Sunday 16 August 2020

The Boo Radleys - Gifts in the Tree



Bio:
"The Boo Radleys formed in Wallasey, England in 1988, with Rob Harrison on drums, singer/guitarist Simon "Sice" Rowbottom, guitarist/songwriter Martin Carr, and bassist Timothy Brown. Their name is taken from the character Boo Radley in Harper Lee's 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Shortly after the release of their first album "Ichabod and I", Steve Hewitt replaced Rob Harrison on drums and was in turn replaced by Rob Cieka. The band split up in 1999. In their 11-year-long career, the band had one top ten single, the 1995 single "Wake Up Boo!", which charted at no. 9; and a number one album, Wake Up!. The discography of The Boo Radleys consists of six studio albums, three compilation albums, five extended-plays, and sixteen singles one of which ("Lazarus") was a released twice, along with remixes of the same song, and their final single ("Kingsize") which was cancelled before release."


This is another band I never even thought about doing a compilation of, until a few days ago when listening to a few of their EPs/singles. As the bio states there have already been 3 comps of the band, the first one, "Learning to Walk" brought together 3 of their early EP releases. The other 2 focused mostly on their A-side singles, whereas I've always felt their album tracks & B-sides have often been much superior. 
My compilation does feature a couple of their singles, "Lazarus" (so much better than the album version) and "What's in the Box?", the other tracks are from 5 of their 6 studio albums and various singles/EPs. I was never impressed with their debut album, "Ichabod and I", so nothing from that release features here. Also absent is their big hit (in the UK anyway), "Wake Up Boo", a song of theirs I've never really liked, though it does have a couple of decent B-sides.


Big shout out to Manerg for the usual invaluable advice, some song suggestions, and finding the original artwork which I subtly/incompetently buggered about with in photoshop. He also came up with the excellent title for this collection, fans of the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" should get the reference. As usual, info containing track origin & year of release is tagged in the music and download files. So, stay safe, and enjoy! 


  1. Petroleum (3:53)
  2. Meltin's Worm (4:18)
  3. Reaching Out From Here (3:01)
  4. Thinking of Ways (3:47)
  5. Memory Babe (3:16)
  6. Get on the Bus (3:12)
  7. Comb Your Hair (3:49)
  8. Foster's Van (4:13)
  9. One is for Tomorrow (6:17)
10. Everything Falls Away (4:03)
11. The Finest Kiss (5:15)
12. Lazarus (6:21)
13. Spaniard (3:36)
14. Bloke in a Dress (2:38)
15. Feels Like Tomorrow (2:21)
16. Leaves and Sand (4:25)
17. 4am Conversation (2:42)
18. Safe at Home (2:14)
19. What's in the Box? (See Whatcha Got) (3:29)
20. Monuments for a Dead Century (5:56)


Note:
The more eagle-eyed fans of the band might notice something strange with track 9. "One is For", a very short track from the album "Giant Steps", is merged with the track "Tomorrow" (their cover of a song originally from the film Bugsy Malone), from the cancelled single "Kingsize".