Radiohead never fail to amaze... With such a wide repertoire of sounds and instrumentation, they're a band that persistently keep their listeners on the edges of their seats, wondering what they'll come up with next...
I have personally been wallowing in the blissful depths of their latest "King of Limbs", for the past year or so. It's a rare thing to say, but almost every track on the album works for me.
Every song has its strength, and the lyrics range in typical fashion from joyful incoherence, to angry politics, to poetic metaphors, and emotionally charged offerings of frustration, rage, love and depression.
And there's even a little humor thrown in...
Thom Yorke's vocals are at their best and the band play in perfect unison. You just have to check out their
"From the Basement" performance on YouTube to see how much they love what they're doing right now. A band truly at the top of their game.
So it was with even greater surprise that I recently explored Radiohead's extensive back catalogue of work, and re-acquainted myself with some real gems. Even in their early days (Radiohead have been around for 27 years and recorded eight albums) the band were undertaking devious musical experimentation and writing wonderfully subversive, sarcastic lyrics. And after all that time, even their earliest work sounds fresh and new.
Just check out this jewel of a song from their 2001 album,
Amnesiac. Cunningly disguised as a smoky, blues-laden closing-time lament, this call-to-arms, itching-for-a-fight song builds into a rock-anthem crescendo, in characteristic Radiohead irony.
"You and Who's Army?" Love it.
Indeed, at the risk of quoting our current favourite celluloid robot, David from
Prometheus - "Big things have small beginnings..."
This will definitely not be the last time we'll be talking about Radiohead at LXG!
