BOO RADLEYS - In Spite Of Everything

One year and one day, you left us alone, you’ve gone away

The urge to process grief is often a push to seek refuge in the safe harbour of music, a lifelong companion, as a way of confronting pain and sorrow. It's not a new story: the most famous precedent is Nick Cave with "Ghosteen", in which the loss of a child becomes the driving force behind the songs, a language through which absence is given shape.

Bassist Tim Brown, who also produced the record, experienced the making of "In Spite of Everything" as a form of survival.

This marks the return of the Boo Radleys three years after their last release, "Eight". The Merseyside band has long been regarded as one of the great underrated acts of the 90s Britpop wave. They did, however, enjoy a spell of major popularity thanks to the success of the single "Wake Up Boo!" and won considerable critical acclaim for the album "Giant Steps". Subsequent albums confirmed their talent, even as the spark of their early days gradually faded, culminating in the split from guitarist and songwriter Martin Carr.

Now comes “In Spite of Everything”, released - by a strange twist of fate - on the very same day as “What Future”, Martin Carr's solo project. Although the theme of processing grief might suggest a brooding, inward-looking work, “In Spite Of Everything” instead moves along a path of hope, alternating between different emotional landscapes: suffering is present, but it's experienced as a passage towards a new awareness.

The latest work by the Boo Radleys presents a wide range of sonic solutions harking back to the '90s, the band's golden era, though it risks feeling somewhat dated.

Echoes of the Stone Roses can be heard in the melodies of “Affected / Rejected”, Caribbean flavours surface in “Solarcide” and “King Budgie”, while synth-pop elements and a dash of Xtc colour “Do Better, Know Better”. “Bring Them Back Again” is an anthem to hope, carried by a funk groove and a rhythm guitar in fine form. Wrapped in ghostly synths and an obsessively repeated lyric, “Song For Natalie” is the album's most emotionally exposed moment, immediately followed by the touching shoegaze confession of closer “Wasn't I Enough?”, driven by Tim Brown's distorted bass.

Elsewhere, though, some cracks show: the songwriting leans too often on easy solutions, as in “This Is the Place” or the repetitions of “Living Is Easy”, where the pop instinct risks tipping over into predictability.

“In Spite Of Everything” confirms that the Boo Radleys are a mature, seasoned band, capable of crafting effective arrangements that flatter every song, over which Simon “Sice” Rowbottom's elegant voice moves with ease. But it's also a work that almost entirely forgoes risk. If anyone was hoping for a new “Giant Steps”, it has to be said that freshness and the urge to surprise no longer seem to be among the British band's priorities.

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16/05/2026