TEARS IN THE TYPING POLL: ILM Artist Poll #114 - BROADCAST (Results Thread)

https://i.imgur.com/rTsNlNc.jpg

23. Lunch Hour Pops
From Haha Sound, 2003
Fan-made video by avalancealonso on YouTube
317 Points, 14 Votes

"Lunch Hour Pops" is tops tops tops! - Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Mar 28, 2005

"goodbye girls" was a top tenner for me too!

seeing "Lunch Hour Pops" performed live was a complete marvel.

Look Outside 29th?

Fuck is wrong with you people?

One more first-place vote and it could have been... 27th.

https://i.imgur.com/egOhIPb.jpg

22. Lights Out
From V/A - NME C96, 1996, Compiled on Work And Non Work, 1997.
Fan-made video by The Mystery Machine on YouTube
322 Points, 15 Votes

One thing I like about this song (though it's possibly most pronounced in the familiar studio version) is how the bass and the buzzy synth line accentuate the end of each bar, almost like they're being switched off altogether. Or like they're employing a tape loop again even though that's presumably not what they're doing this time. At least until later on, lol. Also "I want to watch the carpark empty" is heavy, man. - Nag! Nag! Nag!, May 9, 2022

C96 was a CD you had to send away for, think it was about £5, maybe a little more. I can see the idea, updating C86 for a new generation, but the problem was that the bands clearly didn't sound anything like each-other. Still it's probably better than the c86 tape, Tiger, Comet Gain, Delgados, Spare Snare & Quickspace tracks are all v. good. The compilers somehow managed to get the wrong bit of the Mogwai tape, so instead of the thing that should be on there you have a couple of minutes of rehearsal room noodling, v. embarrassing mistake.

Rather too low for my liking!

iirc it was in the top ten for a while

Ok, last one for today. Top 20 tomorrow!

https://i.imgur.com/6nsuSPg.jpg

21. Accidentals
From Accidentals single, 1996, Compiled on Work And Non Work, 1997.
Fan-made video by GrimlyFormingPW on YouTube
324 Points, 14 Votes

Sorry to be absent this section, immensely complicated morning here. Just wanted to say that we've reached the stage where every entry elicits an "aww" and "I love this so much" from me. Except I wish I had put Valerie as my number one, I think I held back because of the appropriation of the melody, which seems ridiculous now.

That’s like the greatest song ever, right there

I thought I would have placed "Accidentals" above "Lights Out" but apparently not. I only heard this upon procuring W&NW, which I presumably bought on the strength of the other A-sides. I was all "wait, I had no idea they feck around with samples and stuff too!" They became a way cooler band in my mind when I heard this remaining wintery A-side out of chronological order, with its faintly jarring sheets of, er, orchestral found sounds or whatever. (And the other more obviously sample-based stuff.)

Allegedly from the score of Losey's Accident innit. I saw that before discovering this fact. Maybe I should re-watch that too, and listen harder.

Ok poll runners were wanting more opinions, not sure these are interesting but there’ve been drinks

Look Outside – It’s so quiet and measured compared to what was happening in the boorish UK indie scene at the time. Maybe (?) a bit slight to be this high.

Illumination – I like slow Broadcast. La la la la. Dreamy. I voted this 40/40

City In Progress – fundamental. None of us know who we are. We haven’t said enough about how this was one of the first Warp bands that played guitar and drums? Again, one of my faves because it’s quiet and measured.

Poem Of a Dead Song – I didn’t vote for this. It’s lovely – is there a Brit folk horror element to this that led to the later collaborations. Exotica.

Goodbye Girls – just too low. One of their best productions. Woozy. Love the repetition of the – what is that – Broadcast production brings so many questions. Love you all night.

Lunch Hour Pops – yes, I don’t know, yes. I don’t know why this makes my think of Twin Peaks, the landing.

Accidentals – yeah of course. I think that when the whole rollout is done I’m not going to be agreeing with what has been placed in the top ten. The slower tracks are placing quite low.

Still don't understand a low placing for We've Got Time

Yeah, I recall it struggling all along, diverging from most of the other early stuff. I was part of the problem though: dig it but didn't vote for it, for no obvious reason.

The top 10 looks pretty decent to me. And the teens.

I seemingly voted for 6 of the 20-somethings, and that's similar to every bracket. My selections are weirdly evenly distributed across the 77 with almost nothing out beyond that. So I'm finding it hard to be appalled by anything much lol.

Feel like I voted for every single song today. What a run and shows how strong their back catalogue is that so many of the best songs ever made didn't make the top 20.

