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

Top 3, about right- just expected the placements to be different. Glad to see the TB love was as big as mine! My deep love of this band came from doing some graduate school work at my grandparents’ house shortly before my grandmother passed and I remember listening to Tender Buttons and everything clicked. A band becoming more devoted to electronics for support after another departure of a band member. My grandmother in hospice, needing electronic medical equipment to monitor and keep her on support.

Also wish I had gotten around to voting but enjoying this thread, thanks.

I think The Noise Made By People would've been my No 1 - despite being underwhelmed by it on release - I felt like it was too careful and buttoned-up and distant - perhaps I wanted it to be something that it wasn't? But now I think I enjoy that slight remove, in fact really appreciate it as a soundtrack for feeling slightly detached from life, looking through windows or walking alone. A nice daytime record.

Generally I prefer to listen to digital copies of albums that I first got to know on CD, but this is a rare example of a 21st century LP that I enjoy more on vinyl.

When Trish died - and this has happened with a few artists I admire - it felt like I instantly had a very different sense of her (and Broadcast's) artistic journey - it is hard to explain but knowing that the project was over completely recast my understanding of their body of work.

xpost

The top 3 is the same as mine, same order. I came to Broadcast late and apart from Witch Cults didn't hear their catalogue until after Trish died. My vote for TB may well just come down to "at the end of the day I am a 'songs' person and TB has the highest proportion of them," though I also associate it with a bad time in grad school, when the album seemed to offer something like grace.

Glad to see Tender Buttons top the albums list. Not only their best set of songs, but one of my favorite sounding albums ever--the sonic palette of primitive drum machines + sentient-fax-machine synths + Trish's sweet, stoic voice to me evokes an eternal, glowing future.

Yeah very much on the money. Haha is my favourite but TB is an alchemical record which blew the doors off their previous confines, made them a hugely exciting band rather than a beautiful style exercise. I think I will be listening to Witch Cults for decades and slowly decoding it.

I don't think I saw this mentioned on the other thread - a mixtape made by Trish around 2010, which may serve as an amuse-bouche ahead of the tracks rollout:
https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2016/04/20/trish-keenans-mind-bending-motorway-mix/

Fairly sure the top three is how the same order they all placed in the 2000s poll on here a couple of years ago. It was great to see them do so well in that.

I would happily put Tender Buttons in my all time top ten albums, maybe even top five but I had this crazy realisation during the voting process that not only would I put Work & Non Work ahead of it, I might put it above every album I've ever heard. It's one of those albums that makes me feel nostalgic for when I first heard it and still excites me just as much after 25 years. I absolutely adore all nine songs (and voted for every one in this poll) and it's sequenced so beautifully. It is the album I would recommend to a Broadcast beginner. I love how that one leads to the three albums and the journey they would take.

Weirdly I remember being so disappointed with Tender Buttons when I got it. It was a couple of years later I revisited it and everything fell into place. Very happy to see it at the top. Also happy to see Maida Vale up there. I feel kinda guilty it's probably going to get my number one vote in the end of year poll in January. It's a wonderful collection.

I was disappointed with Tender Buttons initially too, but it never fully recovered in my case! It's the closest they came to approximating some actual 'in' sounds of the era. I think my 2005 reaction is on this site; something like "the world needed another electroclash act?" It's probably more like an album of Pendulums in reality, except that the once delicious drums are now overwhelmingly little more than a click track. And, all of a sudden, they were breaking into 3/4 uncharacteristically rarely, lol.

I remember the descending wibbly guitar in "Black Cat' immediately sounding alarmingly 'indie' and unambitious. Far from breaking down barriers, it seemed that references to stuff outside the confines of rock were getting swapped out. For someone whose first favourite Broadcast song was probably "Accidentals" much of the album seemed to represent an ever so *slight* drift towards the tired things that had me fleeing to Broadcast in the first place!

