Element of Light is the fifth studio album by singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock and his second with his backing band, the Egyptians. It was released in 1986.
Most of the album was recorded at Alaska Studios and Berry Street, but two tracks, "The President" and "Lady Waters & The Hooded One", were live recordings made for the BBC, with overdubs recorded on BBC Mobile and at Alaska.
The album title derives from the song "Airscape", which has been cited several times by Hitchcock as a favourite among his own compositions,[5] and a live rendition was tagged on to later CD editions. "Airscape" concerns his "favourite beach", Compton Beach on the Isle of Wight,[6] which also provided a backdrop for the cover shots. He was inspired by learning about the erosion of the cliffs, and imagining the ghosts of people who had walked the cliffs centuries ago now suspended over the water.[7]
The song "The President" makes reference to Ronald Reagan's visit to Bitburg, where members of the Waffen-SS were buried.[8] In 2020 he re-recorded the song with altered lyrics referring to then-U.S. President Donald Trump.[9]
The song "Raymond Chandler Evening" is an homage to the world-weary novels of mystery writer Raymond Chandler.[10] The title was later used as the name for a sidequest in Cyberpunk 2077 also homaging the author.
Originally running to ten songs, the first CD edition included extra bonus tracks, all taken from singles, while later pressings have added a further six, including the comedic spoken number "The Can Opener".
The album was produced by Robyn and Andy Metcalfe, with input from long-time colleague Pat Collier.
Andy Metcalfe – bass, vocals on "If You Were A Priest", "Winchester", "Ted, Woody and Junior", "Bass", "Airscape", "Lady Waters & the Hooded One", "The Black Crow Knows", "Tell Me About Your Drugs", piano on "Winchester", "Ted, Woody and Junior", bass keyboard on "Raymond Chandler Evening", keyboards on "Never Stop Bleeding" and "The Leopard", drums on "Tell Me About Your Drugs"
Morris Windsor – drums, vocals on "Ted, Woody and Junior", "Bass", "Airscape" and "Lady Waters & the Hooded One", electric guitar on "Tell Me About Your Drugs"
Roger Jackson – keyboards, glass harmonica on "Airscape", vocals on "Lady Waters & the Hooded One"
^Demme, Jonathan (Director) (1998). Storefront Hitchcock (Motion picture). New York City: MGM Pictures. And ah, so I worked out that, that the cliffs where I pace, in another hundred years' time will disappear completely, and that my ghost will be fifty feet above the beach. There must be other ghosts out to sea, as the ghosts get further out to sea their costumes get older, so you've got you know, ghosts from the fifties about twenty feet out, and ghosts from World War II ghosts just beyond that, and you've got Great War ghosts with their goggles, and Edwardian ghosts with their mantles and Victorian ghosts with their cravats and canes, ah Jacobean ghosts with their... legs. And it just goes back on, whatever they had, those things to stop 'em smelling too bad. And about a mile out, there must be Cro-Magnon ghosts, clubbing each other to death and grinning. Now I guess there's going to be a few more of those inland as well. Anyway, this is a song from my ghost to those who walk underneath it.
