The Boo Radleys, Classic or Dud?

Search: Giant Steps, Everything's Alright Forver
Even the weakest disc (C'mon Kids, IMHO) is pretty damn OK. Destroy nothing but your preconceptions.

search: everything the boo's ever made except for the weird remixes
destroy: nothing but your silly head Mr Dud!

Have come to the sacrilicious conclusion that 1) Wake Up! is the best album, and 2) Wake Up Boo! is the best thing they ever did by a million silvery skyscraping miles. I like the Boo Radleys.

Albums:
Wake Up! > Giant Steps > Everything's Alright Forever > Kingsize > Ichabod & I > C'Mon Kids

Singles Choices (Era):
Giant Steps > Everything's Alright Forever > Wake Up! > C'Mon Kids > Kingsize

B-Sides (Era):
Wake Up! > Everything's Alright Forever > Giant Steps > C'mon Kids > Kingsize

They followed their best album with their worst album and lost all their momentum. Hell, they lost all their momentum right after "Wake Up Boo!" by releasing "Find The Answer Within" as the 2nd single. They should have gone with "Reaching Out From Here", and then "Wilder". And yes, "Free Huey" is their worst single -- if not song -- ever.

Their B-sides were always hit and miss. Hell, the ones from Giant Steps could be squalling noise for 2 minutes and then jolt into something beautiful. If I can remember correctly, 3 years ago, I made 3 CDR's just from their B-sides myself. One is good b-sides, one is remixes, and one is crap b-sides. I'll have to go digging through some boxes later today.

All that said, I don't especially miss them. Hence the cdr's buried in boxes.

One of the best bands ever - as well as the above there are loads of ace b-sides and other stuff.

Love 'em to bits and always will. BOO Forever people.

And your problem is?

1. Martin, Doom! It's Seven O'Clock
2. I Hang Suspended
3. What's In The Box (See Whatcha Got)
4. Take The Time Around
5. Almost Nearly There
6. Wake Up Boo!
7. There She Goes
8. Lazy Day
9. Zoom
10. Hold On Brother
11. Ride The Tiger
12. Skyscraper
13. Stuck On Amber
14. Does This Hurt?
15. Memory Babe
16. Wish I Was Skinny
17. Reaching Out From Here
18. Kingsize
19. Wilder

Feel free to rant or rave over my choices.

Forgot all about a few of these tracks, like "Hold On Brother" which is from the War Child comp, "There She Goes" from the So I Married An Axe Murderer OST, and "Almost Nearly There" which is a "From the Bench of Belvidere" B-side

I love the Boo Radleys again, now. Hurrah!

Cheers!

Search: Boo Faith and the early EPs compilation
Destroy: everything post Giant Steps

best recommendation ever

Please, for the love of god, if you love music buy "Find A Way Out". You'll be very pleased.

When I first heard that they were going to put out the anthology Find The Way Out, I decided to go back and play every album to get ready for it. Worth buying because the remastered songs sound just a bit richer. I would play only one for a solid week or longer then on to the next one. I Love them but was going to be honest with myself and if anything didn't hold up I would have to admit it. Are they really the best band from the 90s bar none? Well I was going to find out.

Learning To Walk was still some glorious white noise. Everything's Alright Forever has some amazing pieces of music on it. They matured quite a bit from those first three E.P.'s, but not the greatest thing. Compared to other things around this time that was similar it's really good but compared to the Boos stuff, sub par. Still really don't give much thought behind Ichabob And I despite owning it.

I was absolutely floored on my rediscovery of Giant Steps. I have played other albums by them moreso recently and haven't played it for a while. It really is their White Album and should be the one that they will be remembered for. So many things ideas and sounds are put on to this record. Truly a masterpiece that many fans say they never were able to touch again. Have loved reading what Martin and the fans have written about this album on the web site. There are some hard-core fans of this very album, astonished to hear that. Some of what Martin wrote about the sound of this album: "I just listened to the album now in headphones for the first time in an age and I can hear Surf's Up/Smile/Pet Sounds, Spiritualized, Suede (well, Bernard Butler), The Flaming Lips, London Calling by The Clash (I think all the dub on the album sounds like the people who made it hadn't heard an awful lot of dub music) Moose, Dinosaur Jr, Sugar, MBV, Forever Changes by Love (of course), Goffin/King, New Order, The Beatles, Spacemen 3, Gershwin. It all sounds very old fashioned to me but that's from a distance of ten years, I could never make an album like that now. I heard Os Mutantes about seven years later and realised that we hadn't done anything that hadn't been done before. I wanted everything to sound like a bootleg, like the Smile CD that we listened to so much in those days, with mistakes and talking and all that stuff but I don't hear as much of that as I thought I would." http://www.booradleys.co.uk/giantsteps

Next came Wake Up! which I like to call their Beatles album. A stage they needed to go through at the time. It's the least sounding Boo Radleys album that they made but was surprised because I enjoyed more then I remember. Better than most Britpop albums around this same time but give me my band back.

I wanted loud, I wanted aggression, I wanted creativity, I wanted C'mon Kids. The record buying public hated this album after the last one. I couldn't be any happier; this is what the Boo Radleys were all about. Maybe throwing in too may ideas on each song but a song like "Bullfrog Green" takes my breath away.

There are times in your life where certain albums mean so much to you that it's impossible to put into words. Kingsize is one of those albums for me as it came along at the perfect time. It seemed to speak for me and not just about me. There is no other album I have played more since its release in late 1998. One flaw is that "Free Huey" doesn't work and I skip it each and every time I play this album. I guess "The Future Is Now" is sort of out of place as well and would be a much stronger closing with "Song From the Blueroom" but I don't mind at all. About a year later I bought the U.S. version of this album for one extra song called "Put Your Arms Around Me and Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK." It seemed to be the perfect song to close their story. This album is the most misunderstood album of theirs but it's by far the most rewarding.

So yeah classic, everything and that is not going into some of the best B-sides of any band. Hope to see remastered versions of these albums some day along with the B-sides story that needs to be told. Band of the 90's and happy the quit when they did and didn't keep putting out stuff past their peak like it seems SFA have done.

"Just a simple song but God I love it. Embedded in me, so bittersweet. I'm addicted, I'm a melancholic. Sing it again. I'll be your friend forever."

Next stop...probably EAF.

i still have not received my signed copy from the Boo Radleys store but it is on streaming here in the US and am able to listen to it

A new album, called "Eight"

However, they seem to be touring a "Giant Steps revisited" show, and are playing South Street Arts Centre in Reading, 13th June.

What, really? I feel like the only one on earth who loved their last album.

Ya, rlly.

I bought the d/l with the live gig. Made it through five tracks, um yeah.

Still, tempted to go see...

Not going to defend it as it's lacking without Mattin Carr guitar work but I ended up playing it over and over and over again. Can't believe how much I warmed up to it. Just yesterday I woke up singing "Tonight." That doesn't happen very often but also the second half is better.

Will try it again tomorrow

New song is gash, I'm sorry to say. But well up for the Giant Steps tour

Can anyone see the venues and dates anywhere? Can't seem to find them

Three dates beyond the above on songkick, tix currently only available to purchasers of the new album.

Yeah wasn't keen on the last album - has a band member's absence ever felt so pronounced? - but I will happily see them do Giant Steps.

https://i.imgur.com/kZYouM7.jpg

Eight

CD1:
1. Seeker
2. The Unconscious
3. Hollow
4. Skeleton Woman
5. Sorrow (I Just Want To Be Free)
6. Sometimes I Sleep
7. Swift's Requiem
8. The Way I Am
9. A Shadow Darker Than The Rest
10. Wash Away That Feeling
11. When I Find It Hard
12. Now That's What I Call Obscene
13. How Was I To Know

CD2:
1. Seeker (Full Version)
2. Skeleton Woman (Extended Version)
3. Sometimes I Sleep (Alternative Version)
4. A Shadow Darker Than The Rest (Piano Version)
5. The Hollow (Alternative Version)
6. I Won't Be There With You
7. That Ain't A Way Of Life
8. Now I Know
9. All Things Must Pass Live At The Cavern (2022)
10. Spaniard Live At The Cavern (2022)
11. Find The Answer Within Live At The Cavern (2022)

Out June 9, 2023 via Boostr

The Reading tickets seem to be available now

Actually not minding "Seeker" at all

The b-side is nice too

The album is alright. Marginally better than last year's LP, mostly because of Seekerm vaguely bossa-ish Skeleton Woman and britgum-ish Now That's What I Call Obscene (sounding more like McFly than the new McFly metal riffola album).

Oh, it's out today!

Thought this was about the Giant Steps remaster, etc.

I bought this, just like the last album. Not sure why as I don't buy CD's anymore but I do it for this band. I will get a bonus CD but going from London to Los Angeles so I don't have it yet.

It's on Spotify, so looking forward to listening tonight.

Is this Giant Steps tour going to be any good without Martin? The London gig hasn't sold out yet so I could possibly go, but I'm not convinced.

Yeah, it’ll be great

The last album to me made some sense as it had a Boo Radleys sound. The problem with that is you no longer have Martin Carr who's the real genius. I grew to like the album and played it many times last year. This album is different, not a 180 turn but a turn nonetheless. It was strange as I felt like it had no guitar's until about 3/4 through it. These songs are just different so it's throwing me for a loop.

Just seen their first set (they're coming back out to do Giant Steps in a bit). First time I've seen them since 1992.

Sounds like fun. I got to see them back in the day and even at Lollapalooza.

Wish I was there and looking forward to your review.

That was actually really good. Glad I went.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Qldx37Gz8

A belated review of sorts (of the London gig). Sice had got the stage times wrong (which he apologised for) as he got them mixed up with the following night, so they came on at 8pm for the first set instead of 8:30pm and I missed the first 20 minutes or so. Everything I heard from this set was new (either from the new new album or the one a year or two ago) so I didn't know them, but I was surprised to find I quite liked these songs. The exception was The Finest Kiss, which they closed with. As you can see from Paul's video above, they were augmented by a pretend Martin, which solved the missing guitar sound problem that had been making me reluctant to go to the gig originally.

The Giant Steps set later was pretty faithful to the album and did a good job of recreating the sound live (e.g. the feedback sounds at the start of Upon 9th and Fairchild). They played nearly every track: Sice announced mid-set that they would be missing out 'the shit noisy one' and asked 'how many people really want to hear Run My Way Runway?' - the answer was a lot of us, so he said he'd go and get a hoover and mike it up as this would do the job. It was largely in order apart from a medley section (can't remember exactly what was in this - One Is For definitely, maybe Spun Around and Best Lose The Fear). They messed up the opening to If You Want It, Take It twice before finally getting it right and then Sice got the chorus wrong (singing the second bit twice instead of "there's nothing bright about being undecided"). The only problem sonically was that Tim was singing the "do you know my name before you tear me apart? do you care who I am?" lines from Rodney King and it was almost inaudible, which was odd because his backing vocals were clear most of the rest of the time. I was surprised at how many people were there and the band seemed delighted by the audience response - broad smiles on their faces at the 'ba-ba-ba-ba's from the crowd during Lazarus. I took little video clips, but no whole songs. If I can be bothered I could stitch them together and put them on YouTube, but don't hold your breath.

Still not sure how I feel but came across this:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/the-boo-radleys/eight-review

Just found this sublime acoustic version of Everybird from a couple of years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kovwtpD26ng

Rob playing bass AND a bit of hi-hat too? Nice!

Why is C’mon Kids not on streaming?

are you also in the USA? might have something to do with Mercury records’ rights

It's on Spotify in the UK, um, kids .

Boo

At it not being on Spotify US