Martin Carr… Brownie points for the South Park box set in the background

11 Martin Carr Songs to Soundtrack Your Summer! – part 2

Published on July 3rd, 2012 | Jonny Abrams

Here is part 2 of our lovingly hand-picked 11 Martin Carr Songs to Soundtrack Your Summer…click (here to read part 1 or here to read our interview with the man himself)…

7. “High As Monkeys” – The Boo Radleys (from Kingsize, 1998)

For the record, this just edges out “The Future is Now” as our Kingsize pick. Basically, there are more good ideas crammed into “High As Monkeys” as some bands muster in their whole careers. That kind of thing gets written a lot but there really are. In fact, Rocksucker counts no less than six distinctly different sections that are not just so delightful that an ordinary band might attempt to extrapolate each one into a whole song, but are also astoundingly complementary. Kingsize is one of those albums which suffers from some of its songs being so splutteringly superb as to cast into shade their very-good-by-anyone’s-standards brethren. “High As Monkeys” is a sure-fire splutter-inducer and no mistake. “Closer to God” indeed.

It’s so LOUD. At least as LOUD as The Boo Radleys at their LOUDest, perhaps even more so invested with decade-on technology. That analog distortion seems to tear through the mix like a pneumatic drill through balsa wood, there’s an uber-catchy pop chorus and, in “I lost my coat / I didn’t vote”, one of those lyrical turns that could make you grin every time you hear it. Advertisements For Myself is an album drenched in sunshine and this, its third track, is a summer-happy blast of blaring noise fit to rival Primal Scream’s “Accelerator”.

9. “Every Word You Sound” – bravecaptain (from All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, 2004)

Sophisticated balladry sandwiched by loopily monged electro sections, “Every Word You Sound” showcases the wedding of blackbelt-level psych-pop songwriting and ingeniously assimilated electronica that made Carr’s bravecaptain output so invigoratingly fresh-sounding. This cut in particular sounds like Phantom Power-era Super Furry Animals collaborating with Neil Hannon. Now how mind-blowing would that be?

10. “It’s What We Make It” – bravecaptain (from Distractions, 2006)

One for the lovers, this – sleek, gently pulsing psych-soul that keeps a low yet warmly glowing profile for the first few minutes before blossoming into a floral, string-soaked garden of gorgeousness. To be played in the night time after a long summer’s day (we can but hope) of whatever it is you would do on a long summer’s day that in your mind would constitute a long summer day well spent.

11. “Bear Lake” – Martin Carr (from Ye Gods (And Little Fishes), 2009)

Carr’s first release under his own name was a rather beautiful little album of soulfully subdued country-pop, perhaps the finest moment of which is this harmonic, floaty-light, warmth-of-the-sun-on-the-back-of-your-neck, bass-popping-up-in-the-mix-like-the-most-beautiful-damn-thing-in-the-world ditty, which incidentally goes on to acquire a fuzzy, monotone bassline that sails like a tamed beast through the waters brought to mind by the song’s absolute oneness with nature. It’s bloody beautiful, basically.

Oh, wait – there is one more. Why, it’s Carr’s brand new double A-side single “Sailor”/”I Will Build a Road”, which is available now at sonnyboy.bandcamp.com! Enjoy, and tune in for our review of it in tomorrow’s singles round-up…

For more information, please visit martin-carr.com

Artists: martin carr, the boo radleys

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About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.