Album: Propellor Time
Year: 2010
. . .
Robyn Hitchcock’s third straight album with the Venus 3, Propellor Time, came out only a year after Goodnight Oslo, but it was pretty different from that record, in that it was more acoustic-oriented than the previous two. Which is a weird parallel to the final Egyptians album, Respect, 17 years prior.
Recorded with the same cast of characters plus guest ringers John Paul Jones, Johnny Marr and Nick Lowe, Propellor Time was a much more relaxed affair than either of its predecessors, as was born out by its best track, “The Afterlife,” which had originally gotten its first go-round in a live version on a 2007 EP Sex, Food, Death … And Tarantulas.
On that EP, it was reliably jangly, but this studio version is something else entirely.
Everyone is made of meat
They’re full of life and life is sweet
Sweet as honey to the bear he’ll
Tear you into bits of hair
And if they cut him open after
He has eaten all your laughter
With the main instruments being Neil MacColl’s banjo and an organ probably played by Robyn himself, “The Afterlight” reminds me of a lost Basement Tapes song, especially in the vocals on the verses. One of the jokier songs, like “Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread” or “Please Mrs. Henry.” That said, unlike “Serpent at The Gates of Wisdom,” it wasn’t a full-blown homage, but rather just around the edges.
Like in the way he songs “they’re full of life and life is sweet”, and to be honest, it completely goes away on the chorus where Scott McCaughey, Chris Ballew, Morris Windsor and Nick Lowe all join in.
I’m gonna see you in the afterlight
I’m gonna see you in the afterlight
ooooooooooohh
It’s one of Robyn’s catchier choruses, and is guaranteed to stick in your head long after the song is over, echoing through the ringing guitars, organ and banjo. Sadly, Propellor Time was the final album that Robyn did with the Venus 3, and while it wasn’t as acclaimed as his runs with either the Soft Boys or Egyptians — or as long — it was still a pretty great set of records.
“The Afterlight”
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