Customer Reviews
Trawling the backrooms of your brain. - By: Ianham, 17 Mar 2008 
Soryy if this is a speedy review but I felt I had to dash something off if only to counter the bad negative vibes man I'm getting from other reviews. Ferchrissakeman, if you don't like Robyn Hitchcock don't buy it -it's as simple as that.
What you get here is a fair resume of his early solo years plus extras not previously available. Yes I have the LP's but I enjoy the little silver discs.
The discs themselves appear to be taken from what I assume are American versions. Not much of a difference but little things pop out - the complete lack of horns on The Man who invented himself being the most glaring example. My LP has horns & thats the one I prefer - but this version has extra piano fills instead. Perfectly acceptable but....Similarly "I wish I was a pretty girl" has some judicious edits, presumably not to offend our colonial cousins.
Those petty quibbles aside this set is both handy way to catch up or fillin gapsin the collection. For novices it's a box of delights & a bargain to boot. "I often dream of Trains" is a highlight. However said the piano was out of tune needs their ears syringed.
Yes it does essay Syd but also takesin Dylan, Ayers, Satie, & neo Victorian Whimsy. Take it or leave it for what it is great music!
I commend this box to the house.
A good measure of the man. - By: Isaac Hunt, 10 Jan 2008 'I Wanna Go Backwards' is a perfect opportunity for fans & collectors to get their paws on a wide range of Robyn Hitchcock material. The 5 CD collection starts out with what I've encountered as the hard to find on CD 'Black Snake Diamond Role', Robyn's first solo outing, you can hear the progressionin the Robyn has made from the Soft Boys.
Next is 'I Often Dream of Trains' an album often heldin high regard by many fans. It is a sparse, stripped back affair. I feel these are quiet & reflective songs, but thisin no way diminishes anything else. They still sound fairly fresh & you'd never know they were recordedin the early 80s
Eye is the other featured album, again Robyn is mainly going back to one man & his guitar acoustic tunes. The beauty & simplicity of songs like 'Glass Hotel' & 'Queen Elvis' shine through. Eye seems like a natural progression from 'I Often Dream Of Trains' despite being released several years & several Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians albums after.
The 2CD compilation 'When Thatcher Destroyed' may read like tracks from 'Invisible Hitchcock' or 'You & Oblivion' but a listen to tracks such as 'The Abandoned Brain' & 'Point It At Gran' will show they they are demo versions of the tracks which appear on these albums & not the same recordings. There is also previously unavailable material songs such as 'Parachutes & Jellyfish' or 'Melting Arthur'.
Three proper released albums & a 2 CD compilation bursting with rare tracks, this is a compilation for everyone, either the collectors & die hard fans, or for someone wanting to discover more Robyn Hitchcock material.
Retrodereliction from the vaults - By: Oedipus Quelch, 06 Dec 2007 
The expanded format of the CD doesn't improve the thin-gruel-guitar & piping-vole vocals of Robyn Hitchcock's solo albums. Instead, it shows up the holesin the production. Nostalgia for the long perished vinyl tempted me with this box set. Perhaps I'm no longer the man I was but Hitchcock's surrealism tries too hard to be literate & meaningless. In the years off from listening to his music I discovered meaning - not too much - but enough to show up the banality of the man's shellfish obsession. One can still engagein humanity from an off-kilter angle (think of the sadness of Dominoes by Syd Barrett with its backwards, seeping guitar which conveys all the hopelessness of time passing) but Hitchcock creates oddity for its own sake & unlike Barrett, short-circuits feeling.
I also take exception to his short stories (one is reprintedin the booklet)- they are more of the same over-ripe confection, (ferns, tunnels, Gormenghast etc) every line screams out for attention like a hyperactive child.
His abrasive personality really jarred with the weedy production. I cherished a memory of excellent Egyptians efforts like Element of Light & Gotta Let This Hen Out where the music underpins & rams home the whimsy. Here it's whimsy galore & fragile guitar lines.
The acoustic albums sound shrill. The stark piano overdubs on I Often Dream of Trains are out of tune, they demonstrate a jobbing musicality. Even the wonderful vinyl version of Trams of Old London suffers here, the guitar sounds unimpressive. Hitchcock tries hard but his music is never fluid or instinctive. It's carefully constructed line by line.
Eye is slightly better sounding. Offering a genuine new track about the beauty of Earls Court.
Sadly the 'new' bonus tracks are taken from Invisible Hitchcock. What tempted me was disc four, unreleased recordings which largely turn out to be songs from the album You & Oblivion.
A huge disappointment, despite a great cover photo of RHin long grasses outside a windowless building. Avoid.
