CMJ New Music Report
September 11, 1992 (Issue 300)
The Soft Boys
A Can Of Bees/Underwater Moonlight/Invisible Hits
by Deborah Orr
Since the last Soft Boys release, Invisible Hits, met the apathetic gaze of record-buyers back in 1983, we suppose it's no wonder that most Robyn Hitchcock fans have but the murkiest knowledge of his pre-solo work (and that even Katrina And The Waves' brief-flaring fame far eclipsed all three Soft Boys LPs). For creepy-crawly madcap laughs and truly acrobatic displays of psychedelic word salad-tossing, The Soft Boys are unmatched -- either by Hitchcock's many fine solo albums, or by any other hallucinogen-inspired wag (excepting Syd Barrett). A Can Of Bees shows the band in its pupal stage. And while fragmented, on "Give It To The Soft Boys", "Sandra's Having Her Brain Out", "Human Music", and the bonus single "(I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp" one can hear the swirling gnats in Hitchcock's brain coalescing into the most cutting, venomous non-sequiturs uttered by any Postpunk lyricist. Invisible Hits (actually recorded in '78-'79) is brilliantly wobbly and unstable. Ripe with bitter sentiments, lyrics that are both wounded and word-drunk, idyllic takes on Beatles/Hollies three-part harmonies, and guitars that shimmer and slash in ironic commentary -- pre-dating more overt psychedelicisms from Echo And The Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, etc.. While bad girlfriends aren't spared Hitchcock's rabidly vivid bite, transforming them into monstrous, alien creatures ("Love Poisoning", "Empty Girl"), the band also indulges in dime-store detective absurdity ("Wey Wey Hep Uh Hole") and lampoons doo-wop harmonies ("Have a Heart, Betty (I'm Not Fireproof)"). Moreover, the Boys scowl like a bunch of jack-booted, three-chord baddies on "Rock 'n' Roll Toilet" (only to drop out in the middle with a guitar-glittering passage about staring at drug-induced patterns on the wall). Underwater Moonlight is the band's most artfully imaginative work; matching flawless, intricate guitar leads and sky-opening melodies and harmonies with a lyrical bent closer to the works of Roald Dahl than to any of the Soft Boys' musical contemporaries. The gloriously paranoid visions not only add an unsettling aspect to the in-itself-classic Pop of "Kingdom Of Love", "Queen Of Eyes", "Positive Vibrations", "Old Pervert", "There's Nobody Like You", and "Only The Stones Remain" (the last two from a long-out-of-print EP); but further elevate the fantastically giddy heights already inhabited by a superior Pop band. Underwater Moonlight envelopes the listener in an altered, otherworldly state -- one with an unmatched equality of songwriting and instrumental creativity.
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