The Boo Radleys - Wake Up! LP C/D

"Wake Up Boo" epitomized this (although it was the sensible and obvious choice for the lead single, I can't deny that).

What, even the chopped-up interview about being on Creation?

xxxpost

Don't worry, I do the same thing. In fact, despite the fact that I know I like the single and I know I love the songs I rarely "reach out" for this album cos I expect it to be a horrible overblown happy-clappy affair.

They didn't do it all the time, but I'd recommend The Soup Dragons' This is Our Art, if you haven't heard it. On Overhead Walkways sits perfectly next to It's Lulu & Wake up Boo

xpost to dl

I really should buy more Boo Radleys records. I didn't get around to finally buying "Giant Steps" until just last year.

perfect!

Even "Wake Up! Boo"
is about a depressed spouse
not pulling you down

I don't often play
this record because it's SAD
BEYOND ALL BELIEF

I totally get the whole "feel sorry" thing for this album, I used to have similar thoughts. I got into them just after Giant Steps came out and I loved it very much, but I could not have been more thrilled when they went off in this direction instead. The reviews at the time were very much unanimously of the opinion that this surpassed that record and was their most spectacular masterpiece (most people ended up saying the same things about C'mon Kids, of course; they changed their minds superquickly about that one too). Even taking into account of "Wake Up Boo!", it was still a gloriously unexpected surprise when this got to number 1.

"Wake Up Boo!" is my favourite Boo Radleys track, no contest. I have absolutely no idea which my favourite album is. I don't think it's this, C'mon Kids just edges it on basis of colour! and careeringness! I do think this album massively outclasses Giant Steps though; "Twinside" blazes, "Stuck On Amber" is my life, sadly. Not filtering everything through space-dub-fuzz = Rage And Fury are more strikingly apparent, which is nice to hear from them. And the whole thing of circumstances-forcing-you-to-live-somewhere-really-shite-that-you-want-to-escape-from is something I can relate to quite a lot, I love the fact that someone wrote a whole record around it.

In a strange way I believe that the whole thing was a bit of an experiment in itself. I read an interview with Martin Carr where he'd told a journalist he was going to write a straight-up 12-song pop album. So he did. But the thing is, it's not exactly that poppy, nor straight up, it's pretty wonky, it has backwards samples about shagging dogs and football hooligans, it's mad and it's all based around that sleepy, dreamy feeling when you hear music in the morning and it makes no sense but it sounds great!

Haikunym OTM - the whole affair is very bittersweet "You'll never touch the magic if you don't reach out far enough" etc... For real happy clappy Boos you want C'Mon Kids.

I like this interpretation.

He probably said that in a lot of interviews at the time. That was also the height of Martin's obsession with namedropping the Beatles. He quite obviously wanted to write a faux-Motown album and needed to get it out of his system before moving on to something else.

I do to but there isn’t one. It is so hard for me to talk about my very favorite band of all time. I think deep down it really is the Cure who are my all time favorite band but I have grown out of that phase of life.

It’s funny because Martin and I are basically the same age. So every time an album came out in the 90’s it felt like it was written for me because I was going through the very same phase in my life. For the record it is Kingsize that is my favorite album of theirs and in my top five for best album of all time but most people don’t see the brilliance of that album. I am finding out, however, that some hard-core Boo fans agree with this.

Wake Up! came out in 1995 and in that year I moved to San Francisco. So even though SF was not a shitty place to live, it did take me about a year to fully adjust to it, meanwhile I had this album to comfort me about being in a new and strange place. Now I wish I never left San Francisco but that is history.

Sure it is Martin’s Beatles album, but there is something about this album that makes it right. This is a phase that needed to happen to this group and even though it has been cast aside, for the most part, it truly is one great album. Just another one of the great albums that the Boos made for music fans in the 1990’s.

I miss this band ever-single day and I can’t say that about any other band.

great to hear Martin, Doom! stereolab remix again though.

We shouldn't underestimate the input that the other guys had to the music. The one time I spoke to Martin it was clear he had mucho respect for Tim Brown and all he did, not just the bass playing.

Somehow I have never been to Preston, I think secretly this album is why.

So what exactly was the story behind this? And the blue room in Archway?

