The Boo Radleys, Classic or Dud?

And is Sice the least charismatic rock frontperson ever?

As I see it, the very earliest stuff (even _Ichabod and I_) is quite good, but _Everything's Alright Forever_ was a low point, sorta there and no more outside of a couple of songs. But after "Lazarus," strength to strength from there on in. And the singles were all just packed with some amazing B-sides and remixes; I went ahead and made a grand four CDR comp out of them all, plus a lot of the random rarities.

About the B-sides, I managed to get 2 extensive D90s of their excellent b-sides (which were often better than the rest of their material (seek: Blues for George Michael, Vegas, Sunfly II, Wallpaper, Almost Nearly There)... how in god's name did you get 4 CDs out of that? I thought i had almost all their rarities (then again i never included remixes or live edits - maybe i should)... I think the Boos were forgotten about because younger people (21 and under now) remember them as that band who did that Wake Up! song that used to play every morning before school and annoy them (actually, it was that song and Leaves & Sand that introduced me)... over 21s remember them as an excellent band who went pop and didn't do much after their Ride-era Everything's Alright Forever... Luckily, I never really gave up on them. I always thought the choice of A-Sides they brought out were abysmal though (Destroy: It's Lulu, Free Huey (ugh!), Barney & Me, What's In The Box) actually, I only bought the singles for the awesome b-sides where Martin Carr seemed to be able to do what the fuck he liked. I think they were a little scared of getting their experiments heard and so released their most straight-ahead tracks on single.

Kingsize is good and their most straight forward album although Carr was pretty apathetic about the recording compared to the others.

Just heard Ichabod and I recently and was surprised how excellent it sounded, possibly even better than Everythings Alright Forever.

Martin Carrs new stuff as Brave Captain is also excellent and also really prolific, a mini album, an album, a 10" single and a cd single so far and the stuff is great. Good live too if you can catch them.

One of the best of the 90s.

Shit - I even like Wake Up.

That said, their best track - Skywalker - was the free giveaway single on C'Mon Kids. Drum'n'bass scuzzed up rock. Made you kinda wish the rest of the album was that good. Oh yes, those were the days.

Search: Giant Steps, Everything's Alright Forver
Even the weakest disc (C'mon Kids, IMHO) is pretty damn OK. Destroy nothing but your preconceptions.

search: everything the boo's ever made except for the weird remixes
destroy: nothing but your silly head Mr Dud!

Have come to the sacrilicious conclusion that 1) Wake Up! is the best album, and 2) Wake Up Boo! is the best thing they ever did by a million silvery skyscraping miles. I like the Boo Radleys.

Albums:
Wake Up! > Giant Steps > Everything's Alright Forever > Kingsize > Ichabod & I > C'Mon Kids

Singles Choices (Era):
Giant Steps > Everything's Alright Forever > Wake Up! > C'Mon Kids > Kingsize

B-Sides (Era):
Wake Up! > Everything's Alright Forever > Giant Steps > C'mon Kids > Kingsize

They followed their best album with their worst album and lost all their momentum. Hell, they lost all their momentum right after "Wake Up Boo!" by releasing "Find The Answer Within" as the 2nd single. They should have gone with "Reaching Out From Here", and then "Wilder". And yes, "Free Huey" is their worst single -- if not song -- ever.

Their B-sides were always hit and miss. Hell, the ones from Giant Steps could be squalling noise for 2 minutes and then jolt into something beautiful. If I can remember correctly, 3 years ago, I made 3 CDR's just from their B-sides myself. One is good b-sides, one is remixes, and one is crap b-sides. I'll have to go digging through some boxes later today.

All that said, I don't especially miss them. Hence the cdr's buried in boxes.

One of the best bands ever - as well as the above there are loads of ace b-sides and other stuff.

Love 'em to bits and always will. BOO Forever people.

And your problem is?

1. Martin, Doom! It's Seven O'Clock
2. I Hang Suspended
3. What's In The Box (See Whatcha Got)
4. Take The Time Around
5. Almost Nearly There
6. Wake Up Boo!
7. There She Goes
8. Lazy Day
9. Zoom
10. Hold On Brother
11. Ride The Tiger
12. Skyscraper
13. Stuck On Amber
14. Does This Hurt?
15. Memory Babe
16. Wish I Was Skinny
17. Reaching Out From Here
18. Kingsize
19. Wilder

Feel free to rant or rave over my choices.

Forgot all about a few of these tracks, like "Hold On Brother" which is from the War Child comp, "There She Goes" from the So I Married An Axe Murderer OST, and "Almost Nearly There" which is a "From the Bench of Belvidere" B-side

I love the Boo Radleys again, now. Hurrah!

Cheers!

Search: Boo Faith and the early EPs compilation
Destroy: everything post Giant Steps

best recommendation ever

Please, for the love of god, if you love music buy "Find A Way Out". You'll be very pleased.

When I first heard that they were going to put out the anthology Find The Way Out, I decided to go back and play every album to get ready for it. Worth buying because the remastered songs sound just a bit richer. I would play only one for a solid week or longer then on to the next one. I Love them but was going to be honest with myself and if anything didn't hold up I would have to admit it. Are they really the best band from the 90s bar none? Well I was going to find out.

Learning To Walk was still some glorious white noise. Everything's Alright Forever has some amazing pieces of music on it. They matured quite a bit from those first three E.P.'s, but not the greatest thing. Compared to other things around this time that was similar it's really good but compared to the Boos stuff, sub par. Still really don't give much thought behind Ichabob And I despite owning it.

I was absolutely floored on my rediscovery of Giant Steps. I have played other albums by them moreso recently and haven't played it for a while. It really is their White Album and should be the one that they will be remembered for. So many things ideas and sounds are put on to this record. Truly a masterpiece that many fans say they never were able to touch again. Have loved reading what Martin and the fans have written about this album on the web site. There are some hard-core fans of this very album, astonished to hear that. Some of what Martin wrote about the sound of this album: "I just listened to the album now in headphones for the first time in an age and I can hear Surf's Up/Smile/Pet Sounds, Spiritualized, Suede (well, Bernard Butler), The Flaming Lips, London Calling by The Clash (I think all the dub on the album sounds like the people who made it hadn't heard an awful lot of dub music) Moose, Dinosaur Jr, Sugar, MBV, Forever Changes by Love (of course), Goffin/King, New Order, The Beatles, Spacemen 3, Gershwin. It all sounds very old fashioned to me but that's from a distance of ten years, I could never make an album like that now. I heard Os Mutantes about seven years later and realised that we hadn't done anything that hadn't been done before. I wanted everything to sound like a bootleg, like the Smile CD that we listened to so much in those days, with mistakes and talking and all that stuff but I don't hear as much of that as I thought I would." http://www.booradleys.co.uk/giantsteps

Next came Wake Up! which I like to call their Beatles album. A stage they needed to go through at the time. It's the least sounding Boo Radleys album that they made but was surprised because I enjoyed more then I remember. Better than most Britpop albums around this same time but give me my band back.

I wanted loud, I wanted aggression, I wanted creativity, I wanted C'mon Kids. The record buying public hated this album after the last one. I couldn't be any happier; this is what the Boo Radleys were all about. Maybe throwing in too may ideas on each song but a song like "Bullfrog Green" takes my breath away.

There are times in your life where certain albums mean so much to you that it's impossible to put into words. Kingsize is one of those albums for me as it came along at the perfect time. It seemed to speak for me and not just about me. There is no other album I have played more since its release in late 1998. One flaw is that "Free Huey" doesn't work and I skip it each and every time I play this album. I guess "The Future Is Now" is sort of out of place as well and would be a much stronger closing with "Song From the Blueroom" but I don't mind at all. About a year later I bought the U.S. version of this album for one extra song called "Put Your Arms Around Me and Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK." It seemed to be the perfect song to close their story. This album is the most misunderstood album of theirs but it's by far the most rewarding.

So yeah classic, everything and that is not going into some of the best B-sides of any band. Hope to see remastered versions of these albums some day along with the B-sides story that needs to be told. Band of the 90's and happy the quit when they did and didn't keep putting out stuff past their peak like it seems SFA have done.

"Just a simple song but God I love it. Embedded in me, so bittersweet. I'm addicted, I'm a melancholic. Sing it again. I'll be your friend forever."

Next stop...probably EAF.

Hey, I like that mistype!

Anyway, as I said on the "celebration" web page, I packed it after Giant Steps as it did everything I wanted to do musically. I note it did not inspire many bands to be as musically adventurous. How could you 'copy' being individual? Who could follow it?

OTMFM. Just this little section was enough to affect me enough as a teen to change the way I appreciate music for ever. You have no idea how much I love Giant Steps. As for "I've Lost The Reason", I always saw it as part of a triumverate of songs along with "Best Lose The Fear" and "Take The Time Around". For some reason these sound like they were written to sit next to each other.

It took me a long time to realise how sad and depressed the lyrics were to "Wake Up!" and I'm only just getting round to this fact with "Giant Steps". I guess GS is a concept album in nostalgia, uncertainty, being 23 - that stage between being a young adult and an adult when people won't take you seriously despite all your greatest ambitions. "Wake Up!" is a concept album about being 25 and being granted your independence and having the world as your oyster, but still feeling somehow unsatisfied with this pseudo-utopian setting, revealing itself to actually be a bigger burden than you had expected. And of course it's all set to the most wonderful offbeat psychedelic pop music.

Woops, my mistake, I thought you were talking about "If You Want It, Take It". No this song is a goodie and it kinda points towards how they'd sound on "Wake Up".

Heartbreaking reallly.

I should one day learn to shut my gob about the Boo Radleys.

Realised a few years ago that I was so wrong and Giant Steps was their crowning acheivement and I'll echo everything dog latin has said, brilliant record. It was Martin's lyrics that pushed them over into greatness for me though right enough. Also the whole thing of them dreaming of being pop stars and being on TOTP as kids, actually acheiving it then realising it was crap whilst writing about this in the songs. Brilliant.

I've lost track of Brave Captain though I did like the first few releases. Saw him live at King Tuts and got to talk to him a bit on his first solo tour and he was a thoroughly nice chap and happy to give credit where it was due to the other guys in the band, didn't seem to be any animosity. He also played an absolutely blinding gig. Mind you, also saw him a year or two later with a different (inept) band and he was shit and since then I don't think I've listened to any BC stuff at all.

GIANT STEPS IS THE GREATEST INDIE GUITAR RECORD EVER EVER EVER RIGHT

Uh.

I am drinking alone; ignore me.

I DO think this is a fucking awesome, awesome, remarkable record, however.

it is

It's good.

its allright. I'm rarely in the mood for it.

I feel the same pretty much. I didn't think it was great initially, thought it was great for a period, stopped listening to it after that period and still haven't really recovered.

Giant Steps is a pretty epic album. And I DON'T OWN IT, AM I INSANE. I havent heard it in something like 12 years, good god. I have to rectify this asap.

Wasnt Martin having a breakdown/alcohol problem when they wrote this album? I seem to recall at least one track being really desperate and bleak.

About four or five amazing songs on it (Lazurus, Wish I Was Skinny, Barney, White Noise). The rest of it can sound good if you're in the mood or are the right age. Especially good when you're around the college age. A bit like Galaxie 500 in that respect.

I am drinking alone; ignore me.

This is my default position re: knows-fuck-all

yes, one of the best albums of the 90's, it was their White Album.

anyways this link is a great read, especially where the fans were able to write their thought on this album. when it came out it was just so epic, adventurous and monstrous, it seem like the shoegazer scene, as it was called, was going to take over music. no other band outside MBV's Loveless was able to match what the Boos did but it was Oasis and Blur who broke out instead.

http://www.booradleys.co.uk/giantsteps/

http://www.booradleys.co.uk/giantsteps/fans.html

See if you can recognise some names on here!

http://www.booradleys.co.uk/giantsteps/fans.htm

or maybe even here instead.

OH FFS!!

This one. And this one is guanarteed.

http://www.booradleys.co.uk/giant_steps/fans.htm

No argument here. Wonderful record. I note above that 6 years ago I said C'mon Kids was their best but to be honest I don't know what I was thinking. Giant Steps is so much better.

It was Select's album of the year which I seem to remember is why I bought it

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Boo-Radleys/dp/B000PHX0VO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/202-1855647-9383050?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181125138&sr=8-2

When did that squeeze out? Well, 7th May, obviously, but... Has anyone got it? is it the 12" version of Lazarus? What an odd tracklisting.

xpost- me too (about buying it) only "I didn't think it was great initially, thought it was great for a period, stopped listening to it after that period and still haven't really recoveredsold it"... also me too.

I remember a LOT of filler but it is/was a strong record. I suspect it's that I didn't find most of the songs/vocals very much to shout about in the end that led me to not caring...

It looks nicer than that 2cd collection.

Which started off being "Wake up boo: The Best of" but M.Carr stopped it, so the record company said "OK, you pick. but it has to have "Wake Up Boo, Lazarus, etc, etc, etc," until there was only about four tracks to pick from.

