The Soft Boys – Underwater Moonlight (1980)
[Album 670/1001]
The other day, I saw a great shirt at our local playground.
A young man was sporting a T-shirt (I believe made by Threadless) with the text, “Positive Vibes Only.”
As taking a photo of an unknown playground child (and subsequently posting it online without their expressed written consent) felt ill-advised, here’s a photo of a similar design!
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The third tune on Underwater Moonlight, Positive Vibrations, is more than worthy of its title.
Supergrass-y tempo/tune?
Vocals (especially the mid-song breakdown) like the non-screaming tracks by The Vines?
Surprise sitar feature?
The listener vibes ’round here could not be more positive!
And I’m not sure if an internationally recognized ‘Listener Vibration Measurement Scale’ exists…but it’s safe to say, when listening to the rest of Underwater Moonlight, such a scale would have remained firmly in the non-negative region for me.
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Verbalize the Positive
Heavy Metal Overload (HMO) recently posed an intriguing question: what are your favourite vocal middle eights?
Although it’s not completely A Cappella, the vocal harmonies around 2:20 of Positive Vibrations would be on my Top 5 list!
1001albumsin10years 
Yes, taking a picture of a child on a playground would have been majorly creepy. Good on you for not going down that rabbit hole. Ha!
I remember there was a scene from a Will Arnett/Christina Applegate sitcom where he was filming another kid at the park as practice for when his baby was ready to play on the play structure.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t end well!
Yes, I think I remember that and it didn’t end well!
The Soft Boys ,class act. Weirdly wacky and a whole lot of fun.
Weirdly wacky & fun would qualify as positive vibes in my books!
Reading and learning your posts gives me positive vibes no matter what the topic!
Cheers Deke – although you’ve said you’re a ‘one trick pony’ when it comes to music genres, I thoroughly appreciate that you always read & comment, regardless of whatever 1001 album I’m chatting about!
It’s great to read everyone’s spin on all things music Geoff.
I really like a lot of Hitchcock’s solo stuff too – I don’t think any of it’s on the 1001, but I Often Dream of Trains, Fegmania!, and Element of Light, all from the mid-1980s, are all good.
I don’t recognize the names – but if this one’s any indication, I think I’d enjoy those too
It’s a shame I Often Dream of Trains isn’t in there – lots of great acoustic songs, it’s pretty much Hitchcock accompanying himself on guitar and piano.
And I’m a believer that great songs still sound great with just vocals & acoustic (or minimal instrumentation), so that sounds up my street
I think he said something like he recorded his previous album for 10,000 pounds and it sounded terrible, so he only paid 5,000 pounds and it sounded much better.
That’s the way to do it, pay less, get more!
Once again you really got me (tee hee) heading for the shelves to break out an album I would like to know better. Cheers!
A nice album to have on during an Afternoon Tea, I reckon!
I know the cover but I think this is the only time I’ve heard any of this. Easy on the sitar lads! Must have been on drugs…
The cover is a bit unsettling – looks like a nice seaside sunset, wait, are those puppets?!
Reminds me of the old Pink Floyd video where they’re mucking around with the mannequins… Arnold Layne?
I don’t think I’ve seen it – and given that I find mannequins somewhat disturbing, perhaps it’s best if I don’t see it!
Ehh… probably. I’d avoid the 1987 film Mannequin too.
I’m adding this to the recommended pile. Sounds like something I’d be into. FYI: You can blur the kid’s face and you would be covered.
I suppose that’s true – though I remember seeing a photo of our daughter’s class with some faces replaced with emojis (I think the teacher was waiting on written permission from those parents), it was unsettling seeing a cartoon face/blur rather than the actual face!
I don’t know this at all, but it’s definitely getting checked out pronto!
One of the nice things about this 1001 list is showing how wrong I was about certain eras – years ago, I thought the late 70s/early 80s was a bit of a low point for quality music. This one’s just another example of how mistaken I was!
It’s nice when you discover music from a period you thought was completely redundant musically. I’m still discovering stuff from that very same period… it’s not all disco and novelty pop!