Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3

Ole! Tarantula | Yep Roc

The wonder of Robyn Hitchcock isn’t so much that he can write a line like “Fuck me baby, I’m a trolley bus” as that he can use it in a way that makes emotional sense. Save for 2002’s reunion disc with the Soft Boys, this is the first fully electric rock album he’s made in a good 15 years, and it’s as warm and melodic as the Soft Boys’ Nextdoorland was brittle and jagged. Which isn’t to say that some of his old band’s aggression doesn’t slip in: the above line appears in “The Authority Box,” which replaces the youthful pissed-off smarts of the Underwater Moonlight era with grown-up, pissed-off smarts. But this is largely a shift away from the haunted tone of Hitchcock’s last few acoustic albums, with the band of Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, and Bill Rieflin (all currently part of R.E.M.). Instead, Hitchcock adds a heavy dose of sonic shimmer and unabashed classic-pop allusions. They get proudly Beatle-esque on “Underground Sun,” proudly Dylanesque on the title track, proudly XTC-esque on “Cause It’s Love (Saint Parallelogram)” (written with XTC’s Andy Partridge), and proudly emotive on “NY Doll,” a glitter-ballad homage to the Dolls’ late bassist, Arthur “Killer” Kane. And though some of the usual reptiles and insects sneak into the lyrics, Hitchcock shows his heart more often than not. Not everyone can deliver a line like “Music is the antidote to a world of pain and sorrow” and make you believe it.