26th May, 1997
Rejoice, rejoice...|
"Paranoid Android" by RadioheadStarting with a plaintive shuffling tune punctuated by ringing guitars, Yorke's beautiful never-quite-strained vocals and some mumbled speech in the background, after three minutes the song's main riff is picked up by a big bad geetar shoved backwards through a distortion pedal and all hell breaks loose. Then - an almost religious tune takes over and the song becomes a hymn to melancholia and angsty regret. "God loves his children, yeah" Thom sighs, then the devil takes over on guitar. Radio-friendly it is not, but "Paranoid Android" is astounding. Both CDs b's..."Polyethylene (Parts 1 and 2)" gently lifts you up to giddy heights before buffetting you with layers of spectacular noise and a tumbling waterfall refrain. Hints of prog again, but a gigantic stab at greatness that swells inside your speakers til they burst. "Pearly" is more of a traditional song, still wrapped up snugly in layer upon layer of guitar. Frighteningly good vocals too. "A Reminder" is next, starting unsettlingly with female laughter (or sobbing?) and some French speech. The track then builds in waves as gentle sounds lap away like the tide coming in until you realise its trying to drown you. The most melancholic of the songs on offer here, it is also one of the best. Last up is "Melatonin" (a natural drug that supposedly alleviates insomnia, but can provoke vivid dreams - or nightmares), a strange song which consists of Yorke singing over some almost random orchestral synth noises and some ambient rhythms. As close a soundtrack to your dreams as you could possibly get. Radiohead with this release have proved themselves not only to be talented beyond all measure, but also refreshingly unwilling to bow to commercial and record company pressure. Following up a relatively accessible - almost AOR - LP like "The Bends" with material such as this shows a maverick kind of genius at work. It is not brave (Radiohead could record themselves breaking wind in a barrel and people would still buy it), but it is the most creative, exquisite and downright interesting music I have heard in a long time. Rating: 10/10
The Rest"The Beautiful People" by Marilyn MansonThere, that's better. Ridiculous metal pantomime, but strangely wonderful. B-sides, as if you care...an industrial mix of the main song; "Snake Eyes And Sissies", in which several small and fluffy innocent things sound as though they're being killed whilst Spinal Tap sit around having tea; and "Deformagraphy", a sleazy NIN-ish thing that prompts you to go and wash your hands after listening to it. Oh Trent Reznor, you have much to answer for...but no-one can accuse you - or the larger-than-life Manson - of compromise. Rating: 9/10
"Oh Yeah, Baby" by Dweeb"Oh Yeah, Baby" is wonderful, all youthful energy and joyful exuberance wrapped up into one big poppy indie disco thumper. Dweeb have released this summer's first classic...it leaves you breathless. On the b-side lies "Born With Style", a snotty surf punk thrash which steals lyrics from Rocket From The Crypt but gets away with it. Third track is "Beat My Guest", an Adam Ant cover that sounds like a dayglo Ramones wound up and ready to go. Man, I'm exhausted now. Rating: 9/10
"Woke Up This Morning" by Alabama 3"Woke Up This Morning" is a trancey slab of blues-tinged dance, filled with spaced-out samples and a low-pitched vocal (I bet that's the Rev). The sort of thing you'd expect The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to come up with if they traded their guitars in for sequencers. Camp as camp can be, and refreshingly original. The extra tracks are remixes and the gospel piano blues of "Converted", an oddly haunting song with its "let's go back to church" refrain. Rating: 8/10
"MmmBop" by HansonWhat is scary though is the amount of flak this band has incurred from alternative music fans (mainly - though not exclusively - American). Some of it distasteful in the extreme (Hanson are not marketed to paedophiles, they are merely young for heaven's sake). most of it stems from the tiresome old "how dare these upstarts try to make my type of music" argument. To spite those elitist, paranoid and downright boring individuals, I'm gonna give it 8. The b-sides are all alternative versions of the a-side that all sound exactly the same though. Rating: 8/10
"Bathtime" by TindersticksI'm never too sure what to make of this lot. The vocals are so low as to almost be funny, which I'm sure is not the intention with lines like "it hangs in the air like rotten perfume". It's actually a very good song, but the vocals sound too much like my uncle Billy doing his Lee Marvin impression for me to take it seriously. "Paco's Theme" is next and is an effective spooky film noir soundtrack instrumental. Next is "Shadow" which sounds like it should be in some forgotten spaghetti western with its quick-strummed guitar and twanged bass. Last up is "Manalow" another movie soundtrack ("The Pink Panther Meets The Saint"). Unusually, and undoubtedly solely because I can't take the vocals seriously, the instrumentals are the best things on offer here. Rating: 6/10
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