THE BOO RADLEYS: KINGSIZE (1998)
1) Blue Room In Archway; 2)
The Old Newsstand At Hamilton Square; 3) Free Huey; 4) Monuments For A Dead
Century; 5) Heaven's At The Bottom Of This Glass; 6) Kingsize; 7) High As
Monkeys; 8) Eurostar; 9) Adieu Clo Clo; 10) Jimmy Webb Is God; 11) She Is
Everywhere; 12) Comb Your Hair; 13) Song From The Blueroom; 14) The Future Is
Now.
The very last album by The Boo Radleys was
recorded under tense conditions — Sice was already disenchanted with the band
and all set to leave as soon as the chance presented itself, and very soon
after Kingsize came out, Carr phoned
him himself and said he was pulling the plug. Nor was the reception for the
album particularly welcome. People called, and continue to call it, overlong,
lacking focus, and/or just plain boring and uninspired. «Official» reviewers
give it as few stars as they can allocate a formerly respectable band, and
regular users complain about the lack of big hit singles to serve as anchors.
I would have joined the crowd upon first listen
— the most disappointing thing for me, other than the unwarranted length, was
too much reliance on mechanical funk beats that seemed to be present in every
second song and reduce the record to an unwanted-unwarranted tribute to the
Stone Roses or something like that. The hooks were not immediately jumping out,
either, and it seemed all too easy to join the condemning crowds. Then I
remembered that, after all, the Boo Radleys always had their way through craft,
not genius, and craft may require more time to be appreciated, so I prepared
myself for a couple more excruciating listens...
...and you know what — second and particularly
third time around, it clicked, or, rather, snapped in place. The critics are
damn wrong about this one, and the fans — well, the fans need to have some
patience. Kingsize is long, and sometimes
slow, and sometimes a little lazy, but I find this now to be easily the single most inspired and convincingly crafted collection of songs
in the band's entire catalog. In fact, there is nary a clunker to be found
here, and for once, it all works reasonably and logically — the songs are not
clumsily collated from uncollatable ideas, as they often were on C'mon Kids, but follow their own
natural paths of development and, well, develop
into sometimes stunningly beautiful art-pop flowers.
ʽMonuments For A Dead Centuryʼ is the title of
one of the songs, and it could, perhaps, have been a good title for the whole album.
I have not paid much attention to Carr's lyrics, as usual, and maybe I am wrong
about that, but I seriously doubt that detailed analysis of the words could
have added to the general emotional impression — an impression of a melancholic
farewell to a dream that once seemed so real, yet has always remained out of
reach. Throughout the album, they are constantly saying goodbye (ʽAdieu Clo
Cloʼ), nostalgizing, drowning their troubles in drink (the wonderfully titled
ʽHeaven's At The Bottom Of This Glassʼ), and utilizing a whole array of
instrumental techniques, from the usual distorted guitars to lush orchestral
arrangements, to create their personal gallery of monuments for a dead century.
There are no highlights or lowlights, so I will
just give a few random taps as examples. ʽComb Your Hairʼ is the band's tribute
to Phil Spector, starting out like a good Ronettes anthem should, all echoes
and big drums — pretty soon, however, we get a distorted guitar rhythm track
that would never be seen on a Phil Spector record, and a chorus that throbs
with lonesomeness and desperation, with a gorgeous vocal melody that is quite
on the level of either the Beach Boys or ABBA. ʽHigh As Monkeysʼ is a
psychedelic dance-pop track that gradually builds up tension to «implode» in a
near-perfect harpsichord-and-strings chorus from which a dense cello melody
smoothly leads it back upwards into the psycho-dance rave. ʽShe Is Everywhereʼ starts
out as a quitely subdued rhythmic ballad with jazzy guitar, then somehow
manages to become loud, noisy, melodic, and romantic all at once in the chorus
(always a good idea to have a melodic guitar part outbalancing your gruff
noise). And ʽHeaven's At The Bottom Of This Glassʼ is, simply put, the
catchiest song they ever wrote, period. Maybe not the best — but if, by the
second time it comes around to say hello to your brain, you refuse to sing
along with the tagline, your only excuse is if you've just returned from an
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
For some reason, they chose ʽFree Hueyʼ as the
lead single for the album. It is not a bad song at all, but it is highly
atypical of the record — one of its most aggressively rocking funk numbers,
with heavily treated, nasty-sounding guitars, Sice screaming most of the lyrics
instead of singing, and very little changing dynamics throughout the song. Either
they did not give a damn, or perhaps they thought that the lead single needs
to have that kick-ass quality — whatever be, this might have contributed to the
general sour disposition. ʽHigh As Monkeysʼ could have made a much better
choice, or at least the title track, which only was the second single, and
whose "how would you like to share, how would you like to share it all
with me" chorus could have made a much more warm, endearing first
impression. Or perhaps they should have tried it with ʽThe Old Newsstand At
Hamilton Squareʼ and its nervous, spooky, James Bond-like horns and strings? Or
with the affectionate tribute to Jimmy Webb (ʽJimmy Webb Is Godʼ), which
climaxes with yet another magnificently engineered piano-and-orchestra
arrangement, conjuring up echoes of that old Paul Buckmaster grandeur? See, just
about everything here really works.
It is frustratingly ironic that the little
mischievous supernatural being finally visited them in their studio hours so
late in their career — but apparently, it is
possible for the sleeping genius to awaken if you probe it long enough. The thing
is, they really went out on a limb here with all the extra overdubs and
orchestration, and suddenly, it sort of seems that this is just the way they
should have been working from the beginning, and that Carr is much better at
overseeing violins, cellos, and harpsichords than noisy guitars (and there are
quite a few noisy guitars here, but they almost always take second or third
place in the mix). This makes it into some sort of Abbey Road experience — if you know this is probably going to be your
last, summon all the spirits so that they can help you make it into your best. Admittedly,
I may just be going crazy, but one thing I am not being with you is dishonest — so there must be some rational explanation
to why Kingsize, alone out of all
Boo Radleys records, ended up affecting my emotional centers so consistently,
song after song after song. Thumbs up with lots of enthusiasm, although do be
warned that the record may well take a couple of intense listens to warm up to —
not that this ain't the case with quite a few art-pop masterpieces.
Amazing album, some truly classic tracks on here. Overlong yes, but 10/10 if you removed High As Monkeys and Adieu Clo Clo.
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