Album Appreciation: "Giant Steps" by The Boo Radleys

While I've always considered The Boo Radleys to be a pretty great name for a band, it is in no way befitting of this one. Remember "To Kill A Mockingbird"? Arguably the finest American literature has to offer. The character of Boo Radley is a false alarm of sorts - Scout and friends regard him as a freak, a creep, a menace to society. As it turns out, he's friendly as balls and damn near saved her life. Just a nice man who prefers to stay indoors, you know?

Thing is, you wouldn't know it looking at them, but The Boo Radleys are a menace to society. The polar opposite of Boo Radley. "Giant Steps" is a wild, thrilling, psychedelic mess of an album, far more threatening than the minor britpop splash in North America (whereas NME readers declared it the album of 1993, which isn't too much of a stretch at all). I recall the band from the "So...I Married an Axe-Murderer" Soundtrack, which I still own. Referring to the band's delicious, if inoffensive cover of The L.A.'s "There She Goes", I asked who the artist was. I misheard it as The Boob Radleys. Needless to say, I'd not yet read "To Kill A Mockingbird".

The album steals its title from a Coltrane album, and the jazz influence even rears its ugly head once or twice. A colorful kaleidoscope collage of styles and sounds, instruments and influences, in which no one is ignored. The album begins with a vaguely trippy, drone that soon becomes the britpop beast that is "I Hang Suspended".

Yes, I said Britpop.

Yet, where Blur had their kink-sy, upbeat character studies, Oasis had their Beatles-wannabe swagger and Slipknot had their silly masks, The Boo Radleys instead tread in a sort of mash-up of My Bloody Valentine and Electric Light Orchestra, yet sounding like neither. Martin Carr's noisy guitar manipulations co-exist alongside the group's gorgeous melodies; a fantastic equilibrium. A see-saw, if you will.

Yes, I said melody.

Speaking of melody, "Wish I Was Skinny" is dripping of it. A mid-tempo ode to self-consciousness, the song wouldn't sound out of place on Radiohead's "The Bends" two years later. Or "Leaves and Sand", which balances ruthlessly noisy guitar passages with an utterly perfect vocal melody worth the cost of the album. Yes, and it's an import.

"Thinking of Ways" is just as good: "Just drop me here, I can find my way clear back to my house..." sings Sice over a sultry combination of tinkling pianos and tuneful horns, leading into an "Ooooohhh" chorus. So good.

Another highlight is "Upon 9th and Fairchild", a vaguely dub-like groove that would fit right in on Primal Scream's "Screamadelica", what with its distorted vocals and reggae guitar touch. "Rodney King" and "Run My Way Runway" tread similar experimental territory, with more guitar noise, vocal effects and electronic flourishes.

"I've Lost the Reason" and "Lazarus" are more perfect, colorful pop songs on an album full of `em. Really, my only complaint is the slightly excessive hour-plus length; surely interlude "One is For" and "Loveless"-wannabe "Spun Around" work as little more than filler.

Though, it's a minor criticism on an album this joyful and full-sounding. The finale is an utterly perfect refrain of "Hey, what's that noise? Do you remember...do you remember??" in "The White Noise Revisited". The song builds to a tuneful bliss that somehow makes me wish I own a flute.

You'll wish you owned a flute.

Do you remember? (Re)discover the Boo Radleys and you will remember! You'll want to buy a flute, too.

Highly recommended.

"Lazarus":