TS: Giant Steps, Wake Up!, C'mon Kids and Kingsize

I'd say:

1) Wake Up! -- Drags a bit near the end, but one of the best Britpop records, period. Closest Martin Carr's come to a magnum opus.

2) Kingsize -- Similar to Wake Up! stylistically, but more overtly experimental (but not anything like C'mon Kids, really). Fantastic arrangements throughout. "Monuments for a Dead Century," "Eurostar" and the title track are as melodic as Carr ever got. Totally underrated.

3) C'mon Kids -- Carr's Revolver, I suppose. Interesting in places, mostly where the melodies are strongest -- "Bullfrog Green" and "Everything Is Sorrow" are particularly good. But the record sounds oddly dated and isn't all that easy to listen to.

4) Giant Steps -- Despite being Carr's breakthrough, I've never really warmed to this record. Still way too much junior-league MBV. Sort of feel the same way about it as I do about Annie Hall: nice transition, now let's get on to the serious stuff.

1) Giant Steps
2) Wake Up!
3) C'Mon Kids
4) Kingsize

No Everything's Alright Forever?

if they'd left the horrible "free huey" off kingsize it would have been hailed as a classic the world over. but they didn't. the fools.

Everything's Alright Forever is the only Boo Radleys album I like.

Giant Steps.

All the Boos stuff preceding it felt just slightly off, not as good as it might have been. As did all that followed it. But Giant Steps got it right...it does ape MBV, but combines that with lots of Beatles, ELO, a little dub, Butterfly McQueen and some great riffs....

The single released after Wake Up, From the Bench At Belvedere, never on any albums, is also utterly fantastic...

Another vote for Everything's, plus Giant Steps second, for the reasons David sez above.

Personally I think the best moments on EAF are the closest anyone has ever come to Loveless. And I don't see anything wrong with that. Room At The Top and the end of Memory Babe in particular come to mind. I don't like any of their other albums. They tried to go in too many different directions at once for my taste. The intro to Losing It is amazing; and Does This Hurt and Firesky are two of the catchiest songs from the whole shoegazer scene.

I do remember being fucking blown away by Butterfly McQueen but I couldn't even get that far listening to Giant Steps. I like the REAL Giant Steps though.

I am fully convinced that C'mon Kids is the best and purest Boo album. I am also convinced that it is half a parody of Oasis and Blur and half of Martin wanting to quit the band but being afraid to and basically saying so.

But Wake Up! holds together best and Giant Steps has the biggest vision and Kingsize has the three best songs. And Everything's Alright Forever is boy-Lush, which makes it hott.

Glad so many people are mentioning "Butterfly McQueen", the greatest song the Beatles never made.

It's so hard choosing an order for the albums. I think they were the first band I liked enough to want to get everything by them. I know "Giant Steps" is the best, simply because of it's scope and musical ambition and for the fact they went from being a fairly decent shoegazing combo to a fantastic mash of the Beach Boys, MBV, Dub, Ambient and Nick Drake. I love this album so much. It's taken nearly 40 years for Brian Wilson to make Smile, but it took Carr only one year to make something I'd say is just as good.

"Wake Up!" is simply one of the best pure-pop albums of all time. Although this was supposed to be completely straight forward songwriting, songs like "Joel" were some of the weirdest things the Boos had ever done. Wake Up also spawned the Boos as a great singles band and sealed "Wake Up Boo!" as one of the most memorable songs of the decade. Sadly, I feel that a lot of people remember them only for this song. Was never too keen on "It's Lulu" but "Find The Answer Within" and "From The Bench at Belvidere" were both awesome. All singles had excellent b-sides and I must give special mention to "Blues For George Michael" which is probably their best song ever.

"C'Mon Kids" was like a portable "Giant Steps" to me. Not as experimental as a lot of people say in retrospect. I loved "Ride The Tiger", "Bullfrog Green", "Four Saints". But it seemed like there was a feeling of resentment going on, and yes it does feel a little dated, and doesn't flow together quite as well as "Giant Steps" did. Rubbish singles on this album too - both "C'Mon Kids" and "What's In The Box?" being turgid horrible Britpop twaddle. Still, some fucking excellent moments on this one.

By the time "Kingsize" came out, I could kind of tell it was over. The day it came out I literally had to search the whole of the shop to find it. No advertising campaign, gypsy artwork, one rubbishy single and it just felt like nobody cared about the Boos anymore. This album had some of the best melodies of any of the Boos' albums. Cheeky little references to Richard D James on "Blue Room In Archway", excellent horns on "The Old Newsstand", ripping off a Pulp riff on "Comb Your Hair", spending too much money on a terrible shriejking sample on "Adieu Clo Clo" make this album well worthwhile. I found a lot of the lyrical content just a bit on the wrong side of twee and preachy on this one. Had Carr become some kind of born again Christian? I was put off "Monuments For A Dead Century" despite the excellent arrangements simply because it was a song about the millenium.

Oh well, still each of these albums is a corker and I treasure them on their own basis.

All of them have been my favourite at some point and I really honestly don't listen to any of them anymore - there's certainly no way I'd sell them or anything, and I love love love how each is so distinctive and the whole textbook-commercial-rise'n'fall that they had and I do have huge affection for them still. I just find lots of it a bit, I dunno, woolly or something. Possibly it's all down to Sice's voice, although this was never ever a problem for me when I was younger and I feel incredibly guilty even considering that it might be so.

