The Soft Boys - Underwater Moonlight

	€		21
	$		24

Allgemein

Trackliste LP - 1

Beschreibung

Beschreibung

After recording the material that would later comprise the bulk of Invisible Hits, the Soft Boys recorded their masterpiece, the shimmering neo-psychedelic Underwater Moonlight. Essentially, the band didn't change their style for the record -- they merely perfected it. The Soft Boys don't hide their influences -- whether its the ringing guitars of the Beatles and Byrds or the surreal humor of John Lennon and Syd Barrett -- but they assimilate them, resulting in a fresh, edgy take on '60s guitar pop. Robyn Hitchcock's subject matter tends to be more explicitly weird and absurdist than his influences, as titles like "I Wanna Destroy You," "Old Pervert," and "Queen of Eyes" indicate -- even "Kingdom of Love" equates romance to bugs crawling under your skin. But the lyrics aren't the only thing that are edgy -- the music is too. The Soft Boys play pop hooks as if they were punk rock. "I Wanna Destroy You" isn't overtly threatening like their post-punk contemporaries, but with its layered guitar hooks and dissonant harmonies, it is equally menacing. Furthermore, the group can twist its songs inside out and then revert them to their original form, as evidenced by "Insanely Jealous." Although the neo-psychedelic flourishes are fascinating, the key to record's success is how each song is constructed around rock-solid hooks and melodies that instantly work their way into the subconscious. In fact, that's the most notable thing about Underwater Moonlight -- it updates jangling, melodic guitar pop for the post-punk world, which made it a touchstone for much of the underground pop of the mid-'80s, particularly R.E.M. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Beschreibung

One could argue that the Soft Boys' music still sounds so fresh today because, for one reason at least, in 1980 they managed to be ahead of the times and behind the times all at once. While their sharp intelligence, wiry melodies, veddy sophisticated wit, and cool yet powerful twin-guitar attack anticipated post-punk and indie rock by several years (especially R.E.M. and the paisley underground crowd), their obvious love of psychedelia (in particular Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and Captain Beefheart), Byrds-style harmonies, and sterling chops made them seem like '60s throwbacks in the midst of the first punk era. As a result, the band's masterful second album, Underwater Moonlight, had to wait to find its audience until years after the band broke up in 1981. In time for the disc's 30th birthday, Yep Roc has re-released Underwater Moonlight (Matador having also done so in 2001 with Underwater Moonlight...and How It Got There). Like the Matador edition, this is a greatly expanded two-CD edition of the album that offers 30 (to Matador's 26) (mostly) strong bonus tracks in addition to the album's ten superb songs. Disc one features Underwater Moonlight in its original sequence, along with nine bonus tunes from the same sessions; nearly all this material appeared on Rykodisc's previous reissue of the album, but this edition also adds the fine "He's a Reptile." The second disc offers up the real archaeological prize -- nearly an hour of Soft Boys rehearsal tapes (in good if not spectacular fidelity), which finds the band in superb form (especially the guitars of Robyn Hitchcock and Kimberley Rew and the drumming by Morris Windsor) and unearths several undocumented Soft Boys tunes, including the sublime "Like a Real Smoothie," "She Wears My Hair," and "Amputated." While it's taken a while for people to realize just how good and how important the Soft Boys were as a band, this re-reissue of Underwater Moonlight gives the group's finest album another reboot for a new generation of music fans, and decades later it still stands as a work of left-field genius. [Underwater Moonlight was re-released on LP in 2011.] ~ Mark Deming

Mark Deming

Mitwirkende

• Artist: The Soft Boys
• Record Label: Yep Roc