The Clean: Boodle Boodle Boodle 12″

Description

Featuring classics like Anything Could Happen and Point That Thing Somewhere Else, The Clean’s Boodle Boodle Boodle EP arrived two months after the Tally Ho! single, peaking at #5 and staying in the NZ Top 20 for nearly six months. Recorded on four-track by The Cleans childhood friends Chris Knox and Doug Hood, its five hugely influential songs provided a roadmap for the Dunedin sound that would soon follow. Boodle Boodle Boodle was awarded the Classic Record distinction by New Zealands Taite Music Prize in 2017.

Our take: Second in Merges 40th Anniversary reissue series is Boodle Boodle Boodle, a 5-song 12 EP from 1981. While Tally Ho was a triumph, the Clean didnt rest on their laurels here, totally changing their sound yet arriving at something just as exciting. Its apparent that youre in for something different from the beginning of the first track, Billy 2, with its chiming, crisply recorded acoustic guitars. While the sheen here is different to Tally Ho, its also apparent that the Clean were no one-hit wonders, as the a-side of Boodle Boodle Boodle is a 3-punch combo of upbeat pop with driving, punky rhythms and infectious choruses. If Tally Ho sounds of a piece with the ramshackle UKDIY scene, Boodle Boodle Boodle presages American indie rock, and its hard to imagine Guided by Voices, Pavement, and Jay Reatard didnt pick up a few tricks from it. After the triple feature on side A, side B starts with a slow jammer and the record ends with Point That Thing Somewhere Else, one of the Cleans many longer tracks, this one sounding like the offspring of The Velvet Underground & Nico and Neu!. As with the Tally Ho single, Ive heard these tracks before, but Im pleased to have the awesome original cover art restored here, and Merges edition also comes with a booklet / zine packed with comics and collage art that only came with the records rare first pressing. Since this came out Ive been listening to Boodle Boodle Boodle constantly, so much that Id worry my partner was getting sick of it (if it were possible to get sick of a record so great). The Clean also released a 7 and a 12 EP in 1982 heres hoping Merge brings us 40th anniversary editions of those next year.