Eye

While Robyn Hitchcock has rarely had difficulty molding his backing band, the Egyptians, into his perfect instrumental foil, he has also had no trouble casting them aside when his songs demand greater intimacy, as they do on 1990’s all-acoustic Eye. Though Hitchcock was enjoying his highest profile as a major label recording artist, briefly threatening to break through to mainstream success with unconventional alternative hits “Balloon Man” and “Madonna of the Wasps,” he returned to an independent label for the quiet, unencumbered, pastoral beauty of Eye. “Beautiful Girl” expresses a rare upbeat moment of romantic satisfaction, while “Raining Twilight Coast,” “Linctus House” and especially the Lennon-esque “Executioner” ache with love’s difficult twists, turns and betrayals (“I know how Judas felt / But he got paid.” Ouch.) “Queen Elvis” reflects on stardom’s paradoxes regarding fame and loneliness. “Flesh Cartoons” shades towards Hitchcock’s silly side while “Clean Steve” and “Certainly Cliquot” unabashedly embrace it. Reissues of Hitchcock’s work have thrown “bonus tracks” into complicated territory with songs moved, added and subtracted at Hitchcock’s mercurial whim. Despite these discrepancies, the initial vision remains strong and untainted.