Underwater Moonlight

The album was recorded in June 1979 at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge,{{cite web |url=http://www.spacewardstudios.ukf.net/discog.htm |title=Spaceward Studios |publisher=spacewardstudios.ukf.net |access-date=15 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021206170018/http://www.spacewardstudios.ukf.net/discog.htm |archive-date=6 December 2002 |url-status=dead}} and between January and June 1980 at the Alaska and James Morgan studios in London.{{cite book |title=The Mojo Collection |publisher=Canongate Books |edition=4th |year=2007 |isbn=9781847676436 |page=450 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVQbF9lTBwgC&pg=PA450 |access-date=17 August 2012}} The London sessions were produced by Pat Collier, while the Cambridge sessions were produced by Spaceward Studios staff. The recordings were done on 4- and 8-track, and only cost £600.

Underwater Moonlight was released in June 1980 by Armageddon Records.{{cite book |chapter=The Soft Boys |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fie47qSuTsoC&pg=PA2002 |access-date=18 August 2012 |title=The Rough Guide to Rock |editor-last=Buckley |editor-first=Peter |publisher=Rough Guides |year=2003 |isbn=9781858284576 |page=971}}

The album was initially unsuccessful commercially, especially in the United Kingdom, where over half the sales were exports to America.{{cite book |title=Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock |last=DeRogatis |first=Jim |author-link=Jim DeRogatis |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |year=2003 |isbn=9780634055485 |page=334 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7cQmRsLgN8C&pg=PA334 |access-date=18 August 2012}}

Garrett Martin of Paste Magazine explained: "Today it’s hard to understand how the lightly psychedelic pop-rock of the Soft Boys was ever considered anything close to punk. Frontman Robyn Hitchcock is basically just Elvis Costello without the need to appear at every all-star jam."{{Cite web |title=The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-50-best-post-punk-albums |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Paste Magazine |language=en-US}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/underwater-moonlight-mw0000845522 |title=Underwater Moonlight – The Soft Boys |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=15 February 2015 |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine}}

| rev2 = Chicago Tribune

| rev2score = {{Rating|4|4}}{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-02-23-9201170604-story.html |title=Rating The Robyn Hitchcock Solo And Group Releases |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=23 February 1992 |access-date=17 November 2020 |last=Kot |first=Greg |author-link=Greg Kot}}

| rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev3score = A{{cite magazine |url=https://www.ew.com/article/2001/03/16/underwater-moonlight-and-how-it-got-there |title=Underwater Moonlight -- And How It Got There |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=16 March 2001 |access-date=15 February 2015 |last=Schinder |first=Scott}}

| rev4 = Mojo

| rev4score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |title=The Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight |magazine=Mojo |issue=206 |date=January 2011 |page=122}}

| rev5 = NME

| rev5score = 8/10{{cite magazine |url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/soft-boys/4184 |title=Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight |magazine=NME |date=10 March 2001 |access-date=15 February 2015 |last=Segal |first=Victoria |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806233017/http://www.nme.com/reviews/soft-boys/4184 |archive-date=6 August 2016 |url-status=dead}}

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6score = 9.0/10{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14769-a-can-of-bees-underwater-moonlight/ |title=The Soft Boys: A Can of Bees / Underwater Moonlight |website=Pitchfork |date=6 December 2010 |access-date=18 March 2020 |last=LeMay |first=Matt}}

| rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev7score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite book |chapter=Soft Boys |last=Considine |first=J. D. |author-link=J. D. Considine |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor-last=Brackett |editor-first=Nathan |editor-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=t9eocwUfoSoC&pg=PA757 757]}}

| rev8 = Select

| rev8score = 5/5{{cite magazine |title=The Soft Boys: Can of Bees / Underwater Moonlight / Invisible Hits |magazine=Select |issue=29 |date=November 1992 |last=Perry |first=Andrew |page=96}}

| rev9 = Spin

| rev9score = 9/10{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J7EuavrzL9kC&pg=PA92 |title=Reissues |magazine=Spin |volume=26 |issue=12 |date=December 2010 |access-date=14 January 2017 |last=Hultkrans |first=Andrew |page=92}}

| rev10 = Uncut

| rev10score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |last=McKay |first=Alastair |title=The Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight |magazine=Uncut |issue=164 |page=100 |date=January 2011}}

