Even "Wake Up! Boo"is about a depressed spousenot pulling you down
I don't often playthis record because it's SADBEYOND ALL BELIEF
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:12 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:13 (eighteen years ago) link
I like this interpretation.
― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:16 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 15:43 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― BeeOK (boo radley), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 03:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 05:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bodenheim Snr, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 12:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 13:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― JOHN JEFFERYS, Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:23 (eighteen years ago) link
great to hear Martin, Doom! stereolab remix again though.
― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:35 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― mms (mms), Thursday, 2 June 2005 11:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 June 2005 14:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― mms (mms), Thursday, 2 June 2005 15:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 June 2005 23:26 (eighteen years ago) link
Somehow I have never been to Preston, I think secretly this album is why.
― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Friday, 3 June 2005 09:30 (eighteen years ago) link
So what exactly was the story behind this? And the blue room in Archway?
― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 June 2005 10:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bodenheim Snr, Friday, 3 June 2005 11:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 June 2005 12:38 (eighteen years ago) link
"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.
― BeeOK (boo radley), Saturday, 4 June 2005 01:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Saturday, 4 June 2005 09:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― kit brash (kit brash), Saturday, 4 June 2005 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link
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?
― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 4 June 2005 16:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― the yeti hunter, Sunday, 5 June 2005 13:52 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― BeeOK (boo radley), Sunday, 5 June 2005 20:41 (eighteen years ago) link
Sice has shown up on that bravecaptain song (Good Life) and on two other songs from December of 2004. The group is called Meister and has people like Mark Gardner, Idha and Howard Jones also on his album called I Met The Music. The two best songs are the ones that Sice sings however and they are called "Be Love" and "Jealousy" and have this on slsk if you want to hear it.
I LOVED that Eggman album but it never came close to anything he did with the Boo Radleys.
― BeeOK (boo radley), Sunday, 5 June 2005 20:54 (eighteen years ago) link
I think Wilder is an amazing song - never understood the hate for it. Eggman is really really good.
Rather than start a new thread, can we talk about C'Mon Kids now? It was hailed as a welcome return to the crazier stuff at the time but maybe it's aged just a bit? I never really liked the title track or What's In The Box but Ride the Tiger and Everything is Sorrow are great songs; Four Saints is sonic bliss as is Bullfrog Green; but there is quite a lot of filler on it. Still very good. I'd say if Wake Up! is Carr's Pet Sounds then C'Mon Kids is Smiley Smile.
― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 5 June 2005 23:09 (eighteen years ago) link
(I should say that the self-title debut album by the Works, a Dungen spinoff band, *really* reminds me of the Boos in shoegaze/Beatles mode, more in feel than in specific sonic reference. It's more self consciously a late sixties/early seventies sound but it's done extremely well, search it out if you can.)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 5 June 2005 23:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― kit brash (kit brash), Monday, 6 June 2005 00:41 (eighteen years ago) link
Meanwhile, demi-inspired by this, I am listening to my CDR burn of Ichabod and I from many years back. Mmm.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 6 June 2005 00:43 (eighteen years ago) link
Just wish I had a vinyl player...
― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 6 June 2005 00:50 (eighteen years ago) link
I was never sure what to make of Kingsize - a lot of it was good and a lot of it sounded a bit bandwagony and old-before-it's-time and a lot of it sounded like a Christian rock band.
― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 6 June 2005 01:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Monday, 6 June 2005 01:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 6 June 2005 01:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 09:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bodenheim Snr, Monday, 6 June 2005 11:38 (eighteen years ago) link
Boy was I right.
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 11:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 6 June 2005 12:45 (eighteen years ago) link
I already owned this album and Kingsize without particularly liking either, but hearing Giant Steps triggered some serious reassessment. Epic, EPIC shit. I was having a spot of difficulty with Wake Up! at first, preferring that more 'crunching' sound they did, but now I love it. Whatever you think of *that* song, I like to think of it as Martin Carr's 'Good Vibrations'. You know, a bit of a 'pocket symphony'. Thinking on, someone really should write a symphony about pockets.
Kingsize, I'm still struggling with. There's the spine of an absolute classic there: the first four tracks (even *gulp* Free Huey) are superb and seem to be taking the album on this kind of grand, serpentine adventure but it seems to hit a bit of a buffer after that. The title track is one of the best songs I've ever heard, The Future Is Now is a cool, breezy way to end the album, but other tracks just seem too much to have 'required assembly'...which can be a good thing...but with stuff like Clo-Clo, the main trunk of the song doesn't really fit the coda (those extended wig-outs they did so well). Also, said 'trunks' aren't very good, which is bound to be a problem. It does sound at times, as Martin Carr said, like he'd almost given up by this point.
Maybe it will click eventually. In any case, I haven't indulged in one band so much since I went out and bought SFA's entire (then) catalogue 5 years ago after digging Radiator and Outspaced out of my collection and giving them long overdue listening time. A not dissimilar story, but one for a different thread altogether I suppose.
Pretty fucked off I'll never get to see the Boos live, actually.
― Sixpac Drinkur, Monday, 6 June 2005 13:37 (eighteen years ago) link
C'mon Kids thrills on a way more visceral level than Wake Up! but it does seem to stall and wobble a bit more than I remembered. I still think I like it better, but only just. Kingsize needs to lose "The Future Is Now" (and maybe "Monuments For A Dead Century") before I will consider it best-Boos-evah!-contender, but I do like how much tighter and less jangly it is than Wake Up!. I always loved "Free Huey", I thought it was like they were trying to be Republica.
"Belvidere" pretty much wipes the floor with everything else, on reflection. But a whole album of this would have been a bit drab.
― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Monday, 6 June 2005 13:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 13:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 13:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:39 (eighteen years ago) link
BeeOK and I'm usually hang around in the I Love Music room as well.
I will be back in a bit to write my thoughts on Kingsize.
― BeeOK (boo radley), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 02:15 (eighteen years ago) link
Thanks for the Ned!'
I am really starting to love ILM!
― BeeOK (boo radley), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 02:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― BeeOK (boo radley), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 02:25 (eighteen years ago) link
hmmm...i thought it was safe to assume that this was one of the best songs on Kingsize.
I don't much like Boos lyrics, i think this is why I prefer 'C'mon Kids' because he does oddness a better turn than earnestness. Shelter isn't filler, it's a solid album track.
I saw the Boos open for Better than ezra, a miserable experience as all the dopes there kept talking while they played their 8 song set, ugh. saw them on their own a few years before and they were horrible then, one big ball of black noise, hard to get anything out of it.
― keith m (keithmcl), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 02:35 (eighteen years ago) link
That just about tells it all. I could write out a three-page review of why I love Kingsize but will cut it down and try not to get too personal.
I had just about giving up on trying to find someone, anyone on this earth who thought this is by far the best thing the boos have ever done. Than because of the anthology album Find Your Way Out that is coming out (July 4) the question came up on bravecaptain board, what is the best album? To my shock and amazement this beat ever other album easily when I thought it would be Giant Steps that would win.
First my criticism of this album is that 'Free Huey' does not work. In fact I always thought I hated this song but it’s not bad on its own. So I am so use to skipping this song every time I play the album it doesn’t even feel to me like it’s part of it.
I have always been drawn to powerful music that seems to draw me in and speak to my inter soul. When you can relate to ever single song on an album than you know you have something special. With age comes wisdom and everything just seem to come together perfectly for this album. Martin Carr has never written better lyrics before or after this period in his life. So I can understand this album not speaking for a lot of people but for the few it has it seems to have really made a certain connection.
It made me laugh that someone said that he felt like this was a Christian rock album. Martin is not a religious man but did write songs that might seem that way but really they are about drugs and friendship. "Now we’ve high as monkeys Now we’ve come so far You and I are simple friends no more Now we’re high as monkeys Opened a few doors Let the sunshine crash into our souls …Thinking fast and feeling free And there’s no one who can touch me Higher than the universe itself Thanks I don’t need no help."
'Kingsize' is the Boo Radleys best song and is a powerful statement when they have a song called 'Lazarus' but is true. I always felt that song would be the song I dedicate to my wife someday…
Their best ever single is on this album as well but was never released as such or on the UK version of this album. 'Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything’s Going To Be OK' is pure pop genius, IMO.
'The Future Is Now' is also a peek into what he would be doing next with bravecaptain stuff. 'Song From The Blue Room' is a much better or perfect ending for this album however.
So I do understand many, many people not getting or liking this album. I also feel it doesn’t reveal itself for a bit and could be a bit off putting a first. The rewards are so much greater in the end but could be just me.
Deon
― BeeOK (boo radley), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 05:25 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/cherryred/artists/booradleys.php
Kingsizecdmred467
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 Huey4. 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 Everywhere12. Comb Your Hair 13. Song From The Blueroom 14. The Future Is Now Bonus15. Spanish Lizards 16. Everything Falls Away 17. In A Galaxy Far, Far Away
― Bee OK, Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:26 (thirteen years ago) link
shit, moving this to the right thread: The Boo Radleys, Classic or Dud?
― Bee OK, Sunday, 22 August 2010 00:27 (thirteen years ago) link
Are there any other concept albums about hangovers?
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Saturday, 30 October 2021 15:53 (two years ago) link
Man, "Wake Up Boo" is such a fucking dark song. "For what could be the very last time" - what are you saying here, Martin?
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Tuesday, 22 November 2022 13:42 (one year ago) link
Why the heck is “Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything’s Going To Be Fine” missing from that Kingsize reissue?
― lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), Tuesday, 22 November 2022 21:35 (one year ago) link
I know it was a US only track but it’s really excellent
― lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), Tuesday, 22 November 2022 21:36 (one year ago) link
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.
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 22 November 2022 21:49 (one year ago) link
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.
― Bee OK, Tuesday, 22 November 2022 21:54 (one year ago) link
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
― PaulTMA, Tuesday, 22 November 2022 21:55 (one year ago) link
Marcello on WUB (and the glorious Wake Up! in general): http://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-boo-radleys-wake-up.html
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 23 November 2022 01:36 (one year ago) link
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
― even the birds in the trees seemed to whisper "get fucked" (bovarism), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 02:17 (one year ago) link
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
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 06:07 (one year ago) 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
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 06:25 (one year ago) link
Heeeeeyyy what's that noise?? Do you rememberrrrr?? Do you remember??
― Psychocandy Apple Grey (Pyschocandles), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 09:11 (one year ago) link
*proper
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 09:52 (one year ago) link
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..
― Mark G, Wednesday, 23 November 2022 11:20 (one year ago) link
I feel bad about this, but I just don't want to hear it.
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 12:00 (one year ago) link
I'm ignoring it completely.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 23 November 2022 18:13 (one year ago) link
Would love to have Sice as therapist <3
― lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 18:20 (one year ago) link
It's like a beef chili without any chili in it.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 23 November 2022 18:26 (one year ago) link
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.
― mark e, Wednesday, 23 November 2022 18:52 (one year ago) link
I still have never heard “blues for George Michael”, it’s supposed to be a super mental bside yeah?
― lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 19:57 (one year ago) link
does your ilx email work ?
― mark e, Wednesday, 23 November 2022 19:57 (one year ago) link
Blues For George Michael is my favourite song by them
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 20:05 (one year ago) link
It's super mental
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 20:06 (one year ago) link
ta, mark!
― lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), Wednesday, 23 November 2022 20:32 (one year ago) link
"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
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 23 November 2022 20:34 (one year ago) link