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Robyn Hitchcock On World Cafe

<a href="http://www.robynhitchcock.com/">Robyn Hitchcock</a>
Courtesy of the artist
Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Hitchcock's latest, self-titled album is slick, surrealist, psychedelic and oh-so-smart. Over the past 40 years, Hitchcock has released more than 20 records between his solo material and his work with The Soft Boys, the psychedelic art-rock band he founded in 1976. Both R.E.M. and The Replacements have cited The Soft Boys' 1980 album Underwater Moonlight as a major influence, and producer Brendan Benson (of rock band The Raconteurs) wanted Hitchcock to harken back to the sound of that album when making his latest solo record.

You can imagine that an artist like Hitchcock, who has been creating for more than four decades, has gone through a few different phases. In our chat, Robyn calls those amputations: where you cut a part of an old life off and start anew. His latest amputation involved leaving his home in the U.K. and relocating to Nashville. We'll talk about moving on, from places and from people.

But we start with Hitchcock's live performance of the opening song on his latest album. It's a tune called "I Want To Tell You About What I Want." Hear it all in the player above.

Copyright 2017 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.