ROBYN HITCHCOCK announces new album ‘Shufflemania!’ – out 21st October

ROBYNHITCHCOCK
Photo credit: Emma Swift

Robyn Hitchcock has announced the long-awaited release of Shufflemania!, arriving via Tiny Ghost Records on 21st October.  Pre-orders – including limited edition blue vinyl, classic black vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital download, are available now exclusively at www.robynhitchcock.com.

The veteran British artist’s first full-length collection in over five years, Shufflemania! is heralded by the mischievous first single, “The Shuffle Man,” available now on all streaming services. The single features instrumental and vocal accompaniment from musician/producer/artist Brendan Benson.

Watch the video for “The Shuffle Man” BELOW:


 
“The Shuffle Man is the imp of change, the agent of fortune” explains Hitchcock.“He throws the cards up in the air and leaves you to deal with where they fall. He is the exhilaration of chaos – with fast hands and a stovepipe hat.”

Recorded in locations around the world over the pandemic era, Shufflemania! offers up 10 gloriously ingenious new Robyn Hitchcock songs in just under 40 minutes – a “proper pop album” as nature intended. Songs like “Midnight Tram To Nowhere” and the optimistic, album-closing “One Day (It’s Being Scheduled)” are state-of-the-art Hitchcock, manifesting his signature wit, miraculous gift for melodic craftsmanship, and striking humanity in a world gone mad.

Having long kept up a remarkably prodigious work rate for much of his shapeshifting six-decades-and-counting career, Hitchcock found himself burned out following the completion of 2017’s acclaimed Robyn Hitchcock. A 2019 Christmas visit to the ancient palace of Quetzalcoatl in Tulum, Mexico brought forth from his guitar a long overdue new song, “Feathery Serpent God,” lyrically entire and musically intact, albeit in demo form. More new songs materialized as Hitchcock flew home to his adopted Nashville. His notebook began to fill with new lyrics, some accompanied by music, others reaching completion over the coming months.

With the muse upon him, and the pandemic descending, Hitchcock bought a 5-track recording device – not dissimilar to the 4-track cassette machine on which he wrote and arranged his landmark I Often Dream of Trains more than three decades earlier. He emailed his freshly recorded guitar-and-vocal songs to a star-studded selection of his (many) musician friends around the world, all of whom were also marooned at home with time to spare and much more sophisticated recording equipment than he himself was using, among them Johnny Marr, Sean Ono Lennon, Brendan Benson, Kimberley Rew, Morris Windsor, Kelley Stoltz, Anne Lise Frøkedal, Davey Lane (You Am I), Eric Slick (Dr. Dog), and Pat Sansone (Wilco, The Autumn Defense), all of whom proved more than happy to contribute.

As things opened up somewhat in the second half of 2020, Hitchcock and his partner Emma Swift returned to London, booking a final session at Abbey Road where they re-recorded most of his vocals, with Swift – a singer with an ear “far more acute than mine” – acting as producer. Stems for the whole project were then sent to longtime friend, producer/engineer Charlie Francis (R.E.M., The High Llamas, Martin Carr), who mixed the album in his Cardiff attic, where the seagulls swoop and dive.

Having been formed in constant motion, the resulting Shufflemania! stands out among the most freewheeling works in Hitchcock’s already extensive canon, its songs and subject matter as diverse as the cast of musicians who assisted him in its creation, spanning, but not limited to, TV detectives, astrology, imaginary pubs, Greek philosophers, streetcars, sea creatures, recurring dreams, and of course, the aforementioned feathered serpent deity Quetzalcoatl.

“To me, most songs are about themselves and how they make you feel,” says Hitchcock. “What triggers them is mysterious. The songs on this record are a series of sub-personalities fertilized by chance. You might even say they were cards dealt to me by The Shuffle Man. Listening back now, to me, Shufflemania! is a party record, direct from my unconscious to you. Even if you’re a party of one – have fun with it!”

The perpetually travelling Hitchcock will herald Shufflemania! with a wide-ranging international live schedule, including dates in the United Kingdom, Norway, and the United States. Additional dates will be announced.

SEPTEMBER 2022
13th – Falmouth, United Kingdom – The Cornish Bank

14th – Totnes, United Kingdom – The Barrel House

15th – Bristol, United Kingdom – Redgrave Theatre

20th – Hertford, United Kingdom – Hertford Corn Exchange

21st – Reading, United Kingdom – South Street Arts Centre

22nd – Deal, United Kingdom – The Lighthouse

23rd – Norwich, United Kingdom – Norwich Puppet Theatre

OCTOBER 2022

2nd – Asker, Norway – Venskaben

4th – Trondheim, Norway – Bar Moskus

NOVEMBER 2022 – USA

10th – Athens, GA, USA – 40 Watt Club

11th – Decatur, GA, USA- Eddie’s Attic

12th – Decatur, GA, USA – Eddie’s Attic

16th – Nashville, TN, USA – The Basement

FEBRUARY 2023
25th – London, United Kingdom – Alexandra Palace Theatre

MARCH 2023

1st – Glasgow, United Kingdom – Mono

Shufflemania!

Shufflemania! Tracklist:

The Shuffle Man

The Inner Life of Scorpio

The Feathery Serpent God

Midnight Tram To Nowhere

Socrates In Thin Air

Noirer Than Noir

The Man Who Loves The Rain

The Sir Tommy Shovel

The Raging Muse

One Day (It’s Being Scheduled)

Bandcamp pre-order link HERE

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*