Radiohead Rant, Vol. 1

The following is an essay/rant that I wrote about Radiohead. If you don’t like Radiohead, this probably won’t mean much to you. Get back to playing World of Warcraft or watching anime or reading comics or whatever it is you kids do these days. Go see Saw 4. Radiohead has played a big part in my appreciation of contemporary rock music. I hope that point comes across in the thoughts I have expressed here. This is basically one long, disjointed paragraph. Expect fragments and odd punctuation and a negative review of In Rainbows.

I bought Radiohead’s first album, Pablo Honey, after hearing the song Creep on the radio in 1993. I liked the song a lot. Chug Chug…Chug Chug. That amazing distortion. It’s probably not cool to admit that now, but that’s the truth. The album had the radio version and the fuck version. I was living in the dorms at BYU when I got it and I loved to blast the fuck version of Creep on my CD boombox, much to the annoyance of my prudish, profanity-allergic neighbors. I was an asshole like that. I remember listening to the entire album non-stop and never tiring of it. My favorite songs were Stop Whispering and Vegetable. I still love those songs. When the single for My Iron Lung was released, I recall going to this little record store just south of campus (called Sonic Garden, IIRC) and listening to it at one of their listening stations. I was blown away. It was a lot different than any of the songs on Pablo Honey; it was edgier and darker. I loved it. I didn’t get a chance to buy The Bends when it was released because I went on a two-year mission for the coalition of Joseph Smith/Jesus Christ/Gordon B. Hinckley. I missed out on a lot of music during those two years (our rules for being holy forbade it), but I sought it out whenever possible. I remember hearing Street Spirit on the radio in El Paso and thinking that it was one of the coolest songs I had ever heard. When I got home from my religious sojourn, the first two CD’s I purchased were The Bends and the then just-released OK Computer. The Bends is a great album through and through. Everyone knows that. Everyone agrees. How about OK Computer? That album changed the way I listened to music. It changed my perception of song-writing. Paranoid Android blew me away. It still does. It is one of the greatest songs ever written. OK Computer is the perfect album. I remember critics claiming that it succeeded where U2’s Pop failed; it was the album that would usher in the new millennium. A sense of artificiality and alienation. When I listen to it, I have to listen to the whole thing in its entirety, usually with the lights out and no other distractions. If I smoked pot (I don’t), I’d smoke it while listening to OK Computer. It made me stop listening to Dave Matthews Band (which may be ironic if Radiohead signs with Dave’s ATO records). I went into a Radiohead frenzy. I bought all their singles just for the b-sides. I bought the Airbag EP. Palo Alto and Polyethylene. The prospect of a new album…anxiously awaiting. Kid A arrives. I hated it. I felt like gluing black felt to its surface and turning it into a coaster. It could keep the water rings off my coffee table. Beeps and clicks and repetitive tones. Incoherent vocals and garbled melodies. It made no sense. This couldn’t be the Radiohead I had spent significant portions of my time listening to. I decided to give it a chance. I listened to it and listened to it and listened to it and I still listen to it and I still hate it. It’s boring. I like a couple of tracks, but nothing even comes close to my adoration for any of the songs on OK Computer or The Bends. Less than a year later, we get Amnesiac. I liked it a little better than Kid A, but it’s more of the same. The only standout track is Pyramid Song. It sounds like it could have been a b-side to an OK Computer song. Disappointment dawned. Was this the new musical direction in which Mr. Yorke had decided to take his band? Experimentation for experimentation’s sake? Sonic burps and backwards beats? Unintelligible phrases? Where did the twin telecasters go? I felt abandoned. A few years later and Hail to the Thief. 2+2=5. This feels like Radiohead. I can actually understand the vocals. At the 1:53 mark the song kicks in. At 2:26 Radiohead is back. Then the album moves on with a lot of the Kid A/Amnesiac type droney material, but the vocals are better, the song structure is tighter, and there’s more natural instrumentation to accompany the beeps and pops; I like it. Go To Sleep is a moment of genius. There There begins with that rhythmic, primitive Tom Tom march. It builds and builds and builds; the layering is perfect. Unlike the songs on Hail to the Thief’s two predecessors, these songs stand out from one another. I can get them stuck in my head. The semi-funk bass-line of A Punch Up at a Wedding. The synth-driven Myxomatosis. The three-four Wolf at the Door. While Hail to the Thief is not my favorite Radiohead album, it has great moments. And that is the major fault I find with Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows. It lacks great moments. The first track, 15 Step, is my favorite song on the record, until it hits the part with the kids yelling. Is this Yoshimi? Is it Another Brick in the Wall? It doesn’t fit. I don’t need the gimmicks. The second song, Bodysnatchers, tries to rock, but it never reaches the pure energy of songs like Paranoid Android, My Iron Lung, and 2+2=5. The rest of the songs are a boring blur. Back to the artificial beats, the blips, the crackles and snaps, the mumbled vocals, all awash in a sea of strings and synths. Not enough guitars; too many violins and cellos. Enough already with melodramatic orchestration. If the songs are good, they don’t need the padding. Some of the lyrics are downright trite: “I don’t want to be your friend, I just want to be your lover” and “your eyes, they turn me.” I was hoping this would be a great Radiohead album. It’s better than Kid A. It’s not quite as good as Amnesiac. Maybe I’ll get a better feeling for it after a few more listens. Maybe they put a bunch of great songs on that bonus disc that you only get if you order the expensive box-set with the vinyl edition of the album. Maybe I’m pining for a Radiohead that no longer exists. Stop whispering, start shouting.

A technical issue:
The first thing I noticed when I put the disc in my car (mp3’s converted to .wav) was how quiet the songs were. I listen to most of my CD’s in my car at a volume level of 15 (I know this is arbitrary, but play along). I had to turn In Rainbows up to at least 18 to get it to sound good. Even at 18, the bass frequencies are too quiet. I’m wondering if the album hasn’t been properly mastered quite yet, given the quick release. Will it be mastered at a higher level on the subsequent CD release early next year (if anyone has any info on this, please let me know)? If so, I feel bad for anyone who paid a significant sum for an unfinished product.

Appendix 1/31/08:
After listening to the CD version of In Rainbows multiple times, I've grown more fond of it. It sounds much better than the original mp3's I listened to. I'm still upset that they didn't fill it out with the songs from the exclusive second disc. A few of those songs (Last Flowers, Bangers + Mash, and 4 Minute Warning), in my opinion, are better than most of the songs on the first disc. Go Radiohead.