Customer Reviews

Nextdoorland

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's a Soft Boys album, but it sounds like the evolution of Robyn Hitchcock to me. He's been quoted as saying "when I make a record with a band, it turns out to be a Beatles record". I'd agree with that, but Beatles at their jammingest.

The twin lead guitar interplay between Robyn and Kimberly Rew is nothing short of breathtaking. The lyrics are signature Robyn Hitchcock surreal, but at one point, he eerily captures the strange and scary times we live in: "Evil is the new enemy / I wish I could say that I was just paranoid" (from "Strings").

The beauty of this CD is that Hitchcock and his band gracefully manages to walk the thin line between melodic pop and total, over the edge, into the abyss guitar freakout.

All in all, an excellent album, which will definitely stand the test of time.

The years have been kind to Robyn Hitchcock. His early music with The Soft Boys sounds as fresh, vital and quirky as when it was first released over two decades ago. This reunion album made me a bit skeptical at first. You may not be able to go home again, but you can go next door and visit with the neighbors.

Nextdoorland is full of the rocking charms we've come to expect from Hitchcock. What's more is that the performances by his band The Soft Boys is top notch. Kimberly Rew's guitar snarls and snaps alternating chords thick as a tree stump. His playing hasn't been this refreshing or challenging since his solo albums and early Katrina & The Waves where it was a lot more polished and, well, poppy. Poppy is OK but Rew has always been an interesting guitar player and capable of so much more. Hitchcock and the other Soft Boys bring out the best in him.

The album is littered with a number of gems. Like a lot of Hitchcock solo albums, there's a fair amount of filler as well but the quality of the filler tracks is better than most artist's achieve in a lifetime. Always interesting as a solo artist, Hitchcock and The Soft Boys return with a strong album. It isn't Underwater Moonlight, nor is it meant to be. The starkness of that seminal album and the diy feel is evident in every track on Nowhereland.

I'd also recommend picking up Kimberly Rew's latest solo album. Although it isn't as strong or compelling as Tunnel Into Summer, it's stocked with melodic, riff driven rock 'n' roll. Rew hasn't sounded this good in years and clearly his new found solo career has invigorated him.

Some might be disapointed that the Soft Boys' first album in 20 years isn't Underwater Moonlight jr. But to my ears, Nextdoorland is actually superior in some respects. For one thing, the band is playing better than ever. (Several tracks feature some terrific extended dual guitar interplay between Robyn Hitchcock and Kimberly Rew that's a bit reminiscent of Television, oddly enough.) There's real verve and energy in the sound and performances, and the songwriting is consistently engaging, featuring structures that never go where you think they will (a chorus comes in where you'd expect another verse, parts flow into parts without coming to a conventional chorus, songs that end in abrupt, unexpected eays, etc.). All in all, a triumphant return for Hitchcock and company.

The psychedelia-lite of this album, with proudly raspy, utterly English vocals, emphatically enigmatic lyrics and duelling guitars, calls to mind nothing so much as the mid-90's pilferings of Britpop. But of course the grave that the likes of Elastica were robbing was that of great defunct bands like...The Soft Boys. Revisiting these revisitations seems strangely appropriate for the ultra-arch Hithcock and pals, and they don't really bother with the authenticity worries that their long hiatus might engender, but get right down to the business of putting together stretched-out poppy/punky/new wave guitar tunes with a surprisingly strong backbeat. There are a few clunkers, but generally it's a joy to listen to, and if some of the songs sound like they're made by a convention of Andy Partridge, Mick Jagger, and Ray Davies, well, you could do a lot worse. You can almost hear Blur's Damon Albarn taking notes.

A great, groovy reunion album by one of the kookiest groups of the early, olden days of the punk/New Wave scene. Robyn Hitchcock, Kimberley Rew, Matthew Seligman and Morris Windsor regroup to prove that old weirdoes can still rock out. In fact, this is a more focused and less gratuitously goofy album than most of thier ever-clever classic albums from the good old days... If you ever sometimes wished that the Soft would shut up and stop trying to trip you out, and simply play some rock music, then this album may be the one for you. The lyrics are still odd and idiosyncratic, but they don't hold the rest of the record hostage the way they used to. Recommended!

