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