The Boo Radleys - Learning To Walk Poll

Excellent compilation, it would seem churlish to vote for Boo! Faith but dyou know what I might even vote for Boo! Faith, it's my favourite New Order cover.

I like most of it but man Foster's Van and the way it careens in with that bassline (yes a sick bassline on a shoegaze track!) destroys me every time

I've given this an initial listen with a fan in the background for added shoegaze atmosphere. I'd probably have fallen hard for a lot of this if I'd heard it at the time. Bluebird and Song for Up! stand out at first, but I stopped Boo! Faith after the first chorus and will not be listening to again so as not to desecrate my memory of this cherished song.

The covers aren't essential (or great in any way really). A bit of punky fun for the Peel Sessions

This was the first rendition of "Alone Again Or" I heard too, though I had been on the lookout for the elusive-in-local-emporia-in-the-early-90s Forever Changes for some time.

I have a feeling I voted "Song for Up!" #1 in the ballot poll, possibly partially strategically. Maybe I'll repeat that. I guess part of me wishes they had kept being Edsel Auctioneer (or whatever lol) forever.

I quite enjoyed the original version of "Tortoiseshell" recently so picked that.

Voted for Swansong. The verses really remind me of Fade To Grey which is no bad thing.

The Finest Kiss is one of my favourite Boo Radleys songs so that. used to love cranking that and getting lost in all the guitar distortion

Shoegaze bliss. Does it get better than this, seriously? This is the era I fell head over hills for this band. Guitars turned up to 10, Sice's voice clear and centered with a fine rhythm section.

Kaleidoscope vs The Finest Kiss vs Everybird would be hard enough but this is about the B-sides.

This version of Kaleidoscope was the first Boo's song I heard - I think on Peel's Festive Fifty for 1990? I'd read about them a bit before that, but hadn't heard them before. I went out hunting to buy it shortly afterwards, but found Ichabod & I instead, so that's the version of Kaleidoscope I got to know and love and now the EP version just sounds wrong to me.

The Finest Kiss was definitely seen as the A-side of the Every Heaven EP, but I'd say it was only the third best song on there. Tortoiseshell is more interesting, for a start. But Naomi is just brilliant and might well get my vote. My EP was slightly scratched right in the final ten seconds so it used to get trapped in an irritating infinite guitar loop.

Back when we had a shoegaze poll here (in about 2010?) I pushed for some kind of follow up that wasn't choosing the best tune, but the best album or EP. There were three EPs in particular which I had in mind because they were all amazing but it was very difficult to choose which track(s) from them were best: the Ride EP, the Glider EP, and Boo Up!. I think it was my favourite EP of 1991. It came out just a week or two before I started university and, to my massive annoyance, I packed the wrong box and failed to take it with me, so I had to spend the whole of my first term listening to it on a cassette I had taped it onto and keep rewinding it. Two very strong contenders for my vote here in Everybird and Foster's Van. I expect I've mentioned this before, but I met Martin Carr in a pub in Camden in about 1995/96 and I told him Foster's Van was my favourite of theirs.

Guitars turned up to 10

getting lost in all the guitar distortion

Absolutely. I think several of these are the noisiest, most distorted songs I can think of.

Feeling some Rob Cieka appreciation today - a seriously underrated drummer

`agree his drumming on like "Foster's Van" is outstanding.

I just finished my first run through, this is even better than I remember!