Wisely,
Robyn Hitchcock chucked the band sound (though longtime associates Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalfe continue to lend their services on some tracks) and returned to the spare singer/songwriter format for his best set of songs in more than ten years. Everything is here: the quirky on "Man with a Woman's Shadow," and the elegant on "Beautiful Queen," and the straight-ahead
Beatlessque music in which
Hitchcock excels in the perfect pop of "Alright, Yeah." Finally,
Hitchcock embraced his folk guitar roots, which hearken back to the days of
the Incredible String Band and
Roy Harper, while imprinting his indelible lyrical and vocal stamp, one of the true leading lights of contemporary alternative music. ~ Denise Sullivan