NME’s 1993 Album Of The Year, named in the Top 20 of Pitchfork’s The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time and lauded as one of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, The Boo Radleys’ classic album, Giant Steps will be reissued in three, special remastered vinyl editions almost 30 years to the day since its original release. With a clutch of rarities pressed onto bonus discs coming with limited, coloured variants of the three new vinyl editions, the band’s genre-ambiguous and widely-acclaimed masterpiece will become available to fans old and new on Fri 1 September 2023 via Two-Piers.
Strictly limited to 1000 copies, a soon-to-be-sought-after Dinked Edition, comprised of two marble-coloured discs with a special, bonus 12” featuring alternate, non-album mixes of four tracks, Lazarus, Rodney King and Peachy Keen leads in the collectors’ stakes. A deluxe, double LP on orange and purple-coloured vinyl, including a separate 10” record featuring remixes by fellow end-of-century voyagers in sound, Saint Etienne joins the running, with a standard black double-vinyl edition also on offer. A super-limited, 500 copy Boos Store-only edition comes with a special edition pin badge.
All versions, comprising the same 17-track running order, have undergone remastering in a collaborative process undertaken by all four original band members, Simon ‘Sice’ Rowbottom, Tim Brown, Martin Carr and Rob Cieka.
Coming at the closing stages of a celebratory and dates-packed year for The Boo Radleys, the vinyl reissues are preceded by the band – touring without Carr – taking to the road for seven Giant Steps Tour live dates, opening with a SOLD-OUT warm-up date at Reading, South Street Arts Centre on Tue 13 June.
Only the second of their five albums to be released on the legendary Creation Records, at a time when label mates including Slowdive, Teenage Fanclub and Ride were also casting long shadows across the indie landscape, pre-the Oasis hurricane making landfall at the label, Giant Steps broke into the canon of great, experimental rock albums soon after release. It’s first single, Lazarus, issued as a standalone release in November 1992, its blend of brass and guitar-squall and acutely introspective lyrics, gave a hint of what was to come and remains lodged in the band’s most-loved and best-known songs. For the 2023 reissue, Lazarus’ 12” version appears on the all-formats track listing.
Recorded at London’s Protocol Studios, where Carr and Brown took on self-production duties with support from engineer, Andy Wilkinson, The Boo Radleys set about responding to their shared sense of dissatisfaction with their 1992 album, Everything’s Alright Forever. Free to do as they pleased, they set about making a record of complete artistic freedom, bringing in reggae (Upon 9th And Fairchild), dance (Rodney King) and irresistible, warped indie pop (Barney And Me) influences into the studio and, without limitation, weaved them into the satisfyingly complex fabric of Giant Steps. Snapshot incidentals, intermissions and between-radio-station static intro/outros added to the sense of unrestrained exploration.
Writing about the album, drummer, Cieka reflected on Giant Steps, stating: “Creation loved it, people's reactions seemed really positive. I do listen to it from time to time and still find great moments I’d forgotten about. I think it stands up pretty well today. I'm always left feeling happy to have been a part of the record.”
Sice says: “It was the point where everything kind of came together for us in a way that I don’t believe had happened before. We stopped trying to be something else and allowed ourselves to just be. It was fantastic to play some of those songs live again last year, and it will be great to play even more when we support the re-release with some live shows.”
After taking on such a hands-on role, bassist and co-producer, Brown, adds: “More than anything, I believe Giant Steps showed where self-belief could take you. I can’t believe the audacity that led to our self-produced third album. Were there many labels around that time that would have allowed an untested hairy bunch of plastic scousers to produce a record such as this? I am delighted that the album has got the re-master it deserves and that it can again be enjoyed in all its double vinyl loveliness.”