"I was a Teenage Death Squad"
"Go With Yourself";
"Don't Take your Gun to Town" (?)
"Third Unattended Bag on the Right"
"Stronger";
"Betsy's Beads"
"Little Giant"

BTW, it use to be Brave Captain but now he wants to go by bravecaptain, for some reason, and it’s suppose to be all small with it being one word.

brave captain is horrible, i think gorwel owen must make jokes about him when he's working with sfa and gorky's. 'he's got this hat...'

i'd buy a second eggman album. is sice off somewhere selling books?

The Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol. 1 (2000) – 1) Raining Stones 4) Third Unattended Bag On the Right 5) The Tragic Story [?]

Go With Yourself (2000) – 2) Assembly Of the Unrepresented 4) Where Is My Head? 5) Ein Hoff Le 6) Hermit Versus the World 8) Reuben 9) Go With Yourself

Better Living Thought Reckless Experimentation EP (2001) – 3) Me and You Glue 4) Stronger

Advertisment For Myself (2002) – 3) Stand Up and Fight 5) Rod’s Got One 6) I Was A Teenage Death Squad [?] 9) This Weight That You Have Found 11) Betsi’s Beads 14) Mobitise

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace (2004) – 1) AWOBMOLG 2) Into Thin Air 3) Every Word You Sound 6) Good Life [feat. Sice on lead vocal] 10) Weaponized

I still have a couple of newer EP’s and random songs to go over but, like I said, still have about a month to get it all together.

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/cherryred/artists/booradleys.php

Re-Released on 17/05/10 on Cherry Red Records.

Released in 1995 on Creation Wake Up! is the fourth album by the Boo Radleys Although the band had received critical acclaim with their previous album, Giant Steps, Wake Up! was their first true commercial success, reaching number one in the UK album charts. This was due in large part to two factors: the emergence of Britpop as a driving force in mid-1990s British music, and a catchy Top 10 single, "Wake Up Boo!"

This deluxe edition brings together on 3 discs the original album as well as all the B-Sides from the time, with newly written notes and a booklet featuring original sleeves.

CD1: Original album track listing:

1. "Wake Up Boo!" - 3:37
2. "Fairfax Scene" - 2:14
3. "It's Lulu" - 3:04
4. "Joel" - 6:10
5. "Find the Answer Within" - 4:34
6. "Reaching Out From Here" - 3:02
7. "Martin, Doom! It's 7 O'Clock" - 6:21
8. "Stuck on Amber" - 5:24
9. "Charles Bukowski is Dead" - 2:39
10. "4am Conversation" - 2:43
11. "Twinside" - 4:45
12. "Wilder" - 6:56

CD2 : Bonus CD 1

'Wake Up! B-Sides:

Janus
Blues For George Michael
Friendship Song
Wake Up Boo! Music For Astronauts
And Tomorrow The World
The History Of Creation [Parts 17 & 36]

Find the Answer Within B-Sides:

Find The Answer Within (High Llamas Mix)
The Only Word I Can Find
Very Together
Don't Take Your Gun To Town
Wallpaper

CD3 : Bonus CD 2

It's Lulu B-Sides:

This Is Not About Me
Reaching Out From Here - High Llamas Mix
Martin, Doom! It's Seven O'clock - Stereolab Mix
Joel - Justin Warfield Mix
Tambo
Donkey

From The Bench At Belvedere B-Sides:

From The Bench At Belvedere
Hi Falutin'
Crushed
Almost Nearly There

there is going to be also this, thanks for pointing this out F'n'B.

Re- Released on 17/05/10 on Cherry Red Records.

Giant Steps is the third album by the Boo Radleys, released in 1993. NME and Select named it as album of the year. It reached the UK Top 20, but did not spawn a Top 40 single. The title is inspired by John Coltrane’s album of the same name. The Boo Radleys were never comfortable fitting into any of the easily defined categories that Pigeon-holed so many British bands in the early 1990s. Arriving on the scene as shoe-gazing My Bloody Valentine wannabes, they signed to Alan McGee's hip-to-the-times Creation Records.

