Giant Steps (The Boo Radleys album)

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.

Giant Steps
Studio album by
The Boo Radleys
Released31 August 1993
RecordedFebruary – March 1993
StudioFirst Protocol Studios, London
Genre
Length64:11
LabelCreation CRECD 149
Producer
The Boo Radleys chronology
Everything's Alright Forever
(1992)		 Giant Steps
(1993)		 Wake Up!
(1995)

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
Mojo[3]
NME9/10[4]
Q[5]
Record Collector[6]
Select4/5[7]

NME[8] and Select[9] 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,[10] 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."[11]

The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[12]

In 2016, Pitchfork ranked the album at number 25 in its list of "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time", with critic 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."[13]

The following year, Pitchfork also ranked it at number 40 on its list of "The 50 Best Britpop Albums".[14]

Track listing

All songs and lyrics written by Martin Carr.

Original release
No.TitleLength
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
Total length:64:14

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? - Edit"
  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 (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  3. "The Boo Radleys: Giant Steps". Mojo: 117. [Giant Steps] is really about exploratory glee, leavening FX-pedals with Love brass, Pet Sounds harmonies/arrangements and, on 'Upon 9th and Fairchild,' dub reggae ...
  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. Mansfield, Mollie (December 2013). "The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps: 20th Anniversary Edition". Record Collector (421). Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  7. Cavanagh, David (September 1993). "The Kickin' Stride". Select (39): 85.
  8. "1993 NME Albums". rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  9. "1993 Albums". Select End Of Year Lists. rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  10. "Giant Step [sic]". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  11. Spaceman, Brett (September 2011). "The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps, Deluxe Edition". sicmagazine.net. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  12. 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.
  13. "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time". Pitchfork. 24 October 2016. p. 3. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  14. "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". Pitchfork. 29 March 2017. p. 2. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
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