Tag Archives: Thom Yorke

The Bends (Radiohead) – Album Review

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The Cover Of “The Bends” (1995) Shows A Medical Dummy Morphed With Thom Yorke’s Face

The Cover Of “The Bends” (1995) Shows A Medical Dummy Morphed With Thom Yorke’s Face

Released in 1995, “The Bends” was to become Radiohead’s most anthologized album ever, with seven of its twelve tracks included on Parlohone’s 2008 career retrospective. And while it is evident that the album which succeeded it (“OK Computer”, 1997) was even better, fans and critics alike hold “The Bends” in true esteem for a simple reason.

“The Bends” was the moment the band started redefining, reinventing and reconstituting. With this album, Radiohead showed that it could lead the way forwards without missing a single step. And many would begin following, even without realizing they were doing it.

On this album, the band captained by Thom Yorke was to update the concept of anthemic rock for a whole new generation of listeners. The spirit that had marked the best moments of “Pablo Honey” remained. But the uncontrolled aggressiveness was gone. Rather, it had become something else. Disaffection that was grounded on the truest, largest realities.

The world tours in support of “Pablo Honey” had worn everybody out. But they had seen the world. They had seen how the industry operated. Thom had gained a wildly new insight, a perspective from which to write that could but be more productive for his listeners and for the band he commanded on the whole.

And he put it to splendid use on the title track, in which he looked on the effects of success that spirals so vertiginously that it doesn’t even let you enjoy the trappings you always thought would come with it. The song’s melodic mannerisms made it an obvious single release at a time in which the Britpop movement was the dominant force. And songs like “Just” and “My Iron Lung” coupled Thom’s newly-found vision with the loudest moments of the band’s debut, like a marriage made in the heavenliest hell that ever existed.

And there aren’t words unused-enough to describe the harrowing beauty and vulnerability of “Street Spirit” and “High And Dry”. The former gave the band its very first top 5 hit in the UK. Continue reading →

Pablo Honey (Radiohead) – Album Review

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“Pablo Honey” Was Radiohead's Debut Album. Issued In 1993, The Album Was Named After A Popular Prank Call By The Jerky Boys - You Can Listen To It On The Song “How Do You”, The Band Sampled It There.

“Pablo Honey” Was Radiohead's Debut Album. Issued In 1993, The Album Was Named After A Popular Prank Call By The Jerky Boys (This Prank Call Is Sampled On The Song “How Do You”).

“Pablo Honey” was Radiohead’s debut album. It was issued in 1993, and I think you more or less know the story: its leadoff single (“Creep”, a marvelous exploration of self-hatred) was blacklisted for being just too depressing.  Yet, by a bizarre twist of fate the song began being played in Israel. Then, some import copies found their way into San Francisco. From there, nothing would stop the five friends from Oxfordshire, and England had to listen to what Yorke and his cohorts were screaming at the top of their voices.

Because “Pablo Honey” was the closest the band came to grunge. The material on this disc has serious difficulty sitting next to the songs from just any other Radiohead album. For example, Parlophone’s single disc compilation (released in 2008) included only the ineluctable “Creep”. And the enhanced two-CD edition had “You” and “Anyone Can Play Guitar” tucked near the end of the second disc, as if the songs had been added hastily to the tracklist when the compilers realized the band’s debut had been absolutely neglected.

The truth is that there is nothing wrong with “Pablo Honey”… leaving aside that it is a “conventional” album from a band that was to become renowned from its unwavering experimentation and inventiveness. Radiohead was to sound like nobody else on the industry. Yet, on “Pablo Honey” they did bring to mind other acts.

Of course, Nirvana was the first band one made an association with. Radiohead was actually dubbed “the British Nirvana” once “Pablo Honey” hit the high streets. And they were also mocked as “Nirvalite”, which might go into explaining why the band felt ill at ease about performing songs from their debut album live on later tours. Even the successful “Creep” was given a wide berth, much to the chagrin of audiences that (along with “Karma Police”) invariably thought of that song when the name of the band was mentioned.

Echoes of The Smiths, The Cure and U2 were also evident throughout. “Anyone Can Play Guitar” had it all, with an anthemic, double-time chorus and its microcosmic approach to success. Continue reading →

Radiohead – General Introduction

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Radiohead Are: Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood & Phil Selway. All Five Members Met While Attending School At Oxfordshire.

Radiohead Are: Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood & Phil Selway. All Five Members Met While Attending School At Oxfordshire.

Innovators in the truest sense of the word, the name of Radiohead is synonymous with the best music that came from the ‘90s. Conformed by five school friends from Oxfordshire, the band led by Thom Yorke mutated from a grungier outfit into electronica linchpins over the course of just three albums, writing the rule book as they went along with the songs they chose to release as singles.

Radiohead is also remembered as one of the biggest emotionally-tumultuous bands this side of Joy Division, The Sisters of Mercy and related acts. Yorke’s recurrent themes of paranoia and self-loathing surfaced as early as their first single, “Creep” (from “Pablo Honey”, 1993). The song was actually banned in England by Radio One on grounds of being too depressing, but when “Creep” became a surprise hit in Israel and then in San Francisco the band gained recognition in their home soil. They were thrown into an onslaught of live shows that left everyone dour, and the subsequent album was to be named after the mental condition that affects drivers that have risen to the top too quickly

“The Bends” (1995) included the desperate “Street Spirit”, the turmoil-weighed “High and Dry” and the we-have-fucking-had-it title track. But nowhere was the frustration expressed as clearly as in “My Iron Lung”, a song in which the music could barely sheathe the vitriol. Also included was the turbid yet beautiful “Fake Plastic Trees”, composed by the band the night after they attended a Jeff Buckley gig.

None of those songs managed to make them feel better as a performing unit (or as individuals, for that matter), and the sessions for their next album were the most trying ever.

But the struggle was worth it. “OK Computer” (1997) quickly became the best album not only of the year but also one of the most celebrated LPs of the whole decade. The band managed to beat lots of acts who had broader appeal like Oasis, whose “Be Here Now” was rebuffed by the public and found its way into the used racks pretty quickly. Continue reading →