Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 - Goodnight Oslo
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2009-02-17
Music Label: Yep Roc Records
Soundtracks:
- What You Is
- Your Head Here
- Saturday Groovers
- I'm Falling
- Hurry for the Sky
- 16 Years
- Up To Our Nex
- Intricate Thing
- TLC
- Goodnight Oslo
Free Music Notes for Goodnight Oslo
Free Music Review: His Best Record in Over A Decade!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I can't remember the last time that a record actually made me drop everything I was doing to stop and concentrate on it. This evening I loaded "Goodnight, Oslo" into the cd player and then sat down to work on my art. But by the third song, I had to stop and move to the couch and just listen. That's the kind of album this is.
"Goodnight, Oslo" rings out bright and confident from the start. There's a drive to this record, an energy, an honesty, that's been lacking on some of his more recent efforts. The 1st track, "What You Is," will remind Dylan afficionados of Mr.Zimmerman's "Shot of Love" phase, resplendent with gospely background vocals. "You might have been a villain with a capital V," Robyn scolds, in his best Dylanesque finger-wag. "Your Head Here," has a similar blues/country drive you might find on Dylan's "Modern Times." But the chorus is pure Robyn, accompanied beautifully as ever by Venus 3'r and R.E.M. guitarist, Peter Buck. Robyn's love of the Kinks is in evidence with the charming "Saturday Groovers," which opens with a chorus of harmonies the Beach Boys would've been proud of.
It's funny, because Robyn started his music career in the late 1970s proffering some of the most wicked observations of human nature. Reference songs of his such as "Sandra's Having Her Brain Out," "Old Pervert," or "I Wanna Destroy You!" His acerbic wit, his edge, his anger, was unmistakable astride his catchy pop melodies. But the story of how Robyn Hitchcock then transformed from one of the angry songwriter's of rock into someone who has written some of the most heartbraking and jaw-droppingly gorgeous love songs is one that is sure to keep future generations of grad students busy with their theses. I say all this as I'm listening to "I'm Falling," yet another one of his devastatingly beautiful ballads. One that will make you pause, that will penetrate you straight to your heart. If it doesn't then you don't have a soul.
"Hurry for the Sky" and "Sixteen Years" returns us back to Robyn via Dylan. "Sixteen" may be the darkest song here, melodically and lyrically speaking. Interesting, since the liner notes state that Buck actually penned the melody, proving he's got Robyn's number!
Continuing on, the song "Up to Our Nex," was featured in the latest Jonathan Demme film "Rachel Getting Married." "Intricate Thing" is sweet and simple, a gentle break from the darkness. But that doesn't last long. We're right back into there with "TLC," which references the logey, druggy psychedelia of Syd Barrett, with lovely, woozy cello breaks. Maybe this song should have been called "THC!" Ha, I kid...
The album ends on a high note. All the urgency of the opening songs is back with "Goodnight, Oslo," a haunting number, with beautiful strings that would've been at home on "Moss Elixir." Peter's guitar chimes strident and eerie over Bill Rieflin's driving drums.
"Goodnight, Oslo," seems to me, Robyn's homage to his influences, and what an homage it is. This is his most striking album in over a decade. The lyrics are sharp as ever, the melodies strong, the performances wonderfully rendered, the production crisp. I don't know that I've ever heard Robyn do quite so much roots rock/country/blues as he demonstrates on this album. And that's not a complaint. Au contraire, give me more! This album is stunning and wholly original.
Robyn Hitchcock may be one of the most prolific songwriters in the history of music. As a songwriter/musician myself who has followed his career closely, loyally, since "Fegmania," I am standing up cheering wildly, calling out "thank you Robyn and your Venutians, for this masterpiece!" I couldn't ask for a better record!
Goodnight Oslo Poster
Reinvention reigns supreme in the elastic world of Robyn Hitchcock. His latest incarnation with the Venus 3 (Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey & Bill Rieflin) spawned the critically acclaimed Olé Tarantula in 2006. Three years later this confection of rock stars and underground legends is back in 2009 with the postmodern pop masterpiece Goodnight Oslo. Stabbing horns from compatriot Terry Edwards swim alongside gorgeous harmonies throughout this 10-track snapshot of Hitchcock's version of pop music in a perfect world. Goodnight Oslo features guest vocalists Colin Meloy, Sean Nelson and Morris Windsor who help Robyn sing his way through a dreamy remembrance of 16 years of intoxication. An album of nearly unwavering positivity, Goodnight Oslo shines down with the beautiful 'I'm Falling' and the beatific 'Up to Our Nex,' the latter written for the soundtrack to the stirring Jonathan Demme film Rachel Getting Married. A new era in an already fabled career, Robyn's latest work strengthens the pull of his lunar-like gravity and adds yet another chapter to the myth of one of rock music's most influential undercurrents.'Tom Waits and Elvis Costello get all the props, but fellow veteran eccentric Robyn Hitchcock's recent work is easily as consistent as theirs.' - ROLLING STONE
'Hitchcock has a vibrant, accommodating and well-explored musical aesthetic.' - PITCHFORK
'4 Stars' - THE TIMES OF LONDON
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