Anf the 'unreleased' tracks, ah hey I had the "Kingsize" single promo with them on anyway.

4am conversation? That's an odd choice.

I think I might marginally prefer 'C'mon Kids' to 'Giant Steps'.

not sure about that new best of... what the fuck?

'I've Lost The Reason' and 'Get On The Bus' are possibly my favourite two Boo Radleys songs, so their inclusion is very welcome. Underappreciated masterpieces both.

if there's something that annoyed me about the last two albums was that they were way too preachy for my liking. "Colours For The Blind", that millennium song, "Heaven's At the Bottom Of This Glass".

When did that squeeze out? Well, 7th May, obviously, but... Has anyone got it? is it the 12" version of Lazarus? What an odd tracklisting.

WTF? and don't know any answers to those questions.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51v0G4LGP0L._SS500_.jpg

beautiful cover but has nothing to do with the band. found this on Martin's web site, as he was answering the question of why nothing from Everything's Alright Forever or Kingsize made it on to this comp.

"Eaf wasn't anything to do with sony and i can only guess that they have forgotten about Kingsize.

I won't be buying it.

Mx"

Haha, the sleevenotes to this new best of quote me (but without naming me, the cheeky gits).

haha what's the quote?

It reads, "GIANT STEPS IS THE GREATEST INDIE GUITAR RECORD EVER EVER EVER RIGHT."

Of Lazarus, "a big pop tune halfway between Dinosaur Jr. and The Beach Boys slapped in the middle of a great big dub instrumental" taken from http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/the-boo-radleys/find-the-way-out.htm

I've barely listened to anything else for the last 24 hours.

How come no one's ever mentioned Learning To Walk?

Jack Rabid wrote, "Though it's just a collection of their first three EPs dating back to '90/'91 (plus two unreleased covers), Learning to Walk is actually the best LP released by this great Liverpool band, even better than Giant Steps... Learning to Walk sounds like an LP, not a collection, and if we regard it as three sessions in one, it is the Boo Radleys' real second LP, and their masterpiece, even without the terrific 1991 Peel Session versions of Love's "Alone Again Or," and New Order's "True Faith" (retitled "Boo Faith," naturally) tacked on for extra value. With all three EPs out of print, Learning to Walk is even more valuable. Do not miss."

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

nah.

it's pretty good. i especially like "Foster's Van".

I said this on the poll thread the other week:
The two EPs in 1991 between the first and second album sound better-produced, but still essentially go for that mixture of extreme guitar noise and sweet singing. That wasn’t a problem for me as that was exactly what I liked back then. I love Naomi (off Every Heaven) and Everybird, Sometime Soon She Said and Foster’s Van (off Boo Up). I think these are all on Learning To Walk, but I’m not voting for that because it’s not a real album.

What is with the latest Boo Radleys revival/craze on ILM? It's not as if more than 5 people ever gave a fuck about them before and now there's a thread being revived every couple of days (I'm not complaining).

The new compilation put them back on my radar. I never could get into Wake Up and am wondering if I should try Giant Steps or the remastered two CD comp that came out two years ago.

The remastering on that comp is not good, in my opinion. I played Lazarus off that and the remixes EP from 1994 back-to-back the other day and the bass was doing all sorts of unpleasant things on the remaster.

I own a ridiculous amount of "Lazarus" e.p's, all different.

From the original issue CD, the promo with the 7" version added, through 3 different USA columbia promos and normal ones, to the UK reissue and so on.

I have the original 12" EP and the double-CD remixes thing.

I saw the video one saturday morning, Chart show, went out and got it that day.

ahhh screen goez all wobbly....

great band but really their masterpiece is Giant Steps even if i personally love one of their other album more

we had this just the other day F'n'B:

ILM POLL: Say there, what about Boo Radleys?

where i wrote:

my order would be:

1. Kingsize - this album has had a huge impact on my life, especially at the time. i have, at times, felt like Martin was writing out my life on this album. skip "Free Huey" and you have a remarkable album. also from Kingsize is one of those perfect three minutes in pop music with the song "Put Your Arms Around Me and Tell Me Everything's Going to Be OK."

2. Giant Steps - they did just about everything they could do with this album and made a classic. i still feel like this is the White Album of the 90's.

3. Learning To Walk - the third best shoegazer album ever. it, however, is just a collection of three brilliant singles. 12 songs total from the three singles with a couple of just OK covers thrown in.

4. C'Mon Kids - the guitars were back and were louder than ever. also contains their best song "Bullfrog Green."

5. Wake Up! - their stab at being commercial and made a accessible album expect for the lyrics. might be the boo's most honest work.

6. Everything's Alright Forever - this album simply doesn't have enough money behind it. great beginning but the heights were barely being reveled.

as far as the remastered is concerned, it's actually not a bad place to start because it gives you all their stages as each album is very different. with an extra bonus of a few b-sides thrown in for good measure. the b-side is where they have some incredible stuff (23 in all) and they need to come out on a comp. at some point.

*it's 23 singles in all well past 23 songs.

i'd definitely recommend "find the way out" as a primer going by the track selection.

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/cherryred/artists/booradleys.php

Kingsize
cdmred467

PREORDER NOW! Released on 20/09/ 2010. The Boo Radleys are - for reasons that are hard to understand - a greatly underrated band. Formed in 1988 in Merseyside and their own way through the changeable music scene of the 90 s leaving many classic albums and singles and a couple of massive hits. Kingsize was the bands sixth and final album they split on its release not helping its sales. It is a great album and well worth discovering twelve years on. It is presented here with bonus tracks and an exclusive booklet.

1. Blue Room In Archway
2. The Old News Stand In Hamilton Square
3. Free Huey
4. Monuments For A Dead Century
5. Heaven’s At The Bottom Of This Glass
6. Kingsize
7. High As Monkeys
8. Eurostar
9. Adieu Clo Clo
10. Jimmy Webb Is God
11. She Is Everywhere
12. Comb Your Hair
13. Song From The Blueroom
14. The Future Is Now
Bonus
15. Spanish Lizards
16. Everything Falls Away
17. In A Galaxy Far, Far Away

C’Mon Kids
cdbred468

PREORDER NOW! Released on 20/09/10. The Boo Radleys are - for reasons that are hard to understand - a greatly underrated band. Formed in 1988 in Merseyside and their own way through the changeable music scene of the 90 s leaving many classic albums and singles and a couple of massive hits. C'mon Kids is the fifth Boo s album although a departure from hit album Wake Up! it is still packed with classic pop based songs wrapped in wonderful soundscapes. The album is presented here as an enhanced double CD, positively packed with bonus tracks and a luxury booklet

Disc One:
1. C'Mon Kids
2. Meltinsworm
3. Melodies For The Deaf (Colours For The Blind)
4. Get On The Bus
5. Everythings Is Sorrow
6. Bullfrog Green
7. What’s In The Box? (See Whatcha Got)
8. Four Saints
9. New Brighton Promenade
10. Fortunate Ons
11. Shelter
12. Ride The Tiger
13. One Last Hurrah

Disc Two Bonustracks:
1. Bloke In A Dress
2. Flakes
3. What’s In The Box (Krisneedsmix)
4. Atlantic
5. The Absent Boy
6. Annie And Marnie
7. Spion Kop
8. To Beautiful
9. Bullfrog Green (Ultra Livingmix)
10. Nothing To Do But Scare Myself
11. From The Bech At Belvidere (Ultramarine)
12. Fourtunate Sons (Greg Hunter Remix)
13. Vote You
14. A Part I Know So Well
15. Everything Is Sorrow (Grantby Mix)
16. Roadie
17. Safe At Home
18. C'Mon Kids (Mekon Mix)

i'm upset at the Kingsize reissue. first, they don't have "Put Your Arms Around Me and Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK." (that is the song i got my username from.) not only that but the song is three minutes of pop bliss but has never been released in the UK. this is the perfect time for that. they could have also added "Superintendent," "Tomorrow," "Last Night I Dreamt Of God" and their excellent Bob Dylan cover of "One Of Us Must Know."

Could have released a blank CDR, wd have contained the same number of tunes.

that makes no sense

i'm upset at the Kingsize reissue. first, they don't have "Put Your Arms Around Me and Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK." (that is the song i got my username from.)

Where where these two songs available? I have the three others you mentioned as I found the promo single for Kingsize a long time ago. The C'mon Kids reissue looks good, Roadie is one of my favourite songs they did.

"Put Your Arms Around Me and Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK." is one song. it was released on the US edition of Kingsize but wasn't on the Creation Records edition.

Yes, and the Australian version. And the UK LP version, I believe.

Didn't one of them have a 'rewindie' track?

kingsize has a short pre-track 1 track called 'tranquillo'

put your arms... isn't on my kingsize cd (which is an aus pressing)

Delighted to see these albums are getting a reissue, disappointed 'Kingsize' won't be gathering everything together from that era. If not now, then surely never.

'Everything Falls Away' is great though.

I think I need to reacquaint myself with C'mon Kids.

Yeah, I think they are missing "XFM is ace" and "There she goes"

The C'Mon Kids one looks absolutely essential. Kingsize has been shortchanged and Bee OK is OTM about Put Your Arms Around Me.

The only thing the C'mon Kids reissue is missing is the bonus 7" that came with some versions of the album on vinyl. I've never actually heard Skywalker or French Canadian Bean Soup, can anyone tell me if those songs are worth hunting down?

Skywalker was released for the Euro 96 cup IIRC. It's kind of dancey - sort of like Sunfly II from their early days. French Canadian Bean Soup features someone reciting a passage from the Illuminatus! trilogy with a kind of lolloping backing chorus. In typical Boo Radleys b-side fashion, they're rather charming and experimental although "essential" isn't necessarily the word.

I think I can probably live without those then, thanks for the heads up.

I'm definitely going to be hunting down Put Your Arms Around Me, the thought of hearing a new Boo Radleys song after all this time is really exciting.

Kingsize and C’Mon Kids have come out today.

So, "Kingsize" definitely doesn't have the extra tracks from the unreleased single?

I!L!M! (calling all)

please to post boo radleys videos so i may see the light. i mean i want to believe....

Good man.

Alas, there's no video online for Blues For George Michael.

Thing is, while the Boos did release excellent singles, their choices of A-sides always tended towards the straight-up pop side of their work. It was the b-sides where they got truly weird.

I would say get hold of Giant Steps (the album). There's a track on there called 'Lazarus' which is one of my all time favourite singles by any band. There are two versions of that song - one which has an extended ambient-dub intro, and one without. I'm at work so I can't vouch for which one is posted here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1IRy5AfPmQ

But if you want a top ten, here's mine:

Blues For George Michael
Lazarus
Butterfly McQueen
Joel
Four Saints
Fosters Van
Spaniard
Lazy Day
Annie & Marnie
Friendship Song

Really, there's a lot of different sides to their work throughout the 90s - from their early incarnation as a shoegaze band, through dubbed out psychedelia, classic horn-driven Britpop, folky Dylanesque stuff, bizarre studio experiments with tape loops, and even a few forays into dance and electronica.

There's an excellent compilation from a few years back that collects a nice sampling of all these styles - a's, b's and album tracks.

sound quality in that tube is horrid, unfortunately (and it's the version w/out the dub intro), but i'll check giant steps, which i tried in the mid 90s and didn't quite get, and the 2CD comp

Cool. TBH I'm a bit wary of trying to convert people to the cause so log after the fact. To a British teenager growing up in the '90s, they were revelatory pop experimenters, dabbling with a range of styles and emotions, singing about their lives - subjects ranging from love, depression, heartbreak, isolation, drink and drug culture, politics, nostalgia etc... But I don't know how that would hold up to a newcomer in 2011. I can actually imagine something like the earlier shoegaze material working better on today's ears than the eclectic/Britpop stuff which I fear might have aged badly.

A couple of tracks I forgot to mention:

From The Bench At Belvedere - Maybe the best pure-Britpop song of all time? A non-album single that's just a sweet Merseybeat song about growing up in Merseyside and feeling a little misty-eyed.

"Rodney King (Song For Lenny Bruce)" - a Cocteau Twins/MBV-esque dance-pop number that segues straight in after the equally brilliant Butterfly McQueen

"The Old Newsstand At Hamilton Square" - a later track that should have been a single. Similar lyrical theme to Belvedere, but with a slinky spy-theme soundtrack.

"Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK" - a bit of an obscure one, as it came out on the back of one of their final singles (possibly an unreleased single, can't remember). A sweet Dylanesque mid-tempo ballad that felt like a fond farewell from the band. It sounds to me like a proper goodbye and should've been included on their last album really.

Find The Way Out is the name of the compilation you need.

Some really great choices there Dog Latin.

I always thought From the Bench at Belvedere was their most underrated song, such a beautiful and simple melody. I probably like it more than anything on the Wake Up album.

The Old Newsstand At Hamilton Square is another good call. I was just listening to that album the other day thinking they could have picked so many other songs as the lead single instead of Free Huey. Eurostar, Comb Your Hair or kingsize would have all been better choices. I always hated Free Huey and blamed it for the failure of that album.

