Everything's Alright Forever

Sure, it's gaze. I have never really been a great fan of the album as a whole -- it has definite moments like "Lazy Day" and "Spaniard," to be sure. Friends of mine heavily disagree, they're still enthralled by it all, but I think it's trying yet not always succeeding. Longer wibble at AMG here.

I somewhat agree about its solidity, but somewhat not: the moments I imagine Ned finds "failures" still allow you to sink into them in their own slow-fuzzy way. "Lazy Day" and "Does this Hurt?" compete for slots on my personal list of the greatest possible tracks, ever. Shoegaze, yes: but I think what puts this record above the pack of its contemporaries is its willingness to expand -- the Boos were, surprisingly, one of the only shoegazer outfits to apply the central shoegazer principles to ideas and song forms other than the standard issues. We can assume this was because they were secretly a pop band. In fact, would it be safe to say that Everything's Alright Forever was in some senses a shoegazer version of Giant Steps? That the initial shoegazing was actually just a surface- level adornment to what they were really up to -- as opposed to the bulk of shoegazers, for whom shoegazing was what they were up to?

NB those comments are restricted to post-MBV shoegazers, obviously.

I'll buy that progression -- certainly their career generally speaking was letting more and more of the other sounds they enjoy seep through, however constantly framed in the indie-pop approach of Carr's songs/ lyrics and Sice's singing. And yes, "Does This Hurt?" = marvy fun fab. Martin Carr has a knack for pulling off solos I *want* to hear.

With the benefit of hindsight, I think EAF is my favourite Boos album. The last two are just painful, and Giant Steps doesn't have the same resonance for me that it used to.