10/10 Anthological
OK, hands up. We’re cheating here. Usually we review an album. A new one ideally, buuuut this week is a little different. Sue us. (Actually don’t, we need the beer money). First of all, there are no new albums here per se. And it’s not just one album either. It’s all of them. Allllll the Radiohead ones to be precise.
Yep, for the first time ever, the luminary Oxford trailblazers have compiled everything they’ve ever recorded into one gigantic online library. FOR FREE. From early bootlegs of when they were known as ‘On A Friday’ and the grungy Radiohead debut “Pablo Honey”, all the way through to their newest boundary-pushing brilliance, there’s enough here to keep the most die-hard of fans happy for weeks. And the B-sides! My word what B-sides. Most bands would kill to have offcuts and oddities as good as these.
Having wasted an solid few days already down the rabbit hole, some particularly juicy standouts have gotten stuck in the browser. Check out their live only version of Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does it Better” (this is the SEXIEST song ever written drools Thom Yorke). Sticking to the Bond themes – their actual Bond theme “Spectre” is so good it beggars belief that it was binned off in favour of prissy warbler Sam Smith’s god-awful dirge.
It’s not just the tunes either… All the videos are there, not to mention live performances, merch, high res artwork (from the wonderfully weird Stanley Donwood), obscure links to mini sites… It just goes on and on. Do yourself a favour and clear your diary and disappear down this most joyous of rabbit-holes here: radiohead.com/library YOU’RE WELCOME x
Dan Ashcroft
Like this? START HERE:
Pablo Honey
The one with “Creep” on.
Kid A
Massive change of direction on an album that has aged surprisingly well.
My Iron Lung
One of the most underrated B-side tapes in music history.
