Robyn Hitchcock - No Way Out of Time - Non-Album Tracks (2004-2005)

Here is yet another in my long series of stray tracks albums for Robyn Hitchcock.

This one happens to be all acoustic... almost. The first song, a cover of the Gary Numan hit "Are 'Friends' Electric," is definitely a full band recording. But it's the only one. Everything else is in acoustic mode. I wasn't quite sure what to do in that situation. But that song belongs here, since it's a non-album track for the years in question. Maybe consider it kind of a bonus track, even though it starts the album.

There are all sorts of sources for these songs, for instance, A- and B-sides, various artists compilations, and in-person radio show appearances.

Two songs, "Madonna of the Wasps" and "Arms of Love," come from Hitchcock's album "Obliteration Pie," which I already posted as a 2003 album. That's generally true in that almost all of the songs on it were recorded in 2003, but actually the album was released in 2005, and the above-mentioned two songs were recorded that year. Both of them are acoustic revisions of much older songs by him.

Four songs are officially unreleased. But three of these are either studio outtakes or in-person radio appearances, so their sound quality is excellent. Only the very last song, "All Your Wicked Friends," comes from a bootleg of a concert. But that's a soundboard recording, and I've removed the audience noise to make it sound like another studio track.

I think all the songs are Hitchcock originals, with the exception of the Gary Numan cover mentioned above, plus "Be Here Now," which is a George Harrison song. 

Why Would Anybody Live Here" is a song by the Sadies that I presume they wrote, and they put it on their 2004 album. But for some reason they had Hitchcock do the lead vocals.

"Then the Night Comes Down" appears to be a Hitchcock original that seems like a work-in-progress. Still, it's worthy of inclusion, I think. It was taken from a radio show where there was someone else talking on a phone while the recording was going on! Luckily, I was able to clean up the recording so the talking on the phone is pretty much all gone. Also, the song abruptly ended during a repeat of the chorus. I patched in the rest of the chorus at the end to give it a proper conclusion. The title is just a guess.

01 Are 'Friends' Electric (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 No Way Out of Time (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Be Here Now (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 She Was You (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Crumble like Dust (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 W Sucks [But Rumsfeld Is the Antichrist] (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Good Times Rock 'n' Roll (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Why Would Anybody Live Here (Sadies with Robyn Hitchcock)
09 Madonna of the Wasps [New Acoustic Version] (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Arms of Love [New Version] (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 Self Loving Groover (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 All Your Wicked Friends (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 Then the Night Comes Down [Edit] (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15122307/RobynH_2004-2005_NoWayOutTime_atse.zip.html

The cover art uses a portion of a painting done by Hitchcock. I only added in the text for the album title. I forget where I got it from exactly, because it's been a while.