I haven't said much about Radiohead's In Rainbows because, well, there's not much to say. It's a quiet little album, its climaxes elided and epiphanies muffled like an Oliver Assayas film, and with a similar Method-inspired horror; if ever a band deserved the right to be labeled unobtrusive but surly, it's these guys. On a good day I'm amiably indifferent to Radiohead, whose aesthetic exploits have inspired more limp and exciting prose than any band of the last few years. With nothing at stake, I've little to gain from merely admiring their iconoclastic marketing gestures at the expense of their better than decent albums.Here's an example of the good prose, by the reliably wonderful Marcello Carlin, who rightly hears the minor-key synthy Springsteen in the ugly crawl of "All I Need" (which he, also rightly, singles out as the album's best track), even though I think it's more "I'm On Fire" than "Streets of Philadelphia." I admire the sense in which Marcello's sentences aim for Radiohead's rhetorical overreach without curdling into the purploid -- "it's alright because you were patient and open-minded enough to continue trying to penetrate the Rochester core" is pretty good, but a writer with less savoir-faire wouldn't survive the Mephistopholes allusion in the last graf. However, this analogy raised my eyebrows:
I can't reconcile the sensibilities of an“Bodysnatchers” aren’t that far removed from Broken Social Scene, and I cannot imagine “All I Need” without the precedent of Arcade Fire, the Barack Obamas of 21st century rock whose subtle generosity is now seeping through all necessary musical quarters – how much more satisfying than the standard pseudo-trick of stamping one’s feet and yelling.
Sigh. Isn't it really really obvious that "Bodysnatchers" (the best song on the record, as far as I'm concerned, though "Faust Arp" comes close) is another in the band's line of direct lifts from Sonic Youth?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I find "All I Need" to be the major weak link on the record, and it errs on the side of being Coldplay-ish.
I half-side with Matthew. "Bodysnatchers" is the best thing on the record, but that's all Ramones. Sonic Youth are too fancy for I-IV-V blues moves, even on Dirty. What's surprising is that Radiohead aren't. "All I Need" does have the key to the record, though: soul! Radiohead's first record with blues, rhythm and rhythm and blues in it, in a strangely R&B year for the least annoying indie kinds. However, Travis Morrison's album didn't get a decimal of the press Yorkefest (or Spoon) received, and his indie-plus-soul excursions were infinitely more interesting.
ReplyDeleteErr, Alfred, he's comparing the Arcade Fire to Obama, not Radiohead. Radiohead are the benefits of an Obamaesque trickledown, that's all.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course I don't hear any Sonic Youth in "Bodysnatchers," but not (just) because I dislike Sonic Youth. Even their songs that I like don't have the kind of mock frenzy Yorke exhibits there, and none of the Youth I've heard (most of their albums) have ever been as comfortable with just thrashing around, without a point.
the obama-arcade fire comparison is truly cringe-worthy.
ReplyDeleteI echo Matthew's sigh, but for completely different reasons (for one, "Bodysnatchers" tries to sound like Sonic Youth but actually just sounds like U2). People forget that Radiohead are a TERRIBLE arena rock band. In fact, when they play big, open-tuned guitars they sound awful. Songwriting has never been a problem, but Yorke's filmy whine is much better suited to huge, haunting synth/choral backgrounds than loud guitars. That's why everyone started to notice when they made OK Computer. Radiohead's strength is their rhythm section; they have one of the best bassists in rock! It's only when they started using their guitars for shading rather than as the driving force that listeners started to see that there was more to them than whiny alterna. It's also NOT coincidental that this aesthetic change occurred at the same time that their songs began to take Children of Men-style views on the world (I might add that without Radiohead you have no Children of Men, far as I'm concerned (it's essentially Kid A: The Movie)
ReplyDeleteSecond, Alfred, please! Here's the difference between Obama and Arcade Fire. OK, they inspire people (although I would question whether or not Arcade Fire truly inspire people), but it's all about the rhetoric and the delivery. Not to mention that Arcade Fire aren't as sharp. If they were dissed by another band, they couldn't make the Obama quip, "You're nice enough."
One more thing, whenever I hear people attack Radiohead for their subject matter and lyrics, I think about a time on the message board when Theon defended 2001. It was something along the lines of, "How many more films do we have to see about people? What's wrong with once in a while watching a movie about spaceships with killer computers and the evolution of man into machine?"
ReplyDeleteThere's a guitar part in the middle and end of Bodysnatchers ("Have the lights gone out for you?...") that echoes a number of Sonic Youth tunes, particular those from this decade. I wish I knew guitar better, I could articulate this more accurately. But I've spent hundreds of hours in my life listening to Sonic Youth. Trust me on this.
ReplyDeleteI know which part you're talking about, and honestly, it just sounds like The Edge to me. And Yorke sounds like fucking Bono! Singing it straight and then finishing the line with a falsetto. Whenever I hear this song I think of Bono singing "Vertigo" in iPod commercials. If "Nude" weren't following it I'd probably just chuck this fucker.
ReplyDeleteComing before all the gooey sex jams, that song sounds like an Axe commercial.
I can totally hear Thom wrapping his tortured vocals around "I'm On Fire."
ReplyDelete