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- Date Released: March 1, 1985
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: Pop, Rock
- Label: Yep Roc Records / Redeye
The album that established the blueprint for Robyn Hitchcock's delightfully off-kilter, eccentric solo recording career.
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We Say...
Five years after the demise of the Soft Boys, Robyn Hitchcock reformed the band as the Egyptians, substituting Roger Jackson’s plinking keyboards for Kimberley Rew’s stinging guitar. The result, after years of searching, was an album that established the template for Hitchcock’s solo career. Fusing Syd Barrett and John Lennon, Hitchcock’s greatest influences, with the Byrds’ jangling guitars and layered harmonies (demonstrated by the bonus-track cover of “The Bells of Rhymney”), the songs on Fegmania! mix dark-hued surrealism with off-kilter wit. Notwithstanding its absurdist fillips, “My Wife and My Dead Wife” is an adroit dissection of a romantic relationship haunted by the ghosts of past loves.
Hitchcock’s eccentricity can be off-putting to the uninitiated, but songs like “Egyptian Cream” hide dangerous undercurrents beneath their fanciful surfaces. Even the overt wackiness of “The Man With the Lightbulb Head” takes on disturbing overtones, like a children’s fairy tale that turns into a bad dream.
The reissue adds the droning, dissonant instrumental “The Pit of Souls” as well as a handful of newly recorded “context recordings” and a live version of “Heaven” from 1992. -
They Say...
After the stripped-back collection I Often Dream of Trains, Robyn Hitchcock slowly formed a backing band called the Egyptians with ex-Soft Boys Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor, and keyboardist Roger Jackson over the course of the next year. Fegmania!, the Egyptians' first album, was a distinct departure from both the Soft Boys and Hitchcock's previous solo work, featuring layered, intertwining guitars and keyboards that created lush and thick sonic textures. Even with the more detailed arrangements, the songs remained twitchy and off-kilter, with melodies that usually went in willfully unpredictable directions, yet remained catchy all the while. Fegmania! was Hitchcock's most consistent work to date, featuring such highlights as the Eastern-tinged "Egyptian Cream," and the creepy "My Wife & My Dead Wife," and the relatively straightforward "The Man with the Lightbulb Head." [In 2008 Yep Roc released a new version of Fegmania that included the original album re-mastered, eight bonus cuts (three of which were previously unavailable) and expanded packaging.]
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| 01. |  |
Egyptian Cream |
3:32 |
|
| 02. | |
Another Bubble |
2:46 |
|
| 03. | |
Iâm Only You |
4:28 |
|
| 04. | |
My Wife and My Dead Wife |
4:19 |
|
| 05. | |
Goodnight I Say |
3:13 |
|
| 06. | |
The Man With The Lightbulb Head |
3:04 |
|
| 07. | |
Insect Mother |
1:54 |
|
| 08. | |
Strawberry Mind |
2:50 |
|
| 09. | |
Glass |
3:05 |
|
| 10. | |
The Fly |
3:50 |
|
| 11. | |
Heaven |
4:03 |
|
| 12. | |
Heaven End Bit |
0:46 |
|
| 13. | |
Bells Of Rhymney |
3:30 |
|
| 14. | |
Some Body |
3:20 |
|
| 15. | |
Heaven (live) |
4:55 |
|
| 16. | |
The Pit Of Souls |
9:59 |
|
| 17. | |
The Drowning Church |
3:12 |
|
| 18. | |
The Man With The Lightbulb Head (instrumental) |
2:52 |
|
| 19. | |
Lady Obvious |
3:21 |
|
19 Total Tracks, 68:59 Total Length
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Credits
- Robyn Hitchcock - Bass // Robyn Hitchcock - Guitar // Robyn Hitchcock - Keyboards // Robyn Hitchcock - Vocals // Ken Perry - Remastering // Pat Collier - Engineer // Bill Inglot - Remastering // Andy Metcalfe - Bass // Andy Metcalfe - Percussion // Andy Metcalfe - Keyboards // Andy Metcalfe - Vocals (Background) // Matthew Seligman - Programming // Matthew Seligman - Engineer // Morris Windsor - Percussion // Morris Windsor - Drums // Morris Windsor - Vocals (Background) // James Fletcher - Saxophone // Justin Grimaldi - Conga // Roger Jackson - Keyboards // Roger Jackson - Vocals (Background) // John Kingham - Drums // Jim Neill - Reissue Producer // Ian OHiggins - Engineer // James Smith - Guitar // Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - Performer // Grant Alden - Liner Notes
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