Respect (1993)

Put British rocker Robyn Hitchcock in a car heading off to see a woman he likes, and — as in one of the songs on Respect — he'll imagine he's seeing the biblical serpent after it smashed the stillness of her Eden. But he's a lot less weird than he used to be. Most of this record sounds rich and wistful; it's easy to see that Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians really love the thought of paradise. He's just too smart to forget that life has its dirty side. A-