Radiohead album by album

I don't know, I quite like it.

 

The Pablo Honey version is great!

 

Since I had the time this morning to do it, I opened up the Drill EP recording of "Stupid Car" and the Volume Seven "Tinnitus Mix" of Stupid Car in a .WAV file editor and took a look. The two files are different lengths, but you can slide the Drill EP version over to line up perfectly with the Tinnitus Mix. The two songs stay in synch and at their base are the same exact recording - but the Tinnitus Mix has a longer intro & outro that fades in with the white noise before the proper song begins, and fades out the white noise after the proper ending. This Tinnitus mix is an interesting idea, and it probably was something they tried out to see if it would make the otherwise fairly ordinary short track "Stupid Car" a bit more edgy & "alternative" for 1992 tastes. Not really a big deal in the scheme of things, but it shows Radiohead being willing to try out some unique sonic landscapes early on.

 

I like Drill well enough, although "Stupid Car" doesn't do much for me. The EP overall seems unusually short.

"Thinking About You" seems like it could have been a 90s SitCom theme.

 

Nothing Touches Me is a great track. It didn’t make it to Pablo Honey, but they also did a cracking version of it for the June 1992 Radio 1 session so I personally would consider it “Radiohead song”. Thom’s vocals are excellent.

 

For those of us in the US, Bends-era when I was scooping up everything Radiohead I could get my hands on, this was the only way to hear Stupid Car without spending $50 on a second hand import Drill. Still my fave version

I really like having Drill on the Capital repress series and pop it on from time to time. Could never swing an original 12”, nor do I really have an interest. Some of these Capital 12” sound really great, Despite the album re-presses that came out at the same time. especially for the $6.99 I paid for each of them when they came out That being said I’ve only opened a handful. My Iron Lung and Fake Plastic Trees being my fave.

This EP holds a certain mystique for me as it was pretty much the only unattainable CD single/EP/release I couldn’t track down in the states and I love hearing the alt Pablo Honey tracks to this day. It was hard to even tape trade for with folks in the UK. Of course Thinking About You became probably way more widely available on the Japanese Itch EP.

The band’s first listenable release In my opinion as those prior demos don’t do much for me. This is still indicative of a young band heavily immersed in the UK Shoegaze trend, pressure of being signed to a major, and not quite able to find their footing in either developing a unique sound or generating exceptional songs. Stupid Car is the highlight.

 

I know, but when we get to Pablo Honey, I can listen to them again, as I've only ever listened to PH once, so I'll compare them then.

 

Was making playlists on Spotify today and happened to notice that they actually have the Drill EP on there, just FYI to all.

 

It's a decent little EP that only hints at better things to come. I think the better versions of these songs appeared on Pablo Honey, yet this is still a fun time capsule of Radiohead in their early days. "Stupid Car" is kind of interesting but never reaches its full potential.

 

Sorry if I missed this but are we talking album by album or track by track? Kinda hard to talk about a whole album imho especially once we get to the Bends. Plus they are all such dynamic records. That’s just my take.

 

Typically with these threads the host will mention an album and then posters will talk about individual tracks.

 

What’s next? Pablo Honey?

 

It's a shame, I personally thought Stupid Car could have been really well-produced into a real song, as long as it wasn't a full-on rock song like most of PH. I prefer it as a nice acoustic song.

 

If they're going through all EP's it will be Creep EP. If not, it might be Creep EP, Anyone Can Play Guitar EP or Pablo Honey.

 

Radiohead's Big Bang moment happened with their first single, 'Creep'. Released on 21 September 1992

... but, it wasn't exactly an overnight success. The first release did little success. But slowly gained international attention, and the band re-released the single in the UK in 1993, peaking at #7. The original 1992 single has the following tracklist:

1. "Creep" – 3:55
2. "Lurgee" – 3:07
3. "Inside My Head" – 3:12
4. "Million Dollar Question" – 3:18

Whereas the 1993 re-release, has these songs: (and it also has a different cover)

1. "Creep" (album version) – 3:58
2. "Yes I Am" – 4:25
3. "Blow Out" (remix) – 4:00
4. "Inside My Head" (live) – 3:07

From the 'Exit Music' book:

Radiohead nailed 'Creep' in one searing take. "At the end," Kolderie recalled in Mojo, "everyone in the place was silent for a moment and then they burst into applause. I'd never had that happen before." Listening back to their work in the control room, Thom asked Jonny, "What do you think?" Jonny replied, "I think it's the best thing we've done in ages."

Backed by 'Lurgee', 'Inside My Head', and 'Million Dollar Question', 'Creep' was released on September 21, 1992 as Radiohead's second single. But the excitement that EMI had felt about the song wasn't matched by U.K. sales figures. 'Creep' only crept up to No. 78 in the charts, selling barely 6000 copies and getting hardly a mention in the press

Carol Baxter, Radiohead's representative in EMI's international division, started receiving reports toward the end of 1992 from a very excited colleague in Israel named Uzi Preuss (...) had an old friend of his, Yoav Kutner, a DJ at the IDF (Galei Zahal in Hebrew) armed forces radio station in Tel Aviv. A 20-year broadcast veteran, Kutner was the most respected jockey in the country, the Israeli equivalent of the BBC's John Peel. "At that time," (...) 'Creep' vaulted into the upper reaches of the country's pop charts (...) Before long, 'Creep' was having similar success in New Zealand, Spain and Scandinavia.

(meanwhile in USA) (...) In the autumn of 1992, Aaron Axelsen was the music director at KCRH, a small college station in California's East Bay area. He was also an intern at the San Francisco FM station KITS (Live 105, one of the top 'alternative' stations in the U.S.) (...) Axelsen quickly added 'Creep' to the KCRH playlist (...).
"I used to bring a lot of imports into Live 105 and play them for Steve Masters, who was the music director there at the time. So I brought him the record, saying, 'Here's this band Radiohead, the record's getting huge on my college station, I'm starting to sell records at the store, check this out.' I gave him my own import copy of the single, the only copy I had, and he gave it a listen."

