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 Poll forever: THE BOO RADLEYS - ILM artist poll #60 or new numbering #65

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-dF-1Fa0_qls/VThZzCGJYqI/AAAAAAAAAEM/vxkLhhdzj3g/w600-h596-no/Find%2BThe%2BAnswer%2BWithin%2Bpart%2B1.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-A7Jp93rvkxs/VThZcxE6QuI/AAAAAAAAADk/7bCH3X1ryGI/w1024-h768-no/Find%2BThe%2BAnswer%2BWithin%2Bpart%2B2.jpg

16(Tie). Find the Answer Within
From: Wake Up!
Released: 1995
56 Points, 2 Votes

btw, big shout out to "One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)" i love their feedback cover of that song.

my vote for cover song went to "Tomorrow" the winner.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-gwmmbqgniXw/VThbbN6LV5I/AAAAAAAAAE8/OvZ9gia5QM0/w600-h463-no/Boo%21%2BForever.jpg

16(Tie). Boo! Forever
From: Everything’s Alright Forever
Released: 1992
56 Points, 2 Votes

i pretty much bought all these when they were released, which is 27 Singles/EP's. a bunch of them are part 1 and part 2 and have those as well. the only one i don't own is the promo only Kingsize single. i want it because it has two songs i don't own, plus "Tomorrow" which i got on the Find the Way Out compilation.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pCFTV6h3Yc4/VThd16wchUI/AAAAAAAAAFo/BEFwXFE9Et0/w599-h600-no/Kaleidoscope.jpg

14. Kaleidoscope EP
From: Ichabod and I and the compilation Learning To Walk
Released: 1990 Rough Trade
58 Points, 2 Votes

there are two different versions of "Kaleidoscope" the LP version and the EP version which is also included on Learning To Walk compilation album.

Speaking of Find the Way Out, I notice Boo! Forever is remarkably well represented there. Carr may be disappointed with this ranking.

lol, well i voted for it.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-tT3k4iViA4g/VThhmRfDo7I/AAAAAAAAAGg/howOlqHi85M/w889-h865-no/What%27s%2BIn%2BThe%2BBox%2B%28See%2BWhatcha%2BGot%29%2Bpart%2B1.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-7fhzaRET8Jg/VThhvxMnOXI/AAAAAAAAAIE/bIgy99vNpPY/w500-h499-no/What%27s%2BIn%2BThe%2BBox%2B%28See%2BWhatcha%2BGot%29%2Bpart%2B2.jpg

13. What's In The Box? (See Whatcha Got)
From: C’mon Kids
Released: 1996
59 Points, 2 Votes

speaking of, i have messed up. Boo! Forever is on my list twice, so it actually has more votes and more points.

so the list (so far) actually is:

15. Find the Answer Within
14. Kaleidoscope EP
13. What's In The Box? (See Whatcha Got)

damn

have no idea how that happen, i will be more careful (i hope).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ra9paJTN7Kc/VThkrLLmalI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/qdm2TK9AHtY/s600-no/Barney%2B%28...And%2BMe%29.jpg

12. Barney (...and Me)
From: Giant Steps
Released: 1994
66 Points, 2 Votes

still kicking myself over the mistake. at least it really doesn't effect things too much.

Only just now inspired to look up the original "Zoom". Great! Seemingly wasn't a hit in these parts...

Re: "What's in the Box", I'm not sure I've heard any of the squillion b-sides. And I thought I was being thorough before voting...

What's In The Box? (See Whatcha Got) really is good as there are a bunch of great b-sides on that one. it was my #6.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-cq6COXizimk/VThn1jU4SRI/AAAAAAAAAJE/90mJmWAZK74/w824-h865-no/Every%2BHeaven%2BE.P.%2Btwo.jpg

11. Every Heaven EP
From: Stand alone single and also on Learning To Walk
Released: 1991 (Rough Trade)
69 Points, 2 Votes

So I guess I get do the first "too low!" in the thread. Every Heaven sounds like top shelf BRs to me, despite not being a massive fan of "The Finest Kiss".

that is it for now, will do the Top 10 tomorrow along with the Album countdown.

thanks Bee!

Tomorrow is an amazing cover. I love it when bands pick songs to cover which could easily have been written by themselves. This (and to an extent Zoom), really do sound like Boo Radleys songs. I've not really heard the original mind you. Vaguely recall being shown Bugsy back in primary school but I was only about 5 and couldn't really understand it.

'Naomi' off Every Heaven is great, 'Tortoiseshell' is quite good, the other two tracks I probably hadn't listened to in over 20 years until this poll.

That looked like "There she goes" got two votes on the "Cover Versions" rundown, up there...

