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.
― kraudive, Friday, 3 June 2022 00:40 (one year ago) link
Still don't understand a low placing for We've Got Time
― kraudive, Friday, 3 June 2022 00:47 (one year ago) link
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.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 01:29 (one year ago) link
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.
― kitchen person, Friday, 3 June 2022 01:34 (one year ago) link
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.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, 3 June 2022 01:44 (one year ago) link
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.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 01:49 (one year ago) link
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.
― J. Sam, Friday, 3 June 2022 02:02 (one year ago) link
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. :)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 02:13 (one year ago) link
Good morning / afternoon / evening - here's how we stand so far
77. Locusts76. Chord Simple75. 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 Verse69. Let it Begin / Oh Joy68. What I Saw67. A Man For Atlantis66. A Seancing Song65. The Little Bell64. Belly Dance63. The Equestrian Vortex62. Teresa, Lark of Ascension61. The Aphid Sleeps60. 'What You Want' aka 'Dulcimer Jam'59. Elegant Elephant58. Small Song IV57. Mother’s Milk Means Music (At Home in the Universe)56. O How I Miss You55. Test Area54. Distant Call53. Make My Sleep His Song52. Ritual / Looking In51. Dave's Dream50. You And Me In Time49. In Here The World Begins48. I See, So I See So47. Inside Out46. Hammer Without A Master45. Phantom44. Sixty Forty43. Forget Every Time42. Long Was The Year41. Hawk40. We've Got Time39. Still Feels Like Tears38. Tender Buttons37. Arc Of A Journey36. According To No Plan35. Valerie34. Minim33. The World Backwards32. Subject to the Ladder31. You Can Fall30. Living Room29. Look Outside28. Illumination27. City In Progress26. Poem Of Dead Song25. Goodbye Girls24. Winter Now23. Lunch Hour Pops22. Lights Out21. Accidentals
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 09:19 (one year ago) link
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.
― Nabozo, Friday, 3 June 2022 10:09 (one year ago) link
Ok, early start today, so I don't have to do the mad rush tonight.
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 10:27 (one year ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/hoO8w4Q.jpg
20. America's BoyFrom Tender Buttons, 2005Fan-made video by Darryl D. on YouTube
328 Points, 14 Votes
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 10:28 (one year ago) link
Fitting entry into the best of the best
― Nabozo, Friday, 3 June 2022 10:39 (one year ago) link
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).
― Nabozo, Friday, 3 June 2022 10:45 (one year ago) link
Ok it's definitely her pronunciation as well
― Nabozo, Friday, 3 June 2022 10:51 (one year ago) link
Think Ozzy Osbourne for a more stereotypical Brummie accent, he would have been an odd fit for Broadcast.
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 10:57 (one year ago) link
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
― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Friday, 3 June 2022 11:04 (one year ago) link
Just amazing that you posted that just as I was editing this.
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 11:07 (one year ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/tlIj3ds.jpg
19. Michael A GrammarFrom Tender Buttons, 2005Fan-made video by Wes Johansen on YouTube343 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
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 11:08 (one year ago) link
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. :)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 11:09 (one year ago) link
I also grew up in the West Midlands (mostly Worcester) and her voice just sounds basically normal to me.
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 11:12 (one year ago) link
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.
― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Friday, 3 June 2022 11:26 (one year ago) link
Top 20 gonna be nothing but straight up classics
Tears in the Typing Pool top 3 let’s gooooo
― josh az (2011nostalgia), Friday, 3 June 2022 11:34 (one year ago) link
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.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 11:42 (one year ago) link
“goodbye girls” was in my top five, such a joyful collection of sounds
― in places all over the world, real stuff be happening (voodoo chili), Friday, 3 June 2022 11:45 (one year ago) link
also voted for michael, certainly one of the catchiest and most propulsive songs in their catalog
― in places all over the world, real stuff be happening (voodoo chili), Friday, 3 June 2022 11:46 (one year ago) link
time for something a bit more spooky
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 11:51 (one year ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/ZGtJIbh.jpg
18. Until ThenFrom The Noise Made By People, 2000Fan-made video by David Dean Burkkhart on YouTube357 Points, 15 Votes, 1 First Place Vote
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 11:52 (one year ago) link
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!
