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Robyn Hitchcock’s new self titled album out 21st April

April 3, 2017

Robyn Hitchcock’s new self titled album
out 21st April

Hitchcock honoured at SXSW’s prestigious
2017 Grulke Prize for “Career Act”

 

Yep Roc recording artist, Robyn Hitchcock continues to celebrate the upcoming release of his self-titled new album. The 21st studio recording and first-ever eponymous release of the legendary British artist’s four-decade career, Robyn Hitchcock is released 21st April.

Hailed by Uncut as “the psych maverick’s loudest, liveliest album in decades,” Robyn Hitchcock is available now for pre-order, with all digital pre-orders accompanied by instant downloads of the metamorphic first single, “I Want To Tell You About What I Want,” album highlight, “Mad Shelley’s Letterbox,” and new single “Raymond and The Wires.”

Hitchcock played a number of performances at South By Southwest (SXSW) this year, where he was also honored with SXSW’s 2017 Grulke Prize for “Career Act.”  The Career Act Prize is awarded annually to an established artist who has appeared at SXSW to reinvent themselves or launch a new project.

Described by its creator as “an ecstatic work of negativity,” Robyn Hitchcock immediately stands among the most energized and ambitious recordings of the iconic troubadour’s long career. The album sees the East Nashville-based Hitchcock casting familiar shapes into surprising new forms, the sci-fi fuelled sounds and visions that first stimulated his work now ribboned with experience and hard-earned wisdom. Songs like “Sayonara Judge” are gorgeous and intense, rife with avant imagery, astringent wit, and righteous anger. Spanning dystopic psychedelia (“Mad Shelley’s Letterbox,” “Time Coast”), inspired folk baroque (“Raymond and the Wires,” “1970 In Aspic”), even rambunctious liver-fried country (“I Pray When I’m Drunk”), Robyn Hitchcock marks both a masterful new chapter and ideal entry point into Hitchcock’s wildly brilliant oeuvre.

“It’s ‘Introducing Robyn Hitchcock,” he says. “Think of me as a new act – I’m only 63. People always ask me, where should I start listening to your records? I’m a train with many carriages. I thought, I’ll just make this record and if people like this one, then they’ll probably like the others. If they don’t, it’s not worth them listening to any of them, really.”

Robyn Hitchcock was recorded in Nashville, TN, with producer Brendan Benson and backing by a crack band of fellow Music City pickers and players that includes guitarist Annie McCue, bassist Jon Estes, and drummer Jon Radford. Harmony vocal contributions come courtesy of Emma Swift, Grant Lee Phillips, Gillian Welch, and Wilco’s Pat Sansone.

The album was heralded earlier this year with the acclaimed first single, “I Want To Tell You About What I Want.” The track premiered exclusively via NPR Music where it was hailed as “pungently playful…(Hitchcock) sounds renewed, refreshed and irascibly rambunctious.” “Hitchcock isn’t one to shy away from a political statement,” noted Nashville Scene. “In that spirit…(‘I Want To Tell You About What I Want’) shares a little bit of DNA with (The Soft Boys’) ‘I Wanna Destroy You.’” “Hitchcock’s sense of humor shines through the darkness,” declared Stereogum.

Robyn Hitchcock marks Hitchcock’s first full-length release since 2014’s The Man Upstairs. Produced by Joe Boyd, the album earned international acclaim for its evocative originals and striking interpretations of classic songs by Roxy Music, Psychedelic Furs, and The Doors.

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