On faith I feel if I went back and listened to OK Computer the feelings would flood back, but not as acutely as they had. Hail to the Thief was a low point, and I stand by Yorke’s Eraser, I think at the very least it is one of those albums I can listen to the entire way through and there is something cohesive and identifiable to it. If it was hero worship only I would not feel drawn to it, I would put it aside as I had with Hail to the Thief which I have not listened to for what seems like forever.

But there are also different things to be got from music, not all of it profound, and while I found profound sentiment in older Radiohead music, it is not so bad that some of the more recent music has affected me in other ways, pure enjoyment of ‘All I need’ being one example.

Thanks for the descriptions treefingers, always interested in other people’s take on things. I want this place to be like a show and tell of art-experiences, an art confessional.

I can kinda see what you mean with great expectations with Radiohead I notice a huge difference between OK Computer and Kid A and an even bigger difference between Pablo Honey and Hail to the Thief. I personally loved Hail to the Thief and Kid A But wasn’t as fond of Amnesiac, though I love that album too.

I was in seventh grade when I first started listening to them. I listened to OK Computer first and that was a few years after it was recorded. So, their music changed as I went through middle school, through high school, and right now college. All their music focuses on the now so it all changes because times change and I’m still going through many different phases of life. After college I gotta move so I’m expecting some new music then. I’m gonna move out with my bf actually. Although I say I never will, if I do choose to get married one day I will expect a new music from them. If I choose to get married, or somehow get tricked into marriage and I have kids… I might not get new music for all of this, but you get what I’m saying? He went from Thom Yorke with a girl to Thom Yorke with a family.

I won’t be surprised if he won’t be more into current events (as if he wasn’t already, hehe). A lot of people are worried for their kdis right now so I’m expecting to see more and more songs about such things.

But, it’s all personal taste. I like to see them change even if it seems they go backwards while a lot of people actually miss the OK Computer days. It’s all just personal opinion and preference.

I do see what you’re meaning though.

“I’m in the middle of the picture
I am in the news”

But, still the “You’re all I need”

Lyrics though. Hehe, lyrics. The first time I heard this song it was of crappy quality. So, I could only pretty much hear the music, which sounds very sweet and much like a music box. The lyrics though, are very contradicting, maybe sarcastic, as was stated above. “It’s all wrong/It’s all right” show being torn but I did not notice that perhaps there was some reference to Katrina, etc. You could be right. Then the “You’re all I need” chorus. Who’s needing who/what? It’s driving me crazy. Maybe amongst all the—well, I guess one can call it shit—going on concerning ciolence, fear mongering, war maybe it’s just one simple thing that makes him, or someone, happy. Maybe fmaily? Maybe family is what is needed to forget everything else negative? He’s got a growing family.

I love the “I’m everything you choose to ignore” for the funniest reason, I can just see myself telling my own bf that in jest. When, in fact that’s not true—on most days

“You only stick with me because there are no others” is another line I love for the same reason. I’m trying to figure out if it’s sarcasm or not.

And like you, I hate pretention. This is especially true in cinema where the Godards, Tarchovsky’s, Bergmans, really irritate me with their explicit intentions to make cinema about cinema, rather than about a narrative. Similarly, I do not want my music to be about music, I see little value in being clever.

I still think Radiohead are the best at creating new sounds from things that should be familiar. Like ‘All I need’, it has elements of Willie Nelson and Springsteen but the ambiguity of the song, the overlay of sounds gives a uniquely new sound. And there is no other song that sounds like ‘Paranoid Android’ or ‘Idioteque’ that I am aware of. However they may want to internalize the process I leave to them… it is the end product that matters to me… and I think they have more hits than misses, and with the exception of hail to the thief, they have been reliable.

Also that O’brien comment sounds reminiscent of Billy Corgan’s fatigue of Smashing Pumpkins, the limits of what can be achieved with a traditional guitar, bass and drum set.

http://nymag.com/arts/all/process/17306/index.html

In my view, O’Brien’s comment about how the Japanese and European audiences are more respectful during the quiet songs reflects the formal, artist-on-the-throne approach of these countries towards artists, something which extends to art other than music also. (Europeans are much more willing to tolerate absurdly juvenile or puerile art that is funded by their tax money.) American audiences for the most part are more interactive, a trait that reflects less a certain rudeness than the huge African-American impact on music in America. I remember watching Show Time at the Apollo and they would boo the performers off-stage, but if a performer stuck with it the crowd would often be won over. The respect of the audience isn’t a right- it is a privilege that must be earned.

But the real reason I cite the above link is because the following quote stood out:

“One of the things that marks our band—that Thom and Jonny used to drive home all the time—is sounding different. You can do it through stuff like using unusual intervals on harmonies [in songs like “2 + 2 = 5”]. The trouble with a lot of rock music is that people are still doing their Beatles and their Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young harmonies. You can’t just keep making replications of those things.”

This notion strikes me absurd in its narrowness of vision. If sounding different is your goal, why not ditch the drums, bass, guitars, and keyboards, instruments used by every rock band on the planet? Obviously he means for Radiohead to sound different within certain confines, to retain certain tropes and archtypes in rock music while discarding others. But nowhere is it written that changing the time or harmonic intervals is a litmus test for sounding original. Using different rhythm structures is not more admirable in principle than exchanging guitars for spoons. I personally prefer my musicians to pursue a vision for its pure artistic merit, not for its ability to be set apart from its peers.

At this point I realize my view of Radiohead is jaundiced to the point that I can’t see them without a cynical bias, but O’Brien’s comments in general are couched in an elitist, anti-populist, art-school pretension, and I find this very unappealing. Though he does stand up for Creep, a popular song I’ve never liked.