Robyn Hitchcock
Moss Elixir

(Warner Bros.)

First Appeared in The Music Box, September 1997, Volume 4, #10

Written by John Metzger

Moss Elixir is yet another wonderful set from the pen of the quirky Robyn Hitchcock, who has floated on the fringes of the music world for a long time. There are moments on the effort when Hitchcock's voice sounds remarkably similar to John Lennon's, and his style of songwriting falls in a similar vein.  Where others, like Oasis, fall into a pattern of tediously inferior replication, Hitchcock manages to pull it off with a sense of originality.

While Hitchcock's last few outings did start to fall into a formulaic mode of operation, Moss Elixir is a welcome return to form. On both the beautiful Heliotrope and the even sweeter Filthy Bird, Hitchcock gets a chance to pair his voice with guitar in stripped-down acoustic arrangements reminiscent of some of the songs on Lennon's classic Plastic Ono Band. Elsewhere, the more up-tempo Beautiful Queen is a psychedelic excursion similar to XTC's Beatle-esque sojourns.  In addition, Hitchcock makes use of various string arrangements throughout the disc to add an eerie ambience to many of his songs.  The result is strangely captivating. ½

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Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 1997 The Music Box