I never knew Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK existed until last year. I found a cheap American version of Kingsize that has it placed after Eurostar. Another song that could have been a great single.

A few other tracks I would add as hidden classics.

Boo Forever - This was a song on the Boo Forever ep which had Does This Hurt as the lead track. I much prefer this to anything on Everything's Alright Forever. It has such a sad feel to it, Sice's vocals sound like he's just crushed.

Swansong - This is my favourite song on the Learning to Walk compilation. Like Boo Forever it's a really sad song with amazing guitars all over it. I really like that the verse rips off Fade to Grey by Visage.

http://youtu.be/aJ0q7R_ZXPs

Eurostar - I still think this could have been a bigger hit than Wake Up Boo.

http://youtu.be/bA-ZkrGsxq8

Twinside - Obviously they put out the more commercial songs as the singles but the songs that make Wake up a really good album are ones like this, Stuck On Amber and Reaching Out From Here. I never get tired of the way he sings "I can't make up my mind" where he sounds like he's really trying hard to reach those high notes. Even if you hate Wake Up Boo I'd say there's plenty to love on this album.

Wow there really aren't enough Boo Radleys songs on Youtube.

"I want a Rainbow Nation" is also an obscure one, it came out as a creation promo (mail order)

Eurostar - I still think this could have been a bigger hit than Wake Up Boo.

Totally agreed. It's like a dance-y Oasis.

Uh.

http://gawker.com/5810107/

Aye he's gone a wee bit Twitter crazy, has Martin Carr.

Anyone care to recommend some Bravecaptain?

nah.

I liked "Raining Stones", um..

I've never enjoyed anything I've ever heard by Brave Captain. Carr's been working on some sort of other project called Black Serpent Choir, which I've yet to check out.

Brave Captain :: Little Sailor = I get it now!

His work as Brave Captain was very patchy but there are some gems on some of the albums.

The Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol. 1 - Six track mini album which starts with the lovely Raining Stones but is then followed by him just messing around in the studio producing nothing of interest for five tracks.

Go With Yourself (Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol 2) - See above except this time there are nine songs and the good one is the last track.

Corporation Man- Great one off single that is still a good song despite containing the lyrics "I don't wanna lecture, but don't let him get ya" Like the good songs on the first two albums this is just like the Boo Radleys in their simple pop mode.

Advertisments For Myself - Actually a great album that features some pure Boo pop, some Super Furry Animals style songs and lots of Aphex Twin like interludes, it's a lot better than that sounds.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace - Can't actually remember anything about this, sad to say I gave up on him after this.

I feel a bit guilts for not checking these out, but somehow I really think I'd be wasting my time. I get the odd mailout from Carr telling people about his new projects and how to get hold of them and it's a real insight into the life of a "starving artist". I'm sure he gets a few royalties here and there, but his current work can't be bringing in too much.

I'm sure "Wake Up", alone, pays the mortgage and more on a yearly basis.

Recent tweet referencing Carr's recent exposure thanks to live tweeting his wife's homebirth:

"Sonny is trying to cram his pyjama top into his foreskin. Your move, media."

His work as Brave Captain was very patchy but there are some gems on some of the albums.

The Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol. 1 - Six track mini album which starts with the lovely Raining Stones but is then followed by him just messing around in the studio producing nothing of interest for five tracks.

Go With Yourself (Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol 2) - See above except this time there are nine songs and the good one is the last track.

Corporation Man- Great one off single that is still a good song despite containing the lyrics "I don't wanna lecture, but don't let him get ya" Like the good songs on the first two albums this is just like the Boo Radleys in their simple pop mode.

Advertisments For Myself - Actually a great album that features some pure Boo pop, some Super Furry Animals style songs and lots of Aphex Twin like interludes, it's a lot better than that sounds.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace - Can't actually remember anything about this, sad to say I gave up on him after this.
--Kitchen Person

I think I agree w all of this. Wrote a positive review of AfM for Stylus. BC isn't lifechanging or anything but it is a little underrated.

Rock critics habitually throw around references to 70s dub, Brian Wilson and Scott Walker like bullets at a high-school massacre. It's OK, they don't really mean it. These are just the kind of artists they would prefer to be writing about, as opposed to the ones that they have to write about. Enter the Boo Radleys. 'Sharing the bill' means we take it in turns to headline. Tonight, the Boos go on last.

Martin Carr is the Boo Radleys' resident 'genius'. He is the lucky recipient of the kind of hyperbolic prose I was getting nine months earlier. His band are currently touring an abomination of an album called Giant Steps. It features all the predictable TSB Rock School dub and inept approximations of Miles Davis. In two years' time the Boo Radleys will do the unthinkable and make a record that is actually worse than Giant Steps. A record that even King Dunce Alan McGee (their label boss) will disown. The record is called Wake Up Boo: three words guaranteed to induce nausea and a cold sweat, followed by the kind of killing spree that will forever be preceed by the phrase 'tragic events'.

http://i.imgur.com/tNesyca.jpg

who the fuck listens to the auteurs anyway? their best release was completely remixed by µ-ziq

After Murder Park any day over Giant Steps.

Both are good albums. It amazes me what an enormous bore Haines has become. Tragic really.

I was actually surprised he picked on Boo Radleys of all things in Bad Vibes. He gets into it even worse a couple paragraphs later, detailing their wrestling matches before shows. It's not a boring book by any means. I loved it.

I like the Boo Radleys. Just read his book recently and it popped up in my head.

Bear in mind that his introduction to the book, he sort-of apologises in advance for what was 'to come', being what he felt at the time.

He hints that the Boos got the praise that he himself was used to receiving.

I dunno, I don't doubt he doesn't like them, but I also doubt he hates them...

detailing their wrestling matches before shows

Wait, luchador-style or what?

El Siceto

being what he felt at the time

So when he was on tour with the Boo Radleys in 1993 he was feeling that two decades later he would hate their 1996 record and to prove it, here's what Alan McGee said in 2001.

I take the stairs to our shared dressing room to find three bodies writhing in the doorway. I accidentally tread on some hair and a Scouser squeals. The hair and squeal belong to a Boo Radley, engaging in their customary roughhousing. This lot seems to be pathologically incapable of setting foot outside their windowless tour bus without breaking into a bout of rough and tumble with one another. The bodies pick themselves up from the deck.

'Awlright', mate? an exaggerated Mersey accent enquires, leering toward me. The implication seems to be of the Do you want some? variety? Hmmmm, the backstage drinks rider is already seriously depleted. Are you really trying to menace me? I wonder. I hold out my hand and offer my finest limp-wristed handshake and my most sickly simpering smile. The north. The South. And never the twain shall meet. All friends then.

xpost -- Luke Haines, timelord.

They're from WALLASEY, not Cantril Farm or Croxteth. My God, we're weak sauce as far as Scousers go.

xxp - wkiw Boos!

Funny that should be posted because it had just crossed my mind that class was behind it. I've noticed that English people often have an almost comical disregard towards people from Merseyside.

ALAN McGEE has launched a stinging attack on ex-CREATION RECORDS band THE BOO RADLEYS, declaring their most commercially successful single 'WAKE UP BOO!' an "atrocity exhibition".

McGee has written a review of David Cavanagh's book on the history of Creation Records, 'My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize' on the Poptones website www.poptones.co.uk.
In it McGee declares Cavanagh's work "unquestionably the dullest book I have ever read", "tedious" and "humourless", before claiming it captures "none of the spirit" of Creation Records.

However, his most venomous attack is saved for ex-Boo Radleys guitarist and songwriter Martin Carr. Apparently unhappy at their musical output following the most successful album of their career, 'Wake Up!', he writes: "For the record, Martin, I would have dropped you in 1995 after the atrocity exhibition that was 'Wake Up Boo!' but for (Creation co-founder) Dick Green's infatuation with you. Creation was never about touring the US in Bon Jovi's tour bus... for me Creation was touring Germany and Holland with the Mary Chain in a transit van."

Elsewhere in the review McGee accuses the Boo Radleys of costing Creation "about a million pounds", before saying "you were never a part of it. For me you never proved it. Sorry, mate."

NME.COM contacted a representative for Martin Carr for comment, but none was immediately forthcoming.
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/brave-captain/6277#exRiUHyIT9fBrKWm.99

What a jerk.

Carr calls him on it here in 2009.

Carr: "You once described ‘Wake Up Boo’ as an ‘Atrocity Exhibition’ which, as I’m sure readers will know, was the title of a J.G Ballard novel.He’s dead now and, let’s be honest, you have to shoulder some of the blame for that. What other records (records, not bands) that came out on Creation would you rather have come out on another label, if at all?"

McGee: "Loveless Isn’t Anything and Soon I hate mbv I wish I had never signed them tuneless garbage."

In other words...don't take it too seriously folks (and Luke Haines).

McGee is a dick, but Wake Up is shit.

lol @ "do you think alan gives a shit what you think you dickhead, crawl back up your dog’s arsehole, what the fuck are you doing with your life apart from boring every cunt"

It's funny that McGee disses the Boos for not being "transit van" enough for Creation, while Haines highlights their "windowless tour bus". I'm thinking "what's the big deal with their transportation?" Is it a van or a bus? So I googled it on the off chance their was an actual photo of the Boo Radleys tour bus somewhere. Up pops Ned's report from a '93 Boo Radleys gig "outside the Roxy in their rear parking lot near their tour bus or van."

The mystery deepens.

McGee is a dick, but Wake Up is shit.

― emil.y, Thursday, February 7, 2013 4:08 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's my least favourite Boos album, but I still think it's got a couple of good tracks on it: 'Joel', 'Martin, Doom! It's 7 O'Clock'... and I like 'Reaching Out From Here', too.

It's funny that McGee disses the Boos for not being "transit van" enough for Creation, while Haines highlights their "windowless tour bus"...

― everything, Thursday, February 7, 2013 4:46 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's funny that McGee is laying into the Boo Radleys for this. I wonder if he'd say that Oasis, the act that made him the most money, weren't "transit van" enough for Creation either.

Yeah, it doesn't make that much sense.

Wake Up is amazing fwiw. A totally misunderstood record base on the misunderstood irony behind the lead single.

While I'd agree that a lot of people misunderstood the band in general because of 'Wake Up Boo!', I don't think tracks like 'It's Lulu' and 'Find The Answer Within' do them any favours either.

It's Lulu is terrible. I like Find The Answer Within and the backwards messages etc

I like abt half of Wake Up, esp Joel

that luke haines stuff about the boo radleys is relatively affectionate. you should hear what he has to say about the verve. and suede.

I've always found this band to lack that extra special charm...I think it's the vocals. They don't really have much character, do they?

idk the boyishness of the vocals well suits the wide-eyed pocket-adventure quality of much of the music

the cover of Giant Steps is absolutely horrible

Joel is a beautiful song the string arrangements and then it goes full on Revolver by the end

idk the boyishness of the vocals well suits the wide-eyed pocket-adventure quality of much of the music

― imago, Thursday, February 7, 2013 11:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I quite like it how, on things like 'Run My Way Runway', Sice is like, this tiny voice in the middle of chaos. His small voice actually does the trick of making the music seem bigger.

OTM. The one thing his voice just doesn't suit are brash pop numbers - I never liked or saw the point in It's Lulu, C'mon Kids, Free Huey etc...

I don't mind his brash voice so much on 'What's In The Box? (See Whatcha Got)', but I do get what you mean!

Maybe it's because I'm not a super fan and I have a place in my heart for pretty cheesy pop songs, but I don't get why something like "It's Lulu" stands out as a blatantly bad song. I never thought it was that bad in the scheme of things...not that I've listened to it in years.

I like the horns.

It's just such a drag. The whole premise behind the song and the lyrics are weak and condescending. It's brash in a horrible alarm clock kind of way. It sticks out from the rest of the album like a sore thumb. Just sounds like Carr was asked to do another Wake Up Boo and tossed this off in about five minutes.

'It's Lulu' might have been one of the first songs written for Wake Up!, actually... I remember reading that Martin wrote it while the band were mixing Giant Steps. Apparently he tried to write it in the style of the Buzzcocks.

I read an interview where he says he hates it, so I guess I'm just not listening to it with very critical ears. I always wonder how artists can hate their own songs.

When artists 'give-in' to their baser instincts, (ta, Eno!) and then live to regret it/

It's very 1995 though, isn't it? I get the same feeling from it as I do whenever I listen to Grand Prix, it always reminds me of that specific year. I don't really get the same feeling of "this sounds like a specific year" whenever I listen to C'mon Kids.

squeaky brass was a britpop trait. brass seems to be making a bit of a comeback, but it's deeper and lower. imo anyway.

btw, i'm going to do an artist poll for the Boo Radleys. it will come up sometime in the next five year.

Thread for coordinating the order and timing of ILM ballot polls

61. Iggy Pop, incl. Stooges - flopson
62. Boo Radleys - Bee OK
63. XTC - Shakey Mo Collier

that is a joke, hopefully it won't be in five years.

