“Underwater Moonlight” by the Soft Boys, released this day in 1980

The Soft Boys released "Underwater Moonlight" 46 years ago today, to absolutely no acclaim from anyone... at the time.

Jangly pop before REM revived that, dark like a Baudelaire poem before goth music hit it big, obscurantist and surrealist (and occasionally as silly) as Bob Dylan 10 years after he was out of fashion, trippy as Syd Barrett while their peers were all listening to punk rock, this might be the worst-timed masterpiece in rock and roll history. To this day, I have never once heard any song from it on the radio, ever. I recall even well into the 90s trying and failing to turn people on to it.

But everyone who knows it, knows.

It was an instant favorite of mine when I heard it 41 years ago, and still is.