Boo Radleys - Giant Steps Poll

Has Louis Jag ever heard this I wonder?

Love this entire album but I'm pretty sure it's gotta be Lazarus...

i don't really listen to any of the albums/bands that would be considered contemporaries of this, but i heard "Leaves and Sand" on a Peel comp in high school and got totally hooked on it, really love this album and am definitely voting for it in the 90s poll.

Yeah I was worried about that. Lazarus is amazing and all, but the intro's sadly truncated on GS (the only flaw on a imo flawless record). Plus there are a load of really really good tracks - (spoiler) Butterfly McQueen being the one I voted for - on here.

xpost

"Leaves & Sand" was also my intro to the Boos, strangely enough. It was on an 8-track compilation that came with DOnkey Kong Country on the SNES.

haha really? that's so weird.

i know, right?

i was only about 13 at the time and more into games than music, but i do remember listening to that comp over and over. what it had to do with donkey kong i'll never know. st etienne, primal scream, ride were all on there. beyond strange.

am definitely voting for it in the 90s poll.

hmmm?

ALL-NEW FREEFORM (SORTA) 1990s ALBUMS POLL: THE BANNS

Brilliant one-two, 'Upon 9th & Fairchild' is the better of them. Could never really get into the rest of the album after that.

"Spun Around" is like "Upon Ninth And Fairchild" throwing up a lung. Where do I remember reading an article that I was surprised to find referred specifically about "Upon Ninth"?

Wishin I was skinny. Also, that's the song I voted for.

I just played this earlier today, still sounds as amazing as ever.

Lazarus is one of the finest songs ever but I'm tempted to vote for Thinking of ways or I hang Suspended.

I will also be voting for this in the 90's poll.

9th & Fairchild gets my vote, just.

Has Louis Jag ever heard this I wonder?

Ha, I been loving this longer than most others! Six years and counting. Truly excellent record, the hard part is choosing between Rodney King (Song For Lenny Bruce) and I've Lost The Reason, which are both utterly joyous slices of noise-pop mayhem

If Butterfly McQueen -> RK(SFLB) was one song, this'd be no contest

('most others' = most other records I love, not most other people who love Giant Steps, obv)

agree with Stoke - unfortunate that Butterfly McQueen/Rodney King can't be voted as one. vote BM!

Brilliant one-two, 'Upon 9th & Fairchild' is the better of them. Could never really get into the rest of the album after that.

this does not compute. it is one amazing song after another right until the end. i vote for 'i've lost the reason' but i don't think there is one standout track really. i've loved all of them at different times. maybe i should have voted for 'best lose the fear'.

and then Moose's 'honey bee' was recorded right across the hall at the same time.

I guess I've never even heard the full-length version of Lazarus...

I know I've read on some other Boo's threads that these dudes had some killer b-sides. I've tried to find some online but no luck- anyone care to share a nice comp?

it is one amazing song after another right until the end.

Even "Run My Way Runaway"?

It's weird. I loved this album at the time, but listening to it again, it's not as good as I remembered it. Kind of too simplistic, and every song uses the same trick - quiet bit, cod-dub bit, pile on the layers of loud LOUD LOUDER distortion at the end. It doesn't sound anywhere as "ooh, out there" as I remembered it. But the melodies still stand up.

I'll probably end up voting for Barney & Me because when this album came out, I had a large spotted dog named Barney, and this song reminds me of him.

"Wish I Was Skinny". Never liked this album much. The next one, on the other hand....

I know I've read on some other Boo's threads that these dudes had some killer b-sides. I've tried to find some online but no luck- anyone care to share a nice comp?

I made one that spans about 3CDs. It omits remixes and live versions, but it has all their b-sides which often I think were up with their strongest work simply because the Boos were more comfortable in their element dicking around in the studio with backwards tape loops and moog synths than they were sweating to write great pop songs.

... i know ned raggett made a comp that's supposed to span something like 6 cds(!)

oh shit, I just realised that much as I totally adore Rodney King, it TOTALLY rips off MBV's Soon

I've Lost The Reason it is, then

fwiw C'mon Kids is the better album, it's like an intensified, less sprawling but even wilder leap at the throat of British pop

Geir already said that.

Wake Up! is Geir's shurely. Mine is Everything's Alright Forever even though it's an MBV ripoff and I don't even like MBV.

yeah they did Wake Up! which Geir loves because it's largely classic pop and then they went totally nutso and made their best record and then they made a record nobody has heard except me because I'm listening to it for the first time now on Spotify

Shame on me. I always found this lot a bit underwhelming tbh - they're one of the few bands who I thought were worse for trying to find an audience.

I dig Kingsize, definitely should have a cut a few tracks but the best tracks are gorgeous.

Opening track was pretty dece

Ismael you gotta hear C'mon Kids if you haven't! It's fucking MAD

Righto then. I don't dislike them as such, they have quite a few things I liked, they're just inconsistent. I don't know what it is exactly. Maybe that I think they're pretty poor at straight pop and pretty poor at being out there - but excellent when they balance on the pinnacle between the two, it's just that's a very hard thing to do.

ah, those days.

and then they made a record nobody has heard except me because I'm listening to it for the first time now on Spotify

"Kingsize" is actually quite good. "Wake Up!" is of course by far my favourite, but on "Kingsize" they managed to combine the pop sensibilities of that one with the weirdness of the others with quite good results. Surely joins Pulp in the list of bands whose last albums nobody ever heard even though they were actually quite good.

Maybe that I think they're pretty poor at straight pop and pretty poor at being out there - but excellent when they balance on the pinnacle between the two, it's just that's a very hard thing to do.

Sounds like "Kingsize" may be your kind of Boo Radleys album then.

Ichabod & I was the best, from there it was steadily downhill.

Yeah, they were OK when I saw them in New Brighton in '88 but after that... ;)

Actually, scratch that, Sice's best moment was when we beat Plessington away in the quiz league in '81 and we scoffed all the Ginger Nuts before the posh kids could get to them.

I liked Kingsize a lot, but it got lost in the Creation closedown, plus they split before the "Kingsize" single was issued which would have been a big radio hit.

I hung around R&TE to get the single promo for Kingsize for weeks. Got one tho.

(ending up sharing the unreleased tracks w/ Ned, way before ILX happened!

The "From the bench at Belvidere" e.p. gets neglected, I remember when it came out I ws like "If this was actually the new Beatles single, there would be mass rejoicing, etc"

Then "Free as a bird" came out a week later and I was vind.

(Is that page with Mine and NSouth's reviews still on the boo's website?)

(Seriously, I adore the EPs up to the time of Everything's Alright Forever, and that album too. After that, it was all a sort of displaced civic pride that they were doing so well. I think the records post-'92 are often very good, mind. Voting for Laz, las.)

I was so happy when the early EPs popped up on Learning To Walk, because that is still some of my favourite Boo stuff. The Finest Kiss is just swoonsome, and the whole Kaleidoscope e.p. - argh, I wish I had that stuff with me at work because it's so amazing.

I never really "got" the early stuff (i.e. pre "Everythings")

But then I found a CD of the "Kaleidoscope" e.p. and I liked it much more as an isolated 4-tracker.

The Kaleidoscope EP was the first thing I ever got - a friend just stuck it on to fill up the last 15 minutes or so of something else she'd taped for me (really miss that about 90 minute tapes) and I liked it more than the thing she'd actually taped for me. That also happened with an early Ride EP as well, if memory serves.

... the only time Sice got his song on the a-side. Heck, onto record at all!

I have always thought the early stuff was not great. There was a huge leap in my mind from the eps and ichabod and I to 'everything is alright forever'. I love even run my way runway. Were they always too odd to be huge or was it because they were ugly? Even wake up has some strange moments for it being the pop album. The eggman album was also very nice but sice's last effort was just as awful as the brave captain.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i wish i was skinny.

C'mon Kids poll would be welcomed. In fact, Kingsize too, seeing as its their best album

yes, i still think Kingsize is their best album. i also love the Boos to death and they are probably my favorite band ever, with only the Cure giving them competition. i was such a freak for this band that i had a buddy going to UK on holiday look around for the vinyl only album called Ichabod & I, he returned with the album. i was very disappointed as i was looking for more stuff like they did for the Learning to Walk album but it wasn't even close to as good.

i'm going to put this album on tonight and then vote, so more later.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

it was so great listening to this album again, thanks dog latin.

it came down to "Leaves and Sand," "If You Want It, Take It" or my actual vote "I've Lost the Reason." i really loved the singles when they came on "I Hang Suspended," "Wish I Was Skinny" and the real stand out this time around "Barney (...and Me)."