Well, the poll/ballots have really slowed down lately

Looking forward to it. I think a boo Radleys poll was what started the idea of that coordination thread.

Yep, will undoubtedly be participating in it... and then the XTC poll afterwards!!

Well, the poll/ballots have really slowed down lately

well it does stop every time in late December for the end of the year stuff. it does gets going again about now.

i'm going to do New Order at 36, starting to feel the pressure...

"Giant Steps" is mostly a classic. Wake Up is hit or miss. Their talent didnt always match their Mcacartney-like ambitions to dabble in all genres but even the Boos failures had their charm.

Re. the hit and miss aspect of the Boos (which I agree), I'd say Carr took on too much himself really. I know most bands usually have a talisman or whatever, but they had scope and ambition beyond many of their contemporaries (especially when you get to around 1995) that was...kind of realised.

they could've made artistically smaller albums that would've hit the sweet spot for this or that niche or indie ghetto, but the Boos seemed to want to make a pop record, like the kind that were common in the 60s, that could blow minds with its scope and innovation and ability to have something for everybody. Didn't obviously work, but I'm glad they tried.

Well, "kingsize" did that, but it came too easy to MCarr and he wanted to try/ fail at more difficult things

http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/martin-carr-remembers-the-ecstatic-moment-john-peel-played-boo-radleys-on-the-radio-for-the-first-ti

he's playing at the lexington next week. really wish i could go but got an important band practice :-( :-(

are we still doing a boos poll?

Yes, it will happen probably February 2015.

'Reaching Out From Here' still does it for me after all these years.

because of that nugget, i posted above, i dug out Find the Way Out comp today. this band is so fucking good. stuff like "The Finest Kiss," "Spaniard," "Best Lose the Fear" and "I've Lost the Reason" are all magnificent.

can't wait for February to do this poll.

Don't forget Fosters Van. Those early EPs have so many glorious moments.

'Reaching Out From Here' still does it for me after all these years.

― Welcome To (Turrican)

Beautiful song. Should have been the second single after Wake Up Boo.

Don't forget Fosters Van. Those early EPs have so many glorious moments.

― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin)

Swansong is my favourite from those first three EPs. The verse is a bit too similar to Fade to Grey by Visage but it's one of those great sad songs they did so well.

Don't forget Fosters Van.

I once had a chat with Martin Carr in a Camden pub circa 1996 and told him this was my favourite Boo Radleys song

The new martin Carr album is pretty good

Really wanted to see him play at the Lexington tomorrow but sadly have to be somewhere else. Must seek out the new one.

Really love the new Martin Carr album. Went back and listened to the last one and enjoyed it too. I think I like him a little more subdued and less feedback freakout.

did not know about Martin Carr's new album, will have to seek that out.

Carr record doesn't sound markedly different than the Bravecaptain stuff that got killed on this board – it's just less Bacharach and glitch and more Britpop guitar-y.

here is a new interview with Martin Carr that happened just this month: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/martin-carr-breaks-after-boo-8373791 just bought The Breaks without hearing a song on Amazon.

btw, The Boo Radleys poll is still on track for February of 2015, going to be fun. won't be the first one, maybe the second or third one that will happen after the EOY polls wrap up.

Looking forward to the poll Bee. Don't think it will have quite the turnout that your Steely Dan one did but excited anyway.

Well, I'll be in it, and I wasn't for SD, so call that net +2

i'll def be voting. can't wait.

i have the breaks on vinyl. only listened to it a couple of times. the style is very mid-90s boo radleys, so while it verges on the retro, the best bits are as good as anything the band released circa wake up.

wow, really? now i'm really excited about getting that CD in the mail.

the Boo Radleys poll is up next, i have only been listening to them to prepare. they are so fucking good as i feel like i have almost forgot, poll is going to be a blast.

Martin Carr is playing at the union chapel in about 11 hours time (12 noon today).

I was there! lovely show. enjoyed the medieval horror-folk duo as well.

At 4am my maths is terrible.

That box she had was full of bees, bees of different sizes.

What was that thing? it was the most unwieldy box shaped instrument to make such a minimal tone (like someone playing a long drone on harmonica)

hi.

It was a shruti box, an Indian harmonium. Strange noise from a non electric instrument.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OacT6M5CI9k

Lyrics are pretty cringeworthy, eh.

Revive sent me back to Kingsize. Still enjoy the big brassy Britpop production, clear melodies and "Choose Your Own Adventure" structures. What a way to go out.

for some reason i was unable to add the cd version of kingsize to the archive earlier today.
my optical drive would not recognise it as a cd.

oh wow, thanks for this.

i have said it many time, love, with all my heart Kingsize, it's such a great album if you remove "Free Huey."

never did link this to this thread: Just a simple song but God I love it Embedded in me, so bittersweet I’m addicted, I’m a melancholic Sing it again, I’ll be your Poll forever: THE BOO RADLEYS - ILM artist poll #60 or new numbering #65

rub it in bee ..
would have loved to have added it to the archive today.

Wake Up! is commonly viewed as their "pop" album because of the big hit single that they had from the album, but I actually think Kingsize is their "pop" album. The production on it is a lot more fuller, smoother and glossier than on previous efforts, and the songwriting (on the whole) is far more accessible, even if it retains the "room with many doors" approach on several tracks. Word has it that the record company got heavily involved in the making of Kingsize and tried to steer the band in a more commercial direction after C'mon Kids was seen to be deliberate attempt to scare the 'Wake Up Boo!' fans (which the band always denied) and this is ultimately why neither Martin or Sice have any real fond memories of making the record. Nevertheless, even with their most slickest and most accessible record to date, the idea of the Boo Radleys suddenly selling a massive truckload of records in 1998 was a laughable one. I still prefer both Wake Up! and C'mon Kids to Kingsize, although I heard Everything's Alright Forever recently and found it to be mostly awful, apart from 'Smile Fades Fast', 'Memory Babe', 'Does This Hurt?' and a couple of others.

The story I read was that the band turned 'Kingsize' into Creation and McGee described it as something along the lines of "not even a bunch of c-sides!", so the band were dispatched to write a single - "Free Huey". Which makes sense, given how much of a sore thumb it is on the album.

The artwork was horrible. I picked up a promo of it cheap not long after release, the plain yellow sleeve was an improvement. I'd go as far as to say 'Kingsize' is my favourite Boos album, loved it at the time.

That Pitchfork top 50 Britpop albums list sent me back to 'Giant Steps' for the first time in years.

yeah, I got those yellow promos from MVE

hung around for that Kingsize single promo (blue) but it was worth it.

Alan McGee never understood this band. There were two types of band on Creation Records, there were the Alan McGee bands (Oasis, Primal Scream etc.) and then there were the Dick Green bands, and the Boo Radleys were definitely a Dick Green band.

oh but XTRMNTR is one of *those* albums right

Yeah, I'd say so. Vanishing Point, too!

Each of those Primal Scream albums destroy the Boo Radleys... and we're not even talking about 'Screamadelica' here.

Not even close, but the Boo Radleys speak to me on an emotional level that very few bands achieve.

I don't really like Kingsize (sorry, worst biggest fan ever, ever)

I don't know why people are suddenly so down on EAF - I think it's fantastic.

Revisiting Giant Steps which has always struck me as a product of its time and left me completely cold. The only way I can really explain how I feel about this is to go track by track:

"I Hang Suspended" – solid Boo pop. Hard to deny.
"Upon 9th and Fairchild" – godawful guitar noise and dub. Dated in about a hundred ways – and stops the album's momentum cold just as it's begun.
"Wishing I Was Skinny" – poss. their first really Boo-ish tune. Love the new wave-y organ at the end.
"Leaves and Sand" – shoegaze-y and kind of unremarkable from a melodic standpoint.
"Butterfly McQueen" – more dub bass, gah, tho the trumpet is a nice touch. Contrast between the soft vocal section is interesting. More shoegaze guitar but interesting deconstruction at the end.
"Rodney King – Song for Lenny Bruce" – nice transition from the previous song. Interesting groove, more electronic than anything to this point.
"Thinking of Ways" – a preview into Wake Up-style melodicism and baroque arrangements. Love the "head full of beer" lyric. Alas, the noisy guitars enter to remind us that they're a rock band near the end.
"Barney (...And Me)" – a nod to New Order ca. 1987? Regardless, it's not particularly compelling as a song and seems to try to get by on its driving energy.
"Spun Around" – maybe a bit of a preview into what inspired C'mon Kids. Guitar noise here seems to transcend some of the more bro-ish tendencies elsewhere on the record.
"If You Want It, Take It" – the most straightforward thing on the disc to this point. Four piece indie pop, with organ and guitar solos. Fine I suppose.
"Best Lose the Fear" – bouncy tune and interesting chords, excellent chorus and, perhaps not coincidentally, one of the simpler things on the album. Clarinet is a nice touch. Perhaps drags on a bit long.
"Take the Time Around" – slamming guitars wake us from our slumber, bounces back and forth between jangle pop and driving New Order noise pop. An early example of Carr's "Choose Your Own Adventure" structuring, tho none of the melodies are particularly compelling.
"Lazarus" – ah, the dub shit again. Break into the melody is welcome however, and there are some lovely textures here and the brass bit is one of the few places on the record where the loud guitars work without reservation.
"One Is For" – acoustic interlude, threatens to burst into shoegaze noise but thankfully never does.
"Run My Way Runway" – again, feels like a bit of a lean into where the Boos would go two albums later, constructing tunes out of texture and Sice's vocals. Pretty cool.
"I've Lost the Reason" – "Sha la la la" vocals and an intimate intro melody that presages the middle section of "Monuments for a Dead Century." Second section kind of a neat swinging guitar groove, a little flugelhorn to Bacharach things up, a touch of flute and chorus near the end, this is one of Martin's better early-ish creations.
"The White Noise Revisited" – an early entry in the Boo's ambiguous "hey kid, its all gonna be ok...I think" album closers. Almost a bit of a Elephant Six feel to parts of this one, before resolving into a befuddled singalong to close things out.

Long and the short, this feels like the Boo's Annie Hall – the first place where people took notice that this was a talent to reckon with but in retrospect less a breakthrough than a transitional album and far more grounded in earlier influences than it appeared at the time. Interesting but not always successful – with lots of signposts toward their next three albums.

boooooooooo....!

The only songs I don't like much are the two singles - Wish I Was Skinny and Barney.

I love 'Barney (...And Me)', it reminds me of The Cure.

Three singles, surely. ("I Hang Suspended")

yeah but I like IHS

i don't like the particular jangle of the acoustic guitar on Barney. The lyrics feel chirpy and cheap, a bit like It's Lulu or Free Huey or C'Mon Kids. Always felt that the Boos picked their least interesting songs as singles.

cmon kids title track is amazing

it has *that bit* in it

They got progressively better with each album. C'mon Kids and Kingsize should be their albums which are celebrated.

Wake Up! should be celebrated more, it's not the shiny happy pop album almost everyone makes it out to be, either lyrically or compositionally. It's quite a sad, downbeat record.

I think I've said this before, but that album is the best example of the difference between what I *thought* the lyrics were and what they actually were. Total depress-o-rama set to the catchiest tunes this side of catchy.

I'm starting to make my peace with a lot of '90s UK guitar music... there was a period of a few years where, with one or two exceptions, it was the last thing I wanted to hear.

I'm starting to make my peace with a lot of '90s UK guitar music... there was a period of a few years where, with one or two exceptions, it was the last thing I wanted to hear.

this.

yesterday i added my creation cds to the archive thinking i would never ever get any enjoyment out of them.
so randomly earlier today, i listened to the 18 wheeler album, year zero, and totally and utterly loved every minute of it.
was weird given that at the time it came out it did nothing for me.

They got progressively better with each album. C'mon Kids and Kingsize should be their albums which are celebrated.

agreed

I must have played "C'mon Kids" about twice, it didn't click with me. And seeing as it was a promo, I'd stopped playing it before bit had even come out. Liked the single b-sides more.

Anyway, last year I got the deluxe edition, and found that it was great after all.

While we're all here, I got the Rainbow Ffollies album 'Sallies forth' recently, and some of it definitely reminds me of the Boos, so see if you think so, why not?

About seven years ago, Stuart Campbell (yes, the video game journalist) did an alternate tracklisting for C'mon Kids which includes some B-sides of the period substituted for some of the album tracks.

If I was trying to slim down Giant Steps I'd be happy to lose these ones: Thinking of Ways, Spun Around, Best Lose The Fear and The White Noise Revisited

No.

Anyway, one time I tried to make a version with the long version of Lazarus, but it did not work. The slightly edited version was better.

sorry guys but I have to step in here and say: Giant Steps is one of the very greatest albums ever made, and Kingsize... isn't

but yeah, Wake Up is a hugely underrated record. I hear C'Mon Kids as the big (Brit)pop album really. That album is like 'what if Oasis really were obsessed with the Beatles?'. Wake Up, as expressed upthread, is the psych-oustic diary of someone who's going through some very difficult quarter-life crisis stuff and it's also a fantastic collection of songs.

