RADIOHEAD

[email protected] (Pat D.)

Radiohead are just simply a rip off. The hype around Kid A astounds me because Radiohead is just a really pathetic rock band, and nothing more. They are not artists and they aren't doing anything new or even unique, which they probably know - it certainly explains all the self-important posturing. Hopefully bands like Radiohead and Sonic Youth will one day go away, because all they can do is pretend and act like immature kids. Name dropping and copying don't equal good song writing or art.

In response to people saying Radiohead is going to be the saviors of Rock---this stuff is too complex and melodic to ever be the mainstream in our current U.S. media marketplace. Maybe they are absolutely HUGE in other parts of this planet, but i havent heard a single Radiohead song on nycs ONE modern rock station since the excellent "Karma Police". Face it folks; unless something really weird happens, like all of these tough guy white boy ghetto wannabe rappers come out of the closet, there isnt going to be a whole lot of top 10 demand for these guys in the U.S. Thats my opinion anyways. Watch me get proven wrong tomorrow when Fred Durst admits he's been porking his bassist for the past five years and then Brit-pop immediately takes over the airwaves. This is NOT an insult to your band, Radiohead fanatics. I applaud anybody who aspires to be pop and has a knack for clever melodies. I just dont think they are going to save rock as we know it. Then again, who can?

DRILL EP (1992)

(reviewed by Jeff Blehar)

Radiohead’s first EP. If you can find this cheap, buy the hell out of it, quick! But do it as a financial or collector’s investment, not as a musical one, because this is really unimpressive material. Basically, these are the first four songs that Radiohead recorded for their new label, EMI (way to avoid the soulless corporate conglomerates, guys!). The musical press laughed and dismissed them. With good reason, too; Radiohead would rerecord three of the four songs on this EP for their debut LP Pablo Honey, and in much more assured versions – don’t think you’re missing out on any lost treasures if you can’t find this. First of all, the production is pretty sloppy; "Prove Yourself," aside from being a truly despicable little song, is almost inaudible at first, and then WHAM into your earlobes it goes with white noise. And not a satisfying, Stooges-like white noise, but just garbage.

The only rarity, "Stupid Car," is a mildly (make that very mildly) interesting slow ballad about Yorke’s fear of driving, but it’s ultimately dispensable – Radiohead would revisit this theme a thousand times more successfully with "Killer Cars" a few years down the road. "You" and "Thinking About You" also went on to much better rerecordings on Pablo Honey, and thank God for it – they’re standout tracks on that album, and here they’re just gauche. "You" is the slightly better of the two, but the drumming and rhythm is so sloppy it almost falls apart midway through. C’mon guys, stop trying to be The Replacements! "Thinking About You" is a hilarious travesty here; the warm acoustic ballad was originally done as an electrified thrash with absolutely no subtlety, but a certain amount of punkish charm. I give this a 3 because the mistreatment of "You" and’ "Thinking About You" fails to completely obliterate the fact that they’re good songs. Also, this EP is very short, and in this context that’s quite a good thing. Still, if you can get it for anything less than $15 buy it fast, because it’s rarer than hell right now and copies are selling for upwards of $100 on eBay. Me, I’m happy with mp3 copies of these songs.

OVERALL RATING: 3

PABLO HONEY (1993)

(Jeff Blehar's review)

This is certainly an improvement over the Drill EP, but I’m still not too impressed. First of all, I emphatically disagree with the review below that it's their most consistent batch of songs. Every single album of original material they released after this is more consistent (My Iron Lung, The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A). It certainly isn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination (with the exception of "Prove Yourself," which I’ll get to), but by and large it’s faceless and undistinguished by anything really original.

Well there IS "Creep." Released as a single prior to the album, it failed to do much in the UK but mysteriously took off in the US, being played every six minutes or so on MTV. And while the song’s certainly a very good one (something that its overexposure has yet to conceal) it became a horrible millstone around their necks, and it misrepresented the band. It’s here on Pablo Honey in all its wretched glory, and it’s probably the best song on the album. But that doesn’t mean that the other stuff on here is a waste; "You" is a great obsessed rocker, much improved from the Drill EP, while "Blow Out" is the only track on the album which looks ahead into the band's distant future: this one wouldn't seem out of place on a setlist even in the year 2000, with its cascading sheets of sound and spectacular, burn-the-speakers-to-a-crisp ending.

Nevertheless, other than "Blow Out" and maybe "Creep" there’s little here to distinguish this album from any number of "alt" rockers that came out in the wake of Nirvana’s breakthrough success—at this point Radiohead didn’t look like a band to be imitated but an imitator themselves: think of the Pixies with all the edges smoothed out. That being said, these rockers are pretty damn catchy most of the time—"Ripcord" is an entertaining blast at the record industry, while "Anyone Can Play Guitar" is a sneering put-down of rockstar idols ("Comb my hair, I wanna be wanna be wanna be Jim Morrison!") and "How Do You?" is at least engagingly head-banging. It’s just that there’s nothing really original going on here. "Vegetable" is remarkably boring work coming from a band which always managed to inject SOME sort of interest into their tunes, while "I Can't" is little better.

"Prove Yourself," however, is openly disagreeable. Now I don’t know what subtle ironic twist Radiohead wished to apply to this song, but it completely escapes the listener’s notice; for all intents and purposes it seems to be some sort of exhortation to suicide. "I can’t afford to breathe in this town/Nowhere to sit without a gun in my hand/Hook back up to my cathode ray/I’m better off dead, I’m better off dead/PROVE YOURSELF." To my ears that sounds like an invitation to self-annihilation, whatever they meant it to be. If it seems tasteless, that’s because it is. In fact, I had originally given this album a 6/10, but I’m demoting it one more point just for that. They never made a mistake this egregious again – in fact, they retired the song from their live act because they were horrified by the sight of thousands of children in the audience chanting along to the words "I’m better off dead." In-damn-deed. And they WONDER why the media pegged them as a suicide band .

Don't get the impression that Pablo Honey is a load of crap though, like many new fans will tell you - it's not, it's actually a LOT of fun for any Radiohead fan who isn't a snob about his music and can enjoy some noisy rock music (like me - I listen to this album a lot, and like it for what it is), but I must admit that, like it or not, it's simply mid-grade material, neither here nor there in terms of inspiration. It's pleasant, but is there anything really memorable about it? No. The memorable moments would come very soon, however.

OVERALL RATING: 5

(Ryan Mulligan's review)

The band's debut, and outside the aforementioned hit single "Creep", which is built on a great bassline, self-loathing lyrics, and a climactic, distorted chorus which definitely appeals to the Generation X crowd, becoming an anthem in the process, there isn't really much else here that gets a heck of a lot of attention nowadays - even fans don't seem to appreciate this album too much. Granted, the band's influences are more obvious than they would be on subsequent albums (The Pixies in particular), and the three guitar lineup can get too much on the 'noisy' side at some points here, but the songwriting is solid - the mood set up throughout is often something special, the songs are entertaining, punkier blasts of energy and they're very catchy.

"Anyone Can Play Guitar" utilizes this sound best, with wild guitar effects being prominent over strong Colin Greenwood bass playing and really cool "rock star anthem" lyrics with a chorus you can sing along to very easily. "How Do You?", meanwhile, makes full use of the "punkish blast of energy" side of the album, with Yorke creating a character within the lyrics that's a 'stupid baby turned into a powerful freak' and the backing music perfectly matching it, while "Prove Yourself" is somehow elevated from a cliche angst song (sample lyric: 'I'm better off dead') on account of its' frantic playing, energetic chorus and strong melody.

The way the beautiful melodic guitar work of "Stop Whispering" and the closer "Blowout" are transformed into an uncontrollable guitar fury are also truly remarkable - the former has great Yorke screams in the chorus and bizarre lyrical twists ('and the building said I'll spit on your face some more'), and the latter's instrumental break literally sounds like a car crash is about to take place right in front of your ears, it's just that much of a phenomenal sonic achievement. Displays of Yorke's amazing emotional power as a singer and songwriter (he wrote most of Radiohead's songs around this time) are apparent in the acoustic "Thinking About You", which has incredible feeling coming through in the vocals, which makes it more than merely a silly love song, and when the affecting guitar melodies team up with those otherworldly vocals in "Vegetable" (from the point of view of a cynical crippled person) and "Lurgee", it's magical.

The opener "You" is another good representation of the album's sound - Jonny Greenwood is already starting to work wonders with his guitar textures, and Yorke's vocals alternate between chaotic screams and complete calm, while rounding out the album are the two lesser (but nonetheless still very strong) tracks - melodic rocker "Ripcord" and the 'so depressing and self-loathing it's uplifting and powerful' "I Can't". Overall, this may be the band's most consistent mix of songs, with not a single weak track here - it's just that the high points aren't as stunning as their next two albums and the band's instrumental creativity or originality hasn't quite been developed to its' full potential. It's still a highly recommended, exceptional debut though.

OVERALL RATING: 8

A rather derivative collection of mostly bland grunge rock is what you'll find on this album. Obviously taking their cues from the Seattle scene, Radiohead's first offering is a somewhat uninspired attempt at sounding like those bands. You've got your soft-loud dynamics, angst-filled lyrics and all of the attitude of the grunge movement. The classic single "Creep" propelled them into stardom, and deservedly so, as the track stands head and shoulders above the rest of the songs here and fit perfectly into the scene at the time. The melody is top-notch and Yorke's lyrics are perfect for the mood of the song. "I want you to notice when I'm not around" captures that isolated feeling perfectly. Jonny Greenwood's chaotic guitar work catapults the song to legendary status. This song is unquestionably the first classic in the Radiohead catalog. There's even a radio-friendly version of the track at the end of the album for those of us who don't like curse words.

There are some more gems to be found here as well. The opening "You" has a nice quiet melody before it gets all loud and aggressive, and a quality vocal workout from Yorke, while "Thinking About You" is a gentle acoustic ballad and a nice breathe of fresh air after all the noise. I've always been a fan of "Lurgee". Its optimistic lyrics stand in stark contrast to feelings expressed on the rest of the album, and Jonny shines again on this track with an emotional solo. "Anyone Can Play Guitar" was released as a single and it's somewhat successful as a poppy, sing along number. The highlight of the song for me is that great bassline of Colin Greenwood. Otherwise, the song is somewhat corny in its refrain and sounds not unlike early Weezer. The closing "Blow Out" is unique in that it seems to showcase some jazz influences that would come to the front much later on for Radiohead.