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 12:10 (one year ago) link
Also, are these lyrics possibly drawing from some very specific and identifiable eastern school of thought or something?
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 12:33 (one year ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/jtNFjbI.jpg
17. Colour Me InFrom Haha Sound, 2003Fan-made video by Wonder Muddle on YouTube360 Points, 16 Votes
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 12:50 (one year ago) link
One voter mentioned that their vote was for the Maida Vale version specifically. I shall refresh my memory...
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 13:06 (one year ago) link
No idea about this, things often turn out to be a reference to a film or a painting though.
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 13:08 (one year ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/A6BJmIU.jpg
16. The Be ColonyFrom Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, 2009Fan-made video by Wonder Muddle on YouTubeBonus beat: Performed by Princes Hill Secondary College Vocal Group, arranged by Maille Halloran362 Points, 18 Votes
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 13:16 (one year ago) link
That BBC version of "Colour Me In" is rather frisky, isn't it. I seem to have listened to that less thoroughly than many, so this is probably no revelation at all to y'all. :)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 13:23 (one year ago) link
Also, yayay for something more from their best long-playing release lol.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 13:26 (one year ago) link
Absolutely adore Colour me in, never fails to give me goosebumps and make my insides dance. This and Pendulum are such perfect complimentary pair. People often describe Trish's voice as "sweet" which i think is wildly off, but here she is pure nectar. Loved the added static roughage on the maida vale version too.
― cw, Friday, 3 June 2022 13:28 (one year ago) link
'The Be Colony' works so well in DJ Food's 'O is for Orange' mix
https://vimeo.com/69721622
― Maresn3st, Friday, 3 June 2022 13:36 (one year ago) link
One of best parts of this (brilliant) exercise has been inadvertently listening to their penultimate oz show (Hifi?) and realising how great ( and relatively conventional old Broadcast) the Be colony and other Witch cults/ mother songs sound in their final incarnation. I need to track down a good version of one of these shows.
― cw, Friday, 3 June 2022 13:41 (one year ago) link
To add a bit of controversy in the sea of love, I didn't vote for the last two. Her voice on Colour Me In is indeed too mawkish, the song too much like an introduction. The Be Colony is fine but the music lacks either some energy and drive or some innovation.
― Nabozo, Friday, 3 June 2022 13:56 (one year ago) link
Also it's now the top 15 and we still have 20 first-place votes !
― Nabozo, Friday, 3 June 2022 13:59 (one year ago) link
XP: The setlist was seemingly relatively static all that year, so you'd *hope* there'd be a few decent recordings out there. Not least for the epics with no studio equivalents that tended to bookend the sets. (And yeah, "Hi Fi Bar" in central Melb. Though I think the name was short-lived, come to the think of it.)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 3 June 2022 14:00 (one year ago) link
To me, at least, the mix on 'The Be Colony' seems to mimic the unbalances that are occasionally baked into certain stereo 60s recordings, when careful forward-planning of overdubs was necessary.
This is why you'll hear some Kinks tune for example, where the tambourine or some other element will be unusually prominent compared to the rest of the music.
In The Be Colony, some elements are oddly recessive, Trish is way in front with the guitar/organ while the things that should give the song its forward movement, like drums/percussion are cloaked and in the distance.
― Maresn3st, Friday, 3 June 2022 14:07 (one year ago) link
After seeing the fan video for Until Then, I wondered if it could have been set to the last scene of StalkerI tried and it worked well enough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNiVFCWMrqI. The glass almost starts moving with the buzzing metallic guitar.
― Nabozo, Friday, 3 June 2022 14:08 (one year ago) link
I mean, it IS an introduction, almost like an invitation, and it certainly has a naive quality, but it sounds incredibly vibrant and evocative to me in a manner that mawkish doesn't quite cover.
― cw, Friday, 3 June 2022 14:09 (one year ago) link
Shit, didn't mean to post that sorry, didn't know I need to give it a title
― Nabozo, Friday, 3 June 2022 14:09 (one year ago) link
Time for a hit
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 14:09 (one year ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/jgY7Pzz.jpg
15. PapercutsFrom Extended Play, 2000. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006.Official music video on YouTube367 Points, 16 Votes
I wouldn't say this is too low, exactly, #15 seems about right, but I had expected it to place higher.
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 3 June 2022 14:13 (one year ago) link