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Rating: 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.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
05 Insanely Jealous (04:16)
She's walking down the street
Me - I'm just invisible
And who or where she walks with makes no difference to me
The people that she meets
She turns them into sideshows
They're just here for their amusement
That's not what I want to be
But I'm insanely jealous of you
Yeah, I'm insanely jealous of you
The night is black and thick
I wander past your window
And I catch a cigarette thrown from a jewel encrusted hand
It comes on pretty quick
Exactly like a crocodille
In search of a mirage across the undulating sand
But I'm insanely jealous of you
Yeah, I'm insanely jealous of you
I don't know why the people want to meet
When all they know is that they'll breed like rabbits in the end
Cause ordinary people on the street
They never know
But if they can't be rabbits they'll be friends
And I'm insanely jealous of the people that you see
And I'm insanely jealous of the people that aren't me
And I'm insanely jealous of you
Yeah, I'm insanely jealous of you
I just can't let it out
This feeling of insanity
Is thicker than a barge upon a shattered heap of coal
I know what it's about
Like crying from a nightmare
And the one who lies beside you cannot hear to save a soul
But I'm insanely jealous of the people that you know
And I'm insanely jealous of the places that you go
And I'm insanely jealous of you
Yeah, I'm insanely jealous of you
The damage that we do is just so powerfully strong
They call it love
And the damage that we do it just goes on and on and on
Not long enough
Paint is cracked and dry
The name is now illegible
And everything is lost upon the cracked and misted hull
Beneath a yellow sky
The lovers trip beside a ship
But all I hear when they embrace is just the kiss of skulls
But I'm insanely jealous of the people that you see
And I'm insanely jealous of the people that aren't me
And I'm insanely jealous of the places that you go
And I'm insanely jealous of the people that you know
And I'm insanely jealous of the hairs upon your back
And I'm insanely jealous of the spiders in your path
And I'm insanely jealous of the stains upon your feet
And I'm insanely jealous of the stuff inside your feet
And I'm insanely jealous of the things upon your bed
And I'm insanely jealous of the jerk that's in your head
And I'm insanely jealous of the people that you love
And I'm insanely jealous of the fingers in your glove
And I'm insanely jealous of you
Insanely jealous of you
Insanely jealous of you
Insanely jealous of you
10 Underwater Moonlight (04:18)
He was white and she was white as only statues are
Fifty years they stood there looking stupid by a jar
One night in mid-august when the moonlight got too strong
They climbed off their pedastal and then they sang this song
Past the gun implacement and the bones as white as bleach
Through the rats and ivy till they came out on a beach
Out into the ocean till they disappeared from view
Honey, when it gets you there's just nothing you can do
Underwater moonlight sets the body free
Underwater moonlight baby you and me
Underwater moonlight
Underwater moonlight
He was pink and she was pink and onward they did row
Didn't see the giant squid though, it was fairly slow
When they hit the bottom they were well and truly dead
The statues took their place and then they rowed back home instead
Underwater moonlight, take your baby down
Underwater moonlight, watch you baby drown with love
And in the moonlight - Underwater moonlight
Underwater moonlight
Underwater moonlight
(there are a few quiet lines here I cannot make out)
Once again
I can take you down - Moonlight
Below the sea - Moonlight
Why don't you feed the fish? - Moonlight
I'll make you feed the fish - Moonlight
I'll watch you feed the fish - Moonlight
I'll watch you feed the fish - Moonlight
Underwater moonlight sets the body free
Underwater moonlight baby, you and me
Underwater moonlight
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Other reviews
By Spaccamascella
Indispensable record where psychedelia is no longer for the mind, but becomes material, for the body, for the senses.
"I Wanna Destroy You" announces its intent with a Beach Boys-like cheer and a Velvet Underground riff, blending discomfort with hedonistic depravity.