All of these tracks are fine and I guess the short, punk influenced "How Do You?" is an alright burst of energy too, but elsewhere there's not much going on. I've personally heard "Ripcord" and "Vegetable" countless times, but still have trouble remembering how they go, outside of the choruses. Likewise, "I Can't" has a nice, vulnerable chorus, but the song is way too simply constructed to have any kind of real effect. As for "Prove Yourself", that one's probably my least favorite Radiohead song as I despise the lyrics and the melody is almost non existent. Some people enjoy "Stop Whispering", but the shouted refrain tends to get on my nerves, and the song goes on for way too long. Most of these songs are passable, but this whole album really revels in mediocrity.

Thus, the album features some unquestionable highlights and maybe some sense of promise, but ultimately, there's not really even a hint of what was to come later. It's really hard to believe that this band transformed itself so quickly into perhaps the best band in the world. I'd only really recommend it to huge fans of the band who want to understand where the band started. As for everyone else with even a passing interest in the early nineties grunge movement, you're advised to stick to the Seattle bands, as they were mostly better at this kind of thing.

OVERALL RATING: 6

ITCH EP (1994)

(reviewed by Jeff Blehar)

Radiohead has always had the habit of releasing EPs to coincide with their tours; usually they're aimed at specific markets, most often Japan and the United States (though there's a Pablo Honey-era Australian tour EP and a Dutch Bends-era one featuring live performances floating around out there as well). The quizzically named Itch EP is a Japanese-only release which is still in print and can be fairly easily found at any store with a good import section. Whether you'll need if you're not a completist is another question entirely.

This one dates from the immediate post-Pablo Honey and features several alternative versions of songs from that album. It opens with the sickly "US single version" of "Stop Whispering," which removes all the grit from the original version as well as the lengthy guitar freak-out at the end - in essence, most of what made the song worthwhile in the first place. There are all sorts of strings and un-Radiohead synths slathered all over the track, and it's a frightening warning of what would have happened to "Fake Plastic Trees" had the suits at Capitol gotten their way and released a similarly remixed version as a single in 1995.

Better is the thrash version of "Thinking About You" pulled from the Drill EP, which derives its charm from the fact that it's a lot less "tortured" and "serious" than the Pablo Honey remake. The acoustic version of "Creep" is the same one that would later close My Iron Lung, and although it's a worthy performance, it works better in that context as a bookend to that EP's title track. There are also two live performances from a club date in Toronto, one of "Vegetable" which is just as unexciting as the original (except for Thom Yorke's funny exhortation to the audience midway through the first verse: "more screaming!") and one of "You" which is neither here nor there.

Aside from these Itch features a few blah B-sides from the same era. Radiohead would eventually become one of the great B-side bands of the era, but these tracks are unrepresentative of the high quality they were capable of. "Faithless, The Wonder Boy" is generic rock with an inscrutable title; fun like even the humblest of Radiohead's material, but certainly undistinguished. Better are two songs which would go on to superior remakes during sessions for The Bends: "BananaCo." and "Killer Cars." The first is a nicely melodic acoustic shuffle with lyrics that only make half-sense, but the electrified remake that was done further on down the road is much more accomplished. "Killer Cars," however, is one of Radiohead's greatest non-album songs, a truly moving indictment of the stupidity of cars and the idiots who drive them. The song obviously held a lot of importance to Yorke (he was involved in a near-fatal collision in 1987), as it would be remade at least twice in 1995, and its themes would play an important part in OK Computer tracks like "Airbag" and "Let Down." This version is live and acoustic - stripped to nothing but its bare melody, the song's compact grace shines through, but the definitive version(s) were recorded later.

So the tracks on Itch are largely mediocre. This could be partially overlooked if the EP cohered in any way, but it doesn't; it's just a slap-dash affair without much logic at all except for a predominantly acoustic sound. Thus, this EP remains little better than a curiosity, and really only for the completists.

OVERALL RATING: 4

MY IRON LUNG EP (1994)

(reviewed by Jeff Blehar)

By all means, if you find this in the racks, even at import prices, pick it up. (It’s not out of print, but it’s still somewhat difficult to find in the good ol’ U.S. of A. You should be able to grab it for $14.00 or less) Eight tracks here, seven of them exclusive to this CD, and not a single one of them a duffer. In fact, although it was ignored at the time, this is really the pivotal moment where Radiohead began to turn into something more than just a alternative band with a fluke hit single. It’s funny how people don’t point this out – most refer to The Bends as the turning point, but this little EP, released in 1994 as an interim product, is a signpost not only to that album, but beyond it to OK Computer. I can't make it more clear than this: if you're a fan of Radiohead as they were on either of those two albums, there's NO excuse for not owning this. I can’t give it any higher than a 8 because, after all, it’s only 30 minutes long, but hey, it sure is a better 30 minutes than Nashville Skyline!

First up is the ostensible single, "My Iron Lung," which would later turn up on The Bends. Sandwiched among all the greatness on that album it’s easy to miss, but here it gets the attention it deserves: a wry and bitter comment on the success of "Creep" and how it hamstrung them ("This is out new song/just like the last one/A total waste of time, my iron lung"), it also doubles as a perceptive comment on a relationship that is both suffocating and life-sustaining. Featuring one hell of a guitar solo and a clever melody line, it’s the first evidence of the suite-like construction that Radiohead’s more ambitious songs would soon begin to feature. Most impressively, this complex, layered song was recorded – live! Totally, unoverdubbedly live (with the exception of the vocal, which was redone. but I’m not holding it against them since it’s the rhythm section I’m most impressed with).

Surprisingly, the remainder of the EP is not just offcuttings and throwaways from album sessions but a collection of diverse and satisfying tracks. It’s divided into three more or less equal parts. First you have your ass-kicking rockers like "The Trickster" (which has a simply amazing guitar tone and echoed vocal – for the life of me, I can’t see why this was thrown away on an EP) or the slightly less distinguished (but still fun!) "Lewis (Mistreated)." Last, you have your folky acoustic numbers like "Lozenge Of Love" and the strangely moving fragment "You Never Wash Up Yourself," not to mention the self-mocking acoustic version of "Creep," which is explicit parody.

But for my money, what makes me feel like I spent my salary well is what’s in the middle: two brilliant little experimental gems, "Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong" and "Permanent Daylight." THESE are the ones that could’ve come from OK Computer. "Permanent Daylight" is this mesmerizing semi-instrumental; it’s just a chord progression, and a common one at that, but the way it’s phased and echoed and produced – "YEA!" says I. "Punchdrunk" is a haunting, swooping ballad that sounds for all the world like a representation of its lyrics: when Yorke sings "a beautiful girl can turn your insides out" the music really sounds like it’s being turned inside-out! In a gentle, fascinating way, of course. Reminds me a lot of "Lucky" and "No Surprises," but who am I to talk? Nigel Godrich?

Yes!

Okay, no.

OVERALL RATING: 8

THE BENDS (1995)

(Jeff Blehar's review)

JESUS CHRIST!! Where the hell did this come from? Is this the same faceless band that churned out the almost assembly-line product of Pablo Honey? It’s like they’ve taken instant Artistic Maturity pills and all of a sudden emerged as the most anthemic musicians of their time. Screw U2, to whom they were being compared at this point – this material is infinitely more subtle (if nowhere remotely as uplifting) than even their 80’s apex. (Don’t get me started about 90’s U2...) And while they may not have the spacious grandeur of U2 (Jonny Greenwood’s manic, teetering-on-the-edge-of-a-nervous-breakdown guitar stylings being the opposite of The Edge’s ringing minimalism), they’ve mastered a type of songcraft that U2 never really even attempted: the multi part "suite" song.

Sure, some of the stuff here has a conventional structure (the ballads like "Fake Plastic Trees," "High And Dry," and "Street Spirit," or the spacey rockers like "Planet Telex"), but so many of the breathtaking moments come from the melding of disparate elements and melodies into compact running-times; I already mentioned "My Iron Lung" above, but did you even realize that "The Bends" is as contorted as it is? To say nothing of "Just." Lord! What at first looks to be a simple thrasher is upon closer inspection an INCREDIBLY complex song, composed of several different non-repeating sections and about 50,000 chords, lassoed to the best guitar solo in Greenwood’s catalogue to date.

The problem with reviewing an album like this is that it’s amazingly consistent; with the exception of a few songs which are merely interesting ("Bones" for example, which, while interesting live, just doesn’t work in this context), everything is of such high quality that it’s hard to speak ill of the album as a whole. The only criticism you will hear about this album is that it sounds "too simplistic." I disagree. I think that accusation is a trick of the ears – the band makes it sound so easy, so effortless, so simple to write songs like this that there’s an inclination not to pay the music the attention it deserves. And when the music IS relatively straightforward, as in "High And Dry," it doesn’t seem to detract, since that song in particular is just so dang catchy! (Also, its simplicity may stem from the fact that the song – recording and all – is an outtake from Pablo Honey, with no overdubs or changes whatsoever.)

Other than that it’s hard to see where you can go wrong, unless you’re just some kind of misanthrope opposed to anthemic music or guitar rock (and you bastards exist, I know). "Planet Telex" is admirable enough just due to the fact that most of it (nonsensical lyrics included) was laid down while the band was stone-cold drunk, but I’m impressed by the textured sound of the guitar and the spacious airy sound—to quote my favorite nasal Canadian, Neil Young, it’s "like a hurricane." "Fake Plastic Trees" may be, without going overboard, the most beautiful thing they’ve ever written, and one of the defining moments of 90’s rock from my cramped perspective. Here’s a song that, sorrowfully biting lyrics aside, deserves every ounce of its glorious bombast. That third verse....chills, my friend, from neck to waist.

I also think that you really should reconsider "Black Star" - when I first heard it I dismissed it as well (I immediately noticed that the chorus was a rewrite of "The Bends"), but time has revealed it to be one of the best songs on the album, maybe even (blasphemy!) THE best, "Fake Plastic Trees" aside. Up until this point in the band's career Thom Yorke's lyrics could be gratingly hollow at times ("Just" for example, has some groaners, while "Sulk" is equally contrived), but "Black Star"'s writing is a masterpiece of subtlety, taking the typical disaffected-with-your-girl idea and weaving something almost literary out of it. Furthermore, the music and performance have an enormous, driving energy to them - this is probably the most forceful song on the entire album ("Just" is only the most frenetic), with a riff that locks itself down with ironclad assurance. It's well arranged, too - the opening riff is held back until after the second verse, at which point it feels like some sort of musical breakthrough. A wonderfully underrated track, it also happens to be the group's favorite from the album.

