Robyn Hitchcock Goodnight Oslo

• What You Is
• Your Head Here
• Saturday Grooves
• I'm Falling
• Hurry for the Sky
• 16 Years
• Up to Our Necks
• Intricate Thing
• TLC
• Goodnight Oslo

Leave it to an old vet to show these indie whippersnappers a thing or two about songcraft. On his sixteenth album, the veteran Brit has R.E.M.’s Peter Buck as part of his band the Venus 3 and some guests, but his personality remains thankfully intact. Waxing, by turns, cynical, wistful and sardonic (and sometimes all at once), Hitchcock returns to form with a bunch of songs that reference his usual ’60s influences -- but are still quirky enough to only come from the pen of the man behind such underground classics as “Balloon Man” and “Uncorrected Personality Traits.” Highlights: “Saturday Groovers,” an ode to teens that recalls the Beach Boys and “What You Is,” a funky track where he imagines the possibilities of a woman’s life in hopes of upping his possibilities with her.

Abstract by Tony Sclafani