"TALK SHOW HOST" RADIOHEAD (1996)

For the month of November, I’ll be selecting songs in conjunction with the music Twitter challenge: #WelcomeToTheOccupation.

The story of Romeo + Juliet is a complex one, filled with every human emotion — from pure ecstasy to torment. The soundtrack, as good as it was, was filled with tracks that erred on the happier spectrum, and gave us some great ones from Des’ree, Garbage and, of course, The Cardigans. But “Talk Show Host” steered the backend of human emotion, and did it the Radiohead way. It also has the distinction of being the b-side to the Radiohead anthem, “Street Spirit”.

For casual fans, “Talk Show Host” is a bit of a forgotten track. But for Radiohead fans, it’s considered one of the more memorable songs in their catalog. Playing second fiddle to “Street Spirit”, “Talk Show Host” demonstrated Radiohead’s ability to create more than music. They created a mood. Everything is unexpected here: the vocal delivery, the drumming, the bass line, the arresting sparseness of Jonny’s guitar. “Talk Show Host” felt more like a film score than a single, which made it a perfect addition for the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, bringing out emotions no other song on the album cared to explore.

“I want to be someone else or I'll explode.”

"THE BENDS" RADIOHEAD (1995)

A great title track is par for the course when it comes to great albums. If the title track doesn’t cut it, what does that say about the album itself? This month, the Mental Jukebox will be playing some of my favorite title tracks – inspired by @NicolaB_73’s music Twitter challenge, #TopTitleTracks.

Radiohead has made its name mostly by innovating the way we think of rock music. Over several decades, their ingenuity has expressed itself in unorthodox chord progressions, unexpected song structures, electronic experimentations, and more. Even still, it’s the straight ahead rock of The Bends that I love best. It is my favorite Radiohead album. And mostly because of Jonny’s guitar-driven bangers, including the title track.

Interestingly, “The Bends” seems to nod to various influences. The melodic structure is undoubtedly Beatlesque. The loud-quiet-loud dynamics is a page right out of the Pixies manual. And Thom Yorke has described the song as a Bowie pastiche. There is a lot to like on “The Bends”, but the best element is Jonny’s guitar playing. It screeches, jangles and soars like a melange of human emotions, as if the guitar itself is screaming and kicking.

“We don't have any real friends.”

"BONES" RADIOHEAD (1995)

The moment a song is born, the world is different. It’s now a part of our lives. We sing it in the shower. We dance to it at our wedding. We get pumped with it. We break up to it. We memorize it. We try to forget it. We rediscover it. This month, I’m joining Arron Wright’s Twitter music challenge: ##Popiversary2. Because why the hell not. Songs deserve their own anniversaries, too.

Year: 1995

Music fans have mostly heralded the originality and ambition of OK Computer and Kid A over all the other incredible Radiohead albums. OK Computer is one of my favorite albums of all time, no doubt. But it’s not even my favorite Radiohead record. That distinction belongs to The Bends. I love innovation just like any semi-serious music fan, but at the end of the day, I just want a great collection of bangers. Like the first six studio albums from Zeppelin, The Bends is an album built on monster guitar riffs, not monster ambitions. There’s not a weak link in the bunch. “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”, “Fake Plastic Trees” and “(Nice Dream)” are perhaps the most well known songs on the tracklist, but “Bones” is one of those that makes me wish Radiohead would keep rocking out a little more.
How about Jonny’s guitar chops on this one? On “Bones”, this makes me think of all the kids out there who want to play guitar. I think most of them want to play like Jonny. Thrashing, screeching and motoring his way across a three-minute piece de resistance. Everything else rides on this monster wave, that grooving bass line and Thom’s vocals that fluctuate from straight-ahead underground to falsetto in the heavens. “Bones” is the kid in Thom, Jonny, Ed, Colin and Philip jamming in the garage because there’s nothing remotely better to do with their time.

“NOW I CAN'T CLIMB THE STAIRS. PIECES MISSING EVERYWHERE. PROZAC PAINKILLERS. WHEN YOU'VE GOT TO FEEL IT IN YOUR BONES.”

"FITTER HAPPIER" RADIOHEAD (1997)

This month, I’m jumping into the #APlaceInTheSong challenge from @JukeboxJohnny2. Great songs have that special ability to describe places in a way that makes us feel like we’re right there. Each day, I’ll pick a track that I think accomplishes that feat.

OK Computer and Kid A are the two most commonly cited Radiohead albums in terms of the band’s massive innovation and influence on rock. While The Bends is still my favorite record of theirs – can’t get enough of Jonny’s monster guitar riffs on that one – OK Computer is my second favorite Radiohead album. Every song is progressive in its own way. But of all the tracks, “Fitter Happier” pushes the norms of rock music the most.

First off, it’s barely a song. It’s a track with the only thing that’s remotely melodic being the wandering piano and disparate synth sounds. “Fitter Happier” feels like the audio equivalent of a David Lynch film. The mood it creates is perhaps its biggest strength. The irony of all the things listed as ways to become fitter and happier seem so lifeless when recited by the automated voiceover. It seems to be more life-draining than life-giving.