There's so much more to say about this album (the edgy beauty of "(nice dream)" or "Bulletproof," for example), but it's too daunting a task to cover here. Suffice to say that I think THIS is the album which takes the standard "rock" song to its highest ground possible. After this, Radiohead began to change their approach to music making entirely - here they show how to do music in the Pablo Honey style with wit, verve, and brilliance.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

The band's second album was a leap forward from their debut in terms of refining their sound (especially guitar wise), and Thom Yorke's continuing ability to be able to send chills up your spine. Bassist Colin Greenwood, probably the most instrumentally accomplished musician in the band, also steps up to the forefront here with an impressive performance, while Jonny Greenwood and Ed O' Brien show that the innovative possibilities of the guitar haven't quite been exhausted yet in the 90s, as their guitar lineup continues to get very unconventional musically, using odd song structures and tunings to create a sound all their own. And Phil Selway continues to do his job well on the drums.

Radiohead's ambitions are especially apparent on "Just", which has a unique, almost retro feel in the lead guitar part, which really works as backup to Thom Yorke's angry vocals and lyrics in the verses and chorus ('you do it to yourself'), and the guitarists try to fit as many chords as possible within the song and come out somewhat successful (and as a side note, the music video to this song is quite thought-provoking). "My Iron Lung" also has an eerily menacing guitar part and downright frightening attitude in the almost possessed vocals, with frantic instrumental breaks reminiscent of the chaotic arena rock of Pablo Honey - the song is essentially a blistering response to the unwanted attention the band got with "Creep".

The opener "Planet Telex" is a successfully atmospheric attempt at studio experimentation, the airy "Bulletproof... I Wish I Was" has a gorgeous melody to go along with eerie backing music, and the title track really rocks out with an odd vengeance. But perhaps the greatest power of the album is when the band achieves poignant moody simplicity, especially on the mostly acoustic "High And Dry", which is an absolute classic example of life affirming melancholy in the melody, lyrics and instrumentation, with a powerful ending section, a stunning chorus and a perfectly executed, emotional guitar solo - one of my favorite songs of all time. The mostly acoustic "Fake Plastic Trees" and "[Nice Dream]" are Thom Yorke and a few chords doing absolutely wonderful things with his emotional voice, lyrics, and melody, and both songs also benefit from louder middle sections.

The album closes out with a couple more winners - "Sulk" definitely has an uplifting melancholic and creative instrumentally textured feel that this band is so proficient at, and "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" has a stunningly draining, emotional edge within the vocals and lyrics, and it is surely capable of having quite a profound effect on people (the song is literally about staring death right in the eye). All in all, this is probably Radiohead's most brilliantly crafted album and is essential listening, although it doesn't quite attain classic status on account of two weaker tracks, "Bones" and "Black Star", which just aren't impressive in the face of the more phenomenal songs on this album.

OVERALL RATING: 9

[email protected] (Ryan Mulligan)

COMMENTS

[in response to the second review:]

I disagree with Pablo Honey getting the same rating as OK Computer(which is a 10 if there ever was one), but let's concentrate on The Bends. "Planet Telex" doesn't sound like anything else on the album. This is a great opening track with great vocals(well, every song has great vocals) and some effective, weird studio stuff. "The Bends" is pure rock with a great ending, "I wanna be a part of the human race!". This is followed up by 2 phenomenal ballads, "High and Dry" and "Fake Plastic Trees". I didn't listen to the radio too much so I don't know if these two were that popular, but they should've been as they're better than most everything else from the mid 90's. FPT's in particular is just beautiful. "Bones" can't compare with those two, but it does feature a great chorus and nice bass work by Colin Greenwood. "Nice Dream" is also quite nice and relaxing before it gets loud for just the right amount of time. "Just" rocks big time. The guitars playing along with the vocals and all those solos at the end are superb. "My Iron Lung" has great lyrics and the heavy part is very heavy...great song. "Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was" slows the pace down nicely with great vocals. "Black Star" and "Sulk" don't seem to measure up to the other giants on this album, but they're really quite good in their own right. The closing "Street Spirit...Fade Out" is pretty convincing with lyrics about death and a great melody to it. A great ending to a great album. I'll go with the 10, because it's better than a lot of the albums you guys give tens, though it's not as good as OK Computer, in my opinion. I should mention that Radiohead is the only modern group I really like(I wrote the Blonde on Blonde review) and they rule. I've got every Beatles album and Revolver and Abbey Road are the only 10's there....sorry had to throw that in.

OK COMPUTER (1997)

(Jeff Blehar's review)

Okay, first off, OK Computer has nothing at all to do with 1984, as suggested by the review below (maybe you're thinking of David Bowie's Diamond Dogs?). I don't even think I've ever heard of that book being mentioned in the context of this album; OKC's anxieties are societal and technological, 1984's were exclusively political. But that aside, I really want to say that this album is horribly overrated and that it doesn't deserve the legions of hipsters and critics who fawn all over it...but dammit, I can't. Because although The Bends was a magnificent accomplishment, THIS is their masterpiece, and in close contention for the best album of the decade. Every song on here is great - there's no "Bones" to slow down the pace or "Sulk" to make you slap your forehead with its silly lyrics - and that's doubly impressive because the band is writing and performing music that is more risky than what they had done before.

It's not a REVOLUTIONARY album, however. Let's get this out of the way now. Perhaps its spirit (postmodern technological dread) is something new under the sun, but the music isn't that far removed from what they were doing on The Bends: is "Paranoid Android" really that different in structure to "My Iron Lung" or "Just (You Do It To Yourself)"? Not really. It's the production which makes it seem like that. I think that time and perspective will confirm my contention that Radiohead is a band that evolves in half-steps: about half of this is reminiscent of stuff they had done before ("Paranoid Android," as already mentioned, but also "No Surprises," "Exit Music (For A Film)," "Karma Police," and "Electioneering" all have antecedents) and about half is really something unprecedented for the band, stuff like "Airbag" and "Let Down" and "Climbing Up The Walls." I mention this only because people always fall all over themselves to say how quickly the band evolves from album to album; granted, they DO evolve quickly, but not THAT quickly. If you pay attention, Kid A is exactly half like OK Computer as well.

But in the end, questions of originality are irrelevant when placed beside songs as humblingly brilliant as these. Both the writing and the performances are spot on. "Airbag" for one is a considerable achievement, a mixture of shrieking guitars, watery production, and cut-up drum beats which resolves itself into nothing less than a sound painting: a song about a car crash that SOUNDS like a car crash, but not in an unpleasant way. The noise always seems to return upon itself, to resolve into a huge, lumbering riff/phrase (underlined with a cello, I think) which is indeed hummable. "Paranoid Android" sucks you in, whether you're aware of it or not, with its detail-perfect percussion, all guiros and claves, creating a dark jungle texture which of course has nothing to do with the lyrics.

The song is nothing more than a high-speed joke, in case you didn't know: Yorke's over-the-top "revenge, motherfuckers!" lyrics are an intentional parody of his usual image, and Greenwood quite deliberately overdoes his insane guitar part in a kidding reference to his typically manic work on stuff like "My Iron Lung" and "Just." It's understandable if the joke doesn't come through, however. "Let Down" is my favorite song on the album, an actual piece of musical philosophy which sets 5/8 guitars against a 4/4 beat to evoke the simultaneous sense of queasy impotence and lethargic beauty of being a passenger rather than a driver in a constantly moving world. I'm bowled over by the amount of thought that went into this track. I mean, they're working on levels that most people aren't even aware of, let alone care about.

As with any album there are tracks which are less impressive than others. On OKC that's a highly relative (and probably subjective) statement. "Karma Police" is the most rhythmically uninteresting song on here, "big, dumb, and stupid," as the band have called it. It is, however, redeemed by a good lyric and that lovely piano decoration that runs throughout the chorus. Similarly, "Electioneering" is the probably the last high-voltage rock number they'll ever do, and this is the most skeletally arranged track on the entire album: a noisy, stubborn clot of feedback which refuses to resolve itself into an ending, instead just burning out.

I'm only covering the songs. But there's something about OK Computer that doesn't come across in a discussion of its individual songs, and it's that intangible something which propels it into the first rank of masterpieces and immortal albums. It's the spirit of the thing, the atmosphere, which isn't captured in any one piece ("Let Down" comes close) but is echoed throughout the album. It's emphatically NOT just "man, modern life sucks with all these machines, doesn't it?" - there's also a powerful spirit of positivism that most people seem to miss. "Airbag" is about the euphoria of surviving a car accident and feeling like you're invincible, while "Lucky" was Thom Yorke's explicit attempt to write an upbeat song (When he sings "I'm on a roll, I'm on a roll, this time I feel my luck could change" the pathos is real but so is the hope - this is not sarcastic or ironic.)

And there's a touching humanity in the wistful, sighing "Subterranean Homesick Alien" (with those beautiful opening lines "the breath of the morning I keep forgetting, the smell of the warm summer air") and the ambivalent lullaby "No Surprises." When Thom Yorke pleads "hey...man...slooow...down..." in "The Tourist" he's not spitting on his audience, he's trying to reach out to them. (By the way, Jonny Greenwood wrote that one, not Yorke.) What gives OK Computer the mark of greatness is the fact that it's NOT monochromatic - repeated listens reveal all sorts of intersecting themes, repeated motifs, and shared themes. Not that the album is really "conceptual" is the strict sense - these are 11 different songs, but Yorke's worldview informed each and every one of them, so they share the same images.

Well I've sure wasted a lot of breath on this album haven't I? But it's worth expending breath on. OK Computer might not be the best album of the decade or even of the year, depending on your view of things, but it is undeniably a work of art, and an almost perfectly executed work of art at that. You may not like the artist Cezanne, but you don't deny the fact that the fellow created his share of masterpieces in his day, do you? Nor should you do the same with OK Computer, which displays a level of vision and inspiration that one would normally associate with a great classical composer or a master painter. Most people would laugh at that kind of a comparison today. But I guarantee you, someday they won't.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

(Philip Maddox's review)

A conceptual effort loosely based on the classic George Orwell novel 1984, OK Computer focuses on the overall long term effect on the technological revolution in society and its' moral effects, and set to music, it's a stunning opus for the 21st century, and Thom Yorke rises to the occasion masterfully, his lyrics and voice driven by intense emotions here - fear, anger, paranoia, sadness and tension, with the backing music taking on a more experimental direction, particularly in the electronic side of things whenever the music calls for it. It's apparent immediately in "Airbag", which is based on Yorke's fear of cars (the lyrics effectively painting that picture) and has some plain weird noises within its' instrumental break and an odd drum sound.

The three part epic "Paranoid Android" is easily the most representative of their creative direction here - it's the most ambitious song of their career, building from its' initial acoustic section to a more angry, bitter and furious heavy mood in part two before going to the gorgeously orchestrated and sung slower section, which is one of the band's finest moments, and then coming back to the second part's vibe for a phenomenal Jonny Greenwood closing solo.

That epic is a tough act to follow, but the airy "Subterranean Homesick Alien" gets the job done and enhances the mood, while "Exit Music (For A Film)" again shows Thom Yorke's absolutely amazing power to transform a simple little acoustic ditty into a gripping story of escape from the clutches of society to freedom, which builds up to a loud and desperate climax and ending with the softly sung, but menacing, 'we hope that you choke' lines to end the song. "Let Down" again puts the band's use of mood enhancing studio embellishments to great effect, and the first half closes out with "Karma Police" which has a great bassline and a 'damned for being yourself' theme that runs through the lyrics and vocals, but the real treat of the song is another incredibly blissful middle section.

The second half opens with the appearance of a talking computer in "Fitter Happier", which is programmed to speak about various things that seem like unorganized thoughts that are quite telling about society, and the rocker "Electioneering" has a fantastically loud drum sound, a chaotic blast of guitars, and a great chorus. "Climbing Up The Walls" which follows, however, is the only relatively unsatisfying track on the album - it's creepy and moody but not really much else, but "No Surprises" is another good showcase of inspiring melancholy.

The previously released compilation track "Lucky" has a great dramatic buildup, and "The Tourist" starts out quiet and relaxing but then comes to a stunning panic in the 'slow down... idiot' chorus with instrumentation that matches the beautiful, but insecure mood. This is yet another quite excellent and compelling release that continues to establish Radiohead as one of the major forces in quality creative rock.

Update: Alright, I realize I was probably being a bit too anti-hyped in giving this album a high 8 and the same rating as Pablo Honey (though I still hold that one is way better than everyone says it is. This page will be (mostly) rewritten eventually - honest!

OVERALL RATING: 9

You know, I originally wrote a review here that bitched and moaned about how not many of these songs weren't memorable and that it was REALLY overrated and whatnot and I ended up giving it a six. If you never read that review, good. If you did, my opinion has jumped quite a bit, enough to forego just sticking a disclaimer at the end of my review and forcing me to write a whole new one. I LOVE this album. There isn't a weak track here, except for the brief spoken word "Fitter Happier", which still contributes to the mood of the album, though I'd never pull the album out to listen to it. The two songs I loved the first time I reviewed this are still awesome. "Airbag" and "Paranoid Android" are fantastic, utterly fantastic. The former is a slow, repetitive, creepy number that manages to make its point with subtlety, with the tune wrapping around itself very intricately. "Paranoid Android" is multi-part and pretty damn-near perfect. It moves from really powerful, hard rockin' parts to slower, atmospheric, beautiful parts. And those are just the opening two cuts!

The rest fails to disappoint as well. Of the remaining tracks, "Let Down" might be my favorite. I used to think it was really boring, for reasons I can't even fathom now. The real attraction of the song is Thom Yorke's tortured vocals, wailing powerfully against the tight, slow, melodic backing. When he sings "One day/I am going to grow wings/A chemical reaction/Hysterical and useless", you really FEEL what he's trying to say, even if the lyrics aren't 100% clear. "Exit Music (For A Film)" is slow, haunting, and gorgeous, building from a slow, acoustic intro into a powerful, moving climax that dies back down slowly, making the whole song somehow feel like a little movie. And hey, how about "No Surprises"? A simple, childlike melody with more great, unclear lyrics ("It takes a quiet life/A handshake, some carbon monoxide") where, again, Thom's vocals make it work as well as it does. Thom's voice is what makes a lot of this material really jump to life, you see. If anyone else sang it, it would sound ok, but Thom's tortured wail really makes you squirm (in a good way).

The closing pair of tunes, "Lucky" and "The Tourist", all poke along at about 1 mile per hour (especially the latter), but that's what makes them work so well - that's the exact slow, dreary mood the band wanted to set, and it comes across perfectly. And again, Thom's delivery makes it shine, especially when he sings "Hey man! Slow down! Idiot! Slow Down!" on "The Tourist". If I had to point to weaker songs, I'd probably point to "Electioneering", which is decent guitar rock, but not monolithic, and "Climbing Up The Walls", which has little melody (it's pure mood), but it makes its point so well at the end that I HAVE to admire it. The music simply builds and builds and builds and creates the mood it wants to flawlessly.

If you haven't been able to tell by now, this one's a great album, and it deserved pretty much every bit of acclaim that it recieved. I don't know if it's as groundbreaking as people say (I can't find any SPECIFIC groundbreaking ideas here), but the fact that the group made this album in the musically stagnant late 90s is to be commended, as I can't imagine your average MTV watching, rap metal moshing teenager giving this album a second glance. The album is a powerful statement, and is highly recommended. Then again, this is the most hyped album since Nevermind, so you probably already knew that.

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

(Robert Grazer's review)

HIGH POINTS: Exit Music (For A Film), Lucky, Climbing Up The Walls, The Tourist, Paranoid Android. LOW POINTS: Fitter Happier, Electioneering, Airbag.

I've written quite a many reviews on this site, several of which have knocked on rather popular albums, from Slayer’s Reign In Blood to U2’s The Joshua Tree. But for some reason this one was the only negative review I'd made that was returned with such an outcry from the oh so devoted community of Radiohead fans. Let me get this straight right now: I can write whatever the hell I want about an album. There’s nothing you can do about that. You can't change my opinion. And just because my opinion doesn't match yours is no reason to get all pissed off. Whatever reason I choose to like or dislike an album is completely up to me, not you. I don’t see why the line “Overall Rating: 5” ended up causing such a fuss. It’s just one line on one website. If you wanted to see this album given a perfect score there are PLENTY of places out there for you to do so.

That said, I will say that my opinion of this album has drastically changed since I wrote the original review. Let’s cut out all of the crap about this album/band saving rock. Rock doesn't need to be saved. People who go on and on about how rock is all gone and dead are usually making some sort of an attempt to merely justify their biases to 60s and 70s bands. So right now forget all of the crap about this, or any album, being the only great piece of music since The Beatles broke up. People that say that tend to have no clue about the 80s and 90s whatsoever. The truth is that OK Computer is no more original than any other album in the 90s. It’s actually nothing more than a combination of classic art-rock and atmospheric post-shoegazer music with a touch of electronics and a Bono-style (which is true whether you choose to admit it or not) vocalist. It’s a 90s Pink Floyd album. Without David Gilmour. Nothing more, nothing new.

But even so I do have to give the band credit in one area: production. On the first few listens it seems no different than any other well-produced album. But here it goes further than just crystal clear sound. All sorts of things in the mix contribute to the atmosphere of the album, little things, many of which I can't exactly explain, but you give this a listen and you'll understand too. I actually think a great deal of this albums power is largely due to the production, which is indeed an amazing, and to my knowledge original achievement.

In spite of all of that, however, OK Computer remains an overrated album. Generally speaking the critics consider this to be the second best album of the decade (to Nevermind), and a good deal of them also include it on their silly little lists that they try to make appear oh so official. Music fans in general have also eaten this one up, and that’s usually where the bull about the saving of rock comes from, because face it, a band like Radiohead isn't going to break into the mainstream very soon. Or rather, they aren't going to hit the radio very soon. Not like Korn or The Backstreet Boys or anything. Which is a shame, I think, because flawed or not this remains a worthy effort. Not perfect, by any means, God no, this albums flaws, while not numerous, are most certainly there, and now, a few years after its release, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. So we sit, we listen, and we enjoy. Or at least we try to. For me it took awhile to get fully into this album, and I still think that there is some room for it to grow on me. Then again, there’s room for damn near anything to grow on me. It doesn't mean that it'll happen.

Back to the actual point. I think that OK Computer actually needed to happen. I mean, it was time for an album to come along that would make the critics go completely nuts. They were looking for something to do that for them. They hadn't had a REALLY huge 90s release since Nevermind. Sure REM and Oasis and Beck all had a few moments of fame, but it didn't last. Not like Nirvana. And after the attention MTV gave Pablo Honey and the stadium rock success of The Bends, the more pretentious art-rock here seemed like a fine enough place to come.

Unfortunately for me, overall, there is only one huge complaint I have. This is more or less, a manufactured release, with all of the right things thrown in the right places, but missing the one intangible quality that you can't just manufacture and throw out there all shiny and new. You see why this is undeniably a powerful release, it just often seems to me to be impersonal and distant. Maybe even forced at times. I find it hard to actuallydescribe these feeling just beyond that, which is a shame and also clearly shows my incredibly lacking ability to clearly express certain thoughts in a review, but those words suit the feeling much. It seems detached, not down to earth. Like it comes so close to hitting it’s overall goal of being truly inspirational to the listener but then at the last second realizes that it’s goal missed by a mile. I get the feeling that I’m not making any sense so I'll start a new paragraph.

If you want to talk about individual tracks I can say that one thing is for sure about this album: not since 1968 when The Beatles released their self-titled album has a listener’s choice for favorite song on the album said so much about their musical tastes. Not that this here release is nearly as diverse as The White Album, no. Truth be told it isn't nearly as diverse as many people will tell you, but it not so much the variety of styles as the diversity of moods displayed here really says something about the listen when they proclaim their favorite to be “The Tourist” or “Karma Police” or another track here. Except “Paranoid Android.” That says nothing about he listener. Maybe it’s because so damn many people choose it to be their favorite.

Let’s learn about my tastes now. “Exit Music (For A Film)” is my favorite. By far. The build up from the simple acoustic riff to a soaring climax is an incredibly effective way to create a rather strong emotional atmosphere. In a sense I guess you could compare it to U2’s “With Or Without You” in that it’s just a simple riff turned into a great song by an effective albeit over-the-top singer. But I’m not complaining at all. “Lucky” probably comes in as my second favorite, again carried through by Thom Yorke’s voice and a dramatic guitar solo. Often either overlooked or criticized is also “Climbing Up The Walls,” Radiohead’s own version of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine,” and it probably comes off just as well. Same goes to “The Tourist,” Radiohead’s “Us And Them.” Actually nearly the entire album is derived form various Pink Floyd songs in some way or another. OK Computer boasts of little to no actual original ideas. The presentation and arrangements, however, may be different, and the overall atmosphere is quite unique, but there are very few actual concepts here that have not already been explored.