Does anyone else appreciate them as a songs band, but not an album band?

There was a great run of 12"s that were essential back in the day but the LPs that followed weren't as good. Ichabod probably my favourite. #rockist

If I was trying to slim down Giant Steps I'd be happy to lose these ones: Thinking of Ways, Spun Around, Best Lose The Fear and The White Noise Revisited

― Warren's Treat (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Saturday, April 1, 2017 7:51 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, I'd gladly lose 'Spun Around', but I'd keep the rest. 'One Is For' is really the only other track I'd lose.

we changed your mind about Kingsize during their poll dog latin, sad that didn't last.

it's not a bad album by any means but there's no comparison. Some of the production choices are very much of their time and the artwork is atrocious. it's got some great songs on there but it's also got Free Huey cluttering up the front half while the last third drags a bit for me. I'd lose one or two tracks.

Not enough dub for dog latin

'Comb Your Hair" was going to be the third Kingsize single, but Martin decided to split the band rather than have to play it ever again.

Comb Your Hair sounds like a rehash of Pulp's Something Changed to me. I'd probably drop it

Blimey that Martin Carr single is awful, it's like the office HR manager's sparetime band or something.

I love Giant Steps, it's one of those Tusk/White Album records where all the songs make a lovely single piece, including the less-good-bits and the ones that go on forever. Never really liked anything after that except "Ride the Tiger".

'Gold Lift' is better than 'Free Huey.' God, that song is irredeemable. The last minute feels like an hour.

DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE
DON'T YOU KNOW AND YOU GOTTA BE ALL YOU CAN BE

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes/hazards/primer/images/volc-images/puuoo.jpg

sure "Free Huey" is their worst song and did not make our Top 40 in the Boo Radleys poll. they also released their best song "Kingsize" around this time. "Comb Your Hair" is such a great song, made my ballot.

Weird how high New Brighton Promenade made it in that poll. Some very interesting results. Firesky at number 10 is a surprise too. Still sour that Blues For George Michael didn't even place

re: Kingsize. I feel like, starting about the time of C'Mon Kids, Carr became a great pop composer but his lyrical output was starting to wane, and this is felt very strongly on Kingsize. The lyrics on GS were always very personal but often shrouded in ambiguity, whereas on Kingsize and on later solo releases they become very literal almost to the extreme. Gold Lift is the most obvious example of 'bash-you-over-the-head-with-the-message' songwriting, but it started a lot earlier. Jimmy Webb, for example, has some lovely orchestration but the lyrics are really trite and simpering. I'd have called it a b-side. Monuments for A Dead Century, Melodies For The Blind, are musically fine but again I find the message is broadcast just a bit too brightly. There's no mystery or intrigue. Even on Wake Up, like, you knew he was singing about his life but not SPECIFICALLY so, and the weakest moments on that album (It's Lulu) told it exactly as it was.

Baby's gone but there'll be more
I'm only twenty three
My hair is thin, my size is large
What have I done to me
Pretty soon I'll fix a drink
Though I've been told it will kill me

"ambiguity"

The thing is, while there's plenty to praise about this band, I'm not convinced that Carr has ever been a particularly great lyricist. I think the lyrics fluctuated in quality from song to song, rather than album to album.

He's had a pretty thick head of hair, himself.

Sice's hair, well..

"I don't really need, to be the way I are"

(shudd)

The rest is OK, but.

that always really bugged me. then again Timbaland did it too and no one blinked

Yeah, but Martin was supposed to be some sort of lyricist.

Baby's gone but there'll be more
I'm only twenty three
My hair is thin, my size is large
What have I done to me
Pretty soon I'll fix a drink
Though I've been told it will kill me
"ambiguity"

― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Tuesday, April 11, 2017 3:40 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

See I really love that lyric but when he gets all agit-prop and expressive I find it really hard going (Twinside notwithstanding). That lyric feels legitimately like something you'd think when you get home drunk and heartbroken, whereas by the time he gets to C'Mon Kids he's using these weak cod-psychedelic metaphors about painting your life with colours.. Also: 'a fuel infected car'. Also: 'Monkeys dressed in uniforms thinking they own the place / Threatening to break my face'. There are a lot of cringey lyrics post-Wake Up that I just don't notice on their first few albums.

I'm still trying to figure out how Monuments for a Dead Century didn't even place in the poll. It's probably my favorite thing they ever did and the arrival of the final section is a thing of beauty that they only really perfected by Kingsize.

i don't like the bit where they spell out 'millenium'

A little hard to listen to these days. 'Giant Steps' sometimes moves me a bit, particularly "I Hang Suspended" but the bah-bah-ba-bah harmonies wear thin on me in 2017.

Xpost clearly not, otherwise you'd have been able to spell millennium.

(smiley)

apparently they did it themselves when they first wrote the song and then had to work a way to change it

True.

'Monuments for a Dead Century' is ace! One of my favourite things on Kingsize, definitely. Listening back, Kingsize probably has the slickest, fattest sounding production of all their records.

you think? to me it sounds a little dry and plasticky. very '1998'. the psychedelic flute flourishes on Monuments sound like tacked-on psychedelic signifiers rather than the real thing

Yup, although it is undoubtedly the least psychedelic of all their albums.

so... this new Martin Carr album... best thing he's done since the Boos or?

Have to agree with Carr about his previous album, The Breaks, which was stuffed with nice tunes but stylistically sounded like it came out 20 years ago.

I prefer The Breaks to the new album, but the new one is great too. I think the Breaks is his best LP with or without the Boos.

i had no idea Martin Carr had a new album, thanks for letting me know.

and it's on Spotify here in the States!

interesting opinion brotherlovesdub, i even bought the CD of The Breaks but for me it's not the Boo Radleys.

I connected with the lyrics to Mainstream, and the overall lyrical themes of the album. I find it very easy to listen to all the way through.

I prefer The Breaks to the new album, but the new one is great too. I think the Breaks is his best LP with or without the Boos.

― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, November 16, 2017 7:33 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wow, this is quite a statement

I bought it on vinyl (the Breaks) because it came out at a time when I'd been thinking about the Boos a lot, but yeah it wasn't my cuppa really. Sounded like Martin trying to sound like someone trying to sound like the Boo Radleys or something. Very Britpop but none of the weirdness that I know he's good at.

I didn't come in wanting weirdness. It's very straightforward, overall very mellow and lyrically down a bit, but I just find it really pleasing to listen to. I don't have to skip any songs and I find myself either singing along to the lyrics or nodding my head in agreement. I like the Boos, but there are several songs on every album that I have to skip. I'm not much of a guitar person, so shrieking guitars and feedback usually make me want to skip the track.

So way back when, I talked to Tim and Rob. (Subscribers only!)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/interviews-from-32425553

I really like 'Kingsize', would happily take "Free Huey" off but otherwise think it's really good, a teenage favourite. I have the promo CD in a yellow sleeve so I also don't have to see the atrocious official artwork.

I have 'The Breaks' but have yet to listen to it.

The last thing the Boos released was a cover of a song from Bugsy Malone - and only as the b-side of a single that was cancelled after promos went out. It's on soundcloud for a day or so.

Was definitely available elsewhere because I put a copy in my end of year mix one year.

https://www.discogs.com/The-Boo-Radleys-Find-The-Way-Out/release/742208

Sure you didn't get a copy of the promo?

https://www.discogs.com/The-Boo-Radleys-Kingsize/release/384046

(Fair play about the later comp, I didn't proof the uploader's claim)

Is it weird that, after 20+ years, the Boos song I return to most is 'Joel'?

"Tomorrow" is on the Boo Radleys best-of collection "Find the answer within"

One track, "Superintendent", remains otherwise unreleased.

are YOU sure you don't mean The Boo Radleys, Classic or Dud?

Well...

i'm pretty sure i voted for "Tomorrow" on our artist Boo Radleys poll. i remember hearing it for the first time and thinking what another great B-Side from this band, had no idea it was a cover at the time. also one of the last new songs i would ever hear from them. fast forward to sort of recently and the Jodi Foster movie was on and i happened to catch the song in the movie where a kid was singing it or something like that.

i don't see this posted on this thread, so for reference:
Just a simple song but God I love it Embedded in me, so bittersweet I’m addicted, I’m a melancholic Sing it again, I’ll be your Poll forever: THE BOO RADLEYS - ILM artist poll #60

I know there's some huge Giant Steps fans here, so figured you might be interested in this re-up on one of my favorite blogs:

https://wilfullyobscure.blogspot.com/2017/05/boo-radleys-giant-steps-demos-1992-93.html

I remember Martin Carr hosting a load of demos on his website, in "Real Audio" (remember that?) along with some live takes. They sounded very telephone. Will have to see what these are like.

These are quite rough. Still fun for fans!

oh wow, i have never heard these before. downloading now and thanks Evan!

the download worked but don't have the software on my computer to play...minor details but i like to just play everything on Spotify these days

Thursday May 28th
8pm (U.K. time)

Giant Steps is getting the #TimsTwitterListeningParty  treatment - @martin_carr will take us on a track by track journey around The Boo Radleys’ seminal album

Come with us pic.twitter.com/lvh2b7dBl4

— Tim Burgess (@Tim_Burgess) May 24, 2020

Giant Steps getting the Listening Party treatment on twitter tonight at 8:05 uk time

(watch out for my friend stephen posting work-in-progress pics of the original art)

Meanwhile, in a bedsit flat on Huskisson Street, Liverpool 8, circa '92/'93... pic.twitter.com/mdSLTSBgRQ

— Stephen A. Wood (@stephen_a_wood) May 28, 2020

You can see from the top that it's just one of those paper lamp shades with photocopies stick on it, but it did the job.

oh wow, nice. thanks for posting this.

Who else listened in / tweeted last night? I found Martin and Sice very good at it (though Martin's self-deprecation bordered on OTT self-criticism at times). I like (well, not sure if that's the right word) the fact that neither of them like the one I don't like either ('Spun Around').

I'm sad i missed this although people were saying that Martin wasn't really acknowledging Sice too much, despite a number of olive branches being extended. not sure how much to read into it though

I wouldn't have said that was true. Have a read through of it.

there was a point where I loved Spun Around. Cut from the same cloth as Upon 9th and Fairchild. I've come to find that the more enduring moments in their catalogue are the darker, more psychedelic songs for me. It's straight-up twee fare like Barney which I never got on with

xp I will. I'm not very good at navigating twitter tho

Actually, I've been back through it and he doesn't say much about Sice. There was this:

I always loved playing this live.

Poor Sice, having to sing drivel like this.

— Martin Carr (@martin_carr) May 28, 2020

I read Martins tweets, I didn't see Sice's

JULY 8. pic.twitter.com/5OeJSKPZAL

— The Boo Radleys (@theboo_radleys) July 4, 2021

Could Martin be on board for this?

For what?

There was some press about the other three being in the studio together, plus they were due to play some gigs as Sice Boo & The Radleys. This appears to be hinting at something happening under the actual name of The Boo Radleys, which you'd assume would need to include Martin, who has appeared quite reluctant to reform the band. If this is an actual reunion, I wouldn't expect them to use the name if Martin wasn't involved.

Cautiously optimistic. What's w/ the accounts they're following? Maybe just trying to gin up some Britpop nostalgia once the news breaks?

A new single. Tune into @steve_lamacq on @BBC6Music this afternoon to hear it first. pic.twitter.com/bL7co4tPMU

— The Boo Radleys (@theboo_radleys) July 7, 2021

I missed it, but I think the show'll be up soon.

#Firstplay: "A Full Syringe And Memories Of You" by The Boo Radleys on BBC Radio 6 Music

https://scontent-mia3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/182141682_116144803945611_210419184829450941_n.jpg

Uploaded May 4th (lol). I guess the hardcore fans disappeared.

https://i.imgur.com/jM3m3yb.jpg

Meant to link that.

according to their fb martin isn't involved, it's just the other three lol

Ugh. Yuck. I dunno about that.

https://open.spotify.com/track/15EihUMaEeYbcHPRQukpFL?si=3dfc576ea3a649b4

Well, if it's tomorrow for any of you, check out the song and report back... please? The little horn sample's got me thinking it's not gonna go well.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/boo-radleys-to-reunite-as-sice-boo-the-radleys-for-2021-shiiine-on-festival-2803454

And there you go.

laughable

Oh, well, that link is old and someone upthread already mentioned Sice & Boos. But clearly Martin's not joining.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000xlrs

Song's at about 40 minutes if you're feeling curious...