"Lazarus" is arguably their best song (i think only "Bullfrog Green" and "Kingsize" are better) but i couldn't vote for it here because it is the edited 7" version. if it was the full 12" version that i grew to love over the years then it would have gotten my vote.

The song 'Kingsize' is what Embrace would have sounded like if they had any hope whatsoever. They shot and they splatted themselves in their collective face trying. What a great, criminally ignored album.

"Bullfrog Green" should have read "Four Saints"

it was great listing to the CD on big speakers and not through my computer speakers.

from what i remember hearing, this is not named after John Coltrane's album. the band just thought they had something special with this album and it was Giant Steps above Everything's Alright Forever or anything else they did in the past.

Giant Steps even has it own worship website, check out the fans section:

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

I honestly don't get the love for Kingsize - not that it is in any way bad, but w/ ppl coming around & proclaiming it their unsung best. I liked it at the time & a lot of the songwriting is good, but the obviously-from-1998 production style esp. has aged poorly imo (to say nothing of the freakish pox that is "Free Huey"). It's been a long time since I listened to it, tho, so maybe I should give it another go..

Also, wtf @ KS cover art? I know Creation were giving all their money to Oasis back then, but jeez..

Now, Giant Steps, on the other hand, is a fucking masterpiece. This is the first I've seen of this poll, but I would have voted for "I Hang Suspended," "Leaves & Sand," or "Thinking of Ways." I will review & report back. Even though it is the obvious centerpiece & mindblowingly awesome, I've always associated "Lazarus" more w/ the EP, which came out considerably ahead of GS iirc.

well I voted 'I've Lost The Reason' and only one vote's been registered...hmm...

Album version of "Lazarus" inferior to the original single version. That is all.

well I voted 'I've Lost The Reason' and only one vote's been registered...hmm...

well i meant to vote for "I've Lost the Reason" but i'm pretty sure i hit "The White Noise Revisited" on accident instead.

i also saw the Giants Steps tour at the Roxy in Hollywood, amazing show and one of the best shows i have ever seen. i remember everyone talking about how great the show was when we were walking out, special night that one was.

Ha, once again we were at the same show, BeeOK -- also thanks to a friend I was at the promo dinner with them down the road, plus interviewed Rob and Tim in the Roxy parking lot!

I made up a cassette version with the 12" version of Lazarus inserted.

It didn't work.

The album version is right for the album.

(p.s. it's not the single version either)

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

Blimey, some names on that page!

(not just me and nick, I mean)

Butterfly McQueen was my choice - it's the homeopathic essence of the album distilled into one song. That said, it's nothing without the following Rodney King as mentioned upthread by Louis. Still it's a great song. Even when I was 16 I knew that the opening bars, "Sha-la-la-la, sha-la-la-la... Finally an okay calm has washed right over me/Poverty and cops with guns have lost their reality" was a stylistic tribute to another band, but I've never been able to put my finger on it. Is it George Harrison? The Moody Blues? Something very seventies melodic about it...

Has anyone got the recent Giant Steps 3CD reissue on Cherry Red?

Aside from the track listing (original album plus contemporaneous EPs, b-sides & remixes) information on this is a little vague. Is the album remastered? What is the packaging/artwork like? Anyone know??

info here:

1990s Reissue Thread!

Thanks!

Is the album remastered?

no but didn't need to be. this whole reissue is all about the B-sides, those songs needed to be collected in one place.

So, does this actually exist? Who's got one?

no but didn't need to be.

I agree, it sounds fantastic. The original CD is pretty quiet by today's standard, so I was more concerned about brickwalling due to an (unnecessary) increase in loudness.

I already bought a lot of the bonus material at the time, so I guess I'm most interested in the packaging and liner notes. As Mark said, anyone actually got one?

just found out my boss actually owns this album.

I saw the Wake Up deluxe edition in HMV, it's mmm....

Well it's a 'foldover' rather than a 2cm wide 'box', and it was £20.

Wouldn't get a WakeUp deluxe anyway, but I wouldn't go £20 for a Giant Steps deluxe that I had all the tracks of.

Thanks for the update Mark. Amazon lists it as £10.99, which seems much more reasonable! You can get them direct from Cherry Red for about 15 quid too ...

So neither album has been remastered nor had the volume raised?

Found a place with a copy of the original (are there any others?) rpressing on vinyl for $17.98. Should I go for it?

pressing*

Um yes! It is 2 discs, after all, so that's not a bad deal.

Sure! I just wasn't sure what a mint copy of this album on vinyl generally goes for.