“Fitter happier. More productive. Comfortable. Not drinking too much. Regular exercise at the gym 3 days a week.”

"BONES" RADIOHEAD (1995)

This month on Twitter, @sotachetan hosts #BrandedInSongs – which is a head-on collision of my personal world of music and my professional world of branding and advertising. The challenge is to simply pick a song with a brand name in its lyrics or title. I added one more criteria to my picks, which is this: the songs themselves must be as iconic as the brands they mention. No filler here.

Music fans have mostly heralded the originality and ambition of OK Computer and Kid A over all the other incredible Radiohead albums. OK Computer is one of my favorite albums of all time, no doubt. But it’s not even my favorite Radiohead record. That distinction belongs to The Bends. I love innovation just like any semi-serious music fan, but at the end of the day, I just want a great collection of bangers. Like the first six studio albums from Zeppelin, The Bends is an album built on monster guitar riffs, not monster ambitions. There’s not a weak link in the bunch. “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”, “Fake Plastic Trees” and “(Nice Dream)” are perhaps the most well known songs on the tracklist, but “Bones” is one of those that makes me wish Radiohead would keep rocking out a little more.
How about Jonny’s guitar chops on this one? On “Bones”, this makes me think of all the kids out there who want to play guitar. I think most of them want to play like Jonny. Thrashing, screeching and motoring his way across a three-minute piece de resistance. Everything else rides on this monster wave, that grooving bass line and Thom’s vocals that fluctuate from straight-ahead underground to falsetto in the heavens. “Bones” is the kid in Thom, Jonny, Ed, Colin and Philip jamming in the garage because there’s nothing remotely better to do with their time.

“Now I can't climb the stairs. Pieces missing everywhere. Prozac painkillers. When you've got to feel it in your bones.”

"STREET SPIRIT (FADE OUT)" RADIOHEAD (1995)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

The Bends has stood the test of time as my favorite Radiohead album mainly because of its collection of muscular, guitar-driven bangers. They seem to come relentlessly one after another. “Planet Telex”. “The Bends”. “Bones”. “Just”. “My Iron Lung”. “Black Star”. And “Sulk”. But by shifting down the gears, the quiet wallow of “Street Spirit” was an anthemic closer on an album full of monster riffs. And it’s probably my favorite Radiohead song.

“Street Spirit” is a slow, meandering downward spiral. It’s a song that you cannot escape from. It sucks you in with its cascading arpeggios on guitar and symphonic whole notes hovering over you on synthesizer. The pain and emotion can be felt in every note Yorke sings. The lyrics, gripping yet not fully understandable. The music, overtly chilling and isolating. The sequence, perfection. “Street Spirit” was created to be the closer - on The Bends and on the band’s set lists.

“ROWS OF HOUSES, ALL BEARING DOWN ON ME. I CAN FEEL THEIR BLUE HANDS TOUCHING ME. ALL THESE THINGS INTO POSITION. ALL THESE THINGS WE'LL ONE DAY SWALLOW.”

"AIRBAG" RADIOHEAD (1997)

Great album openers get the listeners to keep on listening. They can do this in any number of ways. Some openers set the tone by easing us in. Others jump right in and blow our minds from the very beginning. A great album opener isn’t an easy thing to create. More than a great song, it’s all about the sequence. Track 1 has to be the perfect starter. This month, I’m highlighting my favorites. #AlbumOpeningSongs

When OK Computer came out, I wasn’t quite ready for it. My musical tastes were a little all over the place at the time, which I suppose isn’t a bad thing. But it’s very telling of the state of rock music in the mid to late 90’s. Grunge came in the early 90s like a hurricane. It shook up the world, starting as a music for the outsider and quickly went mainstream. But it ended quickly. After that, rock had multiple personalities. Indie rock was seeing a resurgence; some of the more well-known acts of this era include Yo La Tengo and Belle & Sebastian. But it wasn’t until OK Computer was released that music felt like it was getting a reboot. “Airbag” wasn’t a hurricane; it was more like an unexpected blizzard.

What did you think when you first heard “Airbag”? What did you feel? Is it hard to pin down what it meant and what it did for you? “Airbag” is a blizzard, for me, because it seemed like so much was happening, I just couldn’t see it all. And when all the snow settled, the music landscape looked very different. OK Computer’s opening track threw computer blips, middle eastern sounds and that iconic and slightly demonic guitar riff into the ether. It didn’t seem to be borrow from other genres. It was an entirely new style of music engineered and conceived from scratch. More than 25 years after the release of OK Computer, I still marvel at what Radiohead did here.

“In an interstellar burst, I am back to save the universe.”

"STREET SPIRIT (FADE OUT)" RADIOHEAD (1995)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 27

The Bends has stood the test of time as my favorite Radiohead album mainly because of its collection of muscular, guitar-driven bangers. They seem to come relentlessly one after another. “Planet Telex”. “The Bends”. “Bones”. “Just”. “My Iron Lung”. “Black Star”. And “Sulk”. But by shifting down the gears, the quiet wallow of “Street Spirit” was an anthemic closer on an album full of monster riffs. “Street Spirit” is a slow, much needed downward spiral. The lyrics, gripping yet not fully understandable. The music, overtly chilling and isolating.

