Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Robyn Hitchcock - The Man Upstairs - Acoustic Versions (2014)

I have so much Robyn Hitchcock music to post that it seems overwhelming to me. So I'm going to try to post more from him soon, to try to chip down the backlog. In 2014, he released the studio album "The Man Upstairs." These are all unreleased, acoustic versions of the songs from that album.

I should add the caveat that these are most of the songs from the album, but not all of them. I wasn't able to find an acoustic version of just one song, "Somebody to Break Your Heart." But on the plus side, I've added two more songs he released on singles around that time, "Follow Your Money," and a cover of the Neil Young song "Motion Pictures." ("The Ghost in You" and "The Crystal Ship" are also covers.)

Even though the songs are all unreleased, the sound quality is generally very good. Six of the 11 songs were recorded in the studio without an audience, usually due to in-person radio station performances. The only one that sounds a bit worse than the rest is "Ferries." I could only find two performances of that song, so we're lucky to have anything at all for that one.

This album is 45 minutes long.

By the way, last year, Hitchcock released an album called "The Man Downstairs," that consists of rarities from "The Man Upstairs" album. I won't be posting songs from that on this blog, since I don't want to cut into the sale of that album, so if you're interested, I suggest you buy it.

01 The Ghost in You (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 San Francisco Patrol (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 To Turn You On (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Trouble in Your Blood (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Don't Look Down (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Ferries (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Comme Toujours (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 The Crystal Ship (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 Recalling the Truth (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Follow Your Money (Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift)
11 Motion Pictures (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15274625/RobynH_2014_TheManUpstairAcousticVersions_atse.zip.html

The artwork for "The Man Upstairs" included the above photo inside a booklet. It was extremely washed out, and fairly blurry. I used Photoshop to sharpen and darken it some. The writing of Hitchcock's name is the same as on the official album cover.

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