Underwater Moonlight

Recording

The album was recorded between January and June 1980 at Alaska and James Morgan studios, London, and during June 1979 at Spaceward Studios, Cambridge, England. The London sessions were produced by Pat Collier and Mike Kemp, while the Cambridge sessions were produced by Spaceward Studios staff. The recordings were done on 4- and 8-track, and only cost £600.

Release

Underwater Moonlight was released 28 June 1980 by record label Armageddon.

The album was initially unsuccessful commercially, especially in the UK, where over half the sales were exports to America.

Reception

Bill Holdship of Rolling Stone, in his 2001 review, wrote that the album "offers modern listeners some great, great rock songs". In his retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine, writing for AllMusic, felt that the music on the album showed the influence of The Beatles, The Byrds and Syd Barrett.

Legacy

Whilst commercially unsuccessful originally, Underwater Moonlight has gone on to be viewed as a one-off psychedelic classic. Matt LeMay of Pitchfork, in a 2010 review, felt that the album was commercially unsuccessful because the timing was wrong: at the time of its release, audiences had little interest in "music that incorporated the indelible harmonies of the Byrds and the surrealism of Syd Barrett", but that anyhow the album is "best considered with the benefit of hindsight, and for all the famous music it inspired, there is still nothing quite like Underwater Moonlight". In 2001, Bill Holdship of Rolling Stone wrote that the album's influences could be detected "on bands ranging from R.E.M. and The Replacements to The Stone Roses and the Pixies. According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, Underwater Moonlight "influenced the jangle pop of R.E.M. and other underground pop of the 1980s."

It is included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Track listing

All tracks written by Robyn Hitchcock, except as noted.

Personnel