Radiohead EP a must listen

Radiohead
Airbag/ How Am I Driving?
(EMI)

Rating: 5/5

Radio-heads attending the Oxford band's sold-out show a week ago at the Gardens will likely run to the record store to pick up this limited-edition, seven-song EP containing rare and previously unavailable material recorded during the OK Computer sessions.
Particularly since it's so good and there's only 25,000 copies available in Canada.

Along with the excellent OK Computer track, Airbag, there's wide-ranging representation of Radiohead's expansive, moody songwriting talents. Think of this as OK Computer - the B-sides - only better.

Check out the dramatic, guitar-driven Pearly - featuring a rather ghostly vocal bridge from mighty lead singer Thom Yorke - and the wonderfully atmospheric instrumental Meeting In The Aisle, suitable for a planetarium setting.

More claustrophobic is the slower-tempoed A Reminder, featuring Yorke singing over voices in the background, and Melatonin, a sad beautiful song with plenty of synthesizers that clocks in at a mere 2:08.

There's also a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Radiohead song with Polyethylene 1 & 2. The first part is just York singing sweetly over an acoustic guitar before he counts off the group into the rocking band version.

Finally, the EP-ending Palo Alto is the most un-Radiohead-like track of the bunch, full of squealing guitars and soft-then-loud arrangements. But given the strength of the song and the rest of the material, it's a wonder OK Computer didn't end up a double CD.

Jane Stevenson

Toronto Sun
20.04.98