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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary:
The Soft Boys went beyong mere
recreation of a past era: they created a new era of their own. When the talents of
visionary vocalist Robyn Hitchcock and of down-to-earth guitarist
Kimberley Rew met, the unique psychedelic sound of
Underwater Moonlight (1980) was born. The lullabies smelled of
Syd Barrett and of early Pink Floyd, and the rave-ups smelled of the Kinks
and of the Who, but the combination of anthemic rock'n'roll and
acid atmospheres was largely new. The Soft Boys laid the foundations
for the psychedelic revival of the 1980s.
Full bio:
(Translated from my original Italian text by DommeDamian)
In the 1980s the Soft Boys created a
magical fusion of Pink Floyd's first psychedelic period,
vocal harmonies of the Beach Boys, cartoonish melodies of the Kinks, and
strange folk of Syd Barrett's solo records. The
result was one of the most exciting sounds of the era, related only sideways to
the psychedelic revival that was in vogue. Their discography is however so
fragmentary and partial that anthologies, unpublished and reissues will
continue to be released for twenty years.
The band formed in 1976 in the
university town of Cambridge, where singer and guitarist Robyn Hitchcock met
bassist Andy Metcalfe and drummer Morris Windsor. Their first document was
(in October of the following year) the EP Give It To The Soft
Boys,
later collected in Wading Through A Ventilator (1984), from
the title of the guide track. From the dissolution of another band in the
area, the Waves, the Soft Boys gained second guitarist Kimberley
Rew.
The new line-up began with the
single Anglepoise Lamp (Radar),
followed by the self-produced album A Can Of
Bees (1979). Hitchcock's voice blatantly echoes Barrett and the
instrumental background is full of "acid" numbers. But it is
above all the bizarre melodic and harmonic ideas of the leader (The Pig
Worker) that tamper with a sound that is only revivalistic
in itself.
Also in 1979 the Soft Boys recorded
the pieces that would form Invisible Hits (released only in
1983), an album full of grotesque humor (Rock And Roll Toilet) and
melodrama (Empty Girl), eros (Let Me Put It
Next To You) and pathos (Blues In The Dark). The
eccentricity and the immaturity of the leader hinder the band, however,
relegating it to the bizarre phenomena on the sidelines of punk.
The group however (replaced Metcalfe
with Matthew Seligman) was ripe for a masterpiece, and the next album is in
fact the masterpiece of the entire psychedelic revival: Underwater
Moonlight (Armageddon, 1980 - Rykodisc, 1992
- Matador, 2001). From the lysergic fusion of Pink Floyd and Velvet
Underground, memorable deviant ideas arise such as I Got The
Hots ,
a "Barrettian" ballad with a typical
"spatial" melodic progression; Old Pervert , "
Hendrixian" blues torn by a demonic
tribalism; and Positive Vibrations , raga-beat with
Hollies-esque vaudeville rhyme and Stones-style
charge step. Simpler, but equally enthralling, Insanely
Jelous's music-hall sketch (a
delirium spoken in a pulsating crescendo), the galactic instrumental You'll
Have To Go Sideways ,
the melodic jingle-jangle Queen of Eyes , the "
Reed-ian" ballad Tonite . But
above all the Soft Boys chisel I Wanna
Destroy You , a distorted and pounding choral anthem of which blends
Byrds vocals and Stooges guitars; Kingdom of Love (with
its Astronomy Domine-esque boogie with
ringing folk-rock riffs); and the grand finale of Underwater
Moonlight, pressing breathtaking ska-gypsy-raga
dance. Rew's guitar is the grandiose
protagonist; insightful, rough, penetrating, schizoid: a Keith Richard
contaminated by McGuinn and Hendrix. It is
thanks to his modest virtuosity that Underwater Moonlight never
resorts to electronic experimentation, to sound abstractions, but is based
solely on the solid traditions of rock and roll. The register of
Hitchcock's singing, close to Syd Barrett's,
completes the suggestion of the sound. vintage,
re-proposed exactly as then, as if time had stopped.
In 1981 the group broke up in general
indifference. The single He's A Reptile (1983)
was released again. They were rediscovered only three years after the release
of what was then believed to be their first album, actually the only one to
have been released. It was then that the archaeological finds of their
history began to come to light.
(Original text by Piero Scaruffi)
Robyn Hitchcock started a prolific solo career, while Kimberly Rew joined Katrina And The Waves.
Robyn Hitchcock and Kimberly Rew reformed the Soft Boys to release
Nextdoorland (Matador, 2002). Unfortunately, the material is mostly in
line with Hitchcock's latter-day albums (i.e., weak). The highlight is a
bizarre surf instrumental I Love Lucy, which would be an incidental
track on Underwater Moonlight. Rew salvages a few of Hitchcock's ditties
(Mr Kennedy, Unprotected Love, Japanese Captain), but
overall this is yet another unfortunate reunion.
Matthew Seligman of the Soft Boys died in 2020 during the covid-19 epidemic.
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