I don't hate it. But kinda amazed they're using the Boos name. When I saw the 'Sice Boo & The Radleys' listing I thought fair enough, makes it clear that it's not going to be the full band

Could be much worse, but it’s not the same band.

oh wow, no matter what i am excited about this. with or without Martin. can't seem to listen to this in the states as of yet.

the sounds link should work, it's not geoblocked

Agreed that I am interested even without Martin's participation, but it does feel disingenuous to call it the Boo Radleys (maybe Ruse Badlys?).
I didn't realize Martin wasn't involved when I first heard the new track and though it is a bit slight and straight forward, I didn't guess it either. Decent melodies and Sice's vocals sound better (smoother, younger maybe) than I expected. Honestly, it could easily slot on Kingsize or Martin's recent records for that matter. At least as good as any Eggman tracks that I can remember.

Mixing is a bit weak and demoey, but yeah it's not a world away from Kingsize

I assume Martin's OK with all this...

yeah, a bit like when Crabbie got the all clear to continue to use PWEI.

If this is the only means of seeing them live (never did back in the day) and Martin has firmly said he'll never do it then I'll take it, to be honest. It is disappointing as a reunion of the proper lineup with them getting their dues was something I'd always hoped for

Well this sounds.... like the Boo Radleys, as in it could easily have been lifted from a Kingsize session and it's giving me the same goose pimples I haven't had since I was eighteen and bought my last new Boos release. Whether I can love it in the same way with 23 year's hindsight is another matter.

Those brass announcements are pure Lazarus rebooted. There's something ever so slightly ploddy about the drums in certain parts and it's missing the more leftfield experimentation I like about them. But it's good, I like it well enough!

> There's something ever so slightly ploddy about the drums in certain parts

it's the original drummer by the look. and personally i was hoping for something more like ichabod and less like newer boos.

just received the PR for this release.

"The four members, including influential guitarist and songwriter, Martin Carr, retreated from life as The Boo Radleys shortly after the release of sixth album, Kingsize.

Having been largely out of contact since the end of the sessions for that final album, all members of The Boo Radleys have come together in recent years to discuss future plans. As a result, The Boo Radleys in 2021 are Tim Brown (bass/guitar/keyboards), Sice (guitar/vocals) and Rob Cieka (drums). Martin Carr does not appear in the current line-up.
"

Sice is a psychotherapist last I heard.

Why did you want to reform the Boo Radleys?

Sice: Nobody had the idea to reform the group. It is something that has evolved naturally. I invited Tim to attend my 50th birthday party. While exchanging, we found that neither of us had made music for years. We said to each other: why not get back together? We started sending each other files to exchange ideas. Very quickly, Rob joined us. At no time did we find ourselves in the same room. Everything was done remotely. Without really noticing it, we have accumulated a good stock of songs. All were finalized.

Did you hesitate before thinking about making them public?

Sice: Honestly, yes. We didn't really know what to do with it. Only one thing was clear in our mind, we didn't want to release them as The Boo Radleys. The first idea that sprouted was to give a few concerts. We have planned dates under the name of Sice Boo & The Radleys. We had other ideas for names that were just as crazy (laughs). With the containment, we had to cancel them.

Why did you change your mind about the name of the group?

Sice: I went to visit Martin Carr (former guitarist and composer of the group, editor's note ) in Wales for a day. I asked him if he wanted to join the group. He was honest and preferred to decline. He has other plans in mind at the moment. On the other hand, he told me that it was useless to play under another name. He was the one who urged me to use the Boo Radleys name again.

https://section-26.fr/the-boo-radleys-pour-notre-retour-on-fuit-la-pression/?fbclid=IwAR3rdDD0db5Mz3zmFGUYMvAubo4q168-wMBd4LGM-lOJjaIKkET4aj60Yfc

Well, fair enough then.

Yeah can’t argue.

EP is up on Spotify. I would say it's largely unmemorable. I don't mind "Life Is Getting Better" but other than that it's just whatever

I think the songs are OK, but the mixing and vocal processing are really poor. Title song is genuinely great though

They got out the gate wrong with the artwork and song title. They have the definite stench of a failed project.

Weird, ugly font. What’s that mannequin doing on there? Overwrought, over-serious title. I dunno. Just felt like a flop before I even heard Martin was out.

Cover looks like a sub-C'mon Kids idea

I'm hoping the shows will at least be fun

Don't mind the cover; it's got a sort of Blade Runner vibe to it, but the title is really clunky and I'm surprised they didn't just call it 'Syringe" or "Memories of You"

Despite the weird sound, I've played the title song to death. Musically it's a great impression of the Kingsize era, even if the other songs don't come close

Yeah I thought the title song wasn't bad at all. A few hallmarks that date it quite badly (like the middle-eighth sung down the telephone part), and the Lazarus brass which seems like a cop out, but hey it's okay

Well, I guess they announced an album.

https://thebooradleys.tmstor.es/product/87786

esponding to the warm welcome that greeted news of their reformation earlier this year, The Boo Radleys announce the release of their first album of all-new music in 24 years, the 11-track Keep On With Falling, which emerges on Fri 11 March 2022 on their own Boostr label.

CD1
1 I've Had Enough I'm Out
2 Keep On With Falling
3 All Along
4 I Say A Lot Of Things
5 Tonight
6 A Full Syringe And Memories Of You
7 Call Your Name
8 Here She Comes Again
9 You And Me
10 I Can't Be What You Want Me To Be
11 Alone Together

2CD BONUS TRACKLIST:
1 I'll put the bars around my heart - alternative version (previously unreleased)
2 Thieves like us - New Order cover (previously unreleased)
3 All Along - Alternative version (previously unreleased)
4 Tonight - Alternative version (previously unreleased)
5 I can't be what you want me to be - Piano version (previously unreleased)
6 Alone Together - Alternative version (previously unreleased)
7 See It Through (previously released digitally on the “A Full Syringe And Memories Of You” EP)
8 Life Is Getting Better (previously released digitally on the “A Full Syringe And Memories Of You” EP)
9 I'll Put The Bars Around My Heart (previously released digitally on the “A Full Syringe And Memories Of You” EP)

missed this until now. i went to order and have not bought a CD in like five years. the postage to California is $11.50 so i'm going to wait.

thanks for the post afriendlypioneer

Sank £30 for the signed vinyl, just need to get Martin's signature

Martin's?

Martin Carr is not in the new Boo Radleys

Um, break it gently, yeah?

tbf, he did say "just need to " rather than "just to"

This is even worse than the shit SFA have been pulling recently. afriendlypioneer why do you insist on being the bearer of bad news lol

While it's nice to hear Eggman's voice again, I am not into the new stuff

Well I got my Division Bell signed by Waters

I'm optimistic there'll be some other worthwhile songs on the album, although I wonder if them going out as the Boos will sour Martin to the idea of ever rejoining them, even if it was his suggestion

ha xp

If he wasn’t into a reunion before, I don’t think the current material, or lack of reception from the world in general, will inspire him. This things getting no attention.

Perhaps not.

NEW SINGLE - https://t.co/fwSIrOf87F

— Martin Carr & What Future (@martin_carr) November 24, 2021

No bravecaptain, no credibility

It's good and I like the approach - reminds me of some of the weirder Boos stuff - but I always think he mixes his vocals a little too dry and upfront so they make his lyrics sound really on the nose even when they aren't

Being the second biggest Boo fan on this board, I went ahead and ordered the 2CD set. I was only lukewarm on the single that I heard but I bought the new Spoon CD so buying another CD this month seemed to be fine.

I'm guessing I'm the third biggest, but who?

Anyway, whassitlike? Or has it not arrived yet?

I just don't know what to make of the new stuff. It's definitely Boo Radleys flavoured, but it's more like eating one of those very realistic veggie burgers that are made to look and taste like real meat and if you close your eyes and pretend you don't know what real meat tastes like, it's great

So far it's alright. The lyrics aren't particularly strong and the overall spark that Martin would usually bring is missing. They would be better off getting an outside pair of ears to mix the record rather than doing it 100% in-house

I'm guessing I'm the third biggest, but who?

Anyway, whassitlike? Or has it not arrived yet?

Thread starter

It has not

In case you're interested, Martin has put all the material he wrote for David Quantick's Snodgrass (based on the Ian MacLeod short story about a middle-aged Lennon, who had left the Beatles pre-fame) up on Bandcamp. It was a 30min Sky Arts film with Ian Hart in 2013, and was supposed to be become a feature (with my friend Chris attached to direct), but Ian Hart didn't want to play Lennon for the umpteenth time, and it all seems to have fallen through - hence a clutch of unused songs.

I get why they reused the name, likely cuz this thing would get even less attention than it’s getting now, but it seems pretty clear few people were clamoring for the return of the Boos. I hardly knew this was out til I saw the thread.

xp don't know why I click on this thread as I only really like one album (EAF) but glad I did as Snodgrass is one of my favourite stories and I had no idea about any of that!

The Sky Arts thing is on YouTube (not great quality, mind), I think.

They weren’t going to use the name, but Martin said they should.

Yeah, this is a perfectly nice album, better than I expected based on the other songs on the EP.

This album is good and so much better than it has any right to be. I guess if you take 24 years off and decide to come back then it should be worth it and I think this is worth it. That being said, I really don't consider this a Boo Radleys album, you can't lose your songwriter and expect it to be the same band. I look at this more like a follow up to that Eggman record from the 90s.

I really like that Eggman record. Not heard it in years though

Yeah, played that Eggman album a fair bit. Added "turn all your lies to truth" to mixtapes at the time

I see there's a cheap (deluxe) download available at the Boos Official merch site, ok I'm gonna get one tomorrow...

I cannot really get into that Eggman albun nor even less the Paperlung effort but I think the new Boos is kinda charming. Sorry.

*album

It's pretty great. Big hugs from the Boos.

Now got Kingsize on and bawling my eyes out. Oh dear oh dear.

I agree the new one is pretty good. Kingsize is probably my favorite but I have been over that here before and yes it can make me cry too.

Kingsize is a 10/10 genius album. Love it to death

I usually don't share reviews but this one is spot on except I think I like it better
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-boo-radleys-keep-on-with-falling/

i still have not received my signed copy from the Boo Radleys store but it is on streaming here in the US and am able to listen to it

A new album, called "Eight"

However, they seem to be touring a "Giant Steps revisited" show, and are playing South Street Arts Centre in Reading, 13th June.

What, really? I feel like the only one on earth who loved their last album.

Ya, rlly.

I bought the d/l with the live gig. Made it through five tracks, um yeah.

Still, tempted to go see...

Not going to defend it as it's lacking without Mattin Carr guitar work but I ended up playing it over and over and over again. Can't believe how much I warmed up to it. Just yesterday I woke up singing "Tonight." That doesn't happen very often but also the second half is better.

Will try it again tomorrow

New song is gash, I'm sorry to say. But well up for the Giant Steps tour

Can anyone see the venues and dates anywhere? Can't seem to find them

Three dates beyond the above on songkick, tix currently only available to purchasers of the new album.

Yeah wasn't keen on the last album - has a band member's absence ever felt so pronounced? - but I will happily see them do Giant Steps.

https://i.imgur.com/kZYouM7.jpg

Eight

CD1:
1. Seeker
2. The Unconscious
3. Hollow
4. Skeleton Woman
5. Sorrow (I Just Want To Be Free)
6. Sometimes I Sleep
7. Swift's Requiem
8. The Way I Am
9. A Shadow Darker Than The Rest
10. Wash Away That Feeling
11. When I Find It Hard
12. Now That's What I Call Obscene
13. How Was I To Know

CD2:
1. Seeker (Full Version)
2. Skeleton Woman (Extended Version)
3. Sometimes I Sleep (Alternative Version)
4. A Shadow Darker Than The Rest (Piano Version)
5. The Hollow (Alternative Version)
6. I Won't Be There With You
7. That Ain't A Way Of Life
8. Now I Know
9. All Things Must Pass Live At The Cavern (2022)
10. Spaniard Live At The Cavern (2022)
11. Find The Answer Within Live At The Cavern (2022)

Out June 9, 2023 via Boostr

The Reading tickets seem to be available now

Actually not minding "Seeker" at all

The b-side is nice too

The album is alright. Marginally better than last year's LP, mostly because of Seekerm vaguely bossa-ish Skeleton Woman and britgum-ish Now That's What I Call Obscene (sounding more like McFly than the new McFly metal riffola album).

Oh, it's out today!

Thought this was about the Giant Steps remaster, etc.

I bought this, just like the last album. Not sure why as I don't buy CD's anymore but I do it for this band. I will get a bonus CD but going from London to Los Angeles so I don't have it yet.

It's on Spotify, so looking forward to listening tonight.

Is this Giant Steps tour going to be any good without Martin? The London gig hasn't sold out yet so I could possibly go, but I'm not convinced.

Yeah, it’ll be great

The last album to me made some sense as it had a Boo Radleys sound. The problem with that is you no longer have Martin Carr who's the real genius. I grew to like the album and played it many times last year. This album is different, not a 180 turn but a turn nonetheless. It was strange as I felt like it had no guitar's until about 3/4 through it. These songs are just different so it's throwing me for a loop.

Just seen their first set (they're coming back out to do Giant Steps in a bit). First time I've seen them since 1992.

