Underwater Moonlight by The Soft Boys

Underwater Moonlight, the Soft Boys' second studio album, surfaced on the Armageddon label in June 1980, and almost nobody noticed. The Cambridge band, led by guitarist Robyn Hitchcock, had made a record that sounded like vintage psychedelia dragged through the punk wars: chiming, jangling guitars, a folk-rock heart and a sneer that never quite curdles into cynicism. "I Wanna Destroy You" is pop with its teeth bared.

The reviews were scarce, the sales were worse, and the band fell apart a few months later. But the record refused to stay buried. It has since come to be seen as a psychedelic classic, one of the building blocks of neo-psychedelia, and a clear influence on a whole wave of bands, R.E.M. above all. Few flops have ever cast a longer shadow.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.