I covered a Robyn Hitchcock in this space a while back, but this is the first time we've looked at an album from The Soft Boys, the band that first brought him to the attention of college radio nerds across the globe. The band was rather short-lived, breaking up shortly after the relatively unsuccessful release of this here album. Perhaps the fact that KCMU didn't get a copy until four years after its release is emblematic of the poor reception this album, now considered a classic, initially received. Four years of perspective was all the good people at KCMU needed to know greatness when they heard it, though. Well, most of them, anyway. It wouldn't be any fun if they all agreed, now would it?
"THIS ISN'T NEW. It is from 1980, however, IT IS worthy of our attention and exposure to our listeners. IMPORT." "Thank you! Now Jona Than and I can leave ours home." "Much better material, old and new, languishes in the O bin, or N. I am so sick of this cheesy crap." "It's sick of you?" "'Cheesy crap'?, I see! Undercurrents of pop classicism . . . yeah cheesy! Great songs, articulate, unique lyrics - crap! I get it! More mantric drone processed pretension please!" "The purchase of this LP, and more importantly, its placement in H, is revealing of our M.D.'s greatness, hipness, and good taste. The legendary Soft Boys wrote the book on neo-psychedelia (retro-British). Trivia: K. Rew is now w/Katrina & the Waves; M. Seligman plays w/T. Dolby (cool bass on 'Hyperactive'); and Robyn Hitchcock is God!" "AMEN." "Excellent." "'I Got the Hots,' mega suave! 'Insanely Jealous' is quite the good song." "Why did it take so long to get this record?!? I've heard this for a long time now!!!" "'Insanely Jealous' is intensely vicious! Great!" |
There aren't as many comments as I usually like to see on this copy of In the Hothouse, the live album by the underappreciated British band (yes, yet another one) The Sound. But reading these, and then digging a bit into The Sound online (pro tip for bands with generic names like "The Sound": searc…
Can you believe it's been over a year since our last David Sylvian post? My, how time flies. Back in 2012, we looked at his 1986 album, Gone to Earth, so it seems only fitting to move forward in time by another year and see how KCMU reacted to its followup, 1987's Secrets of the Beehive, his last s…
