1993’s ode to nihilism “Creep” may have put Radiohead on the map but the unspectacular song offered no indication of the direction this band’s scope of vision. What “Creep” did show was that lead singer/song writer Thom Yorke knew how to pen timely anthems that could speak to the outcast in everyone. So with such an ordinary debut, what’s the big deal with Radiohead?

She lives with a broken man,
a cracked polystyrene man who just
crumbles and burns.
He used to do surgery for girls in the eighties but GRAVITY always
wins and it wears him out.

- “Fake Plastic Trees”; 1995

All evidence has been buried
All tapes have been erased
But your foot prints give you away
So you’re backtracking

- “Backdrifts (Honeymoon is over)”; 2003

From song writing to sound Radiohead evolved with each successive release. No two albums sound exactly the same, yet there is no mistaking Radiohead when you hear it. Their early years with Pablo Honey and The Bends were definitely promising, but by no means remarkable. Neither album is exceptional, comprised of unmemorable guitar riffs and catchy hooks. However, Thom Yorke’s voice sounds like melted honey; powerful with a complexity of sound masked by the thinness of his delivery.

Oh, and did we mention the man can write a song? Often political, sometimes depressing, always thought provoking, Radiohead manages to be poetic without undue pretense. For example:

An elephant that’s in the room is
Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling
In duplicate, and duplicate,
And plastic bags, and duplicate and triplicate
Dead from the neck up
I guess I’m stuffed, stuffed, stuffed.

- “Faust ARP”; 2007

Even if you’ve never heard this song in its entirety, you can probably guess it’s social commentary. And while some bands beat you over the head with their message (*cough* Rage Against the Machine *cough*), the boys of Radiohead prefer to follow Teddy Roosevelt’s mantra, “speak softly and carry a big stick.”

After the commercial success of their first three albums – Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer – Radiohead returned with an experimental bent on 2000’s Kid A. This departure alienated many fans who wanted Radiohead to carry the Nirvana torch by continuing to make pre emo-angst boy whiner rock. Disappointed fanboys notwithstanding, Kid A was a critic’s darling. Radiohead was brave enough to completely flip the script, releasing two consecutive albums without a single between them. Suffice it to say that both Kid A and Amnesiac are dominated by the incoherence of Yorke’s vocals, fragmented computer blips and spaced out distortions.

After 15 years, Radiohead still strives to challenge themselves as artists and 2003’s LP Hail to the Thief will still sound fresh in 2015 as it does today. In Rainbows is a perfect amalgam of the sound the ’90s - for which fans had grown nostalgic - and the innovation of recent years. Now that they are free of a major label, hopefully we can look forward to more provocative singles. Their early singles – “Creep” and “High and Dry” – hardly encapsulate the sonic appeal of their respective LPs. If “Body Snatchers” is any indication, we can probably expect Radiohead to continue challenging the conventions of commercial radio.

So what’s the big deal with Radiohead, you ask? They rock! That’s what.

© Kimberlee Morrison & Tanya Payne for Listen In Music. All rights reserved

• Share This:
  
  • Subscribe
  • Blinklist
  • Bloglines
  • Blogmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati