My very favorite story about the band Radiohead concerns the time (a few years ago, now) that I emailed their publicist to request a review copy of the band’s new CD. This is a common practice between writers and publicists which shouldn’t have met with any reaction other than, “Sure, what address do we send it to?” But that’s not what happened. Not only did they refuse to send me the disc, they also had the King Kong-sized balls to suggest that I (exact quote) “go buy a copy and help the band sell some records.” Un-fucking-believable. After that exchange, I vowed that I would never never ever ever buy or review a Radiohead CD or support the band in any way. So far, I’ve kept that vow. And it hasn’t exactly been difficult to do, because around the middle of 2001, Radiohead really started to suck wildly.
I have a weird relationship, or non-relationship, with Radiohead. While I sincerely appreciate its unfailing willingness to work ridiculously far “outside the box,” it’s my opinion that many of these outside-the-box efforts in the recording studio have produced what is quite possibly some of the worst music ever created in the universe of all time. The bands first two records, Pablo Honey and The Bends, I have no problem with those records. Radiohead’s critical breakthrough, OK Computer, while a bit more of a challenging listen, contains endless moments of inspired genius. Its follow up album, Kid A has exactly two songs worth listening to (“Optimistic” and “Everything in Its Right Place”). Amnesiac didn’t even make a blip on my radar and Hail to the Thief is a piece of unlistenable crap. Yawn.
So, today I got turned on to the video clip for “House of Cards” from Radiohead’s newest CD, In Rainbows. Wow! Color me so very surprised! Not only is “House of Cards” a really good song, it also has a clever video of low-key but impressively hypnotic images. Welcome back to the realm of non-suckitude, guys! There’s a good story about how this video was made, but I don’t feel like going into it here. That’s what the Google is for.
“In Rainbows” by Radiohead and “Back To Black” by Amy Winehouse are my favorite two albums of the past 5 years….
Just sayin’…
xxx
You know, they are a good band but I believe everyone goes through a sucky stage. Some just stay in it longer than others.
I agree with Geoffrey. Those are two great discs from the past year, I wouldn’t go so far as to say past five years. I have been a Radiohead fan since “Creep.” I love “OK Computer” but my favorite album of theirs has to be “Kid A.” I don’t even know why. It’s so bizarre and dada-ish. It’s like a friggin’ train-wreck that I keep going back to. Yes, “Amnesiac” and “Hail to the Theif” suck like an 8-lb Oreck, but take a listen to “In Rainbows.” Every song could easily be a single and it’s the best they’ve done since “Kid A.”