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

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

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. :)

Also, yayay for something more from their best long-playing release lol.

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.

'The Be Colony' works so well in DJ Food's 'O is for Orange' mix

https://vimeo.com/69721622

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.

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.

Also it's now the top 15 and we still have 20 first-place votes !

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.)

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.

After seeing the fan video for Until Then, I wondered if it could have been set to the last scene of Stalker
I tried and it worked well enough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNiVFCWMrqI. The glass almost starts moving with the buzzing metallic guitar.

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.

Shit, didn't mean to post that sorry, didn't know I need to give it a title

Time for a hit

https://i.imgur.com/jgY7Pzz.jpg

15. Papercuts
From Extended Play, 2000. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006.
Official music video on YouTube
367 Points, 16 Votes

I wouldn't say this is too low, exactly, #15 seems about right, but I had expected it to place higher.

Some of "The Be Colony" is sampled too. That repeating bassy clunk is roughly hewn from a Piero Umiliani soundtrack, from memory.

I like "Papercuts". But didn't assist it. Maybe I had some strategic omission thing going on!

"papercuts" is the best, sweet and sinister

my #10 or thereabouts

I added all the rest of my Broadcast live stuff to the Dropbox folder, there are a couple of really nice radio recordings in there (Amsterdam in particular) and one very listenable audience recording from the 2009 tour (Montreal)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uwgy0ssya4gizht/AADAnEVGnNxjONweJc1Eukv3a?dl=0

I had Papercuts at… #15! :ghost:

cheers Maresn3st!

https://i.imgur.com/CaN8ZRB.jpg

14. I Found The F
From Tender Buttons, 2005
Fan-made video by Myra Orgain on YouTube (heavy strobe effects here)
377 Points, 16 Votes, 1 First Place Vote

That 2009 recording is crisp and intriguing so far. Thanks again Maresn3st!

https://i.imgur.com/rQKY7MJ.jpg

13. Corporeal
From Tender Buttons, 2005
Fan-made video by Wonder Muddle on YouTube
405 Points, 17 Votes, 2 First Place Votes

Corporeal manages to be both incredibly unassuming and completely thrilling - technopolis, Oct 25, 2019

I continue to be delighted by it. "Corporeal" especially (Trish duets with a collapsing building to luscious effect) - Alex in Sheffield Aug 1, 2005

Corporeal only at 13? That's surprisingly low. It was my No. 2 pick, and nearly my No. 1 - big shout out to the two first-place voters.

songs i have played on a loop for god knows how long

^Every time. "Corporeal" was my #1. I would describe it as "mathematically perfect"

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

12. Message From Home
From The Book Lovers EP, 1996, Compiled on Work And Non Work, 1997.
Fan-made video by Donbecker5 on YouTube
412 Points, 18 Votes

Papercuts was my no.2 and Corporeal my no.1 - both TOO LOW obviously but also glad that they made it this high.

Corporeal pretty much became my favourite Broadcast track the first time I heard it and it's stuck ever since. It's so narrow somehow and way less demonstrative than the clattery swirls of the previous album but it's a fizzy pulse of purest pop and I have never got even slightly bored of it. (both listed quotes above are from me, 14 years apart - thanks CaAL!)

First heard Papercuts on John Peel and was dazzled by the fact that they were now releasing massively robust pop singles with a solid verse/chorus 1/chorus 2 construction which I don't think they really did much of again after this. Maybe also because of the video, it feels like they were fully snapped into focus and present here in a way that they shied away from afterwards - it's a dynamic, exhilarating (chart-ineligible) hit.

The next track had a very odd journey through the polling period, it generally moved around the top six, was at number three for a while, and only slipped out of the top ten when the last three voters awarded it a total of zero points.

https://i.imgur.com/05FqNx8.jpg

11. Where Youth and Laughter Go
From Extended Play, 2000. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006.
Fan-made video by Wonder Muddle on YouTube
413 Points, 20 Votes