Element of Light

By the mid-1980s, eccentric British songwriter Robyn Hitchcock had found his psychedelic niche, streamlining his backing band, the Egyptians, until they motored with tight new wave paisley guitar-jangle accents. 1986’s Element of Light features some of Hitchcock’s most formidable songwriting. “If You Were A Priest” opens things with a driving beat and jagged electric guitars puncturing the soothing wash of keyboards alongside Hitchcock’s knowing sneer. “The President” captures Hitchcock’s sense of political alienation, while the spell-inducing “Raymond Chandler Evening” spotlights beautifully arpeggiated guitars and supportive basslines in little more than two minutes. “Ted, Woody and Junior” is quietly subversive. “Bass” is a jaunty, surrealistic number with Hitchcock piping off like a mad hatter. “Somewhere Apart” mimics a John Lennon piano rocker right down to its eerie vocal reverb. “Airscape” is a gorgeous love song that spends a day at the beach as its serpentine backwards guitar lines come snaking through. The expanded edition includes odds and ends that will most appeal to hardcore fans, but the initial ten tracks that originally comprised the album reign among Hitchcock’s most important material.