Sounds like fun. I got to see them back in the day and even at Lollapalooza.

Wish I was there and looking forward to your review.

That was actually really good. Glad I went.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Qldx37Gz8

A belated review of sorts (of the London gig). Sice had got the stage times wrong (which he apologised for) as he got them mixed up with the following night, so they came on at 8pm for the first set instead of 8:30pm and I missed the first 20 minutes or so. Everything I heard from this set was new (either from the new new album or the one a year or two ago) so I didn't know them, but I was surprised to find I quite liked these songs. The exception was The Finest Kiss, which they closed with. As you can see from Paul's video above, they were augmented by a pretend Martin, which solved the missing guitar sound problem that had been making me reluctant to go to the gig originally.

The Giant Steps set later was pretty faithful to the album and did a good job of recreating the sound live (e.g. the feedback sounds at the start of Upon 9th and Fairchild). They played nearly every track: Sice announced mid-set that they would be missing out 'the shit noisy one' and asked 'how many people really want to hear Run My Way Runway?' - the answer was a lot of us, so he said he'd go and get a hoover and mike it up as this would do the job. It was largely in order apart from a medley section (can't remember exactly what was in this - One Is For definitely, maybe Spun Around and Best Lose The Fear). They messed up the opening to If You Want It, Take It twice before finally getting it right and then Sice got the chorus wrong (singing the second bit twice instead of "there's nothing bright about being undecided"). The only problem sonically was that Tim was singing the "do you know my name before you tear me apart? do you care who I am?" lines from Rodney King and it was almost inaudible, which was odd because his backing vocals were clear most of the rest of the time. I was surprised at how many people were there and the band seemed delighted by the audience response - broad smiles on their faces at the 'ba-ba-ba-ba's from the crowd during Lazarus. I took little video clips, but no whole songs. If I can be bothered I could stitch them together and put them on YouTube, but don't hold your breath.

Still not sure how I feel but came across this:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-boo-radleys/eight-review

Just found this sublime acoustic version of Everybird from a couple of years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kovwtpD26ng

Rob playing bass AND a bit of hi-hat too? Nice!

Why is C’mon Kids not on streaming?

are you also in the USA? might have something to do with Mercury records’ rights

It's on Spotify in the UK, um, kids .

Boo

At it not being on Spotify US

Boos fans. Don't skimp on the Eight album. I had some pretty strong assumptions which put me off listening. But after seeing them perform tonight, a mix of songs from the Wake Up / C'mon Kids albums, I thought I'd B2B the gig with theor latest album and honestly it's good.

Opener 'Seeker' is gooily optimistic. I heard it when it came out and noped out. After that it's like a continuation of the vibe they were checking into on Kingsize B-side "In A Galaxy Far Far Away". They try lots of different styles, dip their toes into the fun sound fx of the earlier days.
The lyrics aren't Martin's, but that was a document of an imaginative man in his twenties. These are the band's songs. Tim is a schoolteacher, Sice is a psychologist promoting mental health for musicians. They're doing what they love, and they're doing it well.
As for the gig, they were tight as fuck. Sice's voice is still astonishing. We were impressed by Tim and Rob's backing, especially the baselines. They played Almost Nearly There and Tomorrow for teh fanz (me). It was sick!
Eight is a good album!

Sorry about the "enthusiastic" spelling and grammar there

Wake Up needs a special edition release with Belvedere and the B sides on the end. I hate that Blues For George Michael isn't on the streaming services

I was toying with going to the London one but decided against it: Wake Up is the only one of theirs I never bought and Come On Kids is patchy. Did they play New Brighton Promenade?

Jealous but I did see them before in Hollywood back in the day and Lollapalooza.

I love Keep on With Falling and actually played it last week. I have only played Eight once despite buying the deluxe edition from the band. I will have to give it some more chances.

I'm watching Shinichiro Watanabe's (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) latest anime Lazarus. The Boo Radleys supply the wonderful ending song, also called Lazarus. I'm gonna need to do some exploring...!

shoe gazing poo, with trumpets

(can't remember what that's from, maybe Hit The North, but it's the band talking about i think specifically that track. they were adamant that nothing of their earlier stuff would be rereleased when they sign a major deal (well, creation) but made an exception for Lazarus because they all liked it and thought it deserved a bigger audience)

Ah, so that's an old song? I thought it was a new one done especially for the show. Huh: so their lyricist was already good back whenever that was?

The plot thickens!

1992, rereleased and remixed 1994, yeah

(i was a bit mistaken - only first lp and first 3 eps weren't on creation)

Would be fun if it became more streamed than Wake Up Boo (unlikely)

Hmm, I'll venture a shortcut then: kind ILMers -- if I love Lazarus, what album do I go for?

Nu, try Giant Steps and Everything’s Alright Forever?

Will do!!

i always go earlier, so Learning To Walk

ILM did a poll: Just a simple song but God I love it Embedded in me, so bittersweet I’m addicted, I’m a melancholic Sing it again, I’ll be your Poll forever: THE BOO RADLEYS - ILM artist poll #60 or new numbering #65

I need to update so the results show up, also a Spotify link which is a great listen.

TheNuNuNu (and anyone else)

Giant Steps is the one you want to try first, then work outward: For a more noise-driven, shoegazey sound you might wanna go back to Everything's Alright Forever and the Learning To Walk compilation.

If you want a bit more songwriterly, 60s-influenced whimsy then try Wake Up! (which is horrifically underrated - I'd say it's my second fave after GS).

I think the later C'mon Kids and Kingsize are fine albums with superb songs, although they've not aged fantastically and sound very-much of their time. I can't recommend the more recent reunion albums one way or another: I've listened to them both once-through and didn't hate them, but there's definitely some magic missing.

You might also like to try this mixtape I made of some of their B-sides and rarities.

In my view, the Boos were actually stronger in their deepest cuts than any of their A-sides. They were a highly experimental band, even during their ostensibly most "pop" phase. Listening back to this, you can hear just how eclectic they were - the music does NOT sit still for a second and it's far FAR away from the meat'n'potatoes Britpop they often get lumped in with.

This is just a selection of their B-sides. I deliberately picked the weirder, more skewed pieces, leaving-out stuff that had already been collected on Learning To Walk from their early work and focusing on the rooms-within-roomsiness of their imperial era.

I'll eventually put this up online in a more official capacity, but for now it can be downloaded or streamed here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1ydWlTnmM3Q9VtWd1R4uLxHg9JOexQP0N

Boo Radleys - …And Tomorrow The World

…and tomorrow the world
blues for george michaael
friendship song
i will always ask you where you’ve been even though i know the answer
atlantic
annie & marnie
let me be your faith
crow eye
nothing to do but scare myself
hi falutin
at the sound of speed
sunfly ii (walking with the kings)
wake up (music for astronauts)
tomorrow
spanish lizards
almost nearly there
in a galaxy far far away
wallpaper

Awesome. I'll grab that when I'm back somewhere I can get the computer connected to the Internet. For now I've just got an iphone and no appropriate headphones so I haven't wanted to try Giant Steps, but I've been reading about it -- sounds fascinating but also, just like anytime I read tour stories, it's painful to think how physically miserable album sessions were on young, just-getting-started musicians in the major label era... heavens bless the advent of cheap home recording...

Instead I've sampled several bravecaptain and solo Carr songs, because post-success periods captivate me, and the reputation of his post-Radleys stuff is either low or nonexistent, so I figured, tinny phone speaker or not, maybe won't matter... everything I've sampled is great though! It's playful, adventurous, sad -- heavy -- every song I tried has the same spiky, vulnerable, bittersweet feeling to it that made me fall for the lyrics and melodies of Lazarus right away. And sonically it's lo-fi-er from what I can tell, but swimming in the same ocean.

To be sure, awful lifestyle habits added to the misery -- that's just what it's like to be pretty young, I guess. Most people aren't going to have the self-discipline and substance-aversion of Ian Anderson... and even Ian lived off of cat food when he was writing Stand Up... I don't know! Just seems like artists had to pay a way bigger price in discomfort if they wanted to put out albums.

hey dog latin I just "requested access" to that link, which I guess goes to you. I'm not too familiar with google drive stuff! If it's OK that I check out yer mixtape too, of course...

Oh strange... maybe try this link?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/117Gp3Wl-GF2_DnQ2Blbtaf7JBcyYQIlc/view?usp=drivesdk

Looks like the link above might have been to my general mix folder, which is private currently but I've given you access in case you wanna go wild. Above link should work

One thing I noticed about Carr's songwriting is that it sounds LESS mature to me as he goes on. That's probably more to do with a tip towards more personal songwriting, which can sometimes come across as naif "dear diary" kind of stuff, whereas the earlier work is obfuscated and less tangible. I think the crux points are Giant Steps and Wake Up, which seem conceptually tied to the ups and downs of young adulthood - negotiating the wider world, early relationships, and, yes, overdoing it a bit with the old psychedelics. Later songwriting feels more personalised - the sound of someone who has found comfort in his world

aha! Got it thanks! I'll chop this file up into individual tracks later, too.

oh... that would be helpful actually if you wouldn't mind sharing :-)

i really do think that as a suite it challenges even Giant Steps as their best work. I also tried to make it flow really well, so that helps. One day I'll get myself a private pressing to vinyl

I'm at 48 minutes in now, and this is fantastic? You haven't supplied time markers for each song so I've no way of knowing what I'm listening to. But this big rave-up with the squelchy 303 and echoey samples is doing my head in. (In a pleasant way.)

xpost Nice idea, that. Wait did I get you copies of my old 4 CDR set of B-sides, I can't recall.

(And to everyone else now taking the plunge into Boos B-sides, d.l. has provided an excellent selection but it is truly nuts how much in general is out there. Those guys did not hold back!)

xpost Nice idea, that. Wait did I get you copies of my old 4 CDR set of B-sides, I can't recall.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 30 June 2025 15:58 (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm not sure if you did, but I spent a good portion of my youth and young adulthood tracking-down anything and everything I could, so I had my own one. I think I settled on a double-C90 of rarities and maybe another one of remixes and live bits in the end

I'm at 48 minutes in now, and this is fantastic? You haven't supplied time markers for each song so I've no way of knowing what I'm listening to. But this big rave-up with the squelchy 303 and echoey samples is doing my head in. (In a pleasant way.)

― Etherwave, Monday, 30 June 2025 15:57 (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, sorry, I kind of made it for myself really. But I have a big project where I'm going to start putting up a whole bunch of mixtapes online fairly soon, so I can do that.
I think the one you're talking about is either 'Sunfly II: Walking With The Kings' or a remix of their massive UK breakfast show mega-hit "Wake Up Boo" (here titled 'Music For Astronauts')

Sunfly II had a great distortion bliss-out but it wasn’t the exact one that grabbed me. Must be the remix (which isn’t on Spotify wah)

Classic. Everything's Alright Forever and Giant Steps are eternal -- the former being the best shoegaze record that isn't Loveless. Giant Steps is a masterpiece in its own right -- the album that got me through 1993. I like the rest of the catalog, too, with the exception of Kingsize (which I've never connected with). I like C'mon Kids more than most. I've not been able to bring myself to listen to the Carr-less, but this thread has changed my mind. Will report back...

C'mon Kids was, at the time, touted as a "back to weird" album after 'Wake up Boo's success. But in retrospect it's fairly conservative in its Britpoppy production, rawkin' lead singles, and Oasisish guitars. It's an album about mental escapism, but somehow the psychedelia feels forced.
Meltin's Worm is fun, but the cautionary tale is too obvious an attempt at Octopus's Submarine whimsy. At least two songs use the well-trodden metaphor of paintbox colours as emotions. There's a song about touring (classic Britpop-era 'third big album' fatigue). A vague attempt at socially-conscious hip-hop that doesn't really work. The album works best when the 'weird' catches up with them - 'Bullfrog Green', 'Four Saints' and 'New Brighton Promenade' are top-tier. And much as 'Ride The Tiger' has aged poorly and is lyrically naive, I love the Beta Band-esque sampledelic mid-section a great deal.

By comparison Wake Up sounds properly far-out, emotionally mature, strongly conceptual - like what my teenage mind thought a proper sixties album should sound like. It's Lulu was kind of terrible, but other than that it's a solid listen I always enjoy.

Fair assessment, DLC.

Everything Is Sorrow is the other one I love from that. That stretch into Bullfrog Green is fabulous.

This is the one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hUxZJYeB3A

It starts off like a complete straightforward song and then halfway through it dives off a cliff, turns into a rocket ship and blasts off into outer sapce.

Aye, the first half (the pop song) was by far their biggest hit in the UK. It was very much an attempt on Carr's part to write a "perfect" radio pop song. And in that it succeeded in spades, getting played to absolute death on morning radio, and becoming the 90s equivalent of 'Walking On Sunshine'.

Alas, while it did win them new fans (I think it was possibly the first song I heard by them), it did very little for the band's credibility. By Carr's admission, it made them look "very uncool", and for a lot of people it's the only song their even remembered for.