I'm glad that you making a mistake means Boo! Forever has more votes Bee. Had it high on my list. The title track is such an amazing song.

I'll admit I only ever played the "Learning to walk" once. Liked "Boo Faith", but.

i didn't know 'boo forever' was named after a richard brautigan poem

Good work Bee!

"Tomorrow" is a worthy winner, even though I voted "There She Goes". The original by The La's gets played quite a lot (often in advertisements) but in my opinion the Boos cover is better!

The top singles/EPs poll was a very difficult one. I didn't even notice until now that I hadn't picked any pre-Giant Steps era singles or EPs... "Boo! Forever" or "Every Heaven" could easily have made it on my list. I'm a bit disappointed to see "Barney & Me" only at #12 though - it's up there with my favourites (but not #1). "Barney & Me" is a cracking pop song, "Tortoiseshell" is weird but very cool (although the version that's on "Every Heaven" is better), "Zoom" is an excellent cover, and "Cracked Lips, Homesick" is just a lovely little acoustic song.

Will comment on the top albums and tracks later...

Ha, I never noticed that about "Tortoiseshell"

sorry everyone, this poll was suppose to start around five hours ago, something came up. it should be on track on Friday and it looks like now Saturday.

on top of all that i lost my phone or i should say it stopped working, so today has not been my day.

That looked like "There she goes" got two votes on the "Cover Versions" rundown, up there...

not sure how this is happening, i'm using excel. but you are right, so two songs got two votes.

Ha, I never noticed that about "Tortoiseshell"

Never noticed what?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-13W4IMb4WhY/VTlp29g-5EI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/mxGMOlLkjoY/s506/Kingsize%2Bsingle.jpg

10. Kingsize
From: Kingsize (Promo only)
Released: 1998 Canceled
70 Points, 2 Votes, 1 Number One

Featuring:

Kingsize
Tomorrow
Superintendent
Last Night I Dreamt Of God.

i know i wanted to vote for the Kingsize single but didn't have room in my Top 7.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8CX4xvyud7Q/VTlv_DyZymI/AAAAAAAAAKs/7AVHKsV79Fg/w599-h600-no/I%2BHang%2BSuspended.jpg

9. I Hang Suspended
From: Giant Steps
Released: 1993
91 Points, 3 Votes, 1 Number One

Featuring:

I Hang Suspended
Rodney King (St. Etienne Remix)
As Bound As Tomorrow
I Will Always Ask Where You Have Been Even Though I Know The Answer.

cool the opening post has been modified, thanks mods.

I seem to recall IHS was my #1, even though I probably don't need to hear the 'A-side' again. The other tracks are kinda bonkers and fresh-sounding to this day IMHO, my criteria for greatness, seemingly.

i don't remember the remix but those other two songs are solid.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Y4PpLZjsfSE/VTlzde2XpKI/AAAAAAAAALg/1696bSm-bPA/s600-no/Wake%2BUp%2BBoo%21%2Bpart%2B1.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nTYMbYMKnAU/VTlzpsDCCiI/AAAAAAAAAMI/ZgYBz5GT_Gg/s500-no/Wake%2BUp%2BBoo%21%2Bpart%2B2.jpg

8. Wake Up Boo!
From: Wake Up!
Released: 1995
93 Points, 3 Votes, 1 Number One

Featuring:

CD1:

Wake Up Boo!
Janus
Blues For George Michael
Friendship Song

CD2:

Wake Up Boo! Music For Astronauts
And Tomorrow The World
The History Of Creation Parts 17 & 36.

i tried to listen to all the singles before this poll but was not able to. started from the beginning and only got through the Giant Steps singles. so i only remember these songs from Wake Up Boo and didn't make my ballot. wonder how it would have turned out if i did listen to everything again.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-OLInRQm_n_A/VTl66A9GOQI/AAAAAAAAANU/WSQq6ebR0GY/w876-h865-no/Ride%2BThe%2BTiger%2Bpart%2B1.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NLEywL9GAWE/VTl7DYUgvsI/AAAAAAAAAN8/ltL1-AlDI7Q/w600-h618-no/Ride%2BThe%2BTiger%2Bpart%2B2.jpg

7. Ride The Tiger
From: C’mon Kids
Released: 1996 (CRE248)
94 Points, 3 Votes

Featuring

CD1:

Ride The Tiger
Vote You
A Part I Know So Well
Everything Is Sorrow (Grantby Mix)

CD2:

Roadie
Safe At Home
C’mon Kids (Mekon Mix)

Excellent

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xVmcprHh_o8/VTmC6MwhWQI/AAAAAAAAAPE/QzhZkR9I-H0/w505-h506-no/Boo%2BUp%21%2BEP.jpg

6. Boo Up! EP
From: Stand alone single and also on Learning To Walk
Released: 1991 (Rough Trade)
109 Points, 3 Votes, 1 Number One

Featuring:

Everybird
Sometime Soon She Said
Foster’s Van
Song For Up!

