The Boo Radleys, Classic or Dud?

And is Sice the least charismatic rock frontperson ever?

As I see it, the very earliest stuff (even _Ichabod and I_) is quite good, but _Everything's Alright Forever_ was a low point, sorta there and no more outside of a couple of songs. But after "Lazarus," strength to strength from there on in. And the singles were all just packed with some amazing B-sides and remixes; I went ahead and made a grand four CDR comp out of them all, plus a lot of the random rarities.

About the B-sides, I managed to get 2 extensive D90s of their excellent b-sides (which were often better than the rest of their material (seek: Blues for George Michael, Vegas, Sunfly II, Wallpaper, Almost Nearly There)... how in god's name did you get 4 CDs out of that? I thought i had almost all their rarities (then again i never included remixes or live edits - maybe i should)... I think the Boos were forgotten about because younger people (21 and under now) remember them as that band who did that Wake Up! song that used to play every morning before school and annoy them (actually, it was that song and Leaves & Sand that introduced me)... over 21s remember them as an excellent band who went pop and didn't do much after their Ride-era Everything's Alright Forever... Luckily, I never really gave up on them. I always thought the choice of A-Sides they brought out were abysmal though (Destroy: It's Lulu, Free Huey (ugh!), Barney & Me, What's In The Box) actually, I only bought the singles for the awesome b-sides where Martin Carr seemed to be able to do what the fuck he liked. I think they were a little scared of getting their experiments heard and so released their most straight-ahead tracks on single.

Kingsize is good and their most straight forward album although Carr was pretty apathetic about the recording compared to the others.

Just heard Ichabod and I recently and was surprised how excellent it sounded, possibly even better than Everythings Alright Forever.

Martin Carrs new stuff as Brave Captain is also excellent and also really prolific, a mini album, an album, a 10" single and a cd single so far and the stuff is great. Good live too if you can catch them.

One of the best of the 90s.

Shit - I even like Wake Up.

That said, their best track - Skywalker - was the free giveaway single on C'Mon Kids. Drum'n'bass scuzzed up rock. Made you kinda wish the rest of the album was that good. Oh yes, those were the days.

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

This album is good and so much better than it has any right to be. I guess if you take 24 years off and decide to come back then it should be worth it and I think this is worth it. That being said, I really don't consider this a Boo Radleys album, you can't lose your songwriter and expect it to be the same band. I look at this more like a follow up to that Eggman record from the 90s.

I really like that Eggman record. Not heard it in years though

Yeah, played that Eggman album a fair bit. Added "turn all your lies to truth" to mixtapes at the time

I see there's a cheap (deluxe) download available at the Boos Official merch site, ok I'm gonna get one tomorrow...

I cannot really get into that Eggman albun nor even less the Paperlung effort but I think the new Boos is kinda charming. Sorry.

*album

It's pretty great. Big hugs from the Boos.

Now got Kingsize on and bawling my eyes out. Oh dear oh dear.

I agree the new one is pretty good. Kingsize is probably my favorite but I have been over that here before and yes it can make me cry too.

Kingsize is a 10/10 genius album. Love it to death

I usually don't share reviews but this one is spot on except I think I like it better
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-boo-radleys-keep-on-with-falling/

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

Boos fans. Don't skimp on the Eight album. I had some pretty strong assumptions which put me off listening. But after seeing them perform tonight, a mix of songs from the Wake Up / C'mon Kids albums, I thought I'd B2B the gig with theor latest album and honestly it's good.

Opener 'Seeker' is gooily optimistic. I heard it when it came out and noped out. After that it's like a continuation of the vibe they were checking into on Kingsize B-side "In A Galaxy Far Far Away". They try lots of different styles, dip their toes into the fun sound fx of the earlier days.
The lyrics aren't Martin's, but that was a document of an imaginative man in his twenties. These are the band's songs. Tim is a schoolteacher, Sice is a psychologist promoting mental health for musicians. They're doing what they love, and they're doing it well.
As for the gig, they were tight as fuck. Sice's voice is still astonishing. We were impressed by Tim and Rob's backing, especially the baselines. They played Almost Nearly There and Tomorrow for teh fanz (me). It was sick!
Eight is a good album!

Sorry about the "enthusiastic" spelling and grammar there

Wake Up needs a special edition release with Belvedere and the B sides on the end. I hate that Blues For George Michael isn't on the streaming services

I was toying with going to the London one but decided against it: Wake Up is the only one of theirs I never bought and Come On Kids is patchy. Did they play New Brighton Promenade?

Jealous but I did see them before in Hollywood back in the day and Lollapalooza.

I love Keep on With Falling and actually played it last week. I have only played Eight once despite buying the deluxe edition from the band. I will have to give it some more chances.