Robyn Hitchcock Boxed Set

07/08/08 2:32pm

by Zack Vitiello (CHARTattack)

Eccentric British singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock has another boxed set coming out on CD on Aug. 19 and on vinyl on Sept. 16 via Yep Roc. The five-CD (or eight vinyl-LP), 90-track Luminous Groove focuses on Hitchcock's mid-'80s material with his band The Egyptians.

The set features 1985's Fegmania!, 1986's Element Of Light and the 1985 live album, Gotta Let This Hen Out! Each comes with bonus tracks that can only be heard on Luminous Grove. The set also includes a two-disc collection titled Bad Case Of History that features one CD of previously unreleased studio rarities and another of unreleased live tracks.

"It's still odd for me to think of the 1980s as being in the past," Hitchcock says of Luminous Groove. "Back then, they were a baleful future that we refugees from the 1960s were marooned in.

"I never thought I'd get out alive, from Reagan, Thatcher and shoulder pads. But time wins again."

Luminous Groove follows Yep Roc's first Hitchcock box set, last year's I Wanna Go Backwards. The label's next addition to the series will focus on the Soft Boys era of Hitchcock's long career.

Here's what you'll find in the Luminous Groove collection:

Fegmania!:

• "Egyptian Cream"
• "Another Bubble"
• "I'm Only You"
• "My Wife And My Dead Wife"
• "Goodnight I Say"
• "The Man With The Lightbulb Head"
• "Insect Mother"
• "Strawberry Mind"
• "Glass"
• "The Fly"
• "Heaven"
• "Heaven End Bit"
• "Bells of Rhymney"
• "Some Body"
• "Heaven" (live)
• "The Pit Of Souls"
• "The Drowning Church"
• "The Man With the Lightbulb Head" (instrumental)
• "Lady Obvious"

Gotta Let This Hen Out!:

• "Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl"
• "Kingdom Of Love"
• "Acid Bird"
• "The Cars She Used To Drive"
• "My Wife And My Dead Wife"
• "Brenda's Iron Sledge"
• "The Fly"
• "Only The Stones Remain"
• "Egyptian Cream"
• "Leppo And The Jooves"
• "America"
• "Heaven"
• "Listening To The Higsons"
• "The Face Of Death"
• "If You Were A Priest"
• "I'm Only You"
• "Unsettled"
• "Freeze"
• "Egyptian Cream #2"

Element Of Light:

• "Winchester"
• "Somewhere Apart"
• "Ted, Woody, And Junior"
• "The President"
• "Raymond Chandler Evening"
• "Bass"
• "Airscape"
• "Never Stop Bleeding"
• "Lady Waters & The Hooded One"
• "The Black Crow Knows"
• "The Crawling"
• "The Leopard"
• "Tell Me About Your Drugs"
• "Sprinkling Dots"
• "Upside Down Church Blues"
• "Into It"
• "Neck"
• "Bass" (demo)
• "Lady Waters & The Hooded One" (demo)

Bad Case Of History:

Disc one:

• "In Agony Of Pleasure"
• "Poisonous Angel"
• "Live Man Die"
• "Furry Baby"
• "Evil Guy"
• "Hanging Out With Dad"
• "Wild Mountain Thyme"
• "Ivy Alone"
• "I Am Not Me"
• "Surfer Ghost"
• "Beautiful Queen"
• "Testosterone Blues"
• "Zipper in My Spine"
• "Lost Tribes"

Disc two:

• "Freeze"
• "Veins Of The Queen"
• "The Ruling Class"
• "So You Think You're In Love"
• "Driving Aloud"
• "Wax Doll"
• "The Living Years"
• "Eight Miles High"
• "Chimes Of Freedom"
• "Railway Shoes"
• "Arms Of Love"
• "Moon Inside"
• "Globe Of Frogs"
• "Vegetation And Dimes"
• "Wafflehead"
• "The Wreck Of The Arthur Lee"