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Radiohead There There

Radiohead: There There

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by Gareth Dobson
  • Type: Single
  • Release date: 26/05/2003
  • Label: Parlophone
It's probably the most miraculous recorded comeback since Icarus penned the popular soul-ditty ‘I Believe I Can Fly’.

As the mighty tribal drums thump in like Tho(m)r pounding across a desolate wasteland, and a Peter Buck-esque guitar line chimes out, we can pull out our pipes, and sit back and relax in the splendour of The Most Important Band In Britain tm. Because, for the first time in six years, Radiohead have signalled their return with a tune of gut-wrenching quality.

Thom Yorke duets with himself gorgeously over a series of sumptuous call-and-refrains and the guitars ring out to a shiver-inducing climax about four minutes in, reminding you that Jonny Greenwood is probably the best rock guitarist in the world when he’s he not pissing on your electronic chips. The song also reminds you that Radiohead can write a thematically impenetrable tune in a manner more chilling than anyone else. Perhaps having spent themselves on this tune (stories are abound of Yorke bursting into tears upon its completion due to its apparent qualities), they offer a selection of electro-sleaze symphonies, indelibly marked by scattershot beats and heavy muttering, which are equally impenetrable as the lead track but only half as delectable.

There's always a siren/singing you to shipwreck”, wails the small and angry one. Indeed there is young man – and it’s you.

  • Radiohead 9 / 10

Radiohead - There There

Nice to see this great song has gotten the praise it deserves, unlike the horrible NME review which made a point to say the track is dull and undeserving of single status.

Radiohead - There There

I'll probably get axe murdered for saying this, since here is none greater sacred cow than this, but I really wish they'd write a fuckin' tune instead of all this dreary cod-arty bollocks.This song offers some hope that they're moving back in the right direction, but it's hardly 'Karma Police'.... and Johnny G... In '95 he was an unpredictable inspiration projecting raw emotions... but now all I see now is a shoegazing old fart going through the motions... and believe me that is gutting, since he was one of the best.

Re: Radiohead - There There

wish they'd write a tune, eh?

Amnesiac's full of 'em: 'Knives Out,' 'Pakt Like Sardines,' 'Life in a Glasshouse,' 'Pyramid Song'....... it's like a pop album. The only difference is that they don't douse their songs in the same old angsty wailing, saccharine chord changes and dull-as-fuck arrangements anymore. Let's face it, they're never going to write another 'Creep.' Which is a good thing.

That said, I did think 'There There' was a bit of an anti-climax...

Radiohead - There There

Yes, its a dull dirge of a song, shame everyone's got cloth ears and thinks it's genius just because of the name on the cover.

Re: Radiohead - There There

I'd agree. Why on earth was this picked as a single? Maybe it was a record company decision. They must expect people to just lap it up because it's radiohead. It's a fucking plodding grey worthy alt-rock dirge. And they've released a lot better than that recently.. doesn't make much sense to me really.

Radiohead - There There

God - Am I the only one who thinks that Radiohead turned shite after The Bends???

Thom just sounds like a depressed cat being slowly strangled to death - whiny and without any substance. It's all arty arty pretentious shit bollocks. Radiohead haven't had a decent tune since The Bends. OK Computer was bearable but one of the most overrated albums of our time.

In fact, I think the real Radiohead were kidnapped after the Bends and turned into puppets by martians to record this god-awful dirgy dirgy dirge. I imagine that will most likely be the "story" behind their next album. Wankers.





















Re: Radiohead - There There

au contraire... i think the bends is one of the most overrated things ever, whereas ok computer is clearly a work of mind-boggling genius. nothing they've done since has entirely grabbed me tho. there are better songs on the new album than there there - 2+2=5 and sit down stand up are both stupendous.

x
gen

Other way round for me

as I still think the Bends is their masterpiece, and do tend to agree with the view that OK Computer was slightly overrated. But I can still see merits in all of their musical incarnations. I try not to limit myself...


Those two songs

are just amazing. I can't stop listening to them. Which pretty much shows that while my personal favourite may be the bends, they have done fantastic stuff since.


