The Soft Boys
Nextdoorland

THE REVIEW

This album is already twelve years old, and it's hard to believe it, given the speed at which we consume all our music today, and considering also the relevance of the sounds within it. Equally incredible is the realization that a group like the Soft Boys ended up, when all is said and done, with only three albums in twenty-four years of activity, certainly fragmented by various different projects (Hitchcock leads by example) but still the product of one of the best bands of its time. No doubt about it. The time was theirs, undeniably; now it has passed, and do the four old gentlemen have nothing more to say? Maybe. But it's nice that in this long-distance birth - a summary of a hoped-for yet feared reunion that happened the year before - we find traces of those peculiarities that nostalgics (among whom necessarily cannot be the writer) did not forget so easily.

The Soft Boys remain a unique group, "outside" even the big pot where all their various stepbrothers were gathered in the early '80s (a name off the cuff, Teardrop Explodes) thanks to the speed with which you immediately recognize one of their tracks: the interplay of guitars, Hitch's whining voice, the fluidity of the rhythm section. Undoubtedly, there are no hit tracks in the style of I Wanna Destroy You, but the combo is in great shape, listen to the opener I Love Lucy to believe it. "Take me back to now"?? A good start. And then it just gets better: the overwhelming rock tracks (Sudden Town and Unprotected Love, with a heart-stopping attack) are mixed with the leader's usual musings on various topics (Mr Kennedy, Strings, Japanese Captain, Lions and Tigers, are titles enough?), always seasoned with his sardonic taste for nonsense, although to be honest, sometimes this is revealed to be a bit subdued.

But come on guys, we're splitting hairs here; and indeed the best thing (I repeat) is to let oneself be carried away by the fantastic flow of the sound. It's amazing to listen to Robyn Hitchcock and Kimberley Rew having fun like two beginners, and the result is a kind of update of the early Television rides (a big statement, huh!) , perhaps only slightly dirtied by less polished production.

After so much acoustic Hitchcock, in 2002 a little band that had already amply demonstrated its value twenty years before decided to reassess itself with an electric sound: and it does so in the best possible way, dismissing the cliché of "beautiful but soulless", those reunions built at the table on the anticipation of the fans that promise a lot but shrivel faster than a deflated SuperTele. An album to rediscover.