RADIOHEAD
adiohead‘s ability to continually impress is considerable. Most common or garden international rock phenomena will manage to create one moment of truly inspired musical magic in their time: Nirvana. Travis. Alanis Morissette. The really lucky ones might even manage a couple: Oasis. Coldplay. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Radiohead have managed three. With the release of In Rainbows late last year. they added a third bona fide classic to their armoury alongside The Bends and OK
Computer. Only REM can claim such levels of
contemporary commercial and critical success.
With In Rainbows. Radiohead learned all about the art of judicial editing after the laborious and frankly turgid affair that was 2004’s Hail to the Thief and left off the extraneous stuff. saving it for the special edition of the album. The stripped-down album was likened in its reviews to Lou Reed‘s Transformer. David Bowie‘s Hunky Dory and The Beatles’ Revolver. A concise.
deliberate and wholly focussed statement of
intent. this is Radiohead minus the navel gazing. a streamlined. dynamic. thrusting rock beast. distilling ideas down into vibrating chunks of energy.
18 THE LIST 19 Jun-15 Jul 2008
The band has had to overcome urges in the past to ‘be‘ Radiohead and fulfil some assumed role as a stadium rock band. Such converse thinking gave birth to 2()()() album
Kid A as Radiohead sought to redefine their
role after the global success of OK Computer. Drummer Phil Selway admits there is a temptation to lose focus.
‘There‘s a danger of trying to second guess where this concept of Radiohead should go. and not actually getting to listen to what‘s happening between the five people in the room.
‘The whole process of making music is very self—indulgent anyway. spending all that time thinking about the music and yourself and then you talk about yourself an awful lot and you go out and do the shows and you are the centre of that universe. It can be very unhealthy. You have to find ways of pricking that bubble. just to remind yourselves that what you‘re actually doing here is creating music. That‘s significant as it is. and that‘s as it should be.~
So much of maintaining status at the top of
the heap in rock music is about control and maintaining that control. but few major rock bands have been so free with their approach to their work as Radiohead have in recent years. They. wherever possible. have handed responsibility over to the listener. be it a
FllTER APPIER ~
They're one of the biggest bands in the world despite refusing to play the music industry's game. Mark Robertson talks to Radiohead about success, self-indulgence and their reputation as the most miserable men in rock
remix. a video or choosing just how much to pay for their album.
'l think for quite a while now we’ve had a lot of music pre-packaged and handed down to us in a very particular way] says Selway. ‘As a band there have been expectations that you're presented in a particular way as well. which can become a bit staid. so I would hope that this more direct connection we've made is a positive thing.‘
Singer Thom Yorke has managed to successfully get the backs up of sundry multinational corporations and governments in his very public championing of certain social causes. in particular. Friends of the liarth. lle. for the most part. comes across as a layman with genuine concerns. using a platform for all the right reasons.
Selway reckons the bands“. and in particular Yorke‘s. synergy of music and politics works well. "l‘hom presents his views in a very good way I think. although it’s more an extension of the music than the premise for making it. He manages to tread a very fine line. as it‘s a difficult one to get right. and he does it well. In the short term. it's a very good way of drawing the spotlight to issues that are part of a bigger picture such as bringing an organisation like Friends of thc liarth. and all the different things that they do. to people‘s