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Coming on with a jingle-jangle intro à la an old Byrds hit played by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Robyn Hitchcock made yet another attempt to record a radio-friendly tune in 1991, but instead turned out a typically gorgeous and cockeyed love song. Produced for Paul Fox for the A&M album Perspex Island, Hitchcock, as usual, is accompanied by the Egyptians' Andy Metcalfe on bass and Morris Windsor on drums. The sound of an early-'90s, lazy snare drum dominates (was it the times or just Windsor's technique?) but Buck's guitar gets buried in mix. Fortunately, Hitchcock's paradoxically detached but exuberant vocal delivery supersedes it all; "So you think you're in love…Are you sure that it's wise? No you probably, ain't." Hitchcock's love songs click when his maturity combines with his evergreen belief in possibility; that's precisely why this composition, recording technique notwithstanding, is among his finest.
Source: allmusic.
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dictionary.com: paradox exuberant supersede
| The first third of New Magnetic Wonder features two songs that could fit on a children's science program: Lead single "Energy" is Newtonian physics for 10 year olds, and companion piece "Same Old Drag" is its other half — a "drag" being not just a bummer, but also the resistant force to all of that energy.
Schneider's science infatuation and retro-fetishism translates to prodigious amounts of studio experimentation, and New Magnetic Wonder certainly aims to have the best of both worlds. The album's title alludes to his affection for analog recording equipment, but his insatiable thirst for overdubs (one song was ProTooled from 96 tracks) points to the contrary: Not a single second of the record is left un-manipulated.
Source: Pitchfork.
Note: The final sentence describes a paradox. |
dictionary.com: infatuation prodigious allude insatiable manipulate paradox
Download "Cruel To Be Kind" here.
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Oh, I can't take another heartache
Though you say, oh my friend, I'm at my wit's end
You say your love is bonafide [genuine; true], but that don't coincide
With the things that you do and when I ask you to be nice
You say you've got to be…
Cruel to be kind in the right measure
Cruel to be kind it's a very good sign
Cruel to be kind means that I love you
Baby, got to be cruel, you got to be cruel to be kind
Well I do my best to understand dear
But you still mystify and I want to know
why I pick myself up off the ground
to have you knock me back down
Again and again and when I ask you to explain
You say, you've got to be…
Well I do my best to understand dear
But you still mystify and I want to know why
I pick myself up off the ground
to have you knock me back down
Again and again and when I ask you to explain
You say, you've got to be…
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The phrase "cruel to be kind" is an oxymoron, and this approach to love can be considered paradoxical.
- oxymoron: the combination of two contradictory words or phrases for dramatic effect (The word "oxymoron" is itself an oxymoron: in Greek, "oxy" means "sharp" and "moros" means "dull." )
- paradox: a statement that seems to be contradictory or unbelievable but that may actually be true
dictionary.com: wit bonafide
