The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps (1993)
July Series: Why I’m (still) a “total man of the ’90s”
1. I miss what I never had
2. Efficiency + Effectiveness
3. I’m hooked early & often
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[Album 649/1001]
Do you have a favourite film-opening credits sequence?
The ’90s had a bunch of gems, perhaps none finer than the first few minutes of So I Married An Axe Murderer.
Through this cleverly filmed opening sequence, it quickly became clear:
a) that I was going to be a fan of the film
b) that I was going to be a fan of The Boo Radleys
In their solid cover of The La’s There She Goes, the horns were a nice touch, the increased tempo was also a good call.
But it was the James Hetfield-esque “There She Goes-ahh, There She Goes Again-ahh” (around 1:30 in the clip below) that sealed the deal for me!
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With their originals on Giant Steps, The Boo Radleys continue to demonstrate an ability to earn my attention early & often.
Within the first minute of each of the following tunes, plenty of positive associations come to mind:
The opener, I Hang Suspended, feels like a blueprint for future Shotter’s Nation Babyshambles tracks.
Ditto the blueprint vibe with Wish I Was Skinny, though this time venturing more in The Weakerthans A New Name for Everything direction.
Thinking of Ways (my personal favourite from the album) blends The Beach Boys & Badly Drawn Boy in the best possible way
The acoustic strumming to kick off Barney (…And Me) draws a smile, as anything that brings to mind The Cure’s In Between Days surely would…
…and the list could easily go on.
Which is not to say that The Boo Radleys are either overly derivative or unbelievably influential.
Instead, through those immediately favourable reference points, it quickly became clear:
a) that I was going to be a fan of Giant Steps
b) that eventually/inevitably, I’ll be exploring more by The Boo Radleys
…..
Verbalize the Positive
The So I Married An Axe Murderer soundtrack would be in my Top 5 Soundtracks!
1001albumsin10years 
Good band. I got mocked by a clown on Facebook earlier this year for enjoying I Hang Suspended.
I wouldn’t have thought that was a ‘guilty pleasure’ kind of song, it’s just plain good!
Yeah, plus it’s demographically what you’d expect a Caucasian, university graduate, born in 1979 to listen to.
Know the name, not the music. Sounds good though!
And it is!
Haha. The soundtrack for So I married an axe murderer is one of the best from that era and Mike Meyers really saves that film from being terrible. As for The Boo Radleys and “Giant steps”, I was a fan of this album well before hearing their cover of There she goes. “Lazarus” is one of my favourite tunes of all time.
I gather he wasn’t even scheduled to play his own father at first – but then he read the part during a read-through and it simply had to be him in the movie, yelling, “Heeeead – Move!”
Looka tha’ size o’ tha’ melon!!!
I’ve never heard a Boo Radleys album. Can you believe that? Not even C’mon Kids!
This is the only one I’ve explored so far J – so not to worry, I’m not much further ahead!
I’ll give this a listen this week and see how I get on.
Enjoy!
We 70s men can only stand in awe. 🙂
Cheers Bruce – The 70s would be my silver medal decade!
I just did a podcast where one of the films we covered was So I Married An Axe Murderer. I was the only one who enjoyed it! Thankfully most of our listeners were on my side.
Oh I’d be on your side there!
Though I argue from “we have a piper down” onwards, it isn’t nearly as strong. But the first half has plenty to offer!
I think they were a very bigly underrated crew.
The bigliest!
Friend of mine at work plays football with one of them every few weeks.
Nice – I’m hoping he’s not thoroughly unpleasant on the pitch!