I don't dislike it though. It's still Broadcast innit. Small distinctions, etc. I just reach for it less often than other stuff and am glad they didn't really dwell there for long, recordings-wise.

My top vote was for TNMBP but my appreciation of Tender Buttons improved by the biggest margin on relisten during the poll: a more complete sonic clothing over intact melodies, more confidence, more surrealism. But I first heard TNMBP and love its vagueness, quaintness, dreaming apathy. Haha Sound is the one that I connect the least with, I find it has less unity, it's more a collection of experiments for me. Maida Vale was a perfect occasion for the poll and I like to think it was the trigger.

I've also realized, while I like the three bands, how much higher regard I have for Broadcast compared to Stereolab and Pram. I love Broadcast.

I feel like I should spend more quality time with Pram. They never quite clicked for me, but they endlessly feel like they might be about to do so.

I think I know what you mean about Haha Sound. Much of it sounds like a sequence of quite, er, small ideas. I mean, something like "O How I Miss You" is possibly the slightest thing in the whole world ever and yet... it's possible I've very nearly shed a tear over that thing!

the broadcast v stereolab narrative needs to knock it off

one of my favorite sounding albums ever--the sonic palette of primitive drum machines + sentient-fax-machine synths + Trish's sweet, stoic voice to me evokes an eternal, glowing future

Re Tender Buttons: this nails it really - I remember that it leaked very early (par for the course in 2005) and the sound of it was a real shock at first. It had a brace of springy pop songs (Black Cat, America's Boy, Corporeal, Michael A Grammar, Goodbye Girls) which definitely had the fizzy abandon that I'd always wanted from them. But, yes, Haha Sound had been their most cavernous album and yet this felt like their most minimalist. Tender Buttons and Young Marble Giants' Colossal Youth are both easily in my top 10 all-time albums, for similar reasons - stoic vocals over drum-machine bounce.

Loads of comments above regarding initial reactions to certain albums resonate with me. Broadcast have definitely become my favourite band over the past 25 years, and I've bought everything at the point of release since Book Lovers, but both TNMBP and Haha Sound did slightly different things than I'd initially anticipated

I had exactly the same initial reaction to TNMBP as emsworth outlines upthread; by the time the Pendulum EP came out I'd long since fallen in love with the chilly detachment of this prev album, but then the Pendulum tracks and parts of Haha Sound were so much about the newly gigantic and frenetic drums that my expectations shifted again. Both TNMBP and Haha Sound were massive growers for me and each new release completely changed my appreciation of the previous one.

I think I will be listening to Witch Cults for decades and slowly decoding it

Completely this, also - I guess it doesn't do what some people want from Broadcast, but it's so lush and dense and once you stop listening for tidy pop songs they do gradually emerge.

I feel like I should spend more quality time with Pram. They never quite clicked for me, but they endlessly feel like they might be about to do so.

Cool! Thanks. :)

Helium is very good too

c)If it is a concern, her politics seem to have been fine during their prime and she left years ago (the new records are great)
d) I am very partial to the telemetric melodies compilation

*takes notes*

Thanks people!

The one actual physical disc I plucked from a discount bin (but *still* don't know well) is apparently The Moving Frontier which I'm guessing is not immensely acclaimed...

btw, the chronology with Billy playing in Broadcast is obviously back to front, but if Plone had been eligible for this poll I would have given them hefty votes.

Tender Buttons was my #1 for albums, probably their most song-y release but

Oops

Tender Buttons was my #1 for albums, probably their most song-y release but also I think it also just showcases the various strengths of the band so well, you still get a lot of the psych feel/general strangeness on there as well.