But do you really need me to tell you what I think the better songs on the album are? Of course you don’t. That would be like pointing out my favorite song on Rubber Soul (which is “In My Life” in case you wanted to know). And since I've been told quite often that I’m too negative of a person I suppose the least I could do would actually be to make an attempt at living up to that. There are three songs I really don’t like on this album, “Electioneering” (and I’m certainly not alone on that one), “Fitter Happier” (which may or may not be a filling track. It’s hard to deny that all of the weird noises and sound effects did take some time and effort, but it’s just so easy to say “Filler Happier”) and “Airbag.”

The only one here that I really should say a few words about is the opening track. The guitar sound just completely ruins it for me, not to mention the lyrics, any way you take them, are even more ridiculous that most of the others on the album. I know some people can gain great insight by learning that an airbag saved his life, but I for one just can't stop laughing at it. I am in the minority here, but by not proclaiming this to be at least the album of the year (I give that honor to Stavesacre’s Absolutes, which is ten times as powerful as this could ever dream of being) I’m in the minority as well so I just live with it.

Overall OK Computer is a flawed yet very effective work, and one that’s managed to make the critics shut up about Nirvana for a little while so I’m happy. And even though my favorite of the critics’ picks of the decade is probably Automatic For The People, I can certainly see why they enjoy this one so damn much. I enjoy it a lot myself. So even if some of the band’s rabid fans will go and say all sorts of silly and untrue things about this album, you should probably go get it for yourself and make up your own mind. Just don’t be expecting too much.

OVERALL RATING: 9

[email protected] (Jeff Blehar)

COMMENTS

[NOTE: in response to the fourth review, back when the album was a 5]

Well Robert, first of all, I think you should read our reviews a little more closely. I went well out of my way to point out that OK Computer wasn't revolutionary or new in any musical sense, just that questions of originality were irrelevant.

I think your argument can be attacked on these grounds: first of all, the "did it before" claim is always facile. ALWAYS. The Pretty Things did S.F. Sorrow before The Who's Tommy, but that does not automatically qualify them to be hailed as the heroes of rock opera. The Who did it BETTER. Starflyer are an obscure band, and I doubt Radiohead has ever heard of them - though you don't come out and say it, you do imply in your review that they intentionally ripped these guys off, which I find to be remarkably unjustified.

That aside, if you think Starflyer are better, that's fine - THAT'S where opinion comes in and no amount of arguing will prove either of us right or wrong. I find most of Radiohead's lyrics to be brilliant. You can't get into their lyrical vision. No prob. But it's not valid to offer as justification for a bad review the claim that "they weren't the first." It IS valid to say "It's been done BETTER." I think there's a real difference 'twixt the two.

What makes OK Computer fabulous for me is its emotional approach to music, the melodies, the songwriting, the lyrics, and the production. If I found that Starflyer were doing the same thing, it wouldn't make dismiss OK Computer as now somehow being unworthy - because the same qualities I appreciated about the LP in the first place HAVEN'T ACTUALLY CHANGED. All that has changed is perhaps the "uniqueness" of it, and as I said RIGHT AT THE START of my review (2nd paragraph), I don't think OKC is revolutionary or new, and that's not where it draws its power from, for me.

[email protected] (Ravi P. Rajkumar)

Great album, but a couple of rough spots.

First up, "Electioneering". This is easily one of the most un-Radiohead songs I've ever heard from the band: its lyrical attitude is a sort of Rattle & Hum-era U2 meets Rage Against The Machine on Valium, and frankly, go ahead and throw me a shoe, but I'm starting to get just a wee bit sick about the sheer number of chart-topping bands that keep on spewing these anti-corporate cliches. Capitalism may have a lot to answer for, but it's hard to avoid the twin charges of repetitiveness and hypocrisy after hearing them for the fourth or fifth time. And the music just simply isn't as meticulously arranged as the other tracks: it tries to be a messy Bends-era rocker, but never quite gets there.

Secondly, "Exit Music (For A Film)" is way too overblown given the rest of the album's lyrical content and musical tone: isn't Thom Yorke contradicting himself in the very next track, "Let Down", when he lets go with "Don't get sentimental.......it always ends up drivel one day/I am going to grow wings/A chemical reaction, hysterical and useless?" Also, once again the music isn't all that good - this sort of claustrophobic acoustic vibe would be pulled off with much greater effect on the truly excellent "How To Disappear Completely" from the next record.

Still, a solid 9+ rating if only for the first three tracks and the amazing "Let Down". I don't understand why so many people don't like "Climbing Up The Walls"; it's always been one of my favourites. Item: "Paranoid Android" was originally meant to be a 11-minute prog rock monstrosity, complete with keyboard solo.

And what's with this Kid A stuff?? Why do perfectly great bands feel the need to douse themselves in electronica after making some of their greatest music? First U2, now these guys.........fortunately Amnesiac was no Zooropa.

[email protected] (Ebony)

Probably one of if not my favorite ALBUM of all time... the songs themselves might not be as brilliant as the classic artists, but the album flows so brilliantly, the whole way through, dragging you up and down and up and down. Airbag starts it all off and we are immediately sucked into this fierce onslaught and are almost literal passengers -- the song almost making us feel in a car crash, to let Paranoid Android be the dream we encounter next. The whole album has a concept, although it's difficult to establish whether it's the danger of machines or simply a dream. Exit Music is perfectly juxtaposed with 'Let Down'. We go from an absolute state of depression to an almost state of bliss. Brilliant... well, it goes on like this with brilliant tracks inspiring and moving you (the best track is Subterranean Homesick Alien -- I tell all my friends but they'd never believe me/They think that I've finally, lost it completely, the emotion in the delivery captivating.) But I made this comment to comment on the perfect, greatest ending to any album that has ever existed 'The Tourist'. WHAT A CONCLUSION. Sums up the album with a beautiful delivery of 'Hey man, slow down'. It's hard to explain what it's like, after the bulk of this album, after Lucky, another absolutely mind blowing song, to hear Thom sing those words, it just has to be heard for yourself. Not by itself, straight after the rest of this album.

I would hope anyone who has heard the album enough times would understand.

More than a classic....blew me away the 1st time I heard it! and still does....meticuloously crafted and more emotional than anything since early genesis.Pink Floyd? I don't think so....Much updated and more personal....1 of the greatest releases of all time!!!!

AIRBAG/HOW AM I DRIVING? EP (1998)

(reviewed by Jeff Blehar)

As with the Itch EP, this little souvenir, released in 1998 to coincide with the American leg of Radiohead's exhaustive (and pretentiously documented: see Grant Gee's film Meeting People Is Easy for your fix of disaffected pop gloom) 1997 world tour, is composed exclusively of previously-released B-sides (this time from the OK Computer sessions). Unfortunately, that means that the Airbag/How Am I Driving? EP (named after its leadoff track, the great OK Computer cut) sounds...well, again, it just sounds like a heap of B-sides thrown onto a disc. My Iron Lung had an identity and a sense of order, whereas this disc is just a hodge-podge.

And the real problem for people who aren't already sold on the band's mystique the way I am is that most of them aren't really SONGS. They're fragments, ideas, snatches of undeveloped works. It's a shame that the two compilatory "B-sides" EPs that are commercially available fail to capture the best non-album material of the band - unlike the also-rans from The Bends, you'll easily understand why these didn't make it onto OK Computer. (And as a nitpick it's frustrating to know that the two BEST B-sides from this session, "How I Made My Millions" and the superb "Lull" - this last one quite as good as anything from the album - were excluded from this collection. Why?)

That being said, I don't want to necessarily denigrate the quality of these tracks; I just want to warn you that these are fascinating sketches, study versions of songs that COULD be great but never were finished, and NOT "Let Down"-quality meisterworks. Taken for what they are, they're quite evocative of that same mood that OK Computer had, most explicitly in tracks like "Palo Alto," a noisy burst of loathing for white-collar life which moves along the same musical lines as "Electioneering," but with more control. And while the idea of a 3 minute instrumental on which the band itself is absent sounds like a bad idea gone wrong, "Meeting In The Aisle" is REALLY creepy, full of ropey guitars and keyboards and an icy, disengaged click track in place of drums. It's a mood piece, pure and simple, with a title that suggests any number of ominous possibilities. I like to think of it as a David Lynch film on CD.

"Polyethylene, Parts 1 & 2," is intentionally schizophrenic (that would seem to be the song's subject, though debates rage over what Yorke is actually singing), beginning with a fragile acoustic mumble before cutting off into a lumbering rocker. The second half lacks subtletly, but the point is certainly made. Perhaps the best B-side here is "A Reminder." Lyrically it's just that: a memo written by Thom Yorke to himself, requesting that, should he ever get fat and complacent, someone should play him this song. Sonically, however, it's transfixing, opening with a snatch of a subway announcement in Czech and moving into an eerie, molasses-slow shuffle. Like most of the material here, it's engaging in an intellectual way, but still very difficult to absorb. And in the end, that's what makes the Airbag EP tough to really recommend unconditionally - most of the ideas here are fascinating, but they're far too fragmentary and quixotic to be loved by anyone except the converted. For them this is an 8/10 purchase. For everyone else I have to give it an...

OVERALL RATING: 6

NO SURPRISES/RUNNING FROM DEMONS EP (1998)

(reviewed by Jeff Blehar)

Don't waste your time, folks. This is Japanese version of the Airbag EP with a smaller and slightly different track selection, and its only point of interest is the fact that includes a high quality B-side from the period of The Bends called "Bishop's Robes." It's certainly a great song, written about the evil headmaster of Yorke's Abingdon boy's school (man, when are we going to hear about a KINDLY headmaster? Are they ALL monsters? Sure seems like that), but it certainly doesn't justify the $25 or so you're going to have to lay out if you want to buy this. Nice packaging, like all the Radiohead releases from around this time, but is that what you spend your money on? Save it and go buy My Iron Lung instead.

