Robyn Hitchcock: I Wanna Go Backwards

Considering that the albums collected on I

Wanna Go Backwards

have been reissued two or three times already, with extra material added each

time, it might seem hard to justify this new box set. But English

folk-psychedelic songwriter Robyn Hitchcock has carefully combed through his

archives, adding 20 previously unreleased songs and culling a few weaker ones

to produce the most definitive editions yet of his three 1980s-era solo albums Black

Snake Diamond Role,

I Often Dream Of Trains, and Eye, as well as a two-disc set of rarities, While

Thatcher Mauled Britain, and a digital-only release of the black-sheep 1982 album Groovy

Decay.

(His '80s albums with backing band The Egyptians will be collected on another

box set next year.) The new material here makes the appeal for Hitchcock

completists obvious, but Backwards is also a good starting point for neophytes.

Collectively, Trains, Eye, and Black Snake cover the breadth of Hitchcock's cracked genius,

encompassing much of the best of his sardonic humor, surrealistic imagery,

intricate guitar-work, and lyrical obsessions with sex, psychology, death, and

shellfish.