Coming in right on the beat and burning through any vapours of indecision to reach another three-minute blast of inch-perfect, beneath-skin-seeping indie pop music in the best of their long traditions, The Boo Radleys release their latest slice of new music – Now “That’s What I Call Obscene.”
The single’s happy-go-lucky-beat and sunny day melodies leave ajar another window onto their eighth album, Eight, released on Fri 9 June 2023 on their Boostr label, yet the sugar-sweet sounds are, once again, laced with the acid tang of discontent as the band takes on the world’s haters and hypocrites.
Looking ahead to two separate tours this year, one focused on the music of their feted 1993 album, Giant Steps, as they look back on its 30th Anniversary, in June and another in October and November alongside friends and contemporaries, Cud, the renewed sense of energy around the band and reawakened enthusiasm of their fans is palpable as another year in The Boo Radleys’ four-decade history progresses nicely.
Not letting nostalgia get in the way, “Now That’s What I Call Obscene” is a song for the present, drawing both on the band’s world-wary and world-weary observations of the division and scorn cast on easy targets by the powerful and ignorant. A wise prophecy in disguise, the covert message comes coated in typical Boos radio-friendly melodies, Simon ‘Sice’ Rowbottom’s instantly recognisable, welcoming vocals and thumping sway-along percussion making for a searching listen to uncover the track’s truths.
Sice says of the track: “This one’s a fury filled rant against the hypocrisy of ideologies and religions that find armed conflict and violence morally acceptable, but the idea of homosexuality abhorrent. It’s possibly one of the poppiest things on the album and the duality of this, and the fury of the words, hold together like a Mexican standoff.”
Tim Brown, bassist and co-producer, says of the song: “It’s been firm favourite from first hearing. The lively chorus is offset by a rhythmically diverse and bombastic verse. Sice’s vocal soars above the music to deliver his message.”
Check out ‘Now That’s What I Call Obscene’ – BELOW:
The band started 2023 by releasing “Seeker” their first new music since the release of their warmly received, first album in almost a quarter of a century, 2022’s Keep On With Falling. Finding a new phase of prolificacy after being apart since their initial split in 1999, they showed more of what their fast follow-up, eighth long-player has to offer with “The Unconscious” in February, a track which formed an outlet of deeply personal reflection for Sice, dealing as it did with his experiences of psychoanalysis.
With September’s 2023 all-formats reissue of acclaimed, genre-indistinct early-90’s classic album, Giant Steps being the focus of their first run of tour dates, The Boo Radleys look ahead to and intimate warm-up date at Reading’s South Street Arts Centre on Tue 13 June to open their live account for the year.
Seven dates in June are devoted to the album with some greatest hits promised, whilst newly announced dates in October and November, with friends and John Peel-endorsed 90’s indie titans, Cud, promise a career-spanning set. All of The Boo Radleys’ live dates for 2023 currently announced and on sale are as follows:
Tue 13 June – Reading, South Street Arts Centre
Wed 14 June – London, The Garage
Thu 15 June – Tunbridge Wells, The Forum
Fri 16 June – Birkenhead, Future Yard
Thu 22 June – Dublin, The Grand Social
Fri 23 June – Belfast, The Limelight
Sun 25 June – Glasgow, Hug and Pint
Sat 28 October – Manchester, Bread Shed w/Cud
Sun 29 October – Liverpool, O2 Academy 2 w/Cud
Mon 30 October – Sheffield, O2 Academy 2 w/Cud
Tue 31 October – Birmingham, O2 Institute 2 w/Cud
Thu 2 November – Bristol, The Fleece w/Cud
Fri 3 November – Oxford, O2 Academy 2 w/Cud
Sat 4 November – London, O2 Academy Islington w/Cud
Tickets for all dates can be found via links available at https://www.thebooradleys.com#
Formed of Sice, Brown and drummer, Rob Cieka, the restored, three-piece Boo Radleys work towards a new vision of the band, formed around the songwriting ideas of each member. Having originally experienced the boom of Creation Records’ 90’s era of big budgets and residential recording studios, the band has embraced complete independence and technological advances to reconnect creatively and push efficiently onwards. Although currently not a member of the band, The Boo Radleys acknowledge and pay tribute to their original guitarist and songwriter, Martin Carr, during live performances.
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