Re: Radiohead - There There

My God, that is the most depressingly boring, simplistic view of Radiohead you could ever possibly offer. I mean, imagine; Radiohead decide to do 'different' things, to try and push the envelope a bit. This clearly makes them 'wankers'.

Or perhaps it makes them people who decide to be a bit more than your average bollocks Placebo-esque rock band who are happy to tread water until they drown in their own sea of self-obsessed mediocrity.

Placebo - Brixton Academy
Shed Seven - The Monarch
Radiohead - Earls Court

says it all, really.

Re: Radiohead - There There

Beckah, you're not the only person... I don't agree though. :)

Just listening to the "leaked" mix of 'There, There'. I really like it, but I have to agree with the NME to some degree - it doesn't really make sense as a single. But then, nor did 'Paranoid Android'. The build up at the end is nice, but not as scrote-grippingly gorgeous as older trax.

Re: Radiohead - There There

Paranoid Android worked for me, the only R single i've got actually (the bends being the only album)

not sure about this, not the best of the album, i'd be had pressed to say what would work as a single tho

just go AOR style, it befits them

ollie.

Re: Radiohead - There There

What I haven't heard since The Bends/OK Computer era is any sense of genuine emotion in their material. Perhaps the only emotion they ever had was that they felt like 'artists' being sold to the world as stadium rockers... I don't know, but since they 'came out' as alt rockers with Kid A, I think they sound like a band who no longer ride on any emotional edge, but instead sit very much inside some metaphoric comfort zone. They never sound as if they're stretching themselves, sure as hell never stretch me, and the really unfair thing is that they'll be remembered as the 'arty' band that came out of the Britpop, when in fact Damon Albarn has experimented and evolved a billion times more than them.

Re: Radiohead - There There

whoah there - the rest of all that is people's opinions and that's fair enough, but Chris...Blur are more experimental than Radiohead? surely Radiohead have challenged traditional song structures more than Damon poncing Albarn raping the culture of a few third world nations and then proclaiming himself as some kind of genius? And have you SEEN what Damon's saying now?? Apparently he wants to record the next Blur album in Baghdad and he's been thinking about it for a few years because of the way Iraqi musicians arrange their tunes he says...Damon Albarn=cynical locust moving from one career point to the next, exhausting all the second hand resources he can consume then moving onto the next wallet-lining demi-trend. Radiohead might have always been comfortably-off middle class kids, but in fairness they've never tried to pretend otherwise. And who would you rather be? A monkey-chested gold chain wearing pretender who would probably join the Spice Girls if he thought it would be seen as a cool move. Or a pretty normal guy with a shonky eye who's accidentally become some kind of subversive spokesman for a whole generation of fucked off people...

Re: Radiohead - There There

If it comes to being genuine experimenters, neither bands are really proper laboratory boffins. When we talk about Radiohead being left field it's always with the proviso that they're a popular major label band. Blur experiment within the boundaries of pop, and have never pretended otherwise, and I guess that the 'alternative' fraternity would consequently be required to hate everything they do as a condition of membership.... I just think that true innovation most often happens unwittingly, in the places you least expect. Mainstream R&B producers like Timbaland and The Neptunes are creating ideas that have really never gone before, and a great example is the biggest pop band of all, The Beatles... 'Revolution No. 9' is full-on boffin experimentation... but I can't imagine your average SonicYouthKraftwerkMeltBanana fan going out and buying Beatles records... do you know what I mean?

One Krafwerk fan

with a room full of Beatles records.


Re: Radiohead - There There

I have all their albums and think that they are all worthy to a godlike persona.. So they did some new stuff..it was still as good as ever. Some would even say..better. Like say..me. But still no matter how much u don't agree w/radiohead's new direction..u should never say anything about Thom. To exscuse my dorkyness right now,I mean common have u ever met anyone named Tom who spells it Thome. Probably not..so hey..he's pretty damn cool..huh..huh.. And i have said my meaningless 2 cents so..I bid u adeu