I was hoping more of the early EP/Work & Non Work tracks would be higher up, but those are respectable positions really. I thought Living Room would be a top ten contender. It was the first song I heard by them on the John Peel show back in the day. It'll always have a place in my heart as I still remember how I felt when it came on. Agree on the too low comments for We've Got Time.

When it came to putting my list together, picking out highlights from Haha Sound was the hardest part beyond two songs which are yet to place. Songs like Lunch Hour Pops and Winter Now are two that stood out after a couple more listens. It's an album that works really well as a whole and doesn't contain the obvious standouts unlike Noise Made By People and Tender Buttons.

Look Outside kept climbing up my list and ended up in my top ten. It's a great Broadcast song until that guitar appears at the 1.30 mark when it becomes an amazing Broadcast song. One of my favourite moments of theirs.

I mentioned earlier that Tender Buttons took a long time to grow on me. Subject To The Ladder and Goodbye Girls were two of the songs that were my way in.

Really enjoying the rollout and catching up with the comments. Tempted to take the day off work tomorrow for the top 20.

I had Lunch Hour Pops at 11, but it could have easily been higher, easily one of my favorites, just didn't want to overload on Haha Sound. It's a great image to let go of your fears and anxieties like a bundle of balloons drifting away.

In my brain, the second half of "Look Outside" is grouped, perhaps somewhat improbably, with the second half of "Inside Out". In the "we're going to do something a bit different from here on" basket.

Aaaah I love "Goodbye Girls" so much. "Too low" of course, but I guess everything is at this point. I've always kind of paired it in my mind with "America's Boy"--they strike me as the two most overtly poppy songs on Tender Buttons. I prefer "Goodbye Girls" these days but they're both totally perfect.

Also kitchen person I strongly encourage you to take a personal day tomorrow (for any reason, but especially for this rollout). I would do it too if I hadn't already taken Tuesday off lol.

I saw a preview of the images CaAL was working on about a week ago. The "Lunch Hour Pops"/Red Balloon one might have been foremost in my mind when I responded with "OMG, they're friggin gorgeous" or something. :)

Good morning / afternoon / evening - here's how we stand so far

77. Locusts
76. Chord Simple
75. Microtronics 04
=73. Bit 35
=73. Dead The Long Year
=71. A Quiet Moment
=71. The Be Colony / Dashing Home / What On Earth Took You?
70. I'm Just A Person In This Roomy Verse
69. Let it Begin / Oh Joy
68. What I Saw
67. A Man For Atlantis
66. A Seancing Song
65. The Little Bell
64. Belly Dance
63. The Equestrian Vortex
62. Teresa, Lark of Ascension
61. The Aphid Sleeps
60. 'What You Want' aka 'Dulcimer Jam'
59. Elegant Elephant
58. Small Song IV
57. Mother’s Milk Means Music (At Home in the Universe)
56. O How I Miss You
55. Test Area
54. Distant Call
53. Make My Sleep His Song
52. Ritual / Looking In
51. Dave's Dream
50. You And Me In Time
49. In Here The World Begins
48. I See, So I See So
47. Inside Out
46. Hammer Without A Master
45. Phantom
44. Sixty Forty
43. Forget Every Time
42. Long Was The Year
41. Hawk
40. We've Got Time
39. Still Feels Like Tears
38. Tender Buttons
37. Arc Of A Journey
36. According To No Plan
35. Valerie
34. Minim
33. The World Backwards
32. Subject to the Ladder
31. You Can Fall
30. Living Room
29. Look Outside
28. Illumination
27. City In Progress
26. Poem Of Dead Song
25. Goodbye Girls
24. Winter Now
23. Lunch Hour Pops
22. Lights Out
21. Accidentals

The three-note fuzzy synth on Goodbye Girls is gloriously dumb / addictive, a repetitive melody all pixelized, I overlooked it sadly.

"Lights Out" is my discovery of the poll and my 4th. It has utterly captured me, being side-to-side depressed and sublime, a perfect spleen. The original and Maida Vale sessions are equally haunting.

Ok, early start today, so I don't have to do the mad rush tonight.

https://i.imgur.com/hoO8w4Q.jpg

20. America's Boy
From Tender Buttons, 2005
Fan-made video by Darryl D. on YouTube

328 Points, 14 Votes

Fitting entry into the best of the best

I also want to add a random general comment that I adore her English accent. I presume it is typical of Birmingham (I am now googling Brummie).

Ok it's definitely her pronunciation as well

Think Ozzy Osbourne for a more stereotypical Brummie accent, he would have been an odd fit for Broadcast.

