Spooked

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Sample Album
ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 44:48

eMusic Review

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Peter Blackstock

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
Robyn Hitchcock, Spooked
Label: Yep Roc Records / Redeye

Something sounds different right from the start on the latest release from renowned oddball popster Robyn Hitchcock. The gently exquisite and entrancing acoustic guitar intro on the first track may sound eerily familiar to Americana fans; indeed, the pickers are none other than Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. But Hitchcock quickly steers the proceedings into his own inevitably quirky territory by chiming in with a charmingly Robyn-esque opening statement: "Binga-bonga-bing, bong, bing, bong." He proceeds to declare his romantic love for a television set, and we're off.

Welch and Rawlings, quite fortuitously, contribute more than just an initial cameo. They're Hitchcock's collaborators throughout Spooked, which may be the most universally listenable album he's ever made. The muted but mellifluous quality of their musicianship serves as a surprisingly fertile foil for Hitchcock's trademark offbeat wanderings, which touch on such topics as demons and fiends, ocelots and meerkats and living in trees (though he also plays it remarkably straight on the lost-love ballad "English Girl"). A ringer near the end is a cover of Bob Dylan's "Tryin 'to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door."

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Unorthodox Opinion, but...

Michael5000

the best Hitchcock album ever, in my book. "Television," "English Girl," and the "Trying to Get to Heaven..." cover are standouts. Take a listen to "Television"; if you don't like it, this record's not for you. But man, why wouldn't you like it?

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Whatever happened

StiffBoard

Used to really like this guy, but I'm not sure anymore, Televison is a really weird song... Sorry to have missed his tour with Minus 5 in 2006. Guess I'll have to check out his other recent albums...or perhaps go back to the older Soft Boys which are great.

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nice Dylan cover

loveland

nice Dylan cover!

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A law unto himself

powerofpop

What to make of Spooked released in 2004 and aided/abetted by alt. country faves Gillian Welch and David Rawlings? Well, ever since Robyn left Warners in the late 90s, he has been slowly but inexorably moving away from full band electric formats and explored the more folky side of his repertoire. With Spooked, Robyn adds a strong country-blues vibe to his psychedelic folk mix. Which means that Spooked is filled with music that is spare on the instrumentation but pregnant with ideas and Robyn’s trademarked non-sequiturs. Maybe that’s why I love Robyn so. His craft is so stubbornly oblique; it’s an art in itself. Especially when such deliberately testing lyrics are married to some of the most stunning melodies around. It doesn’t get better than this, my friends

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his best in years

BarmyFotheringayPhipps

I haven't written Robyn Hitchcock off nearly to the extent that a lot of people have over the last decade and a half, but I think SPOOKED is his most consistent and entertaining album in quite some time, at least since JEWELS FOR SOPHIA. Despite the presence of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, I don't get a particularly "Americana" vibe, but comparisons to I OFTEN DREAM OF TRAINS and EYE are right on. And for the record, I liked track 11.

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Good album

Blat

Very nice album - as Oakroom says, only completists will want to spend their money on Track 11. Very sparse instrumentation backs Robyn's typically surreal and interesting lyrics. Nice harmoneies in places - Gillian Welch helps out on the album. They work well together! Everybody Needs Love is a great representative track.

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Good with one caveat

oakroom

Track 11 ("Welcome to Earth") is spoken-word silliness. Listen to the preview before you download -- I would not bother. Otherwise, nice, sparely arranged acoustic music.

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They Say All Media Guide

Sometime after the release of 2003′s sparse and slightly chilly Luxor, Robyn Hitchcock attended his first Gillian Welch show. Impressed by the duo’s rootsy adherence to the organic — two guitars, two voices — he approached the longtime fans — Hitchcock unknowingly signed David Rawlings’ guitar at a Boston in-store in 1989 — and exchanged digits. The unlikely partnership came to fruition at Nashville’s Woodland Studios a few months later, and in just six days the lovely, intimate, and typically eccentric Spooked was born. Produced by Rawlings and culled from hours of off-the-cuff originals, Dylan songs, and general weirdness, Spooked harks back to his mercurial I Often Dream of Trains period. References to fungus and food abound, but wrapped in the wooly blankets of Rawlings’ signature picking and Welch’s winsome harmonies, they take on a fireplace warmth that renders them amiably nostalgic rather than blatantly surreal. On the dew-soaked opener, “Television,” Rawlings lays down a beautiful descending lead that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the duo’s debut, and its juxtaposition with Hitchcock’s “bing a bon a bing bong” vocal entrance is jarring, but when the three of them come together mid-song to harmonize, the results are quietly majestic. Much of the record revisits — musically at least — Hitchcock’s colorful past. “Everybody Needs Love,” with its breathy urgency and electric sitar, sounds like something off of Element of Light, and the lurching “Creeped Out” — featuring Welch on drums — could have been the B-side to 1985′s “Brenda’s Iron Sledge.” This is Hitchcock’s most rewarding and creative endeavor since 1993′s Egyptian-led Respect, and the fact that Rawlings and Welch are there as eager tools to flesh out his English netherworld makes the fellowship feel even more collaborative. It’s a testament to both camps’ willingness to try anything — hearing Welch and Rawlings repeating “crackle, crackle, pop” beneath Hitchcock’s spoken word sales pitch to extraterrestrials looking to vacation on Earth is a pretty good example — that ultimately succeeds in making Spooked the left-field gem that it is. – James Christopher Monger

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Activity

  • 02.06.12 Robyn in Arctic Circle podcast, as aired on @ResonanceFM. Download here: http://t.co/ZITC1PvM (via SpyH)
  • 01.23.12 The Floating Palace kicks off in Glasgow 5 Feb! John Paul Jones will be standing in for Martin Carthy at the Warwick date on 12 Feb....
  • 01.04.12 Just uploaded another video of Robyn & Friends playing the Beatles...this time it's Yellow Submarine (HNY from RH via SpyHx)
  • 12.25.11 You're snowing inside, Dr Spengler...
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  • 12.25.11 Why not make yourself at home in the future?
  • 12.24.11 God is a fat word, Dr Spengler - unzip it and many meanings crawl out
  • 12.13.11 More Beatles in the pub... this time it's a John Lennon composition - I'm Only Sleeping: http://t.co/LCBUM5GY (via Spy Hitchcock)
  • 12.08.11 Like it or not, John Lennon represented humanity. So much more than one person died with him.
  • 12.08.11 'John was an artist: why would you kill an artist?' Yoko Ono.
  • 12.08.11 Robyn would like to announce that he's playing @EOTR End of the Road festival. Tix available here: http://t.co/F9UFxM0r Love, Spy Hitchcock
  • 12.07.11 Robyn plays the Beatles' in a London pub. What would you have Robyn play in your local? http://t.co/9N65vABA (via Spy Hitchcock)
  • 12.06.11 Spy Hitchcock reports: Robyn will play @robinince 's "Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People" shows @bloomstheatre on December 22/3.
  • 12.05.11 Robyn plays Red Locust Frenzy for @GreenManFest sessions in this advent calendar, courtesy of @the405 http://t.co/4YIUpl6R (From SpyH...
  • 12.04.11 Robyn plays Red Locust Frenzy for @GreenManFest sessions in this advent calendar, courtesy of @the405 http://t.co/4YIUpl6R (From SpyH...
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  • 11.30.11 Ra-Ra-Rasputin, lover of the Russian Queen!