Olé! Tarantula

1	Adventure Rocket Ship 2:50
2	Underground Sun 3:57
3	Museum of Sex 4:00
4	Belltown Ramble 6:15
5	Ole! Tarantula
6	(A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs 5:34
7	Red Locust Frenzy 3:00
8	'Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram) 3:23
9	The Authority Box 4:13
10	N.Y. Doll 3:45

Barnes & Noble

For a while, Robyn Hitchcock seemed to have lost his way. After his auspicious beginnings in the Soft Boys and then in his solo heyday throughout the '80s and early '90s, Hitchcock's fertile imagination, which often gravitated toward images of insects, vegetables, and, uh, fertility, seemed to strain. But 2004's Spooked, an acoustic album recorded with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, was his most consistent set in ages, and the mostly electric and completely eclectic Olé! Tarantula follows suit. Backed by the Venus 3 (R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows, and Bill Rieflin from R.E.M. and the Minus 5), Hitchcock rocks out more than he has in years. Olé! is both joyful and wistful, with two lively elegies, "Underground Sun" and "N.Y. Doll" (the latter for the New York Dolls' Arthur Kane), and several jangly love songs, including "'Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)," which wouldn't sound out of place on the classic Fegmania. "A man's gotta know his limitations, Briggs, or he will just explode," Hitchcock sings atop one of his characteristic chiming, Byrdsy guitar lines. Longtime Hitchcock fans won't be surprised by the wit, anthropomorphism, and harmonies on Olé! Tarantula. But they may be surprised by how fresh and alive they all sound. Steve Klinge

All Music Guide

In 2004, Robyn Hitchcock's loose and folky Spooked saw the insect- and crustacean-loving eccentric enlisting the unlikely help of NPR darlings David Rawlings and Gillian Welch. This time around he's backed by "3/4s of the Minus 5 and half of R.E.M." (Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, and Bill Rieflin) as well as ex-Soft Boys Kimberley Rew and Morris Windsor, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson, and ex-President of the United States of America Chris Ballew. A small army indeed, but a tasteful one. Olé! Tarantula sounds like a trip back to the iconic singer/songwriter's early A&M days. Long, Byrds-inspired harmonies, jangly electric guitars, and random bursts of piano, harmonica, and saxophone pepper the collection in fits, seasoning Hitchcock's already delicious wordplay with exactly the right amount of spice. Opener "Adventure Rocket Ship" sounds like a lost track from Underwater Moonlight, the kind of confident psychedelic rocker that used to spill from the anti-bard's leafy pen like battery acid in the early to mid-'80s. That confidence coupled with the tight, road-ready band vibe permeates Tarantula's swollen belly, allowing only one or two forays into the esoteric balladry that has become the norm for the artist's post-Egyptians catalog. With the jaunty "'Cause It's Love (Saint Parallelogram)," co-written by XTC's Andy Partridge, the creepy and dissonant "Red Locust Frenzy," and the impossibly ridiculous title cut, the former "Man with the Light Bulb Head" has distilled the best of each of his eras into one big shambling creature. Lyrically, he's still obsessed with crabs, eggs, tomatoes, and things that are fleshy, furry, and spindly, but his greatest strength has always been his ability to toss a clear nugget of profundity into his most surrealist rants. In the warm, weird, and nostalgic "Belltown Ramble," he manages to rope an Uzbek warlord, email and R.E.M. into a motor-mouthed stroll through town and time that's bolstered by the wisdom that "It's an independent life/And you want to see your eyes/Reflected in the world" and the notion that "The burning train is back in your hometown." It's that perfect balance of sadness, vitriol, and absurdity that makes Hitchcock (when he's on) such a legendary social commentator. He's the jester, the king, the convict, and the executioner all wrapped up into one. Reverend Lee Power