They surprised everyone by releasing Giant Steps in early '93. Living up to its title, the album is indeed a step above and away both from what their peers were doing and what was expected of the band themselves. The album is a cornucopia of varying influences from the Smiths-y "Wish I Was Skinny" to the lovely brass arrangement in "Lazarus". Giant Steps is a mouthful, containing 17 songs, but it's also their definitive album. This re-issue brings together all the b-sides and singles from around the time into one great triple CD.

CD1: Original album track listing:

1. "I Hang Suspended" - 3:57
2. "Upon Ninth and Fairchild" - 4:50
3. "Wish I Was Skinny" - 3:37
4. "Leaves and Sand" - 4:25
5. "Butterfly McQueen" - 3:28
6. "Rodney King (Song for Lenny Bruce)" - 2:45
7. "Thinking of Ways" - 3:48
8. "Barney (...and Me)" - 4:42
9. "Spun Around" - 2:31
10. "If You Want It, Take It" - 2:47
11. "Best Lose the Fear" - 4:12
12. "Take the Time Around" - 4:07
13. "Lazarus" - 4:38
14. "One Is For" - 1:36
15. "Run My Way Runaway" - 2:20
16. "I've Lost the Reason" - 5:17
17. "The White Noise Revisited" - 5:02

CD2 : Bonus CD 1

Adrenalin EP:
Lazy Day
Vegas
Feels Like Tomorrow
Whiplashed

Boo! Forever EP:

Does This Hurt?
Boo! Forever
Buffalo Bill
Sunfly Ii: Walking With The Kings

I Hang Suspended B-Sides:

Rodney King - St Etienne Remix
As Bound As Tomorrow
I Will Always Ask You Where You've Been Even Though I Know The Answer

Wish I Was Skinny' B-Side:

Peachy Keen Acoustic Version
Furthur
Crow Eye

CD3 : Bonus CD 2

Barney (…and me) B-Sides:

Tortoiseshell
Zoom
Cracked Lips, Homesick

Lazarus B-Side:

At The Sound Of Speed
Let Me Be Your Faith
Petroleum

Lazarus (Remixes) Part 1 and 2:

Lazarus - 7" Version
Lazarus - Acoustic
(I Wanna Be) Touchdown Jesus
Lazarus - St Etienne Remix
Lazarus - Secret Knowledge Remix
Lazarus - Ultramarine Remix
Lazarus - Augustus Pablo Remix
Lazarus - 12" Version

No C'mon kids..... No credibility ( but that's just me)

i have all those already...

giant steps bonus cds = those classic eps we were talking about in that other thread.

I have a bunch of Lazarus eps, all cd 'singles', 2 from the UK, and about 3 (I think) from the USA, Columbia promos, etc.

I reckon they missed a Lazarus off.

that's all the ones i have (but that's only the english releases)

pop_music/boo_radleys/find_the_way_out/112_lazarus.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/giant_steps/13_lazarus.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus/01_lazarus.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus/02_at_the_sound_of_speed.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus/03_let_me_be_your_faith.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus/04_petroleum.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus_remixes/101_lazarus_7_version.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus_remixes/102_lazarus_acoustic_version.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus_remixes/103_i_wanna_be_touchdown_jesus.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus_remixes/104_lazarus_st_etienne_mix.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus_remixes/201_lazarus_secret_knowledge_mix.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus_remixes/202_lazarus_ultramarine_mix.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus_remixes/203_lazarus_augustus_pablo_mix.flac
pop_music/boo_radleys/lazarus_remixes/204_lazarus_12_version.flac
pop_music/various/international_guardians_of_rock_and_roll/107_lazarus.flac

discogs has this on a french ep

3 Lazarus (Kris Needs Mix) 8:53

but i think that is this:

2-1 Lazarus (Secret Knowledge Mix) 8:50
Remix - Secret Knowledge
Remix [Credited To] - Kris Needs

columbia has

1 Lazarus (Edit) 3:38 (compared to album version at 4:37)

and then there's the columbia promo

6 Lazarus (The Flood Remix)

"Giant Steps" = Olivia Tremor Control
"Wake Up!" = Apples (In Stereo)
"C'm On Kids" = Neutral Milk Hotel
"Kingsize" = All of them

.. and "Everything's alright forever" and "Learning to Walk" (and "Ichabod" ?)

This is great great news! !

I already have all the tracks appearing here (obv) but this is still great news.