I voted for the compilations rather than the individual EPs as that's how I know them but I should try giving them a listen separately, just to see how they flow in that format.

ok, (come on) let's go.

is 77 a bit too many tracks? possibly, but number 78 was somehow the highest ranked track with less than two votes, also it was me who had to make images and all 77 are done now, as of about 20 minutes ago. going this high also lets us sample a few different flavours which would otherwise be missing.

https://i.imgur.com/osFDaZ9.jpg

77. Locusts
From Come On Let's Go Single, 2000. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006
Fan-made video by Blue-Loire on YouTube
27 Points, 3 Votes

In a little yellow lemon tree, no less! A+ CaAL!

pictures look not so great at this size, will make some minor adjustments

What to say about Locusts? I like it a lot, but it flits from idea to idea, and only a few moments are truly special, so can understand it being overlooked.

https://i.imgur.com/G3VYeuf.jpg

76. Chord Simple
From Come On Let's Go Single, 2000. Compiled on The Future Crayon, 2006
Fan-made video by Muse Seymour on YouTube
28 Points, 4 Votes

I think I vaguely wondered out loud in the other thread whether this standalone version was likely to get any votes. Then I refreshed my memory. It did sound faintly more... unbuttoned than the other version? I did opt for the other one, however.

https://i.imgur.com/iMSJsd0.jpg

75. Microtronics 04
From Microtronics Vol 1, 2003
Audio on YouTube
29 Points, 2 Votes

I can reveal that this is the only Microtronic which we will be hearing today/

Haha. This is the one I kept on my ballot. I was delighted to see it receive further support!

One of the more Radiophonic Workshop sort of tracks.

Oh wait, that's 05 up there.

I, at least, hopefully voted for this one this one. :)

the broadcast v stereolab narrative needs to knock it off

― Western® with Bacon Flavor,

I only think of them like this when trying to figure out where to put them in my favourite bands list. Both somewhere in the top five but the order is tricky.

I didn't ever consider voting for any of the Mircrotronics tracks. It would be hard for me to pick out highlights.

Nine Microtronics tracks received votes - suspect all of them were throwing a single vote in its direction, only two votes ended up landing on the same one.

Apologies for posting the wrong video, will try not to make any more mistakes. Thankfully not so easy to confuse anything coming up.

Time for our first of two ties. An interesting pairing!

https://i.imgur.com/QGx20yh.jpg

=73. Bit 35
From Tender Buttons, 2005
Fan-made video by eataverysbones on YouTube
31 Points, 3 Votes

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

=73. Dead The Long Year
From The Noise Made By People, 2000
Fan-made video by Wonder Muddle on Youtube
31 Points, 3 Votes

Now I'm trying hard to figure out the relation between Colour me In and Hawk :)

These images are really working for me, CaAL!

Also: I'd forgotten how good the second #73 is. Should have been on my ballot somehow.

I'm plonking these in that Spotify playlist as well, and this quasi-random all-instrumental sequence is fab.

I will explain the images when the rollout is over, pretty sure there will be some questions before then.

idk i'm loving the inscrutability of the images, it fits the theme

also loving all the fan made videos

Yeah one of my favourite parts of this process has been finding these videos.

Having said that, here is our second and final tie, and neither of these has a fan-made video I can find.

https://i.imgur.com/QmcyZC1.jpg

=71. A Quiet Moment
From Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, 2009
Audio on Youtube
32 Points, 2 Votes

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

=71. The Be Colony/Dashing Home/What On Earth Took You?
From Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, 2009
Audio on Youtube
32 Points, 2 Votes

so far, i've voted for "locusts" (love the off-kilter 6/8 groove and the big swooping piano notes) and "dead the long year" (reminds me a of a roubaix-esque spy film score)

That basically sums up why Tender Buttons is not a favourite: it never really threatens to remind anyone of a Roubaix-esque spy film score lol

turns out i didn't vote for locusts lol, it was a late cut though

I didn't end up having any room for anything from Witch Cults, but Colony would have been my pick.

Bit 35 was one of the few Tender Buttons songs I didn't vote for. It's great obviously.

Witch cults token pop song in with a bullet at 71. the Be colony would sound glorious on any era broadcast lp and unfailingly lulls me into a false sense of security.