it's boo

i was at a show last night and a few people there had mentioned that they had gone to seen the Charlatans UK the evening previous and in between drinks i kept reminding myself to get some nineties britpop up on the site the next day. i was never into the aforementioned band, but after waking up borderline late for work, i was able to snag a compilation with a song from underrated uk popsters the Boo Radleys.

the Boo Radleys formed around liverpool at the end of the eighties. trying at first to emulate and then distinguish themselves from groups like My Bloody Valentine and Dinosaur Jr, the Boo Radleys eventually abandoned the fuzz pedal from their earliest work, including Giant Steps, an ambitious album on many critics year end lists, and started unloading unapologetic, hooky guitar pop. the tweaking paid off as did being championed by John Peel and being on notable record label Creation. timliness also played a factor given the movement of britpop into the mainstream around the time. audiences responded in droves and in 95 the Boos scored a number one in the uk with their album Wake Up! (it's from that album that today's track appeared.) now despite this transision, songwriter Martin Carr was often point blank with the press that he did not consider the band part of the britpop phenomenon and that the group intended to always release music that consciously didn't "fit in" to what was going on. thus, not all too curiously, amidst the height of their popularity, they followed up with C'mon Kids, an album that's sound was more on par with the noise and shoegaze of the groups they once distanced themselves from and naturally the fervor died down despite postive reviews from the press. last year Santuary released an excellent two-disc retrospective.

the Boo Radleys "It's Lulu"