(2020) Robyn Hitchcock - The Man Downstairs: Demos & Rarities


Review:
The Man Downstairs is a new self-released collection of demos from the singular, and always psychedelic Robyn Hitchcock. This record (or in this case the now quickly becoming charmingly anachronistic CD) seems to pull the off the hat trick of of being perhaps slightly better than the album proper that these rough drafts were intended for, which in case you were wondering was his 2014 album The Man Upstairs, a Judy Collins inspired collection of half covers and originals cut with legendary producer Joe Boyd. The songs presented on Downstairs share none of the same originals or cover selections with the album they were potentially intended for, making this an entirely new listening experience. Boasting a more direct and unfussy sounding approach, it features covers of such towering musical specters such as Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, Townes Van Zandt, and Bob Dylan slotted next to Robyn’s original material. The originals presented on here such as “I Pray When I’m Drunk,” and “The Threat of Freedom” hedge into an isolated sounding acoustic mode not unlike the approach utilized by the artist on some of his most classic works like 1983’s I Often Dream of Trains, and 1990’s Eye. ”These songs were mostly recorded in 2013 as demos for The Man Upstairs‘” says Robyn. “These tracks were recorded in Cardiff by Charlie Francis in his attic, and in many cases didn’t survive being re-cut with Joe Boyd in London when it came to session time.” It includes previously unreleased versions of Nick Drake’s “River Man,” Pink Floyd’s “Arnold Layne,” and Hitchcock’s “I Pray When I’m Drunk,” plus demos for “All Love and No Peace” and “Cavendish Square” and more.





Tracklist:
01 All Love And No Peace
02 River Man (Drake)
03 Arnold Layne (Barrett)
04 Cavendish Square
05 The Threat Of Freedom
06 The Tower Song (Van Zandt)
07 I Pray When I'm Drunk
08 On Seeing Your Photograph
09 Born In Time (Dylan)
10 Recalling The Truth


Media Report:
Genre: indie-folk
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits