Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings

I don’t think I’d mind it much if this whole blog was majority Radiohead posts. I think that would be a pretty decent representation of my music background in one all-encompassing shell of bliss. I think the blog still invites diversity but well, I seem to be the last one standing at the moment. I think, though, if not anybody cares that by the new year at this rate, I’d be foolish to survive it alone. But if I could present a solid amount of deserved praise for a band, before and after In Rainbows, it would need to be Radiohead.

There’s some sort of ‘getting back to basic’ fundamental reach for Radiohead in a large sense as well. Their music has always felt strongly enveloping; moments where they’ve been able to rush goosebumps to my skin are hard to all recount. So before when I was still lost in myself as a young soon-to-be junior in high school, I remember reaching for my walkmen and getting lost in the haze of “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors.” And recently I got back to basics and pulled out my vinyl copy of the other album they released in 2001 and it brought me all back again.

Well Amnesiac was the sordid smash hit of the summer of 2001. Released on June FIFTH it acted as a sort of prerequisite to some of the madness that was soon to follow. But mostly, it was an emotionally-packed release that followed up Kid A with sort of, more than, lofty expectations. I remember it being good, not great. Then I remember the I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings and their release in the winter of 2001. Drastically different times for me both as a growing person and times of the year, the latter is a live collection of songs from their two previous albums and of course, the masterful “True Love Waits” is on it too.

There’s the solemn, subtle version of “Like Spinning Plates” and its chilling strings. In a way, for me at least, the way the piano melts in and around Thom Yorke’s voice is a thing of beauty. So much so that I’d dare argue that this version is probably better than the original. Sure, the regular version resonates into that album’s (Amnesiac) cloudy discord and this version basks in the glory of a soaring piano and towering strings but it’s still spectacular. It’s partly cool when you realize the crowd finally clamors when they realize what it is because of how dissimilar it all starts and ends from the original; there’s a silence the song demands and finally receives.


The recordings are mostly endearing because of how it’s a quick, eight-song excerpt of what the band sounded live at that time. Easily the best band of our time, the I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings were a great treat for Radiohead fanatics like yours truly. Here the version of “Everything in its Right Place” is added with more atmospherics, less bumping beats and drums, and more manic lulls by Yorke. It twists and shouts in a circular motion as the heady synth line maintains current the whole way throughout: a seven-minute revealing of musical chaos. It’s getting great to be able to hear a lot of this again and remember the music, more so than the time, although they both weigh importance. Naturally, the past is past and music is much more current here than ever before. – Bryan

Radiohead – Amnesiac

The thing about Radiohead is that no matter which album you turn to, they’re all so incredibly rich and diverse. We could argue over which one is the best, over which one was truly their breakthrough one, and other super-pretentious subjects but I don’t think you could really say one is more diverse than the other. I remember falling in love with their ability at re-creating themselves with every new album and it’s still arguably, their strongest trait: musicianship. Listening to so much Björk has gotten me back into Radiohead and it’s found me really digging deep; it’s especially fun when you can dig back into the music you first fell in love with and find even more gems.

So I’m probably going really left-field with this choice but “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors” is, in many ways, a microcosm of what Amnesiac is about. The album that really is Kid A Pt. 2 (they should’ve just made one massively superb album of 16 tracks of the best of each): it’s stunning, divisive and impeccable. I love how loud it is and after the shining melody on “Pyramid Song,” it’s a brisk change of pace. But still, it comes back to Thom Yorke’s haunting voice, singing about doors. As much as some like to hate, there is always a point to Radiohead’s lyrics and they’re all amazing. Here he sings about the doors opening in our lives but he warns, “There are doors that let you in and out but never open…but they are trapdoors…that you can’t come back from.” Then they end it all with a smashing amount of killer noise? Sweet.


And I remember getting a burned copy of this album as a gift the summer before my junior year and I wanted to immediately throw it away because I hated the girl that gave it to me. Plus, Kid A was the one that opened everything, so I wasn’t entirely stoked to hear something else just a year later. But I sucked on to the last two songs of the album like no others before it. “Like Spinning Plates” drive and outpour of reverb, atmospherics and those menacing keyboards was some kind of magic. Some kind of euphoria that exploded into your stream (“My body’s floating down the muddy river”) of consciousness and then, after an intense set of four minutes, you get the painstakingly gorgeousness of “Life in a Glasshouse.” I mean, are you serious? First of all, it starts with that open cymbal stomp and piano clank and it’s an evident style shift from the darkness of before - it’s jazzy, there’s clarinet, trumpet and trombone, and the dynamics are sublime. My descriptions are becoming worse and worse I fear but I completely get the gist of saying, “Well, of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat” but we must be honest at the same time, “Only, only, only…if someone is listening in.” – Bryan