.E.M. (who also worshipped The Byrds). Unfortunately, the album is often the victim of standard 80's production sounds too, but there are enough psychedelic flourishes to keep this listener amused. Hitchcock's vocals also remain front and center, which is a big plus as nobody else writes surreal, insect imagery-laden lyrics quite like him.

Fegmania! is frontloaded with its best songs. Hitchcock successfully and diagonally references hot topics such as transgenderism, necrophilia (or just mourning), and incest on opener "Egyptian Cream," "My Wife And My Dead Wife," and "The Man With The Lightbulb Head" respectively. They come close to sounding like novelty songs, but Hitchcock lyrical skill pull them out of of that particular mire. "Lightbulb Head" also has the bonus feature of featuring interesting, hazy psychedelic production as it was recorded earlier and doesn't share the scrubbed stamp of the rest of the album. Hitchcock does manage the detached, paranoid sound of Barrett on the explosive "Goodnight I Say," which is my personal favorite on the disc.

Side two of the album is significantly less impessive, although never embarrassing. The songs are well crafted, but not as memorable for me. There are are few ill-fitting stylistic shifts such as the not-too-authentic sounding calypso of "Strawberry Mind." Otherwise, "Glass" has some interesting chord changes and there is a good, if by-the-numbers cover of "The Bells Of Rhymney," done of course in The Byrds' style.

The Rhino CD includes five bonus tracks. Four of these are relatively disposable demo and live tracks. The last one, however, is a truly groovy instrumental called "The Pit Of Souls (Parts I-IV)." Hitchcock and his band really force themselves out of their comfort zone here and end up throwing around several interesting ideas. The tracks runs a diverse ten minutes and significantly ups the value of Fegmania!.

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Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Fegmania!