Mossy Liquor: Outtakes and Prototypes

iTunes Review

As a singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock often experiments with his delivery. While many of his most satisfying albums have been the ones where he settles in with basic acoustic instruments and lets his mind wander (I Often Dream of Trains, Eye), he has also flirted with unusual arrangements that point up his surrealistic concepts and cushion his abstract worlds in plush psychedelia. Mossy Liquor, initially a vinyl-only release of demos and outtakes from his 1996 proper album, Moss Elixir, strips several tracks to their bare essentials. Featuring a few alternate looks at an established album, the collection works as a well-constructed variety show. Unreleased tunes such as the gentle acoustic instrumental “Shuffling Over the Flagstones,” the heavy innuendo and slide guitar of the English blues “Cool Bug Rumble” match up with demos of “The Devil’s Radio” and “Sinister But She Was Happy” to make a well-balanced collection. “Wide Open Star” harkens back to the simple poignant acoustics of Trains and Eye, while “Each of Her Silver Wands” uses Hitchcock’s trademarked arpeggiated guitars to create his mystical psychedelic swirl. A few throwaways (“As Lemons Chop,” “Trilobite”) lend to the album’s overall tossed-off nature. But even the scraps are worth a lookover.