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

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.

Like, he could absolutley be re-marketed as a psych-pop elder statesman these days, a British Wayne Coyne or something; but instead it'll always be "the guy who did Wake Up Boo"

I think I say it upthread, but I kinda came around to the Boos kind of late, post-Kingsize. Uncut and the likes were pimping the Fingertip Sessions stuff, which intrigued me but also felt a bit undercooked once I eventually heard them (actually, the single disc comp released in the States).

By the time of Advertisements for Myself, you could def. hear Carr feeling a little liberated from the confines of a band, as he says in that Big Takeover piece. A lot of Boos fans were really underwhelmed by the BC stuff, and I get that, but to me, it was the sound of a guy who no longer felt the pressure of releasing music for the charts and could just indulge his interests. I appreciated that, even if I didn’t always love it.

I began to lose track of him after that … and the bits and bobs I’ve heard of his Martin Carr stuff proper feels a bit neoconservative by comparison, perhaps returning to the kind of proper pop songs he thought he was “expected” to deliver. Regardless, my impression was that he actually sounded more adrift on those releases than he ever was during BC. But I haven’t heard enough to be sure.

The White Noise Revisited; one of the all-time great album closers, isn't it

it's perfect isn't it? and for me it sets the stage for the Wake Up! album in that it's very tuneful and Beatlesy but also flits between the light and the dark so well

Aaaaaand now I want to hear Wake Up at once, right away

Speaking of all-time great closers... but no, I suppose I had better revive the bravecaptain thread

I don't like it, to be honest (white noise revisited).

Spent a couple months away from Giant Steps, but now I'm back in it, and loving it more than ever. I always listen to it as a single full-album file, and haven't felt any need to start delving into it track by track -- there is nothing on here that I might want to skip, and also nothing that I want to replay in isolation. The album as a whole has such a great flow to it. And (I guess I'm starting to get the White Album comparisons) it has the feel of a "feast" -- you sit down and enjoy the whole experience, course after course. This is not an album of morsels.

Even just the mixing on this thing is so good. The bursts of electric noise make themselves felt.

New single 'Solarcide' sounds promising to me

This is great and I had no idea this was coming out.