I got the first of these albums when I was 13 and the last when I was 17 so they are maybe entirely bound up with adolescence and therefore hideously traumatic etc, but there's very little else from this period that I loved then and don't still. So I don't know. I still play/love Wake Up Boo! far far more than anything else of theirs though and have no doubt whatsoever that it is their finest hour.

(To answer the thread-question: if Kingsize lost Monuments For A Dead Century and The Future Is Now, I probably wouldn't hesitate in liking that best. But it CAN'T be Kingsize, it just can't. I always thought Giant Steps was the one everyone liked best which is probably why I twattily decided years ago that it wasn't going to be my favourite: this remains the case, anyway, although Rodney King is brilliant and shrill and totally unsung and it's all good stuff, although a bit feeble sounding compared to the others, but this probably a Budget Thang or whatever. Agree that C'mon Kids feels like the 'purest' and I love the idea upthread that it is 50% Martin Carr being both Oasis and Blur simultaneously, ultimately I think it's a toss up between this and Wake Up! which FEELS less 'artistically pure' just cause it's supposedly more conventional, but isn't, really)

the first three listed are interchangeably great in my mind, i probably listen to 'wake up!' most. 'Kingsize' ws disappointing because the lyrics were poor and ok, the lyrics had always been poor but they seemed to be the focus of 'Kingsize' and a lot of the chorus' are really dull and sound pasted on. I like 'Free Huey' if only because it gives some energy to an album that mostly lacks it. 'monuments for a dead century' is probably my fave song on that album. no votes for Eggman? It's a charming record. i remember them being booed by the Better than Ezra fans when I saw them live, ugh.

Eggman really wasn't too bad at all. Very pleasant synth-country or something.

I bought Ichabod & I in 1990. It's probably worth a bit now. I
liked it at the time but it sounds very lo-fi now.

They also had some good EPs out in 1991 that didn't make it onto
any of the albums.

Everything's Alright Forever was a great album that came out perhaps
six months too late, ie just as the music press decided that all
bands should sound like Nirvana and not My Bloody Valentine.

Giant Steps is excellent, easily one of the top ten albums of the
90s. You have to have it.

I was so put off by the single that I never bought the 'Wake Up'
album. In fact I've never even heard it.

Come On Kids is strange. Experimental, but not necessarily in a
good way. It has its moments, but on the whole it just doesn't feel
right.

Kingsize was awful. I tried listening to it three times and then
threw it away. Then they split up.

Elsewhere on the ol' web, I've done my thoughts on Giant Steps. But to summarise, it was the album I wanted to make, so packed it in after that. But I still think it's the greatest album ever made. So I was right all along.

Anyhow, Love for Kingsize and Everything's all right forever.

Anyhow, Like for Ichabod, Walk and Kids.

At the time of "Belvedire" single, the beatles were hyping up their reunion of "Free as a bird" though it had not been heared yet. At the time I thought, "You know, if this single was the Beatles not the Boos, there would be great joy and happiness that the beatles were back and sound great. The actual beatles reunion single will probably cause great sadness and misery that the beatles are back and no bloody goodwyn." I was right about that too.

My iPod has Giant Steps, C'Mon Kids and a load of individual tracks. Take that as you will.

I listened to Kingsize loads when I was at uni and it came out, but barely ever since. Some fucking great noises in there (the end of "High As Monkeys"!) but the songs were shoddy, by and large. They sounded finished.

eggman was better than brave captain is. giant steps and moose's 'honey bee' were recorded across the hall from each other, heady times.

There was some hall-crossing too, I think -- weren't Moose part of the faux children's choir on that last song?

They certainly were. I wasn't aware of the two albums being recorded across the hall from each other - that must have been fun. I would happily give my right arm to be in the studio for that period.

1. Giant Steps
2. Wake Up Boo!
3. C'mon Kids
4. Kingsize

My fave used to be C'mon Kids but I don't know what i was thinking. It is of course Giant Steps. Hugely ambitious, great songs and astounding to come out with that after EAF. Bought it after it won Select's album of the year.

Wake Up Boo! is also brilliant. It was their big POP album obv. and lots would have bought it off the back of the Wake Up single but I bet it's not the straight forward pop album people were expecting. It's still being pretty expiremental hand in hand with the pop melodies. Tied up with some great times at Uni for me so views coloured by that. Great bsides as mentioned.

Love C'mon Kids also but now less so. To be honest haven't really got any clear thoughts about it right now beyond the fact I can clearly remember buying it on day of release. Think I remember it coming out the same day as New Adventures In Hi-Fi. Good but no longer great.

And finally Kingsize. Hmmm. As someone mentioned above you could tell it was all over by this point. Only the one single and no promotion. I could never put my finger on it but this album doesn't feel right. There's something missing and it made sense once I found out that Carr wasn't as involved in the recording of this one. He wasn't interested anymore and it showed although there are still some really good songs on here. Carr obv also thinks so as he's performed The Old Newstand At Hamilton Square live as Brave Captain. Weirdly I've found in the past on Boo message boards and BC mb's that this is some people's fave Boo's album.

As for First Fruits, it was better than I expected though haven't listened to it in years.

The Kaleidoscope EP is one of the best post Isn't Anything/Pre-Loveless shoegazing records. Along with maybe Lush's "Mad Love" EP the very early Ride singles and Chapterhouse's Feel The Same. They had zero about them back then style and when they appeared on Snub TV it was just a mass of hair and feedback pedals!

Kingsize was due to have two singles (at least), "Free Huey" and "Kingsize". I have a promo for the latter, along with the lovely unissued b-sides. "Tomorrow" - (from Bugsy Malone) most notably...