The Boo Radleys have been linked to lots of labels. Shoegaze and Britpop, and were a bit of both and a lot of neither. The Boos were something different, making music the way they wanted during the 1990s, and making a lot of good choices and a lot of bad ones, too. The question now is whether their latest single is a good choice to listen to or not.
The new tune, "Bring Them Back Again," as well as everything else the band has done since 2021, doesn't include the group's original guitarist and songwriter, Martin Carr. After not working together for 20 years. The Boo Radleys broke up in 1999, and three of the members, Simon "Sice" Rowbottom, Tim Brown, and Rob Cieka, got back together at the beginning of the decade.
The band has delivered two studio albums since, Keep on with Falling and Eight, and neither has charted. Does that mean they weren't musically successful? No. It might just mean that some fans were confused about why Carr was no longer involved.
Boo Radleys new single is, well...meh
Supposedly, Carr was asked to return, but after the rest of the band had already begun planning the future. What the relationship was like between the members of the band in the 1990s likely would not be the same 20 years on. But without Carr, would the melodies be any good?
As for "Bring Them Back Again," the song has a guitar part that sounds a bit like Johnny Marr at his most jangly, a bridge part that sonically is akin to "Stand and Deliver" by Adam Ant, and while the vocals are fine, they are almost too thinly produced.
At the two-minute mark, a breakdown occurs with vocal harmonization that feels as if the tune is about to end up on a soundtrack to some Disney film, and it lasts for almost 30 seconds. Maybe the band wanted to stretch out the track past three minutes and felt that they needed the breakdown. They shouldn't have.
The part is almost too jarring a transition, and completely unneeded. Not that the sound is bad, but it simply doesn't fit.
The band's new album, In Spite of Everything, will be released on May 1. If the first single is any indication, what fans will get is nice-sounding songs that are, sadly, instantly forgettable. One might wonder if Martin Carr can still make a difference in the future of the Boo Radleys.