Slash, 1985
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2006
Price: $6
Side A of this record is one of the most perfect Side As I've ever heard. I think I first listened to Robyn Hitchcock because Colin Meloy of the Descemberists claimed to be heavily influenced by him. The first five songs flow perfectly. There's the dreamy lilt of “Egyptian Cream” followed by the perfect pop of “Another Bubble.” The balladesque “I'm Only You” offers a slight enough gearshift for the single, “My Wife and My Dead Wife” to reach its full potential. “Goodnight I Say” sounds almost like an Elvis Costello song. Not to say that Hitchcock's voice sounds like Costello's, but in tone, that bratty tone from Costello's first two records. That song has that. The next six songs are all good, but the first five are all amazing, so it's kind of a weird switcheroo after flipping the record. “Strawberry Mind” is very good, though, and “The Man With The Lightbulb Head” has all the weirdness of a weird Kinks song. It's funny how Hitchcock looks exactly like you would expect him to look like based on his voice. I remember seeing him in Rachel Getting Married. I'd never seen a picture of Hitchcock, but I knew it was him when I saw him playing a guitar and singing. It just made sense.
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