Robyn Hitchcock
I Often Dream of Trains
Label:  Rhino 
Date:  1/24/1995
Length:  0:00
Format:  CD
Genre:  Rock; Indie
  Category:  rock
    Track Listing:
      1.  
      		 Nocturne (Prelude)    
      2.  
      		 Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl    
      3.  
      		 Cathedral    
      4.  
      		 Uncorrected Personality Traits    
      5.  
      		 Sounds Great When You're Dead    
      6.  
      		 Flavour of Night    
      7.  
      		 Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus    
      8.  
      		 Mellow Together    
      9.  
      		 Winter Love    
      10.  
      		 The Bones in the Ground    
      11.  
      		 My Favourite Buildings    
      12.  
      		 I Used to Say I Love You    
      13.  
      		 This Could Be the Day    
      14.  
      		 Trams of Old London    
      15.  
      		 Furry Green Atom Bowl    
      16.  
      		 Heart Full of Leaves    
      17.  
      		 Autumn Is Your Last Chance    
      18.  
      		 I Often Dream of Trains    
      19.  
      		 Nocturne (Demise)    
      20.  
      		 Ye Sleeping Knights Of Jesus    
      21.  
      		 Sometimes I Wish I Was A Pretty Girl    
      22.  
      		 Cathedral    
      23.  
      		 Mellow Together    
      24.  
      		 The Bones In The Ground    
    Additional info: | top

      The ghosts of cracked '60s British visionaries Syd Barrett, Vivian Stanshall, and Kevin Ayers float above this pleasurable 1984 release, arguably Robyn Hitchock's definitive solo statement. I Often Dream of Trains is a sparse, surreal work that alternates moments of sublime, acoustic beauty with bouts of puerile, schoolboy humor. The usual Hitchcockian obsessions are here: death (the rousing and gloomy "Sounds Great When You're Dead" and the haunting, majestic "Bones in the Ground"), nostalgia for the lost and obscure (the cocktail lounge lament "My Favourite Buildings" and the priceless, lush "Trams of Old London"), decay (the lovely, haunting instrumental track "Heart Full of Leaves" and the savory "Autumn Is Your Last Chance"), and unmitigated pot-head nonsense (the desultory "Furry Green Atom Bowl"). Forced novelty numbers such as "Uncorrected Personality Traits" and "Sometimes I Wish I Was a Pretty Girl" grate after repeated listenings, making a strong case for the judicious employment of the CD player's program function. --Mike McGonigal