The Fascinating Turnip

I only have Café Bleu, and to be frank, the album goes a bit dodgy in the end, I feel.

Never heard of Absolute Beginners, is the film worth it or just the soundtrack?


Ah, Radiohead. They might get overly praised by some their fans and for that same reason seem to be truly hated by a few music lovers. No matter how annoying their fans can be, however, these chaps have written some stellar songs. For me, Radiohead have been one of those bands who have evolved in a very positive way. I don't mean I enjoy the latest albums more than I enjoyed the earlier ones, but they've certainly become something quite different from what they were in Pablo Honey (which to this day I've never really felt like listening to), moving away from that style and towards something a bit less linear, a bit less mainstream. I find this shows quite a bit of character, and I admire them for it. Another band which underwent a similar progress were Talk Talk. Were they brilliant? No, they were bleedin' immense. They started out with a few pop tunes and then contributed heavily to the creation of Post-Rock.

This post is not really about Radiohead's career, or Talk Talk's, for that matter, I just felt I had to do a bit of an intro, as opposed to just posting videos of what I enjoy now and then (which is what I usually do).

Lately, as one would guess, I've started listening to Radiohead quite compulsively again. Especially Amnesiac and In Rainbows ( albums which I oddly didn't really fancy too much some time ago).

Here are a few glorious tunes, then:


Absolutely brilliant. I'm completely addicted to this track. That chord progressive got stuck in my head like not many songs have done, it's uncanny. I've had to listen to it an inordinate amount of time these last few days. Uni's been kicking my arse and I find myself reserving small amounts of time to listen to music. This one...this one's been all consuming. I'll probably tire of it sooner than anyone should, but I can't let it go. Thom Yorke's voice, the insane rhythm of the whole track, the intense energy coupled with the beautiful melodies, the repetitiveness...The backing vocals! It's absolutely perfect. I've never thought that lyrics were one of Thom Yorke's strengths, and surely the ones on this song are nothing special, but coupled with the music they paint such an accurate picture, such a brilliant picture. And this is often the case with Radiohead lyrics. They make sense in a way that makes no sense.


What can I say, another brilliant track. Beautiful guitar work, beautiful vocals. This one seems to have a bit of an earlier Radiohead tint, in that it makes you feel small as an ant and absolutely empty inside, much like many of the tracks from OK Computer. Have you ever listened to Radiohead on the Tube? It kills you. Makes you feel like you have no free will, like your whole life is getting carried from A to B (in a bit of an existential way, because the Tube does tend to take you to places...) by ugly mechanical things which are far more important than everything you'll ever do.

This is not to say these two are my favourite Radiohead tracks. They're among my favourite ones, however. That is fairly certain.

About Talk Talk, I think Bulldog there has done a grand job already reviewing all of their albums and I've already mentioned Renée (one of their songs from the pre post-rock period that I love), so I'll just urge you all to get Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, which are brilliant albums.