Masters was as taken with 'Creep' as Axelsen, and he played it on the air. As had previously been the case at KCRH, the call-in response was overwhelming, and the song went into regular rotation. Within a month or so, Live 105 put together its annual year-end singles poll, and after the numbers had been tabulated, 'Creep' was on top.



1992 version




1993 version

 

They made a digital re-release with all of the exclusive tracks.

1. Creep
2. Inside My Head
3. Million Dollar Question
4. Yes I Am
5. Blow Out (Remix)

 

Just listened to all of Creep EP. It doesn't do as much for me as Drill EP did. Creep is good, of course, Yes I Am is nice, and you gotta love Blow Out and Lurgee. I just don't really like Inside My Head and Million Dollar Question. Too rock-y. I overall give it 5/10.

 

Creep

It’s funny to me that this wasn’t an instant success. “Creep” is one of those songs that for most people is a total “stop what you are doing and listen to this” type of track - at the time anyway. Definitely a blessing and a curse here in the US as many people, including my circle of friends, didn’t keep up with Radiohead for a bit and lost track of them afterward until OK Computer, but that’s not relevant to the discussion right now. Right now what’s relevant is that in 1992-1993 Radiohead was a very distinctive band working in the angsty-grunge arena. To see how influential this song was, just consider the number of cover versions that cropped up over the next few years: old acts like Tears For Fears and The Pretenders, but even a rap/dance cover if I remember correctly.

Relistening to the early material this week has reminded me how great Thom Yorke’s voice was in this genre before Radiohead evolved into other things. He really rises up above the loud guitars and wails! His voice pierces through the already loud guitars and maintains a lot of feeling as he does it. But look at the growth of the band as well: this EP is fantastic and is miles better than anything they’d issued up to this point.

Bsides on the original release:
“Lurgee” ended up on Pablo Honey. It starts slowly and gradually gains strength with its message of “I feel better”. A very uplifting song.

“Inside My Head” is superb. It’s got a driving beat, a great guitar break and great vocalisms from Yorke (“inside of my heaaaaaaaadddddd, lalalalalalalala!”)

“Million Dollar Question” keeps the energy level up. Maybe not as much of a showcase for Thom’s voice, but it’s a showcase for the band and doesn't overstay its welcome.

This was Radiohead putting their best foot forward here, previewing the album to come while also including some strong tracks that didn’t make the cut for the album. Collecting music in the early 90’s was difficult with all the various singles and formats to keep track of, but it’s nice to listen to these tracks in short bursts the way they were originally grouped on the singles. Listening to them all consecutively on a “bonus disc” dilutes the impact somewhat.

 

At the time, I found "Creep" to one of many unlikeable attempts by various bands to glom onto what Nirvana had created.

I intensely disliked it then, and intensely dislike it now. Good for Radiohead for evolving beyond this kind of thing.

 

I don’t doubt that record companies started looking for “that Nirvana sound” but from what I can tell both Nirvana AND Radiohead were really big fans of the Pixies. That stripped back loud-soft-loud dynamic from the Pixies is something that both bands were in thrall to and the influence shows. Obviously there’s more to it than that, but everyone’s gotta start somewhere. I’m really loving relistening to this ‘92-‘93 material with the distance and perspective that 28(!!) years of time offers.

 

The remix of Blow Out is interesting to me. It is a fairly big rearrangement of the album version, and since it is on the re-release single of “Creep” that means it came out after the album. I wonder why this remix was done: surely Blow Out was not considered for a single itself? It’s not exactly the kind of song you’d think of as single material.

 

Creep is fantastic. It still gives me shivers if I decide to really listen to it. It made me follow Radiohead since 1993 and it's also a great karaoke track

Inside My Head & Million Dollar Question are kind of alright, MDQ a bit better than IMH.
But the best Creep b-side is Yes I Am, which shows how much they had grown in one year.

 

I should wait until we get to Pablo Honey, since we're already getting to Pablo Honey songs with a few selections on the Creep singles/EPs/whatever you want to call them, the Radiohead fan dismissal of Pablo Honey and the material in general from this era has always seemed as pretentious as anything from them. If they're knocking this era for supposed derivativeness, they're just underscoring their lack of familiarity with a wide swath of progressive and electronic music in general in their subsequent praise of later Radiohead as something supposedly unprecedented. Not that I think that Pablo Honey or this era is the best thing since sliced bread or anything, but I don't think that about Radiohead in general.

"Creep" is a great track, deservedly a big hit.

Re "Inside My Head," ever notice how similar the bassline is to Pretenders' "Space Invader"? Anyway, decent tune overall, although not spectacular.

"Million Dollar Question" is very catchy. Fun, bouncy feel with a well-constructed extended bridge.

"Yes I Am" is kind of blah in my view. Not bad, but certainly not great.

"Blow Out" is very interesting in its kind of folky/kinda noise rock contrast, although I'm not sure I'd say it's woven together well as a whole. But the sections have lots of merits.

"Lurgee" I'll leave for the album.

 

Inside My Head always made me cringe. even in '95.
Yes I Am is the best of the bunch.

not counting PH songs. those two are easily my favorites from the LP.

 

“Creep” blew me away when I heard it on the radio as a kid. Nirvana had already gotten me interested in the mixture of ugly and pretty sounds, and those super loud dead strings before the chorus kicks in made my ears perk up. That tiny detail makes the song for me. I also always liked that the last chorus is a big downer.