Wake Up Boo!

At long last, a post that has nothing to do with Politics.

Owning hundreds of CD's has a fair share of problems - not least the storage and the occasional moment of gnawing self doubt when you wonder whether that money could - and most probably should - have been spent on something else. But the joys far outweigh the problems, and one of the joys is rediscovering an old band or an old album that you haven't heard for ages, and then remembering how good it was/they were and why you loved it/them in the first place.

I've been listening to the Boo Radleys recently, a band I loved when I was at school and university but haven't listened to for ages, what with the damned real world intervening in my life. But listening to them recently has reminded me that they are absolutely awesome and well worth a space on my MP3 player. They are one of the few britpop bands who don't set my teeth on edge, and it is one of the music world's greatest injustices that they are pretty much forgotten whilst the ape like Oasis are at riding high in the album charts with their "best of" collection of sub Slade power ballads.

The Boo Radleys are best known for Wake-Up, which gave them their biggest hit Wake Up Boo! That single, like Help by the Beatles, is one of those songs that appears to be really upbeat until you listen to the words. The lyrics include "No you can't blame me/Not for the death of summer/But you're gonna say/What you wanna say/You have to put the death in everything" - and sets the standard for the album quite nicely. The album has a fair share of anti-fame moments, such as "This isn't what you think, and it's not what I thought it would be/You've got a lonely face, do you want my place?" in Find the Answer Within. But the actual lyrical theme is more poignant that the common but cliched "oh, I don't like being a celebrity" attitude (that always slightly pisses me off, making me want to say "well, if you don't want to be a celebrity, you don't have to") - much of the album deals with a doomed relationship, and of having to go away from home to find out what life is like elsewhere, even though it is going to hurt someone else. At the end of the tripped out Martin, Doom! It's Seven O'Clock there are the lines "And I know what you want/To take my life have me serve you/But I might as well go/Cos you need me more than I do" - a strikingly raw end to a very strange song and a sentiment that can be shared by anyone who has been in one of those relationships where your seem to be acting as an emotional crutch for the other person. And the album ends with the sparse, brittle Wilder - a song about leaving someone to come to London, and an emotionally raw confession to a loved one. The lyrics inclide "You have seen the worse of me/For that I'm truly sorry/It's not you it's this place/not knowing where to turn" before concluding "Maybe it's brighter down there". It is all very different to the standard Britpop pap of "Cigarettes and Alcohol" or living in a big house in the country.

But there is more to the Boo Radleys than just that album. After the success of Wake Up they went in a direction marked weird - and that record was C'Mon Kids. An album that contains jagged, heavy metal guitars and some very strange songs, including one about a boy and his tape worm (Meltin's Worm). The album also contains one of the most excrutiatingly bitter songs I have ever heard - Everything is Sorrow, which puts the likes of Joy Division and Manic Street Preachers to shame, given the all pervading air of bitterness and rage. It is more of an interesting than enjoyable album - but for a band to go from the melancholic pop of Wake Up to the pseudo heavy metal rage of C'Mon Kids is something that most bands would never dare to consider. One of my oldest friends is a fan of the Boo Radleys, and I find it quite telling that the only Boo Radleys album she owns is C'Mon Kids.

The album that preceded Wake Up is widely considered to be their best one, although I would disagree. Giant Steps has some great songs on it, but there is too much of that album that is just intentionally weird to made it their best. People compare it to The White Album and I would agree, but not for the reasons most music fans would cite. It is a album that could do a with a decent editor, or at least some quality control. However it does contain the single best Boo Radleys song - Lazarus. An eclectic, experimental song that encompasses reggae, britpop, shoe gazing and several other genres, it manages to be epic and personal at the same time. It also contains one of my favourites lyrics of all time - "And now, maybe now I should change/Because I'm starting to lose all my faith/Whilst those around me are beaten down each day". It is worth certainly worth a listen...

But for me their best album is their last one - Kingsize. It sums up everything that is great about the Boo Radleys - anthemic, epic, awesome and emotional. Eurostar is another of my favourite songs - ""You've been away too long/It's so lonely when you are gone/I've been away too long/At times I feel so alone". Comb Your Hair - in spite of the terrible title - is a life-affirming song - "We may never be this young again/Half my life has been mis-spent... let's not waste the time we have left". And for a critique of modern politics, try the title track - "Words confuse as Governments refuse/To give all but a small sign/That each of us are not alone". It also scores points for giving me an anthem to quote when I am indulging in the Great British hobby of binge drinking - "Reasons for believing in anything/Are few and far between these days/And I am just a boy who can't say no/Things are so much clearer in a haze/And you don't know, so why not give it a chance/Heaven's at the Bottom of this Glass" from, ermmm, Heaven's at the Bottom of this Glass.

It should have been the album to make them into a global force, but instead it made them bankrupt. Such is modern music - the Boo Radleys sit in relative obscurity whilst Oasis piss all over the world and also piss me off.

But if you want to try a new band, but are stuck on what to get, try the Boo Radley's Best of collection, Find the Way Out. I defy everyone not to find at least one track on there that they really like.