Perspex Island by Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians

Perspex Island, Robyn Hitchcock's ninth album and his fifth with the Egyptians, came out on Go! Discs in 1991, recorded that year in Los Angeles with Paul Fox producing. All eleven songs are Hitchcock originals, and a couple of famous fans, Michael Stipe and Peter Buck of R.E.M., drop by to lend a hand.

It sounds bright and polished: jangling guitars, sunny melodies, and something strange always bubbling up underneath like life in a garden pond. "So You Think You're in Love" is the gleaming, chiming single that went all the way to number one on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The cover is one of Hitchcock's own oil paintings, showing the mythological figure Thoth, which the band had once used as its logo.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.