Robyn Hitchcock Releases 25th Solo Record

Legendary British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock has released his eagerly awaited new album, The Confuser, available everywhere now via Tiny Ghost Records. An array of physical variants and new merch is also on offer, including CD, standard black vinyl, limited-edition two-tone vinyl, t-shirt, and a limited-edition signed poster, exclusively at the official Tiny Ghost Records shop.

PURCHASE/STREAM THE CONFUSER
PURCHASE VINYL OF THE CONFUSER

Hitchcock’s 25th solo studio album and first collection of original songs in nearly four years, The Confuser includes such characteristically skewed new favorites as the ebulliently self-proclaiming “I Am This Thing,” the dystopic party anthem “My Dead Astronaut,” the Bo Diddley beat-crazed “How To Feel Alright,” and the classic Brit-rock (as played by Americans) of “Yesterday’s Rain.” Official music videos, animated visualizers, and more are streaming now on YouTube.

WATCH ”YESTERDAY’S RAIN” OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
WATCH “HOW TO FEEL ALRIGHT” OFFICIAL VISUALIZER
WATCH “MY DEAD ASTRONAUT” OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
WATCH “I AM THIS THING” (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

In his sixth decade as an artist, Robyn Hitchcock manages to still illuminate and mystify, bemuse and philosophize, unlike any other before or since. Recorded at studios in Hitchcock’s longtime home base of Nashville USA by Brad Jones (Josh Rouse, Chuck Prophet, Jill Sobule) and Jordan Lehning (Kacey Musgraves, Rodney Crowell, Emma Swift), The Confuser features crack accompaniment from Music City session experts including electric guitarist Jeremy Fetzer (Steelism, Lambchop, Kesha), bass guitarist Todd Bolden, and drummer/percussionist Eric Slick (Dr. Dog, Adrian Belew, Taylor Swift). Special guests include cherished friends Gillian Welch (contributing vocals to “Ghost in Sunlight”) and Kimberley Rew (co-founder, with Hitchcock, of The Soft Boys), who lends additional guitar to “Breathless,” “How To Feel Alright,” “Ghost in Sunlight,” and “Growing From The Ruins.” The energetically head-on backing propels a dazzlingly dynamic collection of typically perceptive new songs that traverse familiar signposts near and dear to Hitchcock’s creative heart – the significance of love, the mysteries of the cosmos, and all the abstract accidents that happen between the luck of birth and the bitter end. From signature autumnal moments like “Breathless” to the jaunty music hall psychedelia of the album-closing “Wasted,” The Confuser manifests all the accrued wisdom and hard-earned knowledge of a veteran songwriter, presented with the vivacious gusto and driven delight of an artist still with something to prove. As ever, Hitchcock proudly carries the flame for a particular brand of traditional singer-songcraft, a deeply personal penchant sparked by his Summer of Love adolescence (detailed in his acclaimed first memoir, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left) and furthered throughout the myriad cultural metamorphoses that followed. With The Confuser, Robyn Hitchcock upholds the enduring value of those halcyon influences, while managing once again to imbue it all with his singular wit and keenness of vision.

“One of my roles has been to keep a certain kind of music alive,” says Hitchcock. “I didn’t invent this field of music, but I’ve perpetuated it. Arguably, the Soft Boys did that, amongst other things. It wasn’t peace and love or ‘oh wow, man, look at these trippy flowers,’ it wasn’t any of that. It was simply a certain kind of sound and a certain kind of feeling that was in those records made between 1965 and 1968 which are now seen as the Big Bang of classic rock, or whatever you want to call it. I’ve just kept that approach to music alive – verse, chorus, middle eight, harmonies, guitar solos, and free-range lyrics. I’m very lucky to be able to do this. I can’t believe I’m still allowed to do it. But nobody’s stopped me, and I’m kind of touching wood that I can carry on doing it a bit longer.”

This month has also seen the publication of Hitchcock’s second memoir, Stranded in the Future (Akashic Books), on sale now wherever books are sold; a limited edition package including a copy of the book and numbered Giclée print, both autographed by Hitchcock, is also available. A kind of dystopian self-portrait spanning 1968 to 1978, Stranded in the Future explores the formation of Hitchcock’s seminal 1970s band, the Soft Boys, as well as the obsessions that fueled his early creative output. The arrival of Stranded in the Future was met by early applause from Publisher’s Weekly, which raved, “Hitchcock delivers a transporting follow-up to his first memoir, 1967, that takes readers through his formative musical experiences in 1960s and ‘70s Britain...When punk arrives in the narrative, Hitchcock bemoans the tonal shift it signaled from idealism to disaffection, lending the rest of his narrative a poignant, reflective air. The result is a gently self-mythologizing account that balances nostalgia with clear-eyed perspective. Music fans will savor this lovely tribute to a transformative cultural moment.”

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