.. and "Everything's alright forever" and "Learning to Walk" (and "Ichabod" ?)

I am not very familiar with the debut, but I have the feeling it's more of a shoegazing effort and doesn't really fit into the Elephant 6 analogy.

haha i was thinking the same thing.

Yeah, Everything's Alright Forever was pretty freekin harsh. Much closer to My Bloody Valentine & Jesus and Mary Chain than Slowdive or anything from the Elephant 6 camp.

not sure if i'm going to buy this as i already have everything but these collections are ace. the Boo Radleys made some amazing b-sides and i'm happy that they collected a bunch of them here. Cherry Red Records did a much better job on these than they did on the Slowdive one.

listen to all the singles from the Giant Steps era, drunk and in real time:

I’m glad they put "Lazy Day" first; "Come stab it faster" it would have been to slow otherwise. "Whiplashed" indeed, during this time in my life I was a bit lost but was having the time of my life. "Give My Love to My Friends" indeed. B+

I remember the day I was in the record store, pick up this single and read the title, Boo! Forever and thinking this might be the start of a very special relationship. "Buffalo Bill" is the best b-side from the Everything's Alright Forever era. I can understand Cherry Red adding these singles to this collection as Everythin's Alright Forever wasn't going to given the same treatment at this time.. A-

This is when I knew what they were talking about when they decided to call this album Giant Steps. For the sake of this experiment I'm playing these singles in the order of release. Possible their best moment, this 12" version blew my mind like so few songs ever have. This EP starts around the second half of "At the Sound of Speed" then it just clicks. The flowers just seemed to grow brighter with the beauty. Though that might have to do with other reasons as well. "0Why don’t you tell me that it wrong, you're the reason I go on." A+

Not really a remix fan, has a good down low vibe. "As Bound As Tomorrow" starts about half way through, after all this ambient stuff, sensing a trend. These are songs are truly out there. B-

Though it says "Peachy Keen" acoustic, it is not. Now they have come back to songs that went quite good enough for the album but kick ass. Just made me scream out because really there wasn't stuff this good on the radio. Listening to the last half of "Furthur" and thinking experimental b-sides at their best. A+

This is going to close out the Giant Steps era. "Barney..." is excellent now, probably better than when it came out. "Tortoiseshell" is the acoustic song, not "Peachy Kenn." The original shoegaze song is so much better (from Learning to Walk) but this is pretty. "Zoom, just one look and my heart went boom" nice, remembering and getting those chills all over again. "Smack, just one kiss and I was out of wack. All at once there was no turning back, was so far above the brightest star." They really caught lighting in a bottle and will never filch when I say they are my favorite. A-

Most appropriate that this collection ends with the 12" version of "Lazarus." The three minutes plus intro make this song build to a great climax, something that is actually lost in the single version.

reviving, simply because I got steaming drunk and suddenly "From The Bench At Belvedere" came on the tannoy, and I was suddenly transported. Transported back to a time when I'd like to say things were simpler - but not - rather they were different. The first proper gig I went to was when they were promoting this EP. I was maybe 15, 16. Good god I haven't heard that song in so long. Maybe secretly the quintessential Britpop song? It made me feel real again, and I had to share it with likeminded ilxors because no-one else around me would have understood...

"From The Bench at Belvedere" is a very obvious extra track if Cherry Red do ever reissue "Wake Up!"
And, yes, it is a great single, even though personally I like "Wake Up Boo!" and "Find The Answer Within" even better.

"Find the Answer Within" remains one of my favorite songs of theirs.

"From The Bench at Belvedere"

I remember this coming out just ahead of the Beatles' "Free as a bird", and thinking that if *that* was actually the Beatles single, there'd be rejoicing and the press and media saying "These guys still have it yeah!", but I just knew the Actual reunion single would prove to be an anticlimax etc.

And so it proved. And the media at large never got to listen to Belvedere...

not sure if i'm going to buy this as i already have everything but these collections are ace. the Boo Radleys made some amazing b-sides and i'm happy that they collected a bunch of them here. Cherry Red Records did a much better job on these than they did on the Slowdive one.

― Bee OK, Saturday, May 8, 2010 1:02 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

It's the same for me I have most of their singles but I know if I see the new reissue I'll be so tempted to get it. It's not like I really want to get it and then get rid of all the singles as they all look so great. Some of their best songs were B-sides especially Boo! Forever.