OVERALL RATING: 2

KID A (2000)

(Jeff Blehar's review)

"A meticulously crafted piece of crap." That's what my friend called Kid A, and it's easy to see where he's coming from. For the first time Radiohead has released an album that's willfully DIFFICULT to get into at times, and the emphasis is on "willfully," because what makes an otherwise fantastic achievement slightly annoying is the fact that it seems as if Radiohead is actively trying to be "hard to like" on this album. The key factor is the self-consciousness of it all; such premeditation ends up coming across as mannered, sort of phony, and not just a little bit pretentious. And Kid A is definitely a premeditated move. The band labored over this album for almost three years before releasing it, recording, rerecording, throwing away everything and starting over at least once, etc., etc. The end result is an album which is remarkably unspontaneous, with every last note or ping or vocal carefully considered. It's a tribute to the band, then, that Kid A doesn't sound at all like a sterile, lifeless piece of "art," but rather manages to successfully live and breathe as an actual album.

Again, the band has evolved exactly halfway beyond the sound & vision of OK Computer: out of 10 tracks here, 5 of them ("How To Disappear Completely," "Optimistic," "In Limbo," "Morning Bell," and "Motion Picture Soundtrack") are reminiscent of the Radiohead we knew from back in 1997 (though it might take time to realize it through the layers of production which cover the songs), while the other half are, for better or for worse - and sometimes for worse - a decided advance upon what came before. And ironically, though the "new-style" songs are (according to the press hacks) supposed to be "revolutionary" and strange, in actuality they haven't displayed their influences so openly since the days of Pablo Honey. Now they're drawing on both the past and present of electronic-based music for their inspirations: "Idioteque" is half-Autechre and half-Brian Eno circa Another Green World, while "The National Anthem" is Charlie Mingus in a traffic jam and "Kid A" might as well have been cribbed from a broadcast of Gilles Peterson's Worldwide show on BBC's Radio One.

Questions of influence and evolution aside (and I think they're relevant in the case of Radiohead because one of the more snobby and odious claims people make about the band is how wildly "revolutionary" and "new" they are - true to an extent, but not as much as starstruck critics say), the only real question is: how does Kid A sound? I mean, sure it might have all sorts of new beats and sounds, but hell, will I like it? The answer is yes, with qualifications. Unlike most bands which are hopelessly inept when it comes to experimentation, Radiohead and producer Nigel Godrich really know how to pull this music off. Most of the time.

"The National Anthem" is the kind of track which will split fans right down the middle: a primal bass-line and heavy "Airbag"-style drums is complemented by a brass band which starts out in tune but rapidly descends into utter, noisy chaos. The track WORKS though, and it's because the brass havoc isn't nearly as uncoordinated as it first appears to be; if you listen to each horn on its own, you realize that each player is improvising rather nicely over the backing track, without paying attention to what any of the other players are doing. Since they all follow the chord changes, the cacophony always partially resolves itself and retains some sense of form until the end.

Similarly, two of the other experimental tracks, "Kid A" and "Idioteque" are both unqualified successes. Both could have been opportunities for disaster - the former is a beat-happy instrumental and the latter is a grotesque parody of a dance number - but they're reined in by a sense of discipline. "Kid A" begins with a tinkling nursery piano melody that's just plain unnerving and discomfiting, and then a pitter-patter of drum beats redefines the rhythm completely. "Idioteque" is really fascinating, a dance number that you can't dance to, and the reasons for that are subtle: there's no low end to the piece except for a sporadic twitching every now and then. The drums are purely treble, tinny little percussive slaps iced down by a chrome synthesizer.

And the vocals are pure terror, something which the dissonant and arrythmic backing vocals only emphasize with their off-kilter weirdness, as they weave in and out of the main melody line. This is probably the most inaccessible track on the album, but it repays the time put into it. But there's also some unpleasant self-indulgence here as well. "Treefingers" is embarrassing and should've been relegated to the vaults, a transparent attempt to write a static instrumental in the vein of Brian Eno's Music For Airports which fails to be anything but just so many minutes of windy nonsense. "Everything In Its Right Place" isn't completely successful, either; the backwards vocals and sketchy lyrics only cover up the piece's basic lack of melody and structure. It works well as an introduction to the album, but can't stand on its own as an independent "song."

As for the "normal" Radiohead songs (a relative term, to be sure), they're almost uniformly successful, and even if experimentation isn't your cuppa joe, these tracks are worth your time, even though you can see the band being self-consciously arty and "difficult" on these songs as well. "How To Disappear Completely" is, as many have said, the album's probable masterpiece, a soupy, dreamy haze of acoustic guitar and strings which perfectly reflects the title and lyrics. The strings are especially well-scored, and when they dissolve into a dissonant, over-echoed, tape-delayed goop near the end, the song really DOES like it's melting, one example of how "artiness" need not compromise the music. Going the other way, however, is "Optimistic." I actually find it mildly insulting - you can HEAR the part, right there in the first few seconds, where they surgically removed the chord that would make the opening phrase into a "hook" and replaced it with a dissonant one. THAT's what I mean by contrived "artiness." "In Limbo" and "Morning Bell" are actually the two most structurally "standard" pieces, though "Limbo"'s dislocating production will distract you from that at first, and they're both triumphs.

The closing "Motion Picture Soundtrack," however, is something unto itself, and there's no better song on Kid A which illustrates the spirit of the album and its fence-sitting nature. It equivocates hopelessly; I can't decide if it's a poignant elegy or nasty joke. You can argue it both ways. The song is missing the dire third verse it sported when it was just an intense acoustic number performed live, which would seem to point to a desire to make it more sincere. The beautiful, fugue-like opening section, played by a church organ, would seem to bear this out as well, as would the desperate sadness of the song's lyric ("red wine and sleeping pills help me get back to your arms/cheap sex and sad films help me get back where I belong" - it sounds like the suicide note of someone whose dreams have been reduced to tawdry cliches).

But those hopelessly chintzy ersatz-Hollywood harps which play out a supposed "ascent to heaven" can't be anything but bitterly ironic, can they? After all, doesn't Yorke sing "it's NOT like the movies, they fed us all on little white lies?" In the end the song sits somewhere in the middle of sincerity and sarcasm, and whatever the angle, it's completely bleak. And so is the album - there's nothing uplifting to hold onto on Kid A, just images of madness, bleakness, paranoia, fear, dislocation, sarcasm, and finally death. In that way it's the album everyone thought OK Computer was, and it's probably no accident that the one moment of unalloyed beauty comes when Thom Yorke wails "I'm not here, this isn't happening, I'm not here, I'm not here," as if repeating that would somehow make it true. For all of Kid A's experimentation and willful strangeness, what comes through most clearly is the enveloping blackness of the album, its unrelieved unhappiness. And while that's not a criticism - bleak albums can be great, just go ask Pink Floyd - it does say something about the long dark road Radiohead seems to have ahead.

OVERALL RATING: 8

(Philip Maddox's review)

Radiohead went into the studio following the quite successful OK Computer effort with enough songs for a double effort, but since they realized the weaknesses that could potentially generate (too much filler mixed in with the highpoints), they decided to release an 'experimental' single album first in the fall of 2000, with the best of their unreleased more 'accessible' stuff that didn't quite fit the vibe shelved for album release only half a year later. This first inital burst showcases the band attempting to reinvent themselves yet again - to paraphrase one critic, 'OK Computer showcases technology using humans, while Kid A showcases humans using technology'.

As a result of this, the album is much more electronic influenced than previous efforts where it had only been subtle - as a matter of fact, the once guitar dominated sound of the band is reduced to only three songs where it even appears at all. The final product thankfully doesn't sound too sterile and lifeless, as they do have the talent and creativity to use this stuff in an intelligent fashion, but what it does suffer from is somewhat of a lack of cohesiveness and identity - the songs never really hang together as a full work. Plus, some of the more 'left field' material here is a little too much of an acquired taste - the title track is downright bizarre, with robotic voices and drum programming, and "Treefingers" is pretty much complete ambience and nothing more - they work more as minor mood pieces than anything resonant.

Other material like "The National Anthem", while fairly eerie and powerful with a simple but effective bassline, is a little too cluttered with background nuances such as dissonant horn sections and string samples, and much like the opening "Everything In Its Right Place" (which has Thom's vocals mixed backwards in almost continuously incoherent fashion), it's also too repetitive. "Idioteque", meanwhile, seems to be a disturbed parody on dance music - probably too disturbed and programmed for my tastes, sounding almost like a cross between the Mary Tyler Moore theme song (whose melody it sort of rips off) and the influential industrial combo Skinny Puppy.

Not that these numbers are at all bad, though - it's just that the material here is all around 'good' with fewer Radiohead classics than before. Those include "How To Disappear Completely", which is an acoustic song close in style and just as great as tortured, catharic balladry like "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Exit Music (For A Film)", "Optimistic" (boasting the catchiest hook on the album with seemingly 'optimistic' lyrics, but the music is as cold and haunting as anything they've ever done), and "Morning Bell", built on a simplified organ part, bassline and drum groove with mesmerizing melody and jamming at the end - these songs, not coincidentally, are also the only three featuring guitar.

Rounding out the album are "Limbo", whose music certainly seems stuck in such a state, and the closing "Motion Picture Soundtrack", which is a beautiful ballad marred slightly by the stupid Greek-styled harps in the second verse - plus it sounded so much more pure and moving in its' original acoustic version. That song pretty much sums up the worthwhile, but sometimes frustrating experiences of the album, as I can't help but think if the songs were left in a less experimental form that didn't make them come off as trying a little too hard, and there was more emphasis on melody and vocal emotion, Kid A could be a lot more recommendable than it is.

OVERALL RATING: 7

Radiohead had to make a big decision when they started working on a follow up to the universally acclaimed OK Computer. They could either retreat into a more pop-based direction, losing many of the indie fans they had but gaining back some of their lost pop audience, make OK Computer II, which would have probably been loved by most, but have been artistically stagnant, or they could throw down the gauntlet and experiment with an album with absolutely no commercial potential, which is what they decided to do. The decided on the third option; if you thought that OK Computer was inaccesable, wait till you here THIS! Very few songs have any hooks to speak of, and the atmospherics rule on just about every song. Less than half of the songs feature any guitar at all, and Thom's voice is buried under piles and piles of atmospherics and encoding devices in just about every song.

The album is very quiet for the most part, and the songs never really grow into loud rock compositions; they usually continue to noodle quietly (except for the big, loud crecendo of "The National Anthem", but I'll talk about that later). There are basically no songs on this album that could ever be played on the radio, and the group acknowledged this, releasing no singles or videos. Somehow, in spite of all this, the album debuted at number one, coasting on the stellar reputation of OK Computer. The album is VERY hard to get into, taking about 5 listens minimum for the songs to make any impact on you at all. The question is: is it worth all the trouble of getting in to this album, if there's anything to get into at all?

