Moss Elixir

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Moss Elixir
Studio album by Robyn Hitchcock
Released 1996
Genre Folk pop
Professional reviews
Robyn Hitchcock chronology
Robyn Hitchcock (Album)
(1995)		 Moss Elixir
(1996)		 Mossy Liquor
(1996)

Moss Elixir is a 1996 album by Robyn Hitchcock, containing twelve original compositions, predominantly acoustic, and released by Warner Music.

Following the traumatic loss of his father, Hitchcock had recorded little in the preceding five years, his place in the market held mainly by repackages punctuated by the lone studio album Respect. When he re-emerged, he had dispensed with old group The Egyptians and begun working here with new musicians, including Deni Bonet, a violinist with whom Hitchcock would collaborate several times in the years following.

Moss Elixir came packaged in green and gold, continuing the theme of his earlier solo acoustic albums, I Often Dream Of Trains and Eye. The contents, whilst not strictly solo works, are nonetheless starkly minimalist and include several inventive pieces marking his recovery as a writer.

"Heliotrope" is one of the more alluring, with its beautiful portrayal of a woman drawn towards the sun, whilst "I Am Not Me" finds Hitchcock with heavily fuzzed electric guitar played solo, as if an acoustic. The Picturesque "You And Oblivion", which pulls its title from one of Hitchcock's earlier albums, continues his interest in composing songs on a single chord, an idea with also finds expression on tracks such as "Beautiful Queen" and "Filthy Bird".

The name of the track "De Chirico Street" refers to surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico.

The Closing number, "This Is How It Feels" is one of its composer's most honest love songs, constructed from several different sections.

The CD insert includes one of his short stories, a vaguely autobiographical, surrealist account of Hitchcock in the afterlife, which weaves several images and titles from the album's contents into its storyline, including the Elixir of the set's title.

[edit] Track listing

  1. Sinister But She Was Happy
  2. The Devil's Radio
  3. Heliotrope
  4. Alright, Yeah
  5. Filthy Bird
  6. The Speed Of Things
  7. Beautiful Queen
  8. Man With A Woman's Shadow
  9. I Am Not Me
  10. De Chirico Street
  11. You and Oblivion
  12. This Is How It Feels