}}

Underwater Moonlight{{'}}s release in June 1980 coincided with a printers' strike in the UK that halted production of IPC Media's magazines, including NME and Melody Maker, for six weeks until July. Consequently, there were few contemporary reviews of the album in the UK. In the short-lived music magazine New Music News, Mark Ellen gave an enthusiastic review of the album, describing it as "another headlong plunge into the acid-rock grotesque" and the lyrics as "another gonzo Bosch landscape". Ellen said that the band "raze the whole apparatus of rock 'n' roll and cultivate weeds round the foundations. They juggle with its time signatures, and – when the going gets straight – they throttle it with dischords", concluding that they "compound something fiercely mutant but still funny (very), easy to absorb, commercial (yes!), and a lot less elite and sarcastic than you might be led to believe" and that the album "has more than flashes of brilliance".{{cite magazine |last=Ellen |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Ellen |title=The Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight |magazine=New Music News |date=12 July 1980}}

Legacy reviews have overwhelmingly praised the album. Reviewing the 1990 reissue on Glass Fish Records, Henry Williams of Q gave the record four stars out of five and called it "one of the period's best, if unsung, albums".{{cite magazine |last=Williams |first=Henry |title=The Soft Boys – Underwater Moonlight |magazine=Q |issue=45 |pages=125 and 127 |date=June 1990}} Reviewing the 2001 expanded version Underwater Moonlight... And How It Got There for the same magazine, Martin Aston said that it was "suave and sparkly, essentially the template for '80s college rock".{{cite magazine |last=Aston |first=Martin |title=The Soft Boys – Underwater Moonlight... And How It Got There |magazine=Q |issue=175 |pages=127–128 |date=April 2001}} Bill Holdship of Rolling Stone, in his 2001 review, wrote that the album "offers modern listeners some great, great rock songs".{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thesoftboys/albums/album/115702/review/5940470/underwater_moonlight |title=The Soft Boys: Underwater Moonlight |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=13 March 2001 |access-date=15 February 2015 |last=Holdship |first=Bill |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071002074017/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thesoftboys/albums/album/115702/review/5940470/underwater_moonlight |archive-date=2 October 2007 |url-status=dead}} In his retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, writing for AllMusic, felt that the music on the album showed the influence of the Beatles, the Byrds and Syd Barrett. In 2016, Garrett Martin of Paste Magazine said: "Underwater Moonlight sounds like the best bar band in the world playing hits from a world that’s better than our own. 'I Wanna Destroy You' and 'Queen of Eyes,' especially, should be radio staples."{{Cite web |title=The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-50-best-post-punk-albums |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Paste Magazine |language=en-US}}

Whilst commercially unsuccessful originally, Underwater Moonlight has gone on to be viewed as a one-off psychedelic classic. Matt LeMay of Pitchfork, in a 2010 review, felt that the album was commercially unsuccessful because the timing was wrong: at the time of its release, audiences had little interest in "music that incorporated the indelible harmonies of the Byrds and the surrealism of Syd Barrett", but that anyhow the album is "best considered with the benefit of hindsight, and for all the famous music it inspired, there is still nothing quite like Underwater Moonlight". In 2001, Bill Holdship of Rolling Stone wrote that the album's influences could be detected "on bands ranging from R.E.M. and the Replacements to the Stone Roses and the Pixies". According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, Underwater Moonlight "influenced the jangle pop of R.E.M. and other underground pop of the 1980s."

{{Track listing

| all_writing = Robyn Hitchcock, except as noted

| headline = Side A

| title1 = I Wanna Destroy You

| length1 = 2:52

| title2 = Kingdom of Love

| length2 = 4:10

| title3 = Positive Vibrations

| length3 = 3:10

| title4 = I Got the Hots

| length4 = 4:42

| title5 = Insanely Jealous

| length5 = 4:15

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side B

| title1 = Tonight

| length1 = 3:44

| title2 = You'll Have to Go Sideways

| writer2 = Hitchcock, Kimberley Rew

| length2 = 2:57

| title3 = Old Pervert

| writer3 = Hitchcock, Rew, Matthew Seligman, Morris Windsor

| length3 = 3:52

| title4 = Queen of Eyes

| length4 = 2:01

| title5 = Underwater Moonlight

| length5 = 4:17

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Reissue bonus tracks: Album outtakes

| extra_column = Original release

| title11 = He's a Reptile

| note11 = from Invisible Hits album, 1983; not included on the 1990 Glass Fish and 1992 Rykodisc CDs

| length11 = 4:27

| title12 = Vegetable Man

| note12 = from Canadian and German editions of Underwater Moonlight, 1980; Near the Soft Boys EP, 1980

| writer12 = Syd Barrett

| length12 = 2:59

| title13 = Strange

| note13 = from German edition of Underwater Moonlight, 1980; Near the Soft Boys

| length13 = 2:59

| title14 = Only the Stones Remain

| note14 = from Two Halves for the Price of One album, 1981

| length14 = 2:50

| title15 = Where Are the Prawns?

