Album: Nextdoorland
Year: 2002
. . .
Since there wasn’t any animosity surrounding their break-up, The Soft Boys actually reunited twice: the first time was in 1994, where they played a few shows in the U.K. to tour for the box set The Soft Boys 1976-1981, though it’s hard to tell how much Kimberley Rew was involved with that one, though both bassists Andy Metcalfe and Matthew Seligman were apparently onboard, as was drummer Morris Windsor. This, BTW, was after Hitchcock disbanded the Egyptians, which of course featured Metcalfe and Windsor. By the way, this will all be on the test.
The second time was in 2001, when Matador did a big 20th anniversary set for Underwater Moonlight, and it was the same musicians who played on that record: Hitchcock, Rew, Seligman and Windsor. And that proved to be so successful that they went into a studio and recorded their first album since Underwater Moonlight, 2002’s Nextdoorland.
Nextdoorland reminded me of Television’s reunion album, Television, or even The Velvet Underground’s Live MCMXCIII in that they didn’t sound so different from what might have been the next studio album by Tom Verlaine, the next live album from Lou Reed, or the next studio album from Robyn Hitchcock would have sounded like. I wasn’t expecting something epochal like Marquee Moon, Live 1969 or Underwater Moonlight, but I was expecting things that sound more like the bands that made those records.
And so my favorite song on Nextdoorland was “Mr. Kennedy,” which opens with spooky guitars and synth effects, sitars floating in and out of the mix, and Robyn Hitchcock singing about what might have been an actual event.
Coming into Harrisburg
Never seen a body look so tense
Tell me Mr. Kennedy
Have you ever seen the clouds so dense?Coming into Cleveland
Riding in the van with Sebadoh
Tell me Mr. Kennedy
Have you ever seen the clouds so low?
All of which leads to a great chorus:
Maybe it’ll rain
Maybe it’ll rain tonight
Maybe it’ll rain
Maybe it’ll rain tonight
All of which is cool, but just sets up the main event: a long twisting guitar duel between Robyn Hitchcock and Kimberley Rew. With both men in full psychedelic mode, their guitars spend the second half of the song — a good three minutes — playing with each other, around each other, conversing, arguing, agreeing, just fucking around. It’s way cool, and easily the best thing on the record.
The Soft Boys toured Nextdoorland, but they didn’t make another record, though an EP called Side 3 did come out later that year. But after that Hitchcock hooked up with the Venus 3 and revived his solo career with the awesome Ole Tarantula. And that was all she wrote with the Soft Boys, as they all scattered again, and Matthew Seligman sadly died of COVID-19 in April, 2020.
“Mr. Kennedy”
“Mr. Kennedy” Live in Italy, 2003
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