Scatterbrain
Jun. 17th, 2004 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alfvaenRadiohead has been, for a long time, a band that hardly ever clicked with me. I remember when "Creep" came out, and I was quite captivated by it, those bursts of guitar noise before the chorus, providing a contrast to the quiet verses. It's still one of my (800-odd) favourite songs. But then(back in the days when I mostly paid attention to videos played by MuchMusic), they seemed to disappear, and I wondered what happened to them.
At some point I came across a CD of "The Bends" at the library, and tried it out. I didn't find it particularly listening, and there was certainly no "Creep" on there. I was surprised, later, to find out that this was supposedly their best album. I saw the video for "Paranoid Android", which I found morbidly fascinating, but the music did little for me. I don't have much tolerance for heavy guitars, and that was the impression it left on me.
But I kept hearing about how awesome Radiohead was, from all the critics. I tried litening to "OK Computer" in its entirety, and still nothing.
It wasn't until I tried "Kid A" that I began to find some more Radiohead songs that I actually liked--"Idioteque", for instance. I wasn't surprised to discover that this was considered a departure for them, an experimentation. They had shed most of the elements that had repelled me before.
Sometimes I wonder, when I listen to an album and don't like it, if I've given it enough of a chance. I listen to so much, that it's hard for me to give a new album more than one listen. And if the listening circumstances are not ideal, like at work(where I listen to most of my library CDs), then that might contribute to the negative impression. There are albums("Setting Sons" by The Jam, for one)that I didn't like on first listen, but that I grew to quite like later on.
Part of my mind still thinks that I should be able to like anything, if I try hard enough. But most of me realizes that that just isn't true, that there can be things that other people like, even a lot of other people, that I don't. It's been a slow process, gaining confidence in my own taste, against other people's opinions. I'm willing to give anything one try, eventually, but that may be it.
I am glad, though, that I decided to try "Hail To The Thief", Radiohead's latest studio album. It's a year old already, but I'm not obsessed with staying current these days. I'm just obsessive about continually trying new things in a quest to find everything that I like.
It wasn't an auspicious beginning, either, when I tried playing it in my computer at work, and failed. I guess it's copy-protected, or something. Windows Media Player certainly didn't have any luck with it. So I had to wait and listen to it at home, and it wasn't until fairly late that I even had the opportunity.
But it is by far my favourite Radiohead album. I'd even go so far as to say that I actually like it, and will probably put it on my to-buy wishlist. The CD booklet art, with a map of what looks like New York coloured in with a number of evocative and semi-random words and phrases, is attractive. The music is almost completely devoid of unlistenable guitar noise, at least so far, has some pretty catchy beats, and intriguing lyrics that are not obscured by the aforementioned noise.
One oddity that is driving me nuts, though, is the song titles. They all seem to be of two parts, for example: "Where I End and You Begin. (The Sky is falling in.)" They all have parenthesized subtitles...which are printed in a much smaller, superscripted font on the CD label, but which are used, instead of the "main" titles, inside the booklet with the lyrics. I find it disorienting, and I keep wanting to know which are the "real" titles. Especially for my whole song-title-duplication-list thing. I'll refrain from adding them for now, in case the situation clarifies in the future.
But yeah, I like this album a lot. Now maybe one of these days I'll go back and give "The Bends" another try.
At some point I came across a CD of "The Bends" at the library, and tried it out. I didn't find it particularly listening, and there was certainly no "Creep" on there. I was surprised, later, to find out that this was supposedly their best album. I saw the video for "Paranoid Android", which I found morbidly fascinating, but the music did little for me. I don't have much tolerance for heavy guitars, and that was the impression it left on me.
But I kept hearing about how awesome Radiohead was, from all the critics. I tried litening to "OK Computer" in its entirety, and still nothing.
It wasn't until I tried "Kid A" that I began to find some more Radiohead songs that I actually liked--"Idioteque", for instance. I wasn't surprised to discover that this was considered a departure for them, an experimentation. They had shed most of the elements that had repelled me before.
Sometimes I wonder, when I listen to an album and don't like it, if I've given it enough of a chance. I listen to so much, that it's hard for me to give a new album more than one listen. And if the listening circumstances are not ideal, like at work(where I listen to most of my library CDs), then that might contribute to the negative impression. There are albums("Setting Sons" by The Jam, for one)that I didn't like on first listen, but that I grew to quite like later on.
Part of my mind still thinks that I should be able to like anything, if I try hard enough. But most of me realizes that that just isn't true, that there can be things that other people like, even a lot of other people, that I don't. It's been a slow process, gaining confidence in my own taste, against other people's opinions. I'm willing to give anything one try, eventually, but that may be it.
I am glad, though, that I decided to try "Hail To The Thief", Radiohead's latest studio album. It's a year old already, but I'm not obsessed with staying current these days. I'm just obsessive about continually trying new things in a quest to find everything that I like.
It wasn't an auspicious beginning, either, when I tried playing it in my computer at work, and failed. I guess it's copy-protected, or something. Windows Media Player certainly didn't have any luck with it. So I had to wait and listen to it at home, and it wasn't until fairly late that I even had the opportunity.
But it is by far my favourite Radiohead album. I'd even go so far as to say that I actually like it, and will probably put it on my to-buy wishlist. The CD booklet art, with a map of what looks like New York coloured in with a number of evocative and semi-random words and phrases, is attractive. The music is almost completely devoid of unlistenable guitar noise, at least so far, has some pretty catchy beats, and intriguing lyrics that are not obscured by the aforementioned noise.
One oddity that is driving me nuts, though, is the song titles. They all seem to be of two parts, for example: "Where I End and You Begin. (The Sky is falling in.)" They all have parenthesized subtitles...which are printed in a much smaller, superscripted font on the CD label, but which are used, instead of the "main" titles, inside the booklet with the lyrics. I find it disorienting, and I keep wanting to know which are the "real" titles. Especially for my whole song-title-duplication-list thing. I'll refrain from adding them for now, in case the situation clarifies in the future.
But yeah, I like this album a lot. Now maybe one of these days I'll go back and give "The Bends" another try.
