Customer Reviews

Get into the luminous groove - By: russell clarke, 07 Oct 2008
One of the great eccentric British singer songwriters , much feted by REM( He has recorded with Peter Buck on the EP Ole Tarantula as well as playing live with him & Buck actually plays on two tracks on the extras album ) Robyn Hitchcock has operated under numerous guises ( The Soft Boys , solo ) but during the mid-eighties he released three excellent albums with his band The Egyptians ( He eventually disbanded the groupin 1994 )Following on from "Yep Rocs" I Wanna Go Backwards" box set the label have now released Luminous Groove a selection of three mid eighties Egyptians albums along with a double disc set of studio & live rarities .
The main reasons to own this album is the inclusion of the glittering pop masterpiece Fegmania! , one of the most under valued British album s of well ..ever really . Click on the link to read my full review of that album but if a case can ever be made for owning that album it's the wonderful song "Heaven " -a glorious cavalcade of melody & as good a pop song as has ever been written really. The extra tracks on this disc aren't that special but I rather like "Bells Of Rhymney " , "Lady Obvious" & the 1992 live version of Heaven is a typically tangent perverting take of this great song. Five star album all the way.
Gotta Let This Hen Out is a live album recorded at the Marqueein 1987 & showcases the Egyptians as a very capable live band. There are some great songsin the set as well including several from Fegmania including a more faithful to the album version of Heaven. this includes the distinctly un-pc "Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl ( "So I Could rape myselfin the shower"), the superb chugging "Brenda's Iron Sledge( "Please don't call me Reg , it's not my name"), the vivacious "Leppo And The Jooves" & the wired" Listening To The Higsons". The extra tracks here are fairly negligible but for a live album this is superior fare. Four stars fare indeed.
Element Of Light surprised me. Its probably twenty years since I listened to itin it's entirety , maybe at all & I'd forgotten , or possibly never registered just what a good album this is .Its actually more diverse than Fegmania & even though it does that staple of eighties pop -the fretless flanged bass- to death the songs are all corking. From the wistful "Winchester" to the sprightly "Somewhere Apart" , the fragile delicate "Raymond Chandler Evening " the oddly bubbling "Bass" , the crystal chords of "Never Stop Bleeding " & the folk tinged " Ted Woody And Junior" this is a more contemplative album & though the lyrics are as eccentric as ever it just seems a more mature serious work. Having said that "Lady Waters And The Hooded One " does go on a bit. There are an extra ten tracks on this album which varyin quality but the ethereal atmospherics of "The Leopard " the curt thicket chords of "Neck" or the careering "Tell Me About Your Drugs" are all worthy additions. Cripes it's another five star album .
The extras album " A Bad Case Of History" is, as these things usually are, a mixed bunch. For every good track like the carousel riffed "Live Man Die" or the blues tinged "Lost Tribes" there is an inconsequential track like "Furry Baby" . Overall it's a worthy addition & hardcore Hitchcock fans will probably love it. The live album I am less enamoured with . There is a lot of pointless instrumental noodling which impede on some decent songs. Having said that I like the funked up "Freeze" , the fey harmonies of "Veins Of The Queen " & the cover of the Byrd's Eight Miles High" is great.
If you already own the three studio albums , well Hen is a live album but you get what I mean , then unless you are a true Hitchcock completist I would say this isn't worth bothering with .If however you don't own those albums then this is good way of acquiring them especially if , like me. you pick it up on Amazon marketplace cheaper than the normal price. Hitchcock completists will probably own this stuff already but being completists will buy it anyway . Anyone unaware of the delights that Robyn Hitchcock has to offer could do worse than start here. There is some splendid music within these luminous grooves.