Search - Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians :: Element of Light

Return of a New Wave masterpiece!

Paul D. | Long Island, NY | 09/19/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"At last, this unfortunately long out of print record is available again. This album was quite possibly Robyn Hitchcock's best work in those heady 1980's new wave days. Hitchcock, on guitar, along with the incredibly underrated Andy Metcalf and Morris Windsor (as good a pop guitar and rhythm section unit as Lindsay Buckingham, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, if I dare say so) reached one of those points where everything was clicking wonderfully. After this, Hitchcock, long an underground and college radio favorite was picked up by a major label, where he produced some really good tracks on mediocre albums, and then further on (after that failed project) began producing Syd Barrett type albums seemingly for himself and die-hards only. But here in 1986 (if memory serves), Hitchcock's influences of John Lennon, Capt Beefheart, Barrett, Lou Reed, Dylan, The Byrds and Jim Morrison inspire him to weave a personal, and wonderful tapestry of sound and image. As the title and cover artwork implies, this is a somewhat lighter album in terms of texture, compared to say, his Soft Boys work, Fegmania! or Groovy Decoy, and it's chock full of wonderful melodies and harmonies. The sequencing of songs is also spot on. "Airscape" is simply phenominal! If the more serious mid-eighties new wave/pop music received the critical attention that the better album rock records got a decade and a half earlier, this one surely would have received it's due as a modern rock icon LP. (It seems that other tracks have been added for this release, as yet I've not heard them)."