Giant Steps (The Boo Radleys album)

Giant Steps
Studio album by The Boo Radleys
Released	31 August 1993
Recorded	First Protocol Studios, London; February 1993-March 1993
Genre	Psychedelic pop, Britpop, shoegazing
Length	64:11
Label	Creation CRECD 149
Producer	Martin Carr, Tim Brown & Andy Wilkinson
The Boo Radleys chronology
Everything's Alright Forever (1992) Giant Steps (1993) Wake Up! (1995)

Giant Steps is the third album by The Boo Radleys, released in 1993. The title is inspired by John Coltrane's album of the same name, and the record features an assortment of influences — their previous shoegazing sound backed by pop, reggae, noise pop and orchestral sounds.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[2]
Mojo	[3]
NME	9/10[4]
Q	[5]

NME^[6] and Select^[7] named it as album of the year, and it was ranked as #1 in Fanning's Fab Fifty for that year. It reached the UK Top 20,^[8] but did not spawn a Top 40 single. Reviewing the album's rerelease in 2008, Sic Magazine wrote, "For 64 minutes they were the greatest band on the planet."^[9]

The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.^[10]

In 2016, Pitchfork Media ranked the album at number 25 in its list of "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time", with of the website Stephen Thomas Erlewine writing:

"The Boo Radleys’ songwriter/guitarist, Martin Carr, named his band’s 1993 album after John Coltrane’s 1959 LP, but Giant Steps also is a winking acknowledgment of another kind: He's the first to know that the Liverpool quartet has taken a huge leap forward. Although they hardly renounce the thunderous swirl and delicate suspension of 1992’s Everything's Alright Forever, the Boo Radleys treat that candied rush as an absorbed language, with Carr choosing to pursue a grand vision that unifies psychedelia, British guitar-pop, jazz, and dub. Part of the appeal of Giant Steps is that the Boo Radleys’ enthusiasm leads them to attempt fusions that would scare away other bands: Witness “Lazarus,” which begins with an elastic reggae beat before becoming consumed by sheets of guitars, wispy harmonies, and stabs of brass. “Lazarus” is essentially Giant Steps in microcosm, but the album gains strength through its own untrammeled ambition. At the dawn of britpop, the Boo Radleys chose expanding consciousness over provincial patriotism, and the results are still majestic."^[11]

Track listing

Original release

All songs and lyrics written by Martin Carr, with music by The Boo Radleys.

1. "I Hang Suspended" - 3:57
2. "Upon 9th and Fairchild" - 4:50
3. "Wish I Was Skinny" - 3:37
4. "Leaves and Sand" - 4:25
5. "Butterfly McQueen" - 3:28
6. "Rodney King (Song for Lenny Bruce)" - 2:45
7. "Thinking of Ways" - 3:48
8. "Barney (...and Me)" - 4:42
9. "Spun Around" - 2:31
10. "If You Want It, Take It" - 2:47
11. "Best Lose the Fear" - 4:12
12. "Take the Time Around" - 4:07
13. "Lazarus" - 4:38
14. "One Is For" - 1:36
15. "Run My Way Runway" - 2:20
16. "I've Lost the Reason" - 5:17
17. "The White Noise Revisited" - 5:02

2010 expanded edition

CD1 - Giant Steps

CD2 - Bonus disc 1

1. "Lazy Day"
2. "Vegas"
3. "Feels Like Tomorrow"
4. "Whiplashed"
5. "Does This Hurt"
6. "Boo! Forever"
7. "Buffalo Bill"
8. "Sunfly II (Walking With The Kings)"
9. "Rodney King (St Etienne Remix)"
10. "As Bound As Tomorrow"
11. "I Will Always Ask You Where You've Been Even Though I Know The Answer"
12. "Peachy Keen"
13. "Further"
14. "Crow Eye"

• 1 - 4 taken from the Adrenalin EP.
• 5 - 8 taken from the Boo! Forever EP.
• 9 - 11 taken from the "I Hang Suspended" single.
• 12 - 14 taken from the "Wish I Was Skinny" single.

CD3 - Bonus disc 2

1. "Tortoiseshell"
2. "Zoom"
3. "Cracked Lips, Homesick"
4. "At The Sound Of Speed"
5. "Let Me Be Your Faith"
6. "Petroleum"
7. "Lazarus (7" Version)"
8. "Lazarus (Acoustic)"
9. "(I Wanna Be) Touchdown Jesus"
10. "Lazarus (St Etienne Remix)"
11. "Lazarus (Secret Knowledge Remix)"
12. "Lazarus (Ultramarine Remix)"
13. "Lazarus (Augustus Pablo Remix)"
14. "Lazarus (12" Version)"

• 1 - 3 taken from the "Barney (…and Me)" single.
• 5 - 8 taken from the "Lazarus" single.
• 9 - 14 taken from the "Lazarus (Remixes)" single.

Personnel

• Sice - vocals
• Rob Cieka - drums, percussion
• Tim Brown - bass guitar, keyboards
• Martin Carr - guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Steve Kitchen - trumpet, flugel horn
• Lindsay Johnston - cello
• Jackie Toy - clarinet, bass clarinet
• Meriel Barham - vocals on "Rodney King" and "One Is For"
• Chris Moore - trumpet on "Lazarus"
• Margaret Fiedler - cello on "Lazarus"
• Keith Cameron - vocals on "The White Noise Revisitied"
• Yvette Lacey - vocals on "The White Noise Revisitied"
• Moose - handclaps on "Wish I Was Skinny", vocals on "The White Noise Revisitied"
• Kle - vocals on "The White Noise Revisitied"
• Laurence - vocals on "The White Noise Revisitied"
• Nick Addison - vocals on "The White Noise Revisitied"
• Guy Fixsen - vocals on "The White Noise Revisitied"
• Russell - handclaps on "Wish I Was Skinny"
• BOO! Productions (Martin Carr, Tim Brown & Andy Wilkinson) - production, remixing on "Lazarus"
• Kevin & Barry – mastering (at Townhouse Studios)
• Andy Wilkinson - engineering
• Giles Hall - assistant engineering
• Anjali Dutt - mixing (at Battery Studios, London)
• Sarah Bedingham - assistance
• Alan Moulder - remixing on "Lazarus"
• Stephen A. Wood – sleeve art
• Designland Limited – layout

References

1. Raggett, Ned. "Giant Steps – The Boo Radleys". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
2. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-857-12595-8.
3. "The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps CD". CD Universe. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
4. Moody, Paul (14 August 1993). "The Next Big Thing". NME. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
5. "The Boo Radleys: Giant Steps". Q (86): 114. November 1993.
6. "1993 NME Albums". rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
7. "1993 Albums". Select End Of Year Lists. rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
8. "Giant Step [sic]". chartstats.com. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
9. Spaceman, Brett (September 2011). "The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps, Deluxe Edition". sicmagazine.net. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
10. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
11. http://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9966-the-50-best-shoegaze-albums-of-all-time/?page=3

External links

• Giant Steps at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)