Not to get all Robert Fripp-y, but sometimes music does find you, seek you out, and reveal itself on its time. There really is no other explanation for how I could have avoided losing my marbles for Robyn Hitchcock for 25 years. Sure, sure, I knew the stuff, but in passing - an almost obligatory respect, the kind you get from reading his Trouser Press entry more times than you spun any of his records.

Things broke about 2 years ago when I got the reissue of Soft Boys’ Underwater Moonlight. Fantastic surely, but the appreciation felt a tad academic - it confirms everything you were led to expect - skewed pop, the playfully addled psychedelia, the significance of the influences, both received and transmitted… etc…

But these solo records - my goodness. There’s a little magic record shop nearby that keeps getting a steady influx of Hitchcockia. So first up was Element of Light, and now the magnificent FegMANIA!. I figured on the sonic blueprint and general approach; what I wasn’t prepared for is the beauty. And not easy beauty - meandering, odd, oblique, off kilter, beauty. The are some moments, like in the tune Heaven, posted for your pleasure, that are utterly sublime. I know I’m late to a long running and well attended party, but this stuff is just the cat’s pajamas. (Download Heaven here.)