Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians — So You Think You're In Love

JUL 01 1991 · 12:00

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians — So You Think You're In Love (1991) Era: Alternative Rock Breakthrough / College Radio Peak (1991) - Pre-grunge MTV 120 Minutes era; independent British psychedelic pop crossing over to U.S. Modern Rock mainstream via major-label A&M push High. Documents the commercial and visual peak of Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians at a precisely dateable cultural inflection point — the last chart cycle before grunge restructured alternative rock. The video's graphic, high-key, rapid-cut performance aesthetic is a clean exemplar of early-digital promotional clip production for British indie acts on U.S. majors, and its chart context (#1 Modern Rock, 1991) gives it strong archival weight for research into the pre-Nevermind alternative canon. Context: Released in 1991 on A&M Records as the lead single from *Perspex Island*, the ninth Robyn Hitchcock studio album and his fifth with The Egyptians, the video accompanied what became the band's commercial peak: the single reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The clip sits at a precise cultural hinge point — the final months before Nirvana's *Nevermind* and the alt-rock explosion redrew the commercial landscape, rendering the jangly, literate British college-rock tradition it represented an 'instant relic' in the words of contemporary critics. The album was produced by Paul Fox and recorded in Los Angeles, with notable contributions from R.E.M. members Peter Buck and Michael Stipe, reflecting the tight cross-Atlantic network of alternative rock tastemakers that briefly gave acts like Hitchcock mainstream chart access. Director notes: Multiple sources including the Music Video Wiki and IMDb list no director for this video. The clip features the band performing in front of a white background with animated dots and circles, consistent with low-to-mid budget promotional clip production typical of A&M Records' alternative roster in 1991. No production company credit has been publicly documented.