Ha, I've had "Barney (...And Me)" running through my head most of the day...

A mint copy of the vinyl is around £30.

(Funnily enough, I got a white label of Lazarus last week, 50p)

(the 12" single, I should have said)

If you had to shave 20 minutes off this, what songs would you cut? I want to pla it at Devon Record Club on Tuesday, but need to lop it down to about 45 minutes. 50 would do. We've got license to edit track listings for once - normally we can't pick albums over an odour long at all.

i would definitely cut both songs with parentheses in the title

Yeah? Crazy. I was actually thinking I'd just drop the ones that got no votes!

well that seems silly and arbitrary

Cut: Thinking of Ways, Spun Around, Best Lose The Fear, The White Noise Revisited

Agree that Spun Around and Best Lose The Fear could go. Maybe Take The Time Around and Leaves & Sand? There's no way Thinking of Ways should go, it's probably my favourite song after Lazarus.

Maybe Leaves & Sand, definitely not Take The Time Around.

"Leaves & Sand" is the best song, cutting it would be crazy!

So I think we're all agreed there should be no cutting of this album. I mean the ones I mentioned are all great, this album is a masterpiece. I'm no help at all here.

Drop side 4, the album works as a complete unit without it.

oh, and,

"You asked Martin Carr this question? You actually asked Martin Carr this question?"

I couldn't cut any of this, but if I had to: Barney & Me, Wish I Was Skinny (both are nice songs, but a bit normal-setting for this album). I couldn't cut Spun Around or Best Lose The Fear (you cray!) or White Noise for that matter.

But "Skinny" is an ear-relax-bath after "Upon Ninth and Fairchild"! "Barney" is an album closer! (if you only have one disc, that is..)

As I say, side 4 seemed the 'extra tracks' side to me.

If you want to present 'Giant Steps' as a conceptual whole, each side works in isolation is my theory.

I've only had it on tape and CD, so the whole "sides" thing doesn't work for me. There's loads of great stuff on the last side. Those last few songs are lovely!

One thing I've always not liked about the Boos is their choice of A-sides always represented their most strait-laced face, like an acquiescence that something has to be simple/a ditty in order to sell. Wishing and Barney are both the most fairly straightforward sonically compared to the rest of the album.

For some reason I can't reply to this thread.

Not at any length, anyway.

Anyway, I did indeed ask Martin Carr this question. And then made a joke about him pinching the title from John Coltrane, which he didn't seem to take too well!

I've always thought the second half dragged, apart from Lazarus. Which may jsut be because it's quite long as an album.

You can't drop Wish I Was Skinny; that opening trio, hard rock to doomy dub to bright pop, is key to setting the tone of the rest for the album.

Yeah, I did once ask him if "The White Noise Revisited" was influenced by "Dia 36" by Os Mutantes, he did reply that he'd never heard it before but he could see how someone might think so, in a way, but that there's nothing new under the sun etc.

With reasonably good grace, to be fair..

And I tell you what:

I was listening to a Move b-side, "This time tomorrow" and thinking it was a bit like a boos' acoustic version of "Spaniard" or some such....

And then it hit me, it's the same tune as "Lazarus" as well!

I always thought The White Noise Revisited sounded a lot like The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.

I seem to remember reading somewhere the band all hated I Hang Suspended. I think all four of the singles were just great choices, they should have all been hits.

They hated the video.

i really want to help with editing this down but i really can't pick any song to cut. maybe if i listened to it i would. there is a reason why this is a double album.

would love a link to the interview when you have it sick.

Run My Way Runway is pretty much filler isn't it?

I didn't play this in the end, it didn't seem right lopping stuff out of it.

xp - I like it

probably wise.

No Run My Runaway is lovely...!

But I love songs about air flight. It is one of the best of those though... Love the vocal effect which is kind of spot on in that "taking off, can't hear anything properly" way.

especially difficult to remove tracks from this as the cd runs a lot of them together - am listening now on something that doesn't do gapless playback and it's v noticeable.

The segue from Butterfly McQueen into Rodney King is maybe my favourite moment on the record.

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

Ten years since the "ten year anniversary" site was set up!

Fucking hell.

The segue from Butterfly McQueen into Rodney King is maybe my favourite moment on the record.

― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Thursday, July 12, 2012 3:50 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Near enough a year late, but... YES!

xpost I know!

Has anyone interviewing Carr quizzed him about a reunion possibility of late?

