Underwater Moonlight
by The Soft Boys

Album
Underwater Moonlight by The Soft Boys
Year: 1980
Release date: 1980-06-28
Overall rank: 1,205th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
77/100 (from 234 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1980 (31st)
Award Top albums of of the 1980s (189th)
Award Best albums of all time (1,205th)

Listen on Spotify SPOTIFY

Log in or create an account to rate this album, leave comments or join the discussion.
eBay
Sorry, no matches on eBay for "Underwater Moonlight The Soft Boys".
See full search results on eBay

  My favourite store:  

Listen & Collect

Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.

  • Listened Upgrade your listening setup on Amazon(headphones, turntables & speakers)
  • Find vinyl editions of this album on eBay
  • Browse The Soft Boys merchandise on Amazon (T-shirts & more)
  • Need a birthday or celebration gift? Browse unique music memorabilia on Amazon

The Soft Boys bestography

Underwater Moonlight is ranked as the best album by The Soft Boys.

The Soft Boys album bestography « Higher ranked
- This album (1,205th)
Underwater Moonlight Lower ranked (10,632nd) »
A Can Of Bees

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

Listen to Underwater Moonlight on YouTube

Loading content from YouTube...

Underwater Moonlight rankings

Underwater Moonlight rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,205th | 1980s rank: 189th | 1980 rank: 31st  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)

Underwater Moonlight collection

Underwater Moonlight ratings

Average Rating: 
77/100 (from 234 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 234 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 !		09/01/2026 07:43 DommeDamian  Ratings distribution  7,83948/100
 
70/100
 !		05/08/2026 19:30 Jakor  Ratings distribution  5,55070/100
 
70/100
 !		05/04/2026 21:23 AledJames  Ratings distribution  1,71269/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.5/100, a mean average of 75.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.2.


Please log in or create an account if you want to be able to leave a rating

Underwater Moonlight favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite  | Show all 32 members

stwhelan
davidleewrong
boppare
slatsheit
Stevo796
TracyJacks
MichaelAngelo
MadhattanJack
angryandy
matterhornrider

Underwater Moonlight forum mentions

This album has been referenced 39 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From BestEverAlbums 10/07/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5458): By Jorbaa
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by Jorbaa () 1. by (1978) 3. by (1971) 4. by (1981) 5. (1972) 6. by (1975) 7. by by (1969) 9. (1989) 10. by by (2019) 12. by (2004) 13. by (2017) 14. by (1998) 15. by by (2001) 17. by (1967) 18. by (2008) 19. by (1988) 20. by (1968) 21. by…”
(3 mentions across Chart of the Day topics)
View latest topic →

From Rhyner 07/12/2026 17:14 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“What album are you listening to? (cont.)”
View topic (2 mentions) →

From BestEverAlbums 03/15/2024 20:00 in Album of the day (#4835): Underwater Moonlight
“Today's album of the day Underwater Moonlight by The Soft Boys ( | ) Year: 1980. Country: Overall rank: 1,405 Average rating: 78/100 (from 219 votes). Tracks: 1. I Wanna Destroy You 2. Kingdom Of Love 3. Positive Vibrations 4. I Got The Hots 5. Insanely Jealous 6. Tonight 7. You'll Have To Go…”
(1 mentions across Album of the Day topics)
View latest topic →

View all forum mentions

Underwater Moonlight comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 10 comments |
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
75/100
From 03/19/2011 22:38 | #19320 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Released in 1980, 'Underwater Moonlight' is an album that has stood the test of time remarkably well and still sounds fresh and inventive. Reminscent of the work of Television and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, the band manage to straddle the early new-wave of the former and the psychedlic whimsy of the latter with the discordant fragmented blues of Beefheart to produce a distinctive and accomplished music. The band could arguably be said to have invented the '80s 'paisley' movement. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 10
Log in to reply
From 07/30/2013 04:21 | #82695 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
What Outlaw said.

Refreshing, daring and fun. Everything can be heard in this, Dylan, Television, Syd Barret, The Fall, 13th Floor Elevators, The Kinks.

Perfect Album, every track has something new.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 4
Log in to reply
Rating:  
70/100
From 02/15/2014 00:57 | #103174 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
The missing link between #1 Record and Tim.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 5
Log in to reply
Rating:  
95/100
From 05/21/2012 08:54 | #42830 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Hard not to love this one...silly and beautiful masterpiece of subversive pop
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 2
Log in to reply
From 03/17/2013 19:00 | #68712 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Brilliant, refreshing, daring and fun. It is enjoyment put on a silver disc! Something I am happy to let into my life, I'll be sure to write more later.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 1
Log in to reply
Anonymous
What do you think of this album? Join the conversation!.
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.

Log in or create an account to rate this album, leave comments or join the discussion.
Best Albums of  1980
1. Remain In Light by Talking Heads
2. Closer by Joy Division
3. Back In Black by AC/DC
4. Scary Monsters by David Bowie
5. Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables by Dead Kennedys
6. Peter Gabriel (1980) by Peter Gabriel
7. The River by Bruce Springsteen
8. Permanent Waves by Rush
9. Pretenders by Pretenders
10. Seventeen Seconds by The Cure