The Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight (45th anniversary remaster) [GLOWING GREEN FROG LLC]

Why you'll love it

John Baldwin mastered and cut this 45th anniversary edition from the original master tapes, on 140g vinyl with an obi strip and a 20-page booklet of rare photos and liner notes by David Fricke and Robyn Hitchcock. Rolling Stone heard its influence in R.E.M., the Replacements, the Stone Roses and the Pixies.

This edition

• 45th anniversary edition
• Cut from the original master tapes
• 140g vinyl
• Obi strip
• 20-page booklet
• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

Underwater Moonlight cost £600 to make. The Soft Boys cut it on 4-track and 8-track tape, partly at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge in 1979 and partly in London in 1980 with Pat Collier producing, and they came out the other end with ten songs that sound like the Byrds and Syd Barrett having a lovely time on the Cambridge backs.

Robyn Hitchcock's songs are funny, surreal and full of hooks. "I Wanna Destroy You" is a jangling sprint, "Kingdom Of Love" and "Positive Vibrations" chime and spin, and "Insanely Jealous" rattles with nervous energy. Kimberley Rew's guitar tangles beautifully with Hitchcock's, Matthew Seligman and Morris Windsor keep it all bouncing, and "Queen Of Eyes" is the kind of pop song Paste said should be a radio staple. The title track closes the album on a long, glimmering psychedelic note.

It came out in June 1980 during a printers' strike that kept NME and Melody Maker off the shelves for six weeks, which is roughly like opening a bakery during a flour shortage. Matt LeMay of Pitchfork put it plainly years later, saying there is still nothing quite like it.

Also at Kops: more The Soft Boys on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Tiny Ghost Records (cat# TG-52), a reissue of the 1980 album.