12th January, 1998

No surprises what's single of the week (and no, "Dr Jones" is out in a fortnight).

Single of the Week

"No Surprises" by Radiohead

This is the number from "OK Computer" that made you stop dead in your tracks with its simplistic beauty, then made you shiver as it slowly twisted and perverted itself into a lament for late 20th century life. Starting with a music box guitar, gentle bass and snowfall-soft drums, "No Surprises" takes you on a journey through the despair and futility of your own life, but with its heavenly tune and achingly beautiful vocals, it is a journey you're glad you took. Battling with the big, bad (and boring) Oasis boys for next week's number one spot, Radiohead deserve to win, if for nothing else than being so brave as to release the most melancholic song ever written in the middle of January. Pass the paracetemol.

"Palo Alto" begins through a haze of radio(head) interference, then sees the band let loose into a big rawk riff which punctuates a Pixies-style number, in which you can almost hear the relief of the band as they are freed from the stifling confines of "OK Computer"s introspective paranoia. "How I Made My Millions" is back in bleaksville, with a piano-backed requiem stippled with anachronistic and almost inaudible sharp samples that sound like your dreams breaking (it is however the sound of Thom's girlfriend doing the dishes, apparently). Equal to anything on "OK", this is another one to make your spine tingle.

The second CD contains two live tracks. "Airbag", live in Berlin, a slightly-tinny sounding version of the LP opener that even so manages to capture the song's naive bravado and optimism, with it still thinking it's back and capable of saving the universe. "Lucky" was recorded in Florence and is as near faultless as you can get.

Look up "talent" in the dictionary and you'll find a picture of Radiohead. Looking cool. The swine.

Rating: 10/10

The Rest

"Temper Temper" by Goldie

With "Temper Temper" Goldie unhinges his mind and lets Minstry, NIN, Prodigy and anyone else mental enough jump in. A slamming big phuka of a song, it sees Goldie getting a bit miffed whilst guest guitarist Noel Gallagher fires huge swathes of buzzing noise from his instrument at all and sundry. If you put your head in a blender, this is what it sounds like.

B-sides are expected remix affairs, with a CD-ROM video on CD2. My PC can't read this, but I managed to sneak a look at this at work (don't tell anyone) and it contains images of a slightly deranged looking Mr Goldie running around smashing up action men with a baseball bat and threatening Noel with a chainsaw (do it, man, do it). Which is nice.

Rating: 7/10

"My Star" by Ian Brown

This from the man that sang "I Am The Resurrection"? Don't go expecting miracles here: this is Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds crossed with Space Oddity with a shuffling dance beat. But from the lead singer of the Roses, miracles is what we demand. God knows, we didn't get them from John Squires.

Spleen vented, this is nevertheless a pleasant and innocuous enough little jingle, but my, how the mighty have fallen. I'll just mention Ultrasound again and look forward to the future.

"See The Dawn" is the first b-side, an Eastern-tinged mantra thing that is trippier - and almost as tedious - as Kula Shaker. Monkey boy Brown probably meditates to this after a vindaloo and a spliff the size of the Taj Mahal, but it causes my mind to wander for a different reason. "Fourteen" is a short instrumental that is little more than a casio keyboard on demo mode.

Rating: 5/10

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