Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians
Fegmania!

The group dimension has been missing from Robyn Hitchcock since 1982, when he relied on the cold sessioners directed by an eager Steve Hillage for Groovy Decay (later disowned); it was missing in 1984 in the still effective I Often Dream of Trains. It's not surprising this flaw was felt, given the shifting songwriter quality and his past as the master of ceremonies of a brilliant guitar ensemble like the Soft Boys (in the 1977/79 triennium second only to Television). Those very Soft Boys that reformed around the orphaned leader in 1985: except for Kimberley Rew (who pursued financial satisfaction with Katrina & the Waves), the core is the classic one, with Andy Metcalfe on bass and Morris Windsor on drums.

The absence of Rew immediately makes one forget the guitar interconnections of the past, but the solidity of the rhythm section gives enormous satisfaction in the more compressed and treacherous tracks (the sped-up raga of Goodnight I Say); elsewhere the direction is that of a witty and sick pop (My Wife and My Dead Wife, the masterpiece of Egyptian Cream, the subtle Insect Mother), meticulously arranged.

A few trivial elements (Heaven, Another Bubble, Strawberry Mind) do not spoil the overall harmony, close to the results of the old formation.