Well, you're still wrong ;-)

Aye

if Learning to Walk was a proper album i would probably rank it third or fourth best. behind Kingsize, Giant Steps and probably C'Mon Kids.

This Spotify playlist is fucking amazing. Sad that the tracks from Learning To Walk are missing but it was expanded...

I listened to Wake Up the other day and was surprised to find that Martin Doom! It's 7 O'Clock was the standout this time round. It's a really great song, so I'm surprised it didn't feature in the poll at all. Did no one vote for it?

Spotify: ILM The Boo Radleys

since the band came up in the SFA thread today i decided to listen to the ILM playlist instead of an album. still so proud of this poll! this poll ended up getting 21 ballots which i didn't think would be possible really. on top of that, even though it is not my order, ILM did a fantastic job at picking songs. i put on this playlist on my way home from work today and say the Top 25 is top tier stuff, really impressed with this order. it really made me fall in love with this band all over again.

not to discount the rest of this playlist at all...

"Sad songs are easier to play, I'm afraid"

I have only voted in two of these artist polls that are done around here and this was one of them. It was fun reliving the 90s again and had a blast when this poll was live.

Thanks for reminding me of that Spotify!

I've been thinking about Kingsize really. Surprised by a lot of the results on this poll as it's missing a bunch of faves (Still sore about 'Blues For George Michael' not even placing). 'Lazarus' is a great song, but I wouldn't call the EPs essential.

And also Kingsize placing third in the albums above C'mon Kids and Wake Up! I'd almost forgotten this album existed. Its release was so muted and the single Free Huey was so horrid, it put a pall over it for a long time for me. Plus very few of the songs seem to have placed in the upper reaches of the tracks poll.

But I've been thinking about it again recently. Decided to dig it out. Like C'mon Kids, but unlike Wake Up!, it suffers from production that dates it considerably. That Aphex Twin snare rush on Blue Room In Archway is almost comedically 1998, and there are bits where you can tell they'd been told by someone to 'make it sound more like Be Here Now'.

It's also a little bit too long and out-stays its welcome by about two songs.

Still, production aside, it has some great tunes. I figured it would be fun to play around with the tracklisting and invoke God Mode on it. Shame ''Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything's Okay' isn't on Spotify or I'd have found a way to include that:

1. Blue Room In Archway
2. The Old Newsstand At Hamilton Square
3. Kingsize
4. She Is Everywhere
5. High As Monkeys
6. Eurostar
7. Spanish Lizards
8. Adieu Clo Clo
9. Monuments For a Dead Century
10. Song From The Blueroom
11. In A Galaxy Far, Far Away

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5HEFXCBuXwxfSPTqrurLoD?si=uUzIEpSaRl2QZhc2WVAyoQ

And here's where you shout at me for taking off Heaven's At The Bottom Of This Glass and Future Is Now

"Put Your Arms Around Me and Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK"

=

Bee OK (username) as i thought it was going to be the very last new song i would ever hear by them. turns out there were some "Kingsize" B-sides that were yet to come my way.

i'm going to have to pour me a glass of wine and listen to your tack listing. i could live without "The Future is Now" as that always sounded like a b-side to me and out of place on this album. i would have to add back "Jimmy Webb is God" as that is where i got the title for this thread. more to come...

xpost you could have ended up being "Superintendent "

Apparently Martin wanted 'The Future Is Now' as the first single (!?!) But Alan McGee said 'not on your nellie'

I'm starting to think I should have kept in 'Jimmy Webb'. Such a simple song, but God is it fawning, and the swirling orchestra at the end sounds quite a bit lower budget than what I imagine they had in mind.

Oh shit, Oh wait I forgot about the Kingsize B-Sides. Some of those are fantastic. Sadly they're not on Spotify so I can't include them :-( I'd definitely include their version of Tomorrow.

Anyone know if the 'Find A Way Out' compilation ever got released on vinyl?

i bought the CD version of Find the Way Out because i wanted a copy of "Tomorrow" and some of those early songs that were never on CD. i also love those Kingsize B-sides and still don't own it. i have been looking for years for it but have never been able to score a copy of that single.

i listened to your version of this and overall it's a better album but have an issue with a few things. because "Kingsize" is the pinnacle song on the album, i think it being third is just too soon. they have it sixth track on the original listing and to me that makes the most sense. i already talked about how i would have to include "Jimmy Web is God" but i also feel "Comb Your Hair" is such a good song that it should have been a single. to be clear, i actually really like "The Future is Now" it just sounds sort of out of place on this album and is not a great closer. i do love that you end with "Song from the Blueroom," that makes so much sense to me.

check that, you actually end with " In a Galaxy Far, Far Away." i'm in America and that song is grayed out and didn't play. i can't remember the song off the top of my head, will have to dig out my CD single and see it that make sense as an ending to me.

fun exercise Dog Latin, i might have to do something like this on the 25th anniversary or something...

hey Bee OK. okay, I'll concede you Jimmy Webb. Never enjoyed Comb Your Hair. Sice sounds like he's straining and a bit bored at the same time, and I remember thinking it reminded me too much of 'Something Changed' by Pulp, although listening back they don't really.

In A Galaxy Far Far Away does the same job as Future Is Now, but is about 2 or 3 minutes shorter.

I'll put Jimmy Webb at track 3. I also have Spanish Lizards in there, which you might not be able to hear for the same reason as IAGFFA

I feel like this album has a lot of songs that are structurally and musically quite similar. 'Adieu Clo Clo', 'Eurostar', 'Comb Your Hair' and possibly a few others are earnest mid-tempo ballads about longing and yearning, with Sice doing this anthemic falling cadence that should be very beautiful but is hampered slightly by the production of the time'.

I believe "Jimmy Webb" was Martin Carr's favourite, and also "Comb your hair" Was why he split the band, the inevitability of going out and promoting it as "the third single"..

did he not like the song, or was it something otherwise?

I get the remarks about some tracks being a little similar tempo-wise in the second half, but I'd leave the tracklisting as is. Free Huey b-sides brilliant too, but not sure they fit

Xpost I believe he didn't like it much.

I could guess why, but I'd be guessing.

"Comb Your Hair" is what broke up the Boo Radleys? what a strange concept. i actually love the song to death. it felt like a single, so hearing it would have been the third seems to make so much sense to me. it's all about being at the place where you start to figure thing out, song is very catchy. "Comb Your Hair">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>"Free Huey," the only song i actually dislike. i would have been ok as an off album single but sort of ruined the album.

"remember how i used to be, my energy"

a lot of nostalgia on this album. remembering those good times in life, especially with the lads.

I don't think it broke them up, just lead to Martin doing it then, rather than after.

In the highly unlikely event one of the four or five people who write on this thread is on ILX right now and reading this, please answer this question (if you can):
In 'Naomi' (off the Every Heaven EP from 91) is the repeated lyric in the blizzard of noise towards the end "Am I still dreaming again?" or "I must be dreaming again"?

i just dung out the EP and played it on my old stereo system, sounded so nice. i believe Sice is singing "I Must Be Dreaming" with dreaming being stretched out. will see what other's think he is saying.

*dug, one day i will actually read my post before posting.

Cheers

why has this thread been https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/Pages/most-read-threads.jsp">viewed over 600 times in the last 24 hours?

#TimsTwitterListeningParty prob

https://timstwitterlisteningparty.com/pages/replay/feed_183.html

Currently the little clarinet solo in "Best Lose The Fear" is my favourite few seconds of music

I've been thinking to myself that I'd like to get some of my favourite Boo Sides cut to a one-off vinyl. But which ones, and in which order?

Started making a longlist and given the quality of their non-album work, it's hard to pare down to just two sides.

I've decided to forego most of the early shoegaze era, not because I don't like it (I do very much), but because I have most of the early EPs and a lot of that material appeared on Learning To Walk (pleeeease someone re-release this!)

Ideally, I'd do some nice editing so the tracks kind of flow together nicely as a suite, a bit like on Giant Steps.

This is what I have so far. Not sure which of these darlings I'd kill

...And Tomorrow The World
Blues For George Michael
Friendship Song
Sunfly II: Walking With The Kings
I Will Always Ask You Where You've Been Even Though I Know The Answer
Let Me Be Your Faith
From The Bench At Belvedere
Annie & Marnie
Nothing To Do But Scare Myself
Spanish Lizards
Wallpaper
Superintendent
Tomorrow
Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything's Going To Be Okay
Almost Nearly There
In A Galaxy Far Far Away

Might have to drop either "I Will Always Ask You" or "Nothing To Do But Scare Myself" as they pull similar tricks.

"In A Galaxy" is a nice final track and I would have preferred it as a closer to Kingsize. But maybe there are too many "final-sounding" tracks here. Is "Put Your Arms" too similar to "Almost Nearly There"? But which is best?; they're both great!