The Genius of Robyn Hitchcock

The psych pop troubadour has been blowing minds for 40+ years

Listening to Robyn Hitchcock’s music can be like stepping into a surrealist painting. The sonic landscapes he creates lure you in for a pop thrill, but just beyond the familiar 60s-influenced framework lies a hallucinatory realm populated by dead spouses, menacing creatures, and men with lightbulb heads.

Hitchcock’s songwriting has been compared to everybody from Bob Dylan and John Lennon to Syd Barrett and Captain Beefheart. It says a lot about his kaleidoscopic vision and unique talents that the only fitting comparisons are the legendary iconoclasts who directly influenced him.

“Even if all I am is an amalgam of influences, at least they’re influences that are mine,” Hitchcock told Aquarium Drunkard in 2017.

“I’m still really influenced by the people I listened to as a teenager in the 1960s. Post 1970, who did I listen to? Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Morrissey. You know, the Great British Narcissists. Which I am a minor member of that club. But that’s what we do, I think. And I think my songs and my persona are sort of familiarly driven, you have to sort of buy into my shtick.”