Philadelphia City Paper
March 15, 2001
Breaking The Surface
Underwater Moonlight Resurfaces, And The Soft Boys With It
by Sam Adams
Twenty years after its release, The Soft Boys' Underwater Moonlight stands as a fractured gem, a brilliant collision of Psychedelic Pop, New Wave jerkiness, and surreal poetry. At the time, the band -- Robyn Hitchcock, Kimberley Rew, Morris Windsor, and Matthew Seligman (who'd just stepped in for Andy Metcalfe on bass) -- had been playing around England to a deafening lack of response. While the music press and fans were still hung up on Punk Rock, The Soft Boys were, as Hitchcock says in David Fricke's liner notes to Matador's new reissue, "pathetically middle class". Even over the years, the album's never really surpassed cult status, though bands from R.E.M. to The Bigger Lovers have sneaked its songs into their sets by way of paying tribute.
If Underwater Moonlight's newest incarnation -- a 36-song (39 on vinyl) package including a second disc of rehearsal snippets and demo recordings -- seems at odds with the original LP's 10-song dose of Art Pop simplicity, at least it's provided an excuse for the original Moonlight lineup to reform, and mount The Soft Boys' first extensive U.S. tour. A Rew-less Soft Boys (with both Seligman and Metcalfe) played several English gigs at the time of Rykodisc's early-'90s reissues (now all out of print), but the groundwork for a full-fledged reunion wasn't laid until Rew ended up playing guitar on Hitchcock's 1999 Jewels For Sophia, and accompanying him on tour as well. That fence mended, all that was needed was an excuse, which Moonlight's reissue graciously provided.
In characteristically fanciful fashion, Hitchcock describes the reunion thusly: "You're standing there in the same room you were in 20 years ago. You look around, and there you all are playing this song you haven't played for 20 years. But you're all 20 years older. As if a wizard had cast a spell on you and you'd gone into a trance for years, and when you came to, you're playing the same song. But you're all 20 years older with long, white beards tumbling to the floor (but the same instruments)."
Seligman is slightly more straightforward: "It sounds amazing!" he gushes. "I don't remember it sounding that good before."
Seligman, who toured with Thomas Dolby and played bass with Bowie at Live Aid before settling into a career as a barrister, takes backhanded credit for Moonlight's unique sound. "Before I joined, The Soft Boys were all really, really musical guys. And I was at a much earlier stage in my career. So they really had to put the brakes on musically. I think Robyn quite welcomed the chance to slow down and be simple. But in a way, I was the Ringo Starr of the band."
Hitchcock more or less agrees, while downplaying the notion that Seligman was some kind of musical naif. "When Matthew joined, things got a bit more straight-ahead, because it suited him (and I probably wanted that as well). He was able to be excited playing songs that were apparently more simple. And I was at this point ready to start writing songs, rather than providing lyrics for a set of arrangements. I'm not dissing the earlier Soft Boys -- I think we had some brilliant moments. But it was a bit more experimental, and a bit more erratic. These are songs that you could actually sit down and play with an acoustic, if you wanted to."
Though Hitchcock's become less enamored of the idea of being in a band the older he's gotten, he's upbeat about The Soft Boys' reunion prospects -- they'll be recording the tour's Detroit show for a possible live album, and he leaves the door open for a future studio album as well. But, he cautions, "It's not as if we're piling into the transit van and saying, 'Hey ho, off we go.' This is a more extensive tour than we ever did in our lifetime, but I think the record merits that, and the band merits it. There's not many bands like The Soft Boys left, and perhaps there never were. We're not going to be a full-time Soft Boys, but we're not just reforming to promote this and going our separate ways. Assuming we survive [the tour], we'll do more things in the future -- but not on a full-time basis. I reserve the right to be musically promiscuous."
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