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Volume CXXXIII, Number 9 |
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I Might Be Wrong sounds right
MATT SPOONER
STAFF WRITER
I recently read somewhere that Radiohead is now the most bootlegged band
in history. How one calculates that I don't know, but the claim makes
sense. Their fans are obsessive (myself case in point), and Radiohead
is, quite simply, the best live act in rock. If you disagree, chances
are you haven't seen them.
Ironically, the thing that makes them so good in concert is the intense,
frenetic energy that has been missing from their two recent albums, Amnesiac
and Kid A. Both have been showcases of the band's experiments in an electronic
rock that sometimes falls into the category of ambient.
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| Phil Selway, the drummer for Radiohead. (Courtesy of rollingstone.com) |
Understandably, this summer my friends and I were anxious to discover
how the band's live persona had changed since we saw them on their Ok,
Computer tour almost three years before. As soon as the 30,000 fans
and I gathered, we heard the distorted bass that drives the chaotic "National
Anthem;" however, any fears were dispelled as the same energy that
underscores all the band's performances was pumped into a ravenous crowd.
It would not let up until the 3 hour set was over.
Fortunately for fans who have yet to catch Radiohead in concert, the
band's live feel has been captured amazingly well on their most recent
release, an EP entitled I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings. The
EP, released to promote the band's third single off of Amnesiac, contains
more delights than I would have thought possible in an only 8 track live
release.
Several tracks, for example, appear in a completely different form than
they do on studio albums. On "Everything in its Right Place,"
Yorke's voice is looped and then twisted and distorted over seven minutes
of driving keyboard and bass . "Like Spinning Plates," which
on Amnesiac is an unrecognizable mix of vaguely discernable sounds, it
appears here as nothing but stripped piano and singer Thom Yorke's elegiacal
voice.
The EP also marks the first official release of the oft-bootlegged "True
Love Waits," perhaps Radiohead's single most beautiful effort. Over
simple acoustic guitar, Yorke's sounds pained as he pleads "Just
don't leave, don't leave"--something, of course, no one in the audience
would dream of doing.
It is Yorke's voice, in fact, that makes I Might Be Wrong so special.
Played down on the two recent releases, this EP's raw sound highlights
the way it takes on a life of its own in concert. Just listen as it howls
and snarls its way through "National Anthem" and "Idioteque."
It then becomes a haunting mumble through "Dollars and Cents."
In short, it sounds more powerful and versatile than on any Radiohead
release, except The Bends.
In sharp contrast, another new Radiohead-related release, Strung Out
on OK, Computer: A String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead, is anything
but powerful.Strung Out is comprised of Eric Gorfain's arrangements of
the 12 tracks on Ok, Computer, the band's third release. Although
it is a novel idea and has a few striking moments, by the end of "Airbag"
the album already feels tired and monotonous.
Often, the disc sounds contrived and borders on the ridiculous--take
the replacement of distorted guitar on "Paranoid Android" by
staccato violin for example. At other times, as on "Karma Police,"
the melodies are lost in the swirling, but not all that sophisticated,
string arrangements. In the end (if you make it that far), Strung Out
seems lifeless and muddled; the antithesis of Ok, Computer
What Gorfain perhaps fails to realize is the very thing made so plain by I Might Be Wrong--after the distortion, the melodies, and the complicated rhythms, it is the sound of Yorke's voice that makes a Radiohead song a Radiohead song in the end.
I Might Be Wrong: 4/4
Strung Out: 1.5/4