I also want to add a random general comment that I adore her English accent. I presume it is typical of Birmingham (I am now googling Brummie).

Trish Keenan grew up on the Chelmsley Wood housing estate (which she namedrops in Michael A Grammar) in the north-east of Birmingham. It's just around the corner from where I grew up in Castle Bromwich and my nan lived on the same estate as her. Trish's Birmingham accent isn't noticeable when she sings, and it isn't that pronounced in interviews either. There are some tell-tale Brummie vowels in this interview - 'lighter' becomes 'loiter', for example - but (for me at least) she doesn't have that strong an accent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axnH1icd8F4

Just amazing that you posted that just as I was editing this.

https://i.imgur.com/tlIj3ds.jpg

19. Michael A Grammar
From Tender Buttons, 2005
Fan-made video by Wes Johansen on YouTube
343 Points, 16 Votes

Also that nothing I ever heard from them before ever really leapt out at me as worth the effort of investigating further one bit. But crikey, that "Michael A Grammar" song is a huge earworm! If the rest of the album is this good (and that sound doesn't get wearing over x number of tracks) I'll have to admit I've sorely overlooked them and I'm sorry. - login name (fandango), Dec 12, 2005

"Michael A Grammar" spooks me, because Trish calls out "Michael!" in exactly the same sing-song tone/interval that my mother used when I was little, calling me downstairs for my tea. - mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Nov 7, 2005

Too close to call, but I'll give Broadcast the nod - not least because they included Chelmsley Wood in a song ('Michael A. Grammar'), which is the estate in Birmingham where my nan lived, right next to where I grew up. Odd to find such a sense of place in a group that sounded nothing like other Birmingham bands. - Portsmouth Bubblejet, Jun 30, 2018

Haha. Funnily enough, I also had my local expat advisor of choice on all things English to comment on the extent of her (and Roj's) Brumminess in that Sean Hughes interview a few weeks ago, lol. Not hugely Brummie at all, she also concluded. :)

I also grew up in the West Midlands (mostly Worcester) and her voice just sounds basically normal to me.

Heh! Just to add that Chelmsley Wood may sound like a mythical enchanted forest, but in reality it's part of a cynical north-east Birmingham tradition of giving new housing estates deceptively pastoral names. (See also 'Falcon Lodge', which doesn't have any falcons or lodges.) As the lyrics to 'Michael A Grammar' suggest, Chelmsley Wood instead has loads of high rise blocks of flats. Growing up, I also recall many kids' fathers looking like teddy boys, or at least having Lonnie Donegan and Bill Haley records, so this song sounds quite weirdly locally specific to me.

Just north of Chelmsley Wood is Water Orton, where Lawrence and Maurice Deebank grew up and formed Felt. For different reasons, neither Felt nor Broadcast sound anything like the surroundings from which they emerged.

Top 20 gonna be nothing but straight up classics

Tears in the Typing Pool top 3 let’s gooooo

This stuff is legit fascinating. :)

I suggested on a thread here not too long ago that I'd be interested in a music-themed bus tour of greater Birmingham. With firm expectations of Felt content too kthx.

“goodbye girls” was in my top five, such a joyful collection of sounds

also voted for michael, certainly one of the catchiest and most propulsive songs in their catalog

time for something a bit more spooky

https://i.imgur.com/ZGtJIbh.jpg

18. Until Then
From The Noise Made By People, 2000
Fan-made video by David Dean Burkkhart on YouTube
357 Points, 15 Votes, 1 First Place Vote

Apparently, amongst people giving this points, I gave the least. Another 'no-brainer' that I may not even have revisited until right now. It's sounding great though, so I may have boosted it a little more had I spent quality time with it recently. Respeck to the 1st-place voter!

Also, are these lyrics possibly drawing from some very specific and identifiable eastern school of thought or something?

https://i.imgur.com/jtNFjbI.jpg

17. Colour Me In
From Haha Sound, 2003
Fan-made video by Wonder Muddle on YouTube
360 Points, 16 Votes

One voter mentioned that their vote was for the Maida Vale version specifically. I shall refresh my memory...

Also, are these lyrics possibly drawing from some very specific and identifiable eastern school of thought or something?

No idea about this, things often turn out to be a reference to a film or a painting though.

https://i.imgur.com/A6BJmIU.jpg

16. The Be Colony
From Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, 2009
Fan-made video by Wonder Muddle on YouTube
Bonus beat: Performed by Princes Hill Secondary College Vocal Group, arranged by Maille Halloran
362 Points, 18 Votes