Opinion is fairly divided on this issue - some people find that there is a masterpiece buried beneath all of the layers of fuzz and quiet dynamics, while some find nothing behind them at all. I don't think this is a MASTERPIECE, per se, but I do find it to be a very good, gutsy, low key, atmospheric listen. Only a couple of tracks stand out for individual analysis - one is my personal favorite on the album, the aforementioned "National Anthem", which happens to be many people's LEAST favorite track here. I think it exemplifies what Radiohead is trying to do here more than any other track - it starts with a simple, creepy bassline, quickly joined by some creepy, ambient synths and a couple of horns in the background. Thom mumbles some fairly unintelligble vocals about a minute forty-five into the song, and the song takes a turn for the bizarre, as multiple horn sections start to improvise over the music, with each instrument playing a discernable melody, but they all pound into each other in a big pile of dissonance. As the piece gets louder and louder and more chaotic, Thom starts screaming "Turn it off!" (I think) over and over, as the music grows completely overwhelming. Finally, it just stops, and an orchestral sample plays for a second in the background before quickly fading to nothing. THAT, my friend, is a psychological experience, and quite possibly my favorite Radiohead song.

Of the other distinct songs, "Optimistic" sounds like a dismembered OK Computer outtake, complete with a very catchy chorus. "How To Disappear Completely" is typically low-key, but is very psychological and disturbing, eating into your brain with frightening accuracy. "Idioteque" seems to be a parody of dance music of some type, but it's so sparse, with Yorke's vocal so echoey and disjointed that it builds a creepy territory all it's own. And, though it doesn't really "jump out", "Morning Bell" is totally awesome with it's atmospherics and dark "Cut the kids in half" chorus.

The rest is all atmospheric and dark and good, but it all falls into a mush. That isn't a bad thing - the album keeps a consistant mood and all - but it insures that this isn't going to be an album you pull out too often to hear specific songs. "In Limbo", the title track, and a bunch of others work very well to create a dark, experimental mood. This isn't as shattering as OK Computer for that reason - while it had a bunch of independant, fully functioning songs, these all ebb and flow so much that you pretty much have to listen to the whole thing or the effect is lost. Still, if you put some effort into it and don't mind avant-garde minimalism, you'll probably eventually be satisfied with this refreshingly uncommercial release.

OVERALL RATING: 8

(Thomas McKeown's review)

This album (or rather, people's attitude towards it) seems to me to demonstrate very well how subjective we can be when reviewing music. What do I mean? Well, let us put it like this: how many people out there heard this album before The Bends? Hmmm? Not that many, I would guess (unless they're very new fans, in which case they won't have heard The Bends at all). However, this is the position I am in. I listened to OK Computer first, then Kid A, and then The Bends (Pablo Honey I have yet to listen to at all). I have therefore got the ordering of Radiohead's artistic development all messed up in my mind; no matter what other people or common sense may tell me, in my universe Radiohead sprung fully formed from my CD player with the opening chords of 'Airbag', then weirded out on this little tumble-jumble of musical mumbo-jumbo, before regressing to a barricade of more conventional pop-rock.

Because of this, whilst most people seem to believe that The Bends and OK Computer are Radiohead's two classics to date (OK Computer being marginally the better) I would say that Kid A, rather than The Bends, should be the one in second place (OK Computer, it goes without saying, is their best). Perhaps this is a personal bias of mine, but The Bends seems an incredibly hook-empty album, whereas Kid A is both a bold artistic statement and a positive hotbed of pop hooks; people just don't notice them immediately because they have been grown in a musical soil that is generally hostile to hook based life forms. Generally, the songs are based around one or two catchy ideas, which are continually repeated, masked in dissonance and then fired back at us in an intense crescendo, following which the song either ends or noodles away into nothing.

Take the opening track, 'Everything In Its Right Place'; that keyboard line that runs through the piece is exceedingly catchy, and the main vocal line is eminently hummable. Sure, there's all that backwards vocals in the background, but they merely build the song up until the moment the main vocal hook breaks back through. Both the baseline and the keyboard pattern (though not, admittedly, the vocals) on the title track are pleasing to the pop lover's ear, and the baseline of 'The National Anthem' is just plain groovy! (I can think of no other way of putting it). 'How To Disappear Completely' is moving, beautiful and chock-full of ringing guitar licks that seem to match the no-hope vocals perfectly.

'Treefingers' is.... ah, this is somewhat of a fly in my 'this album is really,like, a pop record, y'know what I'm saying' flavoured ointment; but it is an ambient piece, and so it does not need to be memorable in order to achieve its primary objective, which is to provide you with an opportunity to visit the loo without bothering to pause the CD. Anyway, it divides the album into two more-or-less equal halves, and if it wasn't there then the two most accessible compositions ('How To Disappear Completely' and 'Optimistic') would be right next to each other, and that would never do, now would it? 'Optimistic' kicks off the imagined second side of the album with pounding drums, wailing vocals and a down-right nasty guitar rumble in the background, plus an anthemic chorus to boot.

This leads straight into 'In Limbo', which is an essentially melodic pop tune which has been cut loose from its tether and split up into its component pieces, each one floating away in opposite directions. And 'Idioteque' is probably the catchiest song on the record, certainly the only one you'll find yourself singing when you're on your own. If I may just dwell on the message of this song for a little longer; what is it actually trying to say about nightclubing? Is it trying to portray the horror of the British club scene?; if it is, then I couldn't really disagree more with it's rather paranoid philosophy. Personally, I quite like my local club scene, indeed, I tend to mythologise it somewhat in my head, imbuing it with a romanticism that Thom Yorke and Co. do not seem to have grasped. Oh well.

Anyhow, 'Idioteque' is followed by 'Morning Bell', which again is as catchy as hell, with an understated organ riff and a breath-taking moment when the song burst out in a swoosh of guitars before returning to quiet just as suddenly; probably the only uplifting moment on the album, that. After a tastefully short gap (or tastefully long pause) we have 'Motion Picture Soundtrack'. As with 'Exit Music (For A Film)' on OK Computer, the studied irony of the song title belies the beauty of the music itself; the softly spoken refrain, the church organ - even the undeniably hokeyharps - it all combines to make an elegiac and curiously upbeat end to a very dark album. Put simply, this is a seriously underrated masterpiece, and I unhesitatingly offer it a rating of...

* OVERALL RATING: 10 *

COMMENTS

[email protected] (PS)

man......comparing the bends to kid a......the two aren't even in the same plane of existence......bends so much better!

Best Radiohead album by a bit. How did a band that made a god awful album called Pablo Honey turn it around completely and make this???? I can’t believe they once wrote a song called ‘Creep’. When I first listened to Radiohead I dismissed them as another English pop-rock band and didn’t think much of them. Pablo Honey was bad and The Bends, at best was average (or as Oasis so kindly put it ‘The Bends was The Bollocks’ (not that Oasis can talk!!!)). How in gods name did they go from a band that sounded like every other rock band out there, to this??? They dared to do something different, which is god damn rare in today’s music industry, and pulled it off so well. Amnesiac and Kid A (and to a lesser extent OKC) are masterpieces and show the way to put together songs with all manner of instruments. I hope to god they don’t go back to there old ways. God I love bands that start off terrible and turn into cutting edge bands. Eg. Beatles

Note to [email protected]. Your right there is no comparison between the Bends and Kid A, only Kid A is far and away better. The Bends is boring, repetitive, uninteresting, and simple and does not deserve the label ‘Radiohead’ on the CD. While as Kid is the opposite……hmmm I guess I just did make a comparison, oh well.

There is a piece of music by a very talented jazz musician named Steven Reich. The piece is entitled New York Counterpoint. To me, there is an abundantly obvious link between it and the Radiohead instrumental Treefingers from Kid A. I hate to say it, but it sounds like 2 versions of the exact same song, which would make Radiohead a little less origional and a lot more sleazy than I would ever have wanted to know. Can someone confirm or deny my speculation?

I usually do not agree with Mr. Grazer, but he said that "I can say that one thing is for sure about this album (OK Computer): not since 1968 when The Beatles released their self-titled album has a listener’s choice for favorite song on the album said so much about their musical tastes". Not in the same way, but maybe this applies to Kid A too (but in a less powerful way). For example see this Rock/Scissor/Paper:

Maddox's favourite is National Anthem, but he dislikes Idioteque

Karn dislikes The National Anthem, but likes Optimistic

Blehar dislikes Optimistic but he likes Idioteque

So I hope you three (and everybody else out there) that, when you say the album is good, except for a few misfires, realize that besides Treefingers, there isn't a "always hated" song, and every song except How to Dissapear Completely has his lovers and haters. And I took three random guys (Come on? Optimistic lacks a hook? it's very catchy, ditto for Idioteque)

So when a guy crosses with this album and likes ALL of them (yeah, even Treefingers) and claims this is a great album, I hope you understand. I realize that you don't have to like all songs I like, so that's fine, but to me, Kid A is even better that Ok Computer, it takes me to a different world, every song touches me in a way OKC doesn't, except on the "Rain down" part of Paranoid Android, and maybe Let Down. Maybe OKC is a better album if we look at the actual tunes, but I love Kid A weirdness.

So: 10/10 if you're like me or Mark Prindle, 8/10 if you happen to dislike repetitivness and/or ambient music a bit, 7/10 if you dislike both, and 1/10 if you dislike smart music or can't completely stand any repetitivness or weirdness. Because I'll say it now, to all those reviewers: It would be a nice idea to orientate the people to what they happen to like. Karn does it in his Sigur Rós reviews, he says something like "if you don't stand repetitiveness, stay away". And that's a good thing to do.

AMNESIAC (2001)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

Hype, and one's belief in it, can be a strange thing. Going by the hype over Radiohead's fifth full length studio album, you would think it's a more accessible set of songs that almost serves as a 'return to the roots' as compared to the sheer, often inaccessible, experimentalism of Kid A. The first impression Amnesiac gives the listener in the opening track "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box", though, just might be enough to push that notion right out the window. It begins with weird clanging noises, electronic rhythms, spare instrumentation, and low-register, almost mantra-like chanting of 'I'm a reasonable man... get off my case... get off my case'. "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" and "Like Spinning Plates" don't exactly follow any conventional patterns of mainstream songwriting either, as the former presents a musical picture of terrifying and robotic revolving doors 'you can't come back from' with downright bizarre embellishments, and the latter a combination of relentless backwards manipulation and haunting Thom Yorke vocals - the refrain of 'it feeeeeeeeeels like... spinning plates' produces a startling effect.

