The Times
March 11, 2001
The Soft Boys
Underwater Moonlight
Matador OLE-500, £15.99
by Stewart Lee
In 1979, as Punk's scorched-earth policy spread across the land, The Soft Boys were holed up in Cambridge playing Psychedelic Garage Rock with lush harmonies, a checklist of prohibited 1960s influences, and Pythonesque, cod-surreal lyrics. In an era of dropped-aiches, they were, as their singer, Robyn Hitchcock, put it, "pathetically middle-class". Matador, a hip American label full of artists who'll know The Soft Boys' catalogue backwards, has re-released the band's second album with enough extra tracks to triple its length. And hindsight reveals Underwater Moonlight as one of the great English Rock records. R.E.M. have been zealous in their patronage of Hitchcock. But "Queen Of Eyes" shows they are only repaying a stylistic debt, while "I Wanna Destroy You" is a rare and precious hybrid of big, dumb riffs and winsome wordplay. What other treasures did we lose to the cultural terror?
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