The final Egyptians album, and only google-proof Robyn Hitchcock album, was 1993's Respect.
This has always been one of my favorites and seemed like a more focused comeback after Perspex Island, and it wasn't until I found my way to the internet that I found out that other Robyn Hitchcock fans didn't have much respect for it. I also found out that the last song "Wafflehead" seems to be everyone's least favorite Robyn Hitchcock song. I don't love it, but it seems like a fun little track to me.
Most of the songs on Respect were written during the Egyptians acoustic tour in 1992, and recorded in the same settings, which curtailed some of the excesses of their previous albums. The result is an understated album that's stood the test of time fairly well. Respect was recorded at Robyn's house on the Isle of Wight and produced by John Leckie, who spruced up the acoustic based tracks with (sometimes unnecessary) synths and strings. Some of the songs (like "Arms Of Love") suffered from the Leckie's sprucing, but others like "Railway Shoes" and "Wreck of the Arthur Lee" are helped.
At the time, Respect reminded me a lot of R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, since the albums came out within a few months of each other and explore similar themes. Also, R.E.M. covered "Arms Of Love" as the b-side to "Man On The Moon", and their cover came out before Robyn's original. Here's another version of that song, a duet with Robyn and Deni Bonet from "duets with Deni".
As well as the final Egyptians album, Respect was also Robyn Hitchcock's last album for A&M. The four albums he made for that label are all out of print, with no signs of being reissued, but probably marked his commercial high point as an artist.
2 comments:
I _really_ love Respect. It's always felt, to me, like a kind of "kitchen sink" version of 60's orchestral pop -- quite different from everything else in the Hitchcock canon. "Railway Shoes" is a top ten Hitchcock song for me -- some of his finest lyrics, a gorgeous vocal and amazing bass playing.
The lack of an actual drum kit gives the album a really distinct texture, too -- the same way that Pet Sounds achieves a kind of "epic intimacy" because of the lack of conventional rock drums.
The crazy mess of Arabic sounding strings/synths/woodwinds in conjunction with the harmony singing on "The Moon Inside" is just spectacular.
I come back to this one a lot.
"Wafflehead" is pretty lame, though.
"Wafflehead" is okay, but should have been replaced on the album by one of the b-sides ("Bright Fresh Flower" or "Alright Yeah").
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