“Rows of houses, all bearing down on me. I can feel their blue hands touching me. All these things into position. All these things we'll one day swallow.”

"LET DOWN" RADIOHEAD (1997)

Each day in November, I’m revisiting a song from the 90’s — a decade that was a sorta coming of age for me. In that span, I experienced high school, college and my time as a young single guy in New York City. It was a decade of ups and downs, and the music never stopped playing during that span. It was always there with me. #30DaysOf90sSongs

Fans and critics often refer to Kid A as being the most important Radiohead record. I think I’ve even heard some Beach Boys-like references to it, like it’s the Pet Sounds of the 90s or something like that. That may be true, but OK Computer will forever be the album that resonates with me the most. It’s the record that eases my mind and perks up my ears every time. I thought the songs were somehow totally unexpected, yet totally what I yearned to hear in this almost miraculous kind of way. There’s not a single pedestrian track on the LP, but one song has always stood above the rest for me: “Let Down”.

The thing that it did, that most songs don’t do, is bridge this gap between raw human experience and the celestial. It feels like it’s soaring somewhere in the stratosphere musically, but hitting too close to home and staying firmly grounded lyrically. Its chord progressions are unpredictable, creating an atmosphere to wallow in. While it’s certainly not a shoegaze anthem, “Let Down” did create a world for us to get lost in — the only difference with the aforementioned genre being that the sounds were incredibly precise and clear rather bleeding endlessly into each other.

“Crushed like a bug in the ground. Let down and hanging around.”

"(NICE DREAM)" RADIOHEAD (1995)

For the second half of September, I’m putting my Mental Jukebox into a time machine, featuring the best songs on the best albums from the very best years of music. #70sThrough90sBestAlbum

I was late to the Radiohead party, and probably didn’t even discover The Bends until Kid A descended on the music scene. I think both Kid A and OK Computer were remarkable, but I still preferred The Bends more because the guitars made their mark all over the album. Straight-ahead hard rock riffs in “Just” and the title track. Melancholic expressions on “Fake Plastic Trees” and “Street Spirit”. And spastic outbursts in “My Iron Lung” and “(Nice Dream)”. To this day, “(Nice Dream)” is still one of my favorite Radiohead tracks.

The first two and a half minutes feels like a lullaby. The last minute and a half seems like a nightmare. The song begins with a melody that nearly lulls you to sleep. There is nothing particularly Radiohead about the musicality. Nothing truly unexpected. But the guitar slowly intensifies while a stringed arrangement inserts itself into the dream before we’re jolted into the nightmare at the 2:26 mark. It’s cacophonous. Disorienting. And somewhat unwelcomed. Then, like that, we’re back into the lullaby again. Was the whole thing just a dream?

“If you think that you're strong enough. Nice dream. If you think you belong enough. Nice dream.”

"TALK SHOW HOST" RADIOHEAD (1996)

Exceptional soundtracks can make good movies great. They can also take on a life of their own, becoming a greater highlight than their respective films. In this series, I’m selecting some of my favorite soundtrack songs. While quite a few are well-known recordings, I’m also including a few that have flown under the radar over the years.

The story of Romeo + Juliet is a complex one, filled with every human emotion — from pure ecstasy to torment. The soundtrack, as good as it was, was filled with tracks that erred on the happier spectrum, and gave us some great ones from Des’ree, Garbage and, of course, The Cardigans. But “Talk Show Host” steered the backend of human emotion, and did it the Radiohead way.

This is a forgotten track and one of the least celebrated Radiohead songs in their catalog. It didn’t get album face time and instead played second fiddle as a b-side for the more famous “Street Spirit”. What “Talk Show Host” demonstrated was Radiohead’s ability to create more than music. They created a mood. It felt more like a film score than a single, which made it a perfect addition for the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, bringing out emotions no other song on the album cared to explore.

“I want to be someone else or I'll explode.”

"FAKE PLASTIC TREES" RADIOHEAD (1995)

Radiohead hadn’t quite hit their experimental rock stride yet on The Bends, but their sound was already evolving substantially. “Fake Plastic Trees” stood out on an album full of the more abrasive guitar stuff. I think it’s perhaps one of rock & roll’s finest examples of a crescendo rise and fall. It’s Radiohead unlocking the ability to trigger multiple emotions in under five minutes. And it’s one of the finest tracks from one of the finest albums of the 90’s.

“A green plastic watering can for a fake Chinese rubber plant in the fake plastic earth that she bought from a rubber man in a town full of rubber plans.”

"LET DOWN" RADIOHEAD (1997)

I wonder if Thom Yorke and the boys knew what they had when they made this. “Let Down”, like a lot of that early Radiohead, just keys into your emotions. It’s that innate, wallowing quality that makes Radiohead the perfect “rainy day” music. “Let Down” creates an epic emotional outpouring spun from a complex web of musical layers. A song that I can simply play over and over again.

“Transport, motorways and tramlines. Starting and then stopping. Taking off and landing. The emptiest of feelings. Disappointed people, clinging on to bottles. When it comes it's so, so, disappointing.”