ROBYN HITCHCOCK RELEASES NEW SINGLE AHEAD OF UPCOMING ALBUM
Yep Roc Records has announced the self-titled new album from Robyn Hitchcock. The 21st studio recording and first-ever eponymous release of the legendary British artistโs four-decade career, Robyn Hitchcockย arrives everywhere on Friday, April 21st.
โThe original title of the song was โMy Vision of World Empathy,โโ Hitchcock says. โEither we will become extinct and eventually be replaced by cats with articulated thumbs who have evolved the way apes slowly evolved into us. Or we will become empathic and mildly telepathic โ people like Donald Trump wonโt happen because biologically no human will be born with that lack of empathy. We will become a species that isnโt capable of bullying because we can feel what weโre doing to other people. There is obviously some evolutionary step between the human and the angel that needs to take place. Maybe when we have enough suffering credits our DNA will go, Right! Here we go! Homo angelicus โ it can read your mind, itโs compassionate, it can levitate, and itโs a great lover! It shares its fish sticks with you and flies you back in time to see the Velvet Underground! That is what we need to become.โ
Robyn Hitchcock immediately stands among the most energized and ambitious recordings of the iconic troubadourโs long career. The album sees the East Nashville-based Hitchcock casting familiar shapes into surprising new forms, the sci-fi fueled sounds and visions that first stimulated his work now ribboned with experience and hard-earned wisdom. Songs like โSayonara Judgeโ are gorgeous and intense, rife with avant imagery, astringent wit, and righteous anger. Spanning dystopic psychedelia (โMad Shelleyโs Letterbox,โ โTime Coastโ), inspired folk baroque (โRaymond and the Wires,โ โ1970 In Aspicโ), even rambunctious liver-fried country (โI Pray When Iโm Drunkโ), Robyn Hitchcockย marks both a masterful new chapter and ideal entry point into Hitchcockโs wildly brilliant oeuvre.
Robyn Hitchcock was recorded in Nashville, TN, with producer Brendan Benson and backing by a crack band of fellow Music City pickers and players that includes guitarist Annie McCue, bassist Jon Estes, and drummer Jon Radford. Harmony vocal contributions come courtesy of Emma Swift, Grant Lee Phillips, Gillian Welch, and Wilcoโs Pat Sansone.
Robyn Hitchcock marks Hitchcockโs first full-length release since 2014โs THE MAN UPSTAIRS. Produced by Joe Boyd, the album earned international acclaim for its evocative originals and striking interpretations of classic songs by Roxy Music, Psychedelic Furs, and The Doors. โThte Man Upstairsย stands amongst (Hitchcockโs) all-time best albums,โ raved The Quietus.
Robyn Hitchcock Track Listing
1. I Want To Tell You About What I Want
2. Virginia Woolf
3. I Pray When Iโm Drunk
4. Mad Shelleyโs Letterbox
5. Sayonara Judge
6. Detective Mindhorn
7. 1970 In Aspic
8. Raymond and the Wires
9. Autumn Sunglasses
10. Time Coast