I'd assume he gets enough residuals from "Wake Up Boo" to not bother

They seem like a band that's never getting back together. What's the point? I don't think their cult following is too large anymore, either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd0GCgyhbq0

Does anyone know if that's Sean O'Hagan doing backing vocals? It looks like him to me. Is he on the album?

That'd make me like that song/album twice as much. I adore everything Sean O'Hagan, hence my name.

I never read a proper explanation of why they actually split. Did they argue?

I think Martin Carr just got fed up. Kingsize was a massive compromise between the band and Creation Records, because post-Oasis and 'Wake Up Boo!' (and because C'mon Kids was perceived as some kind of flop), the label actually wanted the band to sell some records.

I think he just got bored. I've read a couple interviews where he said he really didn't care at all about the band when he recorded Kingsize, which makes all the posthumous love for the album funny.

The Boo Radleys sound always evolved between each album, was this always a natural progression or did you ever decide on the theme/sound of an album before you started writing?

It was a natural progression but also a very conscious one. I never wanted our albums to sound the same. I never wanted to do what people with lesser imaginations thought that we would, or should, do. So Giant Steps was a step away from the MBV sound into using more instruments and less conventional arrangements. Wake Up was a stab at pop which we loved although there were only about three or four of those ‘It’s Lulu’ (i really hate that song) type songs on it. Apart from those tunes you would have to be deaf or an idiot to think that the album was similar to what other bands were doing at the time. C’mon Kids was us trying to get back to just being the four of us, no outside musicians. A more dense sound. I’ve no idea what Kingsize was, I’d had enough then. That album probably had the least preparation out of all them.

http://www.creation-records.com/interviews/the-boo-radleys/

Funny seeing an interviewer go on about Electric Soft Parade as if they're relevant... at least it was 2002.

I like this album & band enough to say I've listened to them a considerable amount compared to bands I don't absolutely love, but I can't help but get the sense that their songs don't feel very developed. It's like they're just racing to the next track and showing off a new style. This album particularly suffers from that problem. But when I look at the tracklist I can definitely say I enjoy more than half the tracks. It's a tough one.

For me, I think that's part of the appeal and charm. I've always loved the "stoned mixtape" approach to albums, and this fits in with the grand traditions begun with things like the White Album and Smiley Smile, where it's more about laying down this huge flood of ideas best you can before you forget about them.

I just wonder how a band with so many good ideas didn't really manage to continue making great albums together as a band or solo.

For me, I think that's part of the appeal and charm. I've always loved the "stoned mixtape" approach to albums, and this fits in with the grand traditions begun with things like the White Album and Smiley Smile, where it's more about laying down this huge flood of ideas best you can before you forget about them.

― dog latin, Tuesday, February 12, 2013 4:03 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I agree... this is part of the reason why I like C'mon Kids so much!

I like "It's Lulu." I don't hear any obvious signs of it being worse than any other song on Wake Up.

It's over maligned, for sure, but it's no Joel.

Wake Up is often seen as their chirpy Britpop album, but only because of singles like It's Lulu. The rest of it's still pretty dark, psychedelic and confessional.

One of many great moments on this album: that tiny bit of ludicrously loud high-pitched feedback just before 'Leaves and Sand' kicks in!

i have not thought about this album probably since ILM's Boo Radleys poll from a few years back. i do play that Spotify all the time but was thinking about putting on those first three EPs just this morning. ironic that this thread got bumped. the first three EPs also called Learning to Walk is right up my shoegaze alley, nothing else quite hits that spot in the same way.

I also re-listened to Wake Up! tonight and enjoyed it pretty much start to finish. 'Joel' and 'Martin, Doom! It's Seven O'Clock' particularly stood out as fine slabs of '90s psychedelia, but the singles on it are probably some of the finest pop songs Martin Carr ever penned.

Martin Carr is auctioning off a slew of GS-related swag (including an initial demo tape!)

https://newshapes.co.uk/product/giant-steps-turns-30-martins-attic-bundle/

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

Ten years since the "ten year anniversary" site was set up!

― Mark G, Monday, 11 February 2013 17:00 (ten years ago) link

Fucking hell.

― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 11 February 2013 17:05 (ten years ago) link

Fucking hell.

Fucking hell indeed

And there we all still are!

30 year and I bought on day of release as I was a huge fan of Everything's Alright Forever. I was not prepared to proclaim best band of the 90s but that is what ultimately happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAD6nrv-zGg