1980
The Soft Boys -- Underwater Moonlight (Armageddon Arm 1)
by Paul Tickell
The Soft Boys don't have an easy time of it. They aren't noted as a live act, and their first album got a pretty unanimous thumbs-down. Since the demise of Radar they've had to resort to a more independent setup for their second album.
The production job, by ex-Vib Pat Collier, isn't too bad, especially considering recording costs were kept to £600. But the impact wears off once you get used to the novelty of a band not so much capturing a fully-blown late-'60s Psychedelia, as searching for the moment when mid-'60s bands were teetering on its mushrooming brink. The effect is trippy as well as Beatlish ("Kingdom Of Love"), discordant as well as Monkees-like ("I Got The Hots").
"Tonight" and "Queen Of Eyes" would work better as straight Pop, but there's just that bit too much echo and jangling guitar -- The Records on acid? In spite of its corny words, "Positive Vibrations" bounces along, until it's rendered dumb by a sitar, plus vocalist Robyn Hitchcock sounding even more like Peter Perrett than he normally does.
Encouragingly, the best tracks on the album are the ones which are most contemporary in feel and sentiment. "I Wanna Destroy You" is a bitter restatement of the Stones' "We Love You". "Insanely Jealous" rises frenziedly to its climax, but the obviously poetic lyrics detract from its force.
By the end of Underwater Moonlight you're left with the feeling of some good ideas and songs blighted. The Soft Boys have yet to sort out the points where excess and mannerism ruin Rock 'n' Roll and where they enhance it.
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