Shame really, especially when a closer look at the "You can't blame me now / For the death of summer... / You have to put the death in everything" mid-section reveals a much darker side to this ostensibly happy-clappy sunshine pop song. It's about coping with the paralysing depression of a loved one; about wanting to show them the beauty of the world when they refuse to leave their room.

That song also came with some of their best B-sides too. The extended remix Etherwave shared, the first three songs on my mixtape linked upthread, and a few other fun things including a weird chopp'd'n'screw'd interview with backwards, looped and pitch-shifted voices

*they're

There was a few years when could purchase all of those hard to find singles digitally in the U.S. Glad I grabbed them while I could.

It sounds like you guys might want to check this out too, if you haven't already:

https://wilfullyobscure.blogspot.com/2017/05/boo-radleys-giant-steps-demos-1992-93.html

Man, how is it any fun following bands when they're active. I love getting into some group where there's not only the classic albums but several adjacent, jeweled caves already lying open to explore

Okay I'll qualify that right away: following a band in real time gives you space to live with each release, that's pretty neat. But this Radleys sort of experience where I lift up a corner of the carpet to reveal a swirling cosmos beneath --- that feels really good

There's a lot to be said for growing up with a band, following the music in realtime. How each song or album or era gets woven into one's own memories. I adored them in the early 90s. Had a full size poster of the cover of Everything's Alright Forever on my bedroom wall. There are still songs that catapult me straight back to that friend's car, that lover's bedroom, the kitchen of a railroad apartment where I spent an illegal summer in NYC.

But coming to a band's catalogue as a whole, one gets a sense of the shape of their development all at once. One can see the missteps and (if you're lucky) the course corrections.

I just remember hating Wake Up! so much that I didn't buy the album. Didn't even buy the single. (So I never heard that magnificent remix above.) It just felt like a deliberate attempt to strip out everything I loved about the band (their fuzzy indistinct sound, their wild genre experimentation) in favour of the tedious bland Oasis-flavouried BritPop that was drowning everything I had loved. If I had know that they would have gone back to their wild ecclecticism I might have stuck it out. But I didn't.

Okay I'll qualify that right away: following a band in real time gives you space to live with each release, that's pretty neat. But this Radleys sort of experience where I lift up a corner of the carpet to reveal a swirling cosmos beneath --- that feels really good

― TheNuNuNu, Tuesday, 1 July 2025 08:10 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is an idea for a thread really.

Etherwave, Wake Up is a really good album. But then, it was my first one, and the one that introduced me to them. I was quite surprised at how wildly different they sounded before that. The annoying singles aside (It's Lulu is execrable), it's still a wonderfully eclectic record - think of a whole record made of songs like 'Thinking Of Ways' and 'I've Lost The Reason'. At least listen to 'Joel'.

C'Mon Kids is the one that sounds most retconned by Britpop to me. Wake Up is still very much their own thing. The difference in the music-scape between May 1995 and September 1996 is notable.

I might give it another chance with older and more mature ears, but at the time it felt ike SUCH a betrayal

'Wake Up Boo', despite being a being a very deliberate attempt on Carr's part to write a 'perfect pop song', really tarnished their credibility. And after that, on every album, there'd be at least a couple of not-very-good songs that may as well have had Alan McGee shouting "MAKE US ANOTHER HIT!" all over them. You can't say they didn't try a lot of things out, and I'd argue that even 'Wake Up Boo' is testament to their playfulness and artistic diversity. It was, in itself, an experiment.

I'm listening to Joel and it's OK but it's missing that fuzzy indistinct yearning quality that made Everything's Alright Forever so moreish to my ears

OK I'll bite, having a sleepless night and wish I didn't check my phone.

They are my favorite band of the 90s, though the Super Furry Animals does get close. I discovered them when I started to get into shoegaze bands and Everything's Alright Forever was my gateway. Then I discovered those three singles and that changed everything. Kaleidoscope EP, Every Heaven EP and the Boo Up! EP aka Learning to Walk, those 12 songs put their hooks in me and never let go. There five album run is great and could go on and on but as most know my love is for The Boo Radleys - Kingsize poll, which also happens to be my favorite song by them as well. I won't rehash everything I said in that thread but if you skip Free Huey then I think you have a perfect pop record. I know even Martin doesn't like it but the lyrics and emotion of what was happening in my life made me bond with that record like almost nothing else did or has done. I don't really count Ichabod and I though I do own it.

The new stuff is really not that good. I have played Eight a few times but can never get into it. Keep on with Falling is trying to extend what they did on Kingsize and I do like it but it doesn't have Carr playing so it is lacking. It sounds like a AOR record made for people who don't want anything heavy.

Love that others are discovering this wonderful band.

Oh god those early Creation EPs! Had them stuffed in to make up extra time at the end of a C90 tape. Aldous, The Finest Kiss, even just reading the names is so evocative of hazy bliss

I sort of get what is meant by the Britpop-ness of C'Mon Kids, but only to a small extent. The upfrontness of Sice's vocals compared to the early 90s definitely set things up differently, and the Oasis-ness of the title track and Ride The Tiger went over my head at the time - needless to say there are a ton of more interesting influences in those songs too. For the most part, I think I genuinely think it's their best envelope-pushing album though - it certainly sounded great and completely insane the week I bought it, ill and off school. Who needs drugs etc.

I wouldn't normally post my own stuff, but Sice sings on the outro section of the opening track on my album and I'm wondering if anyone can get the audible Boos 'in-joke' I had in mind in getting him of all people to appear when he does (no one has noticed, of course): https://themartialarts.bandcamp.com/album/in-there-like-swimwear-2

Man, I wish they'd re-release Learning To Walk. I kind of consider it as their "first" album as opposed to Ichabod & I (which tbf sounds like a child's drawing compared to what came next)

I wouldn't normally post my own stuff, but Sice sings on the outro section of the opening track on my album and I'm wondering if anyone can get the audible Boos 'in-joke' I had in mind in getting him of all people to appear when he does (no one has noticed, of course): https://themartialarts.bandcamp.com/album/in-there-like-swimwear-2

This is great! But I couldn't hear the in-joke on first pass

It's in how the fast section ends...

Boo Faith!

I must have had Learning To Walk at some point too - let me see if I can find it or if I left it behind somewhere on my many travels

as someone who had most of the CD5s bitd but could have probably guessed three song titles at gunpoint today, dl's mix is a delight to listen to, and really well done as a discrete piece of curation and mixing

Ten minutes into my first listen of Giant Steps, lovvvvvving this. Beautiful slow guitar solo right at 9:44 or so, simple & just right

WHOOOOO! ONE OF US!

I mean, gun-to-head it wouldn't be difficult for me to say Giant Steps is my all-time favourite album if I had to pick. I heard it at exactly the right time in my life, and unlike a lot of records I discovered in my mid-teens, I still play it frequently

In other news, I went through my records and dug out their early EPs, Kaleidoscope, Every Heaven and Boo Up! (collected together on the excellent Learning To Walk compilation).

I was convinced that I was still missing something from my collection - was there another EP I'd never managed to track down? No. Something I hadn't realised is that their covers of True Faith (Boo Faith) and Alone Again Or were actually taken from Peel Sessions they'd done, and never appeared on those EPs. Considering I heard the Boos' version of Alone Again Or long before I encountered Love's original, it greatly saddens me that these songs are totally out of print.

as someone who had most of the CD5s bitd but could have probably guessed three song titles at gunpoint today, dl's mix is a delight to listen to, and really well done as a discrete piece of curation and mixing

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Friday, 4 July 2025 09:41 (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Glad you like it! I spent a long time planning it out and thinking about what to include. I really wanted to make it feel of a piece, like a lost album of sorts.

There's also such a notable incline in quality between those three EPs. I like Kaleidoscope fine, but once Foster's Van kicks in, that's where you're hearing the genius properly kicking in

that totally comes across — recommend anyone even a bit curious to check it out.

Okay 1. that was utterfly fantastic, exactly in keeping with what the Martin Carr solo-work smartphone-shit-speaker samples led me to hope, and 2. my anachronistic first impression is, Giant Steps is The Clash backing Devendra Banhart at the sessions for Cripple Crow.

I enjoy The Clash and fucking adore Devendra, so: high praise

The Clash backing Devendra Banhart at the sessions for Cripple Crow

Oh and add a producer with an affinity for fuzz mixed HIGH

I don't like to share my work here unless it's relevant, but getting to speak to Martin about Giant Steps over a decade ago about the 20 year anniversary of Giant Steps was a high-point in my life: https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/boo-radleys-giant-steps-review/

Ha! I drank that in during my hospital stay dive into Carr/Radleys role! Awesome piece.

* lore

I dunno, man. The way that the Boos handled FUZZ was one of the most enticing things about that period!

Their treatment of distortion didn't owe as much to the all-smothering shoegaze wall-of-distortion impulse as to the quiet-loud-quiet-REALLY-LOUD dynamic that drove bands like the Pixies? I know that Nirvana and grunge got hold of quiet-loud dynamics and ruined them for everyone. But there was a point where that blistering noise plus whispering was a hallmark of twisted psychedelia. Boo Radleys were shoegaze in the way that early Mercury Rev or Medicine were shoegaze. Disparate sounds and blistering noises being shoved into one another.

Giant Steps got that balance absolutely perfect. They couldn't do the shoegazey/noise-rock thing forever though; for one Carr had a very ambitious mind and was listneign to too many records to keep ploughing on with it. Plus the public's general tide and appetite for sound was switching remarkably after 1993, and the Boos' decision to go for a more classically "pop" record (although still wildly experimental) just happened to coincide with the rise of bands like Blur etc.

Great piece, dog latin. I am among the few BR fans for whom Giant Steps has never fully resonated but this probably will inspire me to give it another spin.

For my part, I’m willing to acknowledge that it may have something to do with hearing them in reverse. I started with finding a secondhand copy of Kingsize and then Wake Up in the shops. By the time I made it to GS I was kind of put off by all the guitars, thin vocals and clunky dub. So instead of hearing them evolve into the kind of progressive Britpop act they became, I hear them devolve into a rock band with pretensions they were transitioning into, with louder guitars, thinner vocals and fewer big (some might say less obvious) hooks.

That's mad, but understandable. I know younger Prodigy fans who consider the first two albums to be thin and lacking "oomph".

Kingsize has some absolutely gorgeous songs on it and some fun ideas, but that's the point where the production ends up finally sounding too clean and fussy for me. The whole thing (including the cover) sounds like it was produced on some sort of Microsfot Office package.

I did make an alternative tracklisting for it though, which to me works a lot better. And no Free Huey on it: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5HEFXCBuXwxfSPTqrurLoD?si=e5f845d2c753406b

I'll go right ahead and discredit myself in front of all you fine folks of good taste by adding:

Martin Carr had a terrible draw in the cosmic "artistic self-doubt" sweepstakes. I just had a proper-sound system listen to the second bravecaptain album, Go With Yourself, and it's wonderful! Apparently he disavows that whole "bravecaptain" stretch of his career. And says it's so lo-fi it's basically just glorified demos? Only in the early naughts, I guess...

I must've read wrong, Go With Yourself is so pristine it's almost glossy!

But the songwriting!!

I enjoy the BC stuff even though it gets slagged pretty hard by the masses.

I’m not sure he ever “disavowed“ his stuff with bravecaptain but this is a good interview on how it all came to be and where his head and tastes were at the time: https://bigtakeover.com/interviews/an-interview-with-martin-carr-published-in-issue75

Giant Steps makes me so...

happy!

And thanks NTI, that is a more balanced view. I think what I was recalling was an interview for one of the albums Martin put out more recently, under his own name -- something depressing in there about how he didn't think he'd made any meaningful sonic progress since the Radleys... general downer vibes along the lines of "what have I been doing with myself" ... doesn't square with how good bravecaptain's music sounds to me.

You read any of his interviews and he's super self-deprecating and imposter-sydromey. It's a shame that people like him - who are clearly natural ideas-guys and all-round talents - only seem to get that one shot at making it during their twenties and then no one outside the original fanbase really wants to know.

I wonder if, in Carr's case that's just due to unfortunate marketing. I still get raised eyebrows when I tell people I really like this band, because to them they're a one-hit-wonder who recorded a mildly-irritating sunshine Britpop song and then faded away to obscurity. Imagine if R.E.M. were only really known for Shiny Happy People, it would be a bit like that.

He wouldn't be the first for this to happen to, of course, and there are loads of people who had their 15 minutes in the 90s who never recouped. At the same time there are others who did. Maybe time is kinder to US artists: People still buy albums by Stephen Malkmus, Thurston Moore (although they're bigger names - not sure anyone really cares that much about Damon Albarn solo projects do they?).

Not sure if Martin still releases albums. I took a chance on about ten years ago, The Breaks, and it wasn't bad; if a bit straightforward and kind of Britpoppy. There seems to be no real interest or marketing push behind these when they came out. It's always going to get propped-up and compared to the Boo Radleys, no matter what he does, and that's a shame.