After recording the definitive Soft Boys album in 1980, Underwater Moonlight, and watching it float into cult obscurity, singer Robyn Hitchcock opted to begin his long, winding solo career as a dark surrealist cloaked in mid-‘60s Beatles-Byrds-esque pop, accented with nervous twitches of ‘70s new wave aggression. Hitchcock’s very British accent and loopy word associations recall Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett while his tunefulness often references John Lennon. Black Snake Diamond Role is Hitchcock’s 1981 solo debut and features members of the Soft Boys in muted backing among the invited guests. It’s a straight-forward pop album that features several of Hitchcock’s most inviting, accessible, and playful tunes: the career-defining “The Man Who Invented Himself,” the haunting and gentle “Acid Bird,” the straight-forward romantic plea of “Love,” the churning rock of “Meat,” the manic cheekiness of “Brenda’s Iron Sledge,” and the deliberately askew “Do Policeman Sing?”