The Boo Radleys, Classic or Dud?

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!