I love From the Bench at Belvedere it's such a simple and beautiful melody. I probably like it more than anything on Wake Up apart from maybe Twinside.

I played C'mon Kids for the first time in years today and I loved every second of it. Bullfrog Green and One Last Hurrah really stood out. I think I had forgotten just how much I loved this band. Really glad the reissues are coming out.

I take it "Kingsize" isn't going to get an expanded edition either?

I think they got rid of the bench, y'know...

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Wallasey,+United+Kingdom&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.176833,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Wallasey,+Merseyside,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.424226,-3.05436&spn=0.004552,0.009645&z=17&layer=c&cbll=53.424304,-3.05442&panoid=x8bLbokHbAZPxdEcSSD6Fw&cbp=12,185.85,,0,5

No "I Want A Rainbow Nation" (never released on CD before)? No "The Queen Is Dead"? These will be fantastic releases for anyone discovering the Boos for the first time, but there isn't a single curiosity for people who loved them enough at the time to actually buy their records to get excited about.

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

shit, moving this to the right thread: The Boo Radleys, Classic or Dud?

Are there any other concept albums about hangovers?

Man, "Wake Up Boo" is such a fucking dark song. "For what could be the very last time" - what are you saying here, Martin?

Why the heck is “Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything’s Going To Be Fine” missing from that Kingsize reissue?

I know it was a US only track but it’s really excellent

Agreed and one of their best songs.

It's actually called "Put Your Arms Around Me and Tell Me Everything's Going to Be OK" and yes, where I got my username.

I'm going to admit it here. I have listened to the new album a lot this year. It's pure AOR crap but with Sice singing it works for me.

Not on the reissue IMO because Cherry Red has a tendency to lift from retail UK CD singles. It's possible whoever compiled didn't know it existed. C'Mon Kids bonus 7" tracks and Kingsize single promo tracks also get overlooked. I have a quite a few of their reissues and this appears to be a common theme

Man, "Wake Up Boo" is such a fucking dark song. "For what could be the very last time" - what are you saying here, Martin?

Marcello on WUB (and the glorious Wake Up! in general): http://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-boo-radleys-wake-up.html

I thought this album was pretty shit at the time, after liking the previous 2 and the EPs. Sold it years ago. Still think It's Lulu was a terrible song for a single. Maybe it's worth another listen

It's Lulu is embarrassing trash imo, but the rest of the album is lovely Beatlesy melancho/psychedelia

Quite annoying the B sides from this era are missing from Spotify, and I'd love a deluxe reissue with those on, but here's an alternative tracklisting for Wake Up I made (It's Lulu swapped out for Bench at Belvedere)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0nH15duwTKTYLvM23hC0aB?si=zwnly104QHifai02d_WOow&utm_source=copy-link

Love that Marcello write up. Interesting he mentions High & Dry at the end. One of my first property concerts as a teenager was the Boos on their Belvedere tour at Cambridge Corn Exchange, and I remember the venue piping High & Dry through the foyer on the way in and thinking momentarily that the Boos had already started playing

Heeeeeyyy what's that noise?? Do you rememberrrrr?? Do you remember??

*proper

I did buy the new Boo Radleys' album to help it make a mark in the album chart (failed..).

Played about half of it, it's nice but..

I feel bad about this, but I just don't want to hear it.

I'm ignoring it completely.

Would love to have Sice as therapist <3

It's like a beef chili without any chili in it.

a couple of months ago i found both cd singles for 'wake up boo!' in a charity shop bin.
the second cd has a rather mad 9 minute track :
'music for astronauts'
kicks off with the standard track and then morphs into a full on excess of timestamped baggy beats enhanced with acid squiggles and samples.
i.e. it's rather wonderful, and something i did not expect.
however, the final track on the ep, 'the history of creation parts 17 & 36' will never get listened to again.

I still have never heard “blues for George Michael”, it’s supposed to be a super mental bside yeah?

does your ilx email work ?

Blues For George Michael is my favourite song by them

It's super mental

ta, mark!

"Blues for George Michael" didn't make my ballot when we did the Boo Radleys polls but a bunch of B-sides did make my ballot.

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