| note15 = from Two Halves for the Price of One

| length15 = 6:06

| title16 = Dreams

| note16 = from Underwater Moonlight 1990 reissue

| length16 = 4:37

| title17 = Black Snake Diamond Rock

| note17 = from Two Halves for the Price of One

| length17 = 4:24

| title18 = There's Nobody Like You

| note18 = from Two Halves for the Price of One

| length18 = 3:11

| title19 = Song #4

| note19 = single B-side, 1983

| length19 = 4:35

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Matador reissue bonus disc: ... And How It Got There

| title1 = Old Pervert – Section 1

| writer1 = Hitchcock, Rew, Seligman, Windsor

| length1 = 1:38

| title2 = Like a Real Smoothie

| length2 = 3:43

| title3 = Alien

| length3 = 3:13

| title4 = Bloat (Extract)

| writer4 = Hitchcock, Rew, Seligman, Windsor

| length4 = 1:00

| title5 = Underwater Moonlight

| length5 = 6:24

| title6 = She Wears My Hair

| length6 = 5:22

| title7 = Wang Dang Pig

| length7 = 3:56

| title8 = Old Pervert – Section 2

| writer8 = Hitchcock, Rew, Seligman, Windsor

| length8 = 1:31

| title9 = Insanely Jealous

| length9 = 5:03

| title10 = Leave Me Alone

| writer10 = Lou Reed

| length10 = 6:45

| title11 = Goodbye Maurice or Steve

| length11 = 3:14

| title12 = Old Pervert – Section 3

| writer12 = Hitchcock, Rew, Seligman, Windsor

| length12 = 0:36

| title13 = Cherries

| writer13 = Hitchcock, Rew, Seligman, Windsor

| length13 = 2:54

| title14 = Amputated

| length14 = 4:22

| title15 = Over You

| writer15 = Bryan Ferry, Phil Manzanera

| length15 = 4:00

| title16 = I Wanna, Er ... (Extract)

| writer16 = Hitchcock, Rew, Seligman, Windsor

| length16 = 0:42

| title17 = Old Pervert – Section 4

| writer17 = Hitchcock, Rew, Seligman, Windsor

| length17 = 1:24

}}

All the tracks on this disc were taken from rehearsal recordings.

{{Track listing

| headline = Matador 3-LP reissue bonus 7" single

| title1 = Innocent Boy

| note1 = Studio outtake

| writer1 = Hitchcock, Martin Stanway-Mayers

| title2 = Zip-Zip

| note2 = Recorded live at Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, 1980

| writer2 = James A. Smith

| title3 = Astronomy Domine

| note3 = Recorded live at Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, 1980

| writer3 = Barrett

}}

Credits adapted from the 2001 Matador reissue liner notes.{{cite AV media notes |title=Underwater Moonlight |others=The Soft Boys |publisher=Matador Records |edition=reissue |year=2001 |id=OLE 500-2 |type=liner notes}}

; The Soft Boys

• Robyn Hitchcock – guitar, vocals, rhythm bass (5)
• Kimberley Rew – guitar, vocals, bass (7), synthesiser (7)
• Matthew Seligman – bass
• Morris Windsor – drums, vocals

; Additional personnel

• Gerry Hale – violin (5, 10)
• Andy King – sitar (3)

; Technical personnel

• Pat Collier – production (1–3, 5, 6, 8–10, 12–18), engineering (1, 8, 12–18)
• James Morgan – engineering (2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10)
• Mike Kemp – production, engineering{{cite web |url=http://www.spaceward.co.uk/spaceward-studios/discog.htm |title=Spaceward Studios – Discography |publisher=Spaceward.co.uk |access-date=12 December 2018}} (4, 7, 11, 19)
• The Soft Boys – production (4, 7, 11, 19)

; Production notes

• Disc 1: tracks 4, 7, 11, 19 recorded June 1979 at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge; all other tracks, except track 14, recorded January–June 1980 at Alaska and James Morgan studios, London; track 14 recorded July 1980 at Alaska, London
• Disc 2: rehearsals taped on a boombox or recorded on a two-track machine at the Cambridge Rowing Club Boathouse, September 1979–July 1980

{{reflist}}

• [https://archive.today/20130416112600/http://www.radio3net.ro/dbartists/supersearch/VW5kZXJ3YXRlciBNb29ubGlnaHQgKEFybWFnZWRkb24p/Underwater%20Moonlight%20(Armageddon) Underwater Moonlight] (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• {{Discogs master|50152}}

{{The Soft Boys}}

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Category:The Soft Boys albums

Category:1980 albums

Category:Psychedelic pop albums

Category:Albums recorded at Spaceward studios