Robyn Hitchcock
The Man Upstairs
Yep Roc; 2014
By Jason Heller; August 26, 2014
If you’ve seen The Lego Movie, the phrase “The Man Upstairs” has some ominous overtones; to everyone else, it’s just a euphemism for God. It’s not clear which connotation Robyn Hitchcock might have been shooting for when he titled his new album The Man Upstairs—after all, he’s no stranger to either religion or animation—but it’s likely there’s no overarching theme at play here. The veteran post-punk folksinger has assembled 10 songs, half of them covers, that don’t seem to mesh in any way other than the fact Hitchcock is singing them.
The first time I saw Hitchcock live was in 1996, when he was splitting a solo acoustic tour with Billy Bragg. Hitchcock’s set was striking, and not just because of the flagrant contrast he and Bragg were gleefully milking: one the whimsical troubadour, the other the craggy firebrand. The two, of course, have more in common than that reductive binary would have you believe, but Hitchcock stood out in one clear, shining way: He’s not just a storyteller, but a shaggy-dog raconteur, as well as a chatty chap who’s more than happy to weave his songs (and those of others) in and out of lengthy tangents and stream-of-consciousness palavering.
In that sense, The Man Upstairs is much like a Hitchcock gig: it meanders, and it has a lovely time doing so. “Trouble in Your Blood” is a study in fragility, all feathery strumming and tentative cello. If it has a vaguely Nick Drake-esque aura, that’s because the album is produced by Joe Boyd, famous for his work on Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, as well as everyone from Pink Floyd to Fairport Convention. But Hitchcock’s voice is his own: nasal and astringent, the polar opposite of Drake’s, but no less melodic or emotive on tracks like “Comme Toujours”, which sports sharper, fingerpicked guitar beneath Hitchcock’s charmingly lopsided French. “I’m not trying to be clever,” he sings, and he makes it sound like the cleverest lyric ever uttered.
The album’s cover songs fare just as well. In Hitchcock’s hands, “To Turn You On”—one of the most starry-eyed tracks from Roxy Music’s Avalon—into a less languid, more quietly urgent plea. The Doors’ “The Crystal Ship” is the closest The Man Upstairs comes to psychedelia (in other words, not very), and for a singer-songwriter who once repurposed psychedelic music so cannily, it’s an unsatisfying glimpse into what the album might have sounded like with a lusher, fleshier approach—not to mention a more developed idea behind it.
Boyd’s production is subtle, soft, and breathy throughout The Man Upstairs, but for such a notable studio legend, he doesn’t bring much to the table besides that. His pairing with Hitchcock is a matchup that practically oozes masterpiece potential, only here it seems squandered on a set of songs that feel like breezy throwaways. The Man Upstairs’ best track is Hitchcock’s version of the Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost in You” that manages to extract far more of a haunted atmosphere from the song than the band who wrote it, great as they are, ever did.
Then again, Hitchcock has a thing for ghosts, and it’s indicative of his knack for interpreting other artists, and storytelling in general, that he’s able to funnel his own obsessions through songs he didn’t compose. Here, though, it’s simply not enough. Hitchcock has stated that he loves The Man Upstairs because it’s not “just another singer-songwriter laying their freshest eggs,” but with Boyd at the controls—and Hitchcock at the mic—that’s exactly what this album could and maybe should have been. The Man Upstairs has warmth and charm galore, but it needs someone, anyone, reaching down to more strongly pull the strings.
The Man Upstairs track list:
1. The Ghost In You
2. San Francisco Patrol
3. To Turn You On
4. Trouble In Your Blood
5. Somebody To Break Your Heart
6. Don’t Look Down
7. Ferries
8. Comme Toujours
9. The Crystal Ship
10. Recalling The Truth
We are excited to announce The Man Upstairs a new album from psychedelic folk troubadour Robyn Hitchcock. The Man Upstairs will be available on August 26. A 4th grade music class from Hillsborough, NC, interviewed Hitchcock for their weekly WOCS podcast – listen in to an excerpt from the podcast, and stream the first song Hitchcock is sharing from the album – a stunning version of the Psychedelic Furs classic “The Ghost in You” – in the media player below.
