Underwater Moonlight

However, Underwater Moonlight has retrospectively been viewed as a psychedelic classic, influential on the development of the neo-psychedelia music genre and on a number of bands, especially R.E.M. The album was recorded in June 1979 at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge, and between January and June 1980 at the Alaska and James Morgan studios in London. The London sessions were produced by Pat Collier, while the Cambridge sessions were produced by Spaceward Studios staff. The recordings were made on 4-track and 8-track, and only cost £600. Underwater Moonlight was released in June 1980 by Armageddon Records. The album was initially unsuccessful commercially, especially in the United Kingdom, where over half the sales were exports to America. 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." 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.