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Shufflemania!
Shufflemania!
Studio album by Robyn Hitchcock
Released	18 October 2022
Recorded	2021
Studio	Hitchcock's home studio, Nashville, Tennessee, US; Abbey Road Studios, London, England, UK ("Socrates in Thin Air"); Individual musicians contributing from their homes;
Genre	Power pop
Language	English
Label	Tiny Ghost Records
Producer	Robyn Hitchcock; Emma Swift;
Robyn Hitchcock chronology

Shufflemania! is the twenty second studio album by Robyn Hitchcock. It was released on 18 October 2022 on Tiny Ghost Records and has received positive reviews from critics.

Reception

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Shufflemania! received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 from 9 critic scores.^[2] Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic James Christopher Monger writing that this release "delivers a more than worthy successor to his acclaimed 2017 self-titled effort" that "is comprised primarily of dazzling power pop bangers... and spare, moving ruminations on death and oblivion".^[3] The music department of The Daily Telegraph included this among the best releases of the week and Andrew Perry scored it 3 out of 5 stars and he characterized this work as "an English one-off, in fine voice".^[4] In Glide Magazine, Shawn Donohue characterized this music as "a kaleidoscope, throwback pop rock record, [with] ten songs from various inspiration, attitude, and emotion" and compared individual songs to The Beatles and Pink Floyd.^[5] Writing for Mojo, Victoria Segal gave this album 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "none of [the guest musicians] crowd out Hitcheock’s sensitive songwriting".^[6] At PopMatters, John Garratt called this one of Hitchcock's best albums and probably his most consistent, garnering an 8 out of 10.^[7]

In Record Collector, Chris Roberts gave Shufflemania! 4 out of 5 stars and praised the diverse moods and sounds on this work, including "heavy skiffle to serpent gods to ponderings on Pacino, noir and mortality, this charms and challenges".^[8] The Shepherd Express' Jon M. Gilbertson stated that the songwriting on this release "stirs the motes of mysticism floating in everyday air, and his voice, while not technically dazzling when holding a note or melody, emanates immense expressiveness, quavering toward a falsetto" and praised how Hitchcock can retain comedy and airiness in his lyrics while he "remains serious about his craft and decidedly unsolemn about almost everything else".^[9] This was an Editor Pick in Spill Magazine, where Ljubinko Zivkovic gave it a 9 out of 10, noting the consistently high quality throughout Hitchcock's career, ending that "again, it seems he knocks these gems out with ease, something some other artists can only strive for and rarely reach".^[10] Tom Pinnock of Uncut rated Shufflemania! an 8 out of 10, writing that "10 short, snappy songs home-recorded in Nashville lockdown" that were "spruced up" that makes for an album that is not quite as striking as its predecessor".^[1]

Track listing

All compositions by Robyn Hitchcock.

"The Shuffle Man" – 2:40
"The Inner Life of Scorpio" – 3:52
"The Feathery Serpent God" – 4:01
"Midnight Tram to Nowhere" – 4:02
"Socrates in Thin Air" – 3:19
"Noirer Than Noir" – 4:48
"The Man Who Loves the Rain" – 4:11
"The Sir Tommy Shovell" – 3:22
"The Raging Muse" – 4:15
"One Day (It's Being Scheduled)" – 3:44

Personnel

"The Shuffle Man"

Robyn Hitchcock – electric guitar, vocals
Brendan Benson – bass guitar, electric guitar, organ, drums, percussion, harmony vocals

"The Inner Life of Scorpio"

Robyn Hitchcock – acoustic guitar solo, vocals
Charlie Francis – electric guitar, percussion
Anne Lise Frøkedal – harmony vocals
Johnny Marr – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, strings, piano, drums, backing vocals
Patrick Sansone – baritone guitar, keyboards, percussion

"The Feathery Serpent God"

Robyn Hitchcock – electric guitar, vocals
Ryan Brewer – drums, percussion
Anne Lise Frøkedal – choral vocals in the coda
Patrick Sansone – baritone guitar, keyboards
Kelley Stoltz – shruti box, sitar
Emma Swift – harmony vocals

"Midnight Tram to Nowhere"

Robyn Hitchcock – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, vocals
Ryan Brewer – drums, percussion
Tristen Gaspadarek – harmony vocals
Buddy Hughen – harmony vocals
Patrick Sansone – 12-string guitar, electric guitar, Moog synthesizer, vocal treatments

"Socrates in Thin Air"

Robyn Hitchcock – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, vocals
Charlie Francis – bass guitar, keyboards
Kimberley Rew – electric guitar
Eric Slick – drums, percussion
Emma Swift – harmony vocals

"Noirer Than Noir"

Robyn Hitchcock – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Charlie Francis – bass guitar, marimba, percussion

"The Man Who Loves the Rain"

Robyn Hitchcock – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Ryan Brewer – piano, drums, percussion
Charlie Francis – keyboards
Patrick Sansone – bass guitar
Emma Swift – harmony vocals

"The Sir Tommy Shovel"

Robyn Hitchcock – electric guitar, vocals
Brendan Benson – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussion, harmony vocals
Kimberley Rew – electric guitar

"The Raging Muse"

Robyn Hitchcock – electric guitar, vocals
Ryan Brewer – drums, percussion
Charlie Francis – bagpipes, percussion
Davey Lane – electric guitar
Patrick Sansone – bass guitar, percussion

"One Day (It’s Being Scheduled)"

Robyn Hitchcock – electric guitar, vocals
Charlie Francis – bass guitar, percussion
Sean Ono Lennon – bass guitar, bells, celesta, clavinet, Mellotron, vibraphone, vocoder, keyboards, drums
Patrick Sansone – keyboards
Morris Windsor – harmony vocals

Technical personnel

Chris Bolster – audio engineering on "Socrates in Thin Air"
Tim Bond – audio engineering for Kimberly Rew
Charlie Francis – mixing at Stwdio Penty, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Robyn Hitchcock – production, photography
Scott Hollingsworth – audio engineering for Sean Ono Lennon
Kyle Ryan – audio engineering for Eric Slick
Steve Stewart – audio engineering for Kimberly Rew
Emma Swift – production, photography
Johnny Whitman – layout, design
Gaz Williams – audio mastering at Fliskin Manor, Bristol, England, United Kingdom