The Man Upstairs sees Hitchcock uniting with legendary producer Joe Boyd (Nick Drake, Fairport Convention) for one of the most unique recordings of his already quite idiosyncratic career. Rather than simply record a new selection of songs, Boyd suggested what he called ‘a Judy Collins album’ such as Elektra would have released in 1967 – part well-known favorites, part personal discoveries, and part originals. The multi-tiered approach offered Hitchcock the rare opportunity to record as a performer, not “just another singer-songwriter laying their freshest eggs.”
Thus, modern standards like Roxy Music’s “To Turn You On,” The Doors’ “The Crystal Ship,” and The Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost In You” are interlaced with lesser-known gems from such pals as Grant-Lee Phillips (“Don’t Look Down”) and I Was A King (“Ferries”), the latter featuring harmony vocals and guitar from the Norwegian indiepop combo’s own Anne Lise Frøkedal. Meanwhile, new Hitchcock originals like “Trouble In Your Blood” and “Comme Toujours” stand among his most fragile and heartfelt, his stark vocal and guitar cast by Boyd against simple, autumnal backing from longtime collaborators Jenny Adejayan (cello), Charlie Francis (piano), and the aforementioned Frøkedal (harmonies).
“I’ve always wanted to make a folk record produced by Joe Boyd,” says Hitchcock, “and now I have: thank you, universe!”
Recorded and mixed at London’s Snap Studio in just one short week last October, The Man Upstairs further comes adorned with delightfully macabre cover art painted exclusively for the album by GRAMMY®-winning singer/songwriter Gillian Welch.
Hitchcock will herald The Man Upstairs with a pair of intimate live dates slated for June 20th at Santa Monica’s famed McCabe’s Guitar Shop and Seattle’s Columbia City Theater on June 23rd. A complete North American live itinerary will be announced soon – for more, please see www.robynhitchcock.com/tourdates.
From plugging in Bob Dylan’s electric guitar at his infamous 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival to his stewardship of an array of folk heroes – including Vashti Bunyan, Shirley Collins, and The Incredible String Band – Joe Boyd has been intimately involved in some of music’s milestone moments. Young Robyn first encountered Boyd almost five decades back, the words “Produced by Joe Boyd” emblazoned on album after album in his teenage canon. The two eventually made a more human – though no less personal – acquaintance in 1985 as Boyd helmed R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction. A relationship developed and in 2012, they toured the US with “Robyn Hitchcock & Joe Boyd – Live & Direct From 1967,” coupling musical performances with Boyd’s reminiscences of a time when giants walked among us.
Hitchcock’s 20th solo studio recording – give or take the odd outtake, demo, and rarities compilations – The Man Upstairs arrives hot on the heels of 2013′s Love From London, which received some of the most glowing notices of Hitchcock’s storied career. “One of his recent best,” decreed Rolling Stone. “10 songs of chiming folk-rock grace and slippery black humor in which apocalypse falls gently.” BBC Music applauded “(Hitchcock’s) customary playfulness in dissecting matters of the heart and cerebellum,” while MOJO noted “Love From London once again shows (Hitchcock’s) ability to reconcile the sheer peculiar wonder of being alive.” “Hitchcock catches you – leaves you breathless – with his ability to compel,” declared American Songwriter. “He has pared the whimsy to go for a deeper type of magic realism, one that is serious rather than humorous. He seems to be out there – mining the subconscious – while still firmly aware of pop songcraft and the real world as we live it.” “Why does the world need Robyn Hitchcock?” wondered Consequence of Sound. “Well, without him, who would give us songs to boogie to while the world collapses around us?”