Overview
“Underwater Moonlight” is the second studio album by the Soft Boys, an England rock band led by Robyn Hitchcock (songwriting, vocals, guitar) and formed in Cambridge in 1976.
Commentary
It was recorded by the band members, Robyn Hitchcock (guitar, vocals), Kimberley Rew (guitar, vocals), Matthew Seligman (bass), and Morris Windsor (drums, vocals) in 1979–1980, and was released in 1980 by Armageddon Records.
The album is a neo-psychedelia masterpiece, which was based on melodic guitar pop, and featured violin and sitar under the influence of the 1960s psychedelic rock and folk rock, such as The Beatles, The Byrds, and Syd Barrett.
Though this album was commercially unsuccessful in the UK at the time of its release, after that it was revalued as a neo-psychedelia classic, and it had a great influence on guitar rock bands since the 1980s, particularly jangle pop such as R.E.M. and L.A. Paisley Underground bands such as the Bangles.
The original LP contains 10 tracks.
In 1992, Rykodisc released a reissue of the album, which includes eight bonus tracks.
In 2001, Matador Records released a double CD set “Underwater Moonlight… And How It Got There”, which contains all tracks of the album, nine bonus tracks, and an additional disc of demos, rehearsals, and outtakes. The Japanese edition of the double CD set (P-Vine Records) includes two more additional tracks.