The thing about Amnesiac, though, is that even though the sound seems to follow an inaccessibly cold-hearted experimental approach throughout much of it, there are still quite a few instances of undeniable hooks and beauty, and unlike much of Kid A, the material seems more fully formed into actual songs this time around. Call it both weirder and more inviting, if you will, and there's no better example of this than the lead single "Pyramid Song". At first, it seems like an unimpressive combination of incoherent blabbering over a primitive piano line, but it actually reveals itself to might actually be one of the most beautiful pieces of music in the entire Radiohead catalog. Can you imagine yourself by the lake on a cold and uncertain, yet beautiful night listening to this song? I certainly can, and the orchestration that shows up throughout only enhances this stunning mood.

Top-notch melodies also show themselves throughout all the weirdness in "Knives Out" and "Dollars & Cents", which are the only real nods to the Radiohead sound of the past, as haunting yet driving guitar parts and inviting melody to constrast Thom's lyrical impenetrability are much more prevalent on these tracks than anything else on here. But even the somewhat unsettlingly murky "You And Whose Army?" has a gorgeous piano part in its' 'chorus', and a clear hook ('and I guess I'd like to sit around and chat') emerges out of the dissonant, very cluttered jazzy horns of the closing "Life In A Glass House".

The only slight misfires on this album are the pointless guitar instrumental "Hunting Bears" (which has no decent melody whatsoever), and the dreamy remake of "Morning Bell" (titled "Morning Bell/Amnesiac" - as interesting a perspective as it may put on the original, it's still only a remake of a song from the last album, and here it feels like an anomaly in the progression of the songs here. Though it's still not quite up to the level of The Bends or OK Computer, Amnesiac is still a fine improvement over its' companion album Kid A, because its' merging of accessibility and weirdness is somewhat more effective and a lot less forced-sounding than it was before. It really sounds unlike anything I've ever heard before as a whole, too, and that's a plus. And to think, they might even be going more out there with the next release. Let's hope they don't soar too far away from reality.

OVERALL RATING: 8

I MIGHT BE WRONG: LIVE RECORDINGS (2001)

(reviewed by Ryan Mulligan)

A live album from Radiohead? We'll take it! This album is rather short (40 minutes) and could be considered just something to put out for the "I Might Be Wrong" single, but it turns out to be a lot more than that. The songs come from Kid A and Amnesiac, two albums in which the studio songs seem like they would be particularly hard to pull off onstage, but Radiohead certainly pulls it off. In addition, to really catch the interest of their hardcore fans, there's the first ever official version of "True Love Waits" on here. So is the album any good?

Yes. The live set kicks off with a bass-heavy, monotonous, yet enthralling version of "The National Anthem". They don't have the horns in this version, but that's hardly a detriment. The energy is at an all-time high. That's followed up by the main song of the set, "I Might Be Wrong". This version rocks harder than the somewhat tame studio version, and the pace is breakneck. Yorke's voice, unaltered, really stands out here, as does that relentless guitar riff. The Kid A version of "Morning Bell" is next, and Selway engages us with that creative drum riff. Yorke really shines here, and the part where Jonny starts rocking out only to suddenly stop for Yorke's "cut the kids in half" delivery, is a true highlight. Then we get the completely transformed version of "Like Spinning Plates". This version is much more emotional than the one on Amnesiac. The song is stripped down to Yorke on piano, with some background effects, and the vocals are haunting. The chorus is breathtaking.

Now we get one of my Radiohead favorites, the insane, techno onslaught of "Idioteque". Yorke is very much out front here and the audience (who has been playing a minor role thus far) chants along with him. If you've seen this band live, you know the spectacle of this song, and particularly Yorke's crazy dance, and the energy translates perfectly onto the cd. This is followed by an almost eight minute version of the keyboard ditty "Everything In Its Right Place". Can we say sampling? There's a ton of that on here. Jonny must enjoy it, and the effect is pretty startling to me too.

Next we get the unconventional, if this band makes conventional songs, "Dollars and Cents". Colin's bass is out front again here, and Yorke's wails are quite good. The underrated and perhaps underutilized Ed O'Brien chimes in with some great background vocals as well. The track is perhaps a bit too close to the studio version though. Finally, we get the haunting, acoustic ballad "True Love Waits". It's simply Yorke on acoustic guitar, but his vocal delivery and the emotion of this song will send chills down your spine. You can feel the emotion in his voice as he sings "I'm not living, I'm just killing time". It will be interesting to see how they can translate this onto an album, if they choose to.

There are some who might complain that some songs on here are too similar to the studio versions, but I feel almost all of them improve on their studio counterparts. One could also complain about the lack of old Radiohead classics on here, but surely these will become classics in the band's cannon eventually. I do wish, however, that they would have included the fuzz-bass version of "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box", because it absolutely rocks. What will the next move be for the most important band on the planet? I'm intrigued to find out.

OVERALL RATING: 9

HAIL TO THE THIEF (2003)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: A Wolf At The Door, 2 + 2 = 5, A Punchup At A Wedding, Where I End And You Begin, There There. LOW POINTS: We Suck Young Blood.

After playing the part of weirdos on Kid A and Amnesiac (though in retrospect, these albums aren't as intimidating as they may seem on first listen), naturally fans and critics expected Radiohead to reinvent themselves into some even more unmusical and detached beast of an indestructable hype-making machine. But maybe they just didn't feel like morphing into some completely different alien, and instead the popular attitude on here seems to be, "Hey, why don't we sum up everything we're really good at for 56 minutes?" Indeed, while Hail To The Thief certainly isn't too much of a progression from the previous albums (their own comparison to an OK Computer II, in places at least, isn't that far off), is that really a bad thing? Here, you'll find touches of the atmosphere of that particular '97 classic, the guitar rock of The Bends, the electronic loops and noises of Kid Amnesiac, and several other flourishes thrown into the melting pot. Oh, and this album was also leaked on the internet well in advance - imagine how it would have been if they had actually put out a completely different record than the leaked one upon release (ala the Ben Greenstein theory). Now that would have been great.

Eh, but disregarding all the hype surrounding the band (which gets ridiculous at times), the most important thing is the actual material, and by Radiohead standards there's a lot of it - 14 tracks. Of course, by including more songs than usual and trying for a quintessential career spanning album, there are inevitably a couple misfires - the unforgivably boring slow and lifeless piano dirge "We Suck Young Blood" comes to mind immediately as one of their most irritating and whiny songs ever (with extremely stupid handclaps to boot, and what's with it randomly getting faster for a few seconds before collapsing back into its' original sorry state?), and "Scatterbrain" near the end never really finds a memorable, interesting melody to hang on to even though the whole mood is still nice.

The rest of this stuff, though, is all successful. Even the stuff that shouldn't work on paper somehow does - the electronica-styled "The Gloaming" is built almost entirely on a repetitive loop with odd, dissonant noises piled over top of it, but the whole atmosphere is cool. With echoey vocal chants and the noises surrounding it, it almost feels like you're trapped inside a video game machine or something, and that's just neat. In the same vein, "Backdrifts" also seems to be marred by aimless and simplistic techno backing at first, but then a great chilling vocal melody comes in, subtle piano and guitar embellishments and it builds into something really hynotizing. Ooh, and "Myxamatosis" is another prime candidate to annoy people, with its' distorted-almost-to-headache-proportions bassline and the odd low register vocal approach, but I actually think it's groovy. As Mike DeFabio noted, that bassline "sounds like it's eating your face off" (a perfect description) and coupled with its' odd rhythm, the result is a song that seems very disorienting to me - in a good way!

Some of the more 'normal' material on here is probably where the 'OH NO RADIOHEAD ARE REPEATING THEMSELVES!!!! BLASPHEMY!!!!' factor comes in, but honestly, they're good (often really good) repeats. With a little tweaking, the acoustic-to-electric guitar rock of "Go To Sleep" could have easily fit on The Bends, building up to its' rocking climax quite impressively, and yeah, "Sail To The Moon" is pretty much "Pyramid Song II" - same usage of gorgeous haunting vocals merged with gorgeous piano and guitar interplay to create that watery atmosphere, but rewrite or no, it's still damn beautiful. The short guitar ballad "I Will" reminds me of the quieter, more spare moments on OK Computer. "Where I End And You Begin" has the typical eye-opening Thom paranoia with its' incessant 'I will eat you all alive...' chants near the end and its' brilliant atmospheric effects piled up on top of that foreboding bassline.

That's only one of the several classics on here, though. There's also the opening track "2 + 2 = 5", a perfect example of a modern day Radiohead rocker (with a great song title, to boot). The way it builds up from a quiet guitar intro with a typically spare electronic beat to a furious rocking onslaught of guitars with Thom shouting "YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION!!" amongst other fucked up imagery is absolutely awesome. Or what about "There There", the lead single which doesn't sound like much at first, but eventually the jangling Byrdsy guitar riff from hell, the simple pounding drum rhythm, and dramatic arrangement may really win you over (I know it did for me). "A Punch Up At A Wedding" even has a stationary piano/bass groove, something I never remember them trying before, with really really great results (dig the way Thom uses his voice on the 'you had to ruiiiiiin it... for aaaaalllllll concerned....' part of the chorus, too - he can be an amazing vocalist sometimes).

The absolute high point in my opinion, though, is the closing "A Wolf At The Door", a song that manages to be simultaneously gorgeous and frightening all at once. 'Frightening' in the way it's got all this mind-opening lyrical imagery sung at a fast pace (particularly jumping out are 'snakes and ladders flip the lid out pops the cracker smacks you in the head knives you in the teeth...' and 'steal all my children if I don't pay the ransom and I'll never see them again if I squeal to the cops') and 'gorgeous' in how well the almost uplifting vocal melodies and guitar lines flow together in spite of all this. Hey, any band that can merge two distinct emotions like that at once is something special. Oh, and one more thing - they're also hiding secrets from you, the bastards. Try putting the suspiciously manic and repetitive percussive 'raindrops' section of "Sit Down Stand Up" (another interesting buildup song - this time with piano, guitar and bells) in reverse. You may be surprised at what you find. In any case, great album, one that fits nicely into the Starostin-esque 'quintessential album' category for Radiohead. Go get it if, like I said, you want to be reminded of what they're good at for 56 minutes.

OVERALL RATING: 8.5