I wondered what a new Soft Boys album would sound like at this point, 20 years after the release of their classic 1980 neo-psychedelic jewel Underwater Moonlight and after songwriter and Soft Boys guitarist/singer Robyn Hitchcock's 15+ solo albums. But I wasn't disappointed: the first new notes of the opening track, I Love Lucy, a mostly-instrumental, were pure Soft Boys. Guitarist Kimberly Rew's crazy licks brings this whole effort way back to 1980 while still integrating Hitchcock's evolved pop and lyrical sensibilities. Like Underwater Moonlight and unlike all of the earlier, more haywire Soft Boys albums, Nextdoorland is a melodically perfect album with fantastic hooks, top-caliber musicianship and the right amount of dissonance. No Robyn Hitchcock album is complete without a certain quantity of lyrical wackiness, and certainly no Soft Boys album would be complete without the same, but, like Hitchcock's more recent solo efforts, he seems to at last have located a happy medium between wackiness-for-the-sake-of-itself and a desirable quantity of eccentricity. He's gone from Lewis Carroll to Italo Calvino, in other words.

This album has played a weird trick on me. At first I dismissed it as a really good album. Happy that it was here. Happy that Robyn and the Boys of Soft had made it and it sounded good. I bought it about 6 months ago. And I gave it four or five listens and put it away. Then took it out again. Then listened again. Then liked it more. Then put it away. Then took it out again. Six months later I've been officially blown away by this album. It doesn't have the force of Underwater Moonlight but somehow I can't stop listening to it. I keep finding things. I keep liking it. Songs like Sudden Town which sound typical have now grown to be classics to me in the Robyn collection. I know I might be alone out here but this album should be relistened if i was just checked off before. It really needs to be checked out.

It would seem that a wait of twenty years hasn't dulled the Soft Boys one bit. Fresh from touring to support the re-release of Underwater Moonlight, the Soft Boys returned to the studio with Pat Collier and a box of songs under their arm. The resulting album is nothing short of post-punk retro-delic (Hitchcock's phrase, not mine) brilliance and very nearly the equal to Underwater Moonlight.

Just to be sure that the listener is paying attention, the album opens with an (mostly) instrumental "I Love Lucy" that proceeds to make ice grow on the back of your neck. Although they have nothing to prove at this age, it's a reminder that their abilities as a band have matured wonderfully. There aren't many flaws on the album and they're playing to their strengths.

"Pulse Of My Heart" has a nice snap to it that echos some of the art-punk that New York churned out in the late 70's. "Mr. Kennedy" is just fantastic with a lovely chorus and sharp harmonies. "Unprotected Love" may have the best guitar solo on the album with Kimberly Rew's Stratocaster causing ribbons of diamond-cut steel to pour from the speakers. We hit a bit of a bum patch for a while, I'm afraid, as "My Mind..." and "Sudden Town" are a little lackluster. I'm sure they have some merit, but after such a strong opening I was hoping for something better.

"Strings" pulls a big, fat, nasty bass sound out to make the guitars cruch a little louder. A bit like "Leppo And The Jooves" from a while back. Is it about you-know-who? Maybe. But you can't help but relate when Robyn belts out "I wish that I was just paranoid". "Japanese Captain" and "La Cheriti" aren't bad and "Lions and Tigers" is a good closer for the album.

In listening to the album I picked up loads of sounds that I've heard recently from younger bands, and I know it's not a matter of the Soft Boys ripping off new bands; it's the kids who grew up with the Soft Boys as an influence and just don't know it!

I hope it won't be another twenty years before a new album, as this record leaves me wanting more. Well done, Boys.

Either you are familiar with this band or you were searching for something else: Soft Machine - maybe; Soft Cell - you need therapy.

Billed as their first studio album for 20 years, the tight production and superbly coherent performance gives the impression the band has been together not apart for the last two decades. The opening track `I Love Lucy' is mostly instrumental and sets the mostly upbeat tempo of the CD. Other notable tracks include `Mr. Kennedy', `Japanese Captain' and `Lions and Tigers', but picking favourites is difficult and unfair to the rest.

Although this does not quite reach the heights of Underwater Moonlight, this is a good old-fashioned rock album. There are precious few of those around these days, and it shows off Robyn Hitchcock's considerable song writing talents. My only real criticism is it only lasts 41 minutes.

Does it really matter how this album compares to Underwater Moonlight? What counts is that it may be the best album to come out in the past year. I'll admit this is the first Hitchcock album I've ever owned, but it seems a pretty good place to start. Mr. Kennedy and Sudden Town have fantastic energy and great hooks, while My Mind (though more mellow) may actually be the best song on the record.