Album Details

• Artist: Robyn Hitchcock
• Album: Goodnight Oslo
• Label:
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: tosnob on 2009-02-09

Goodnight Oslo is the new album from indie pop icon Robyn Hitchcock. Backing the former Soft Boys singer on the record is once again the Venus 3 (Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5, and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Bill Rieflin).

For over three decades now Hitchcock has been making some of the most enjoyable and catchiest pop music around. All of it done with an English post-punk flair ("Up To Our Necks").

Goodnight Oslo opens with a different side of Hitchcock. "What You Is" and "Your Head Here" are a pair of atypically dark and bluesy numbers. That's reproduced later with the morose Johnny Cash-worthy "16 Years".

It doesn't take long for Hitchcock to fall into his old, magnificent habits. "Saturday Grooves" is pure Beatle-esque pop joy as filtered through the lens of '80s New Wave, while the mellow "I'm Falling" provides a memorable guitar groove.

American roots rock influence comes into play as well on the album. The train ride chug of "Hurry for the Sky" is ample evidence of that.

Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 don't stray far from the expected onGoodnight Oslo, and that's a pretty darn good thing.

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