1 post tagged “howard devoto”

It took me years to learn that even though Song A reminds me of Song B, the writer of Song A doesn't want to hear about it, because God knows he came up with it all by himself and the very idea that it might bear some resemblance to Song B, or any other song in the history of music, offends him to the unprecedentedly creative core of his being.  So I won't tell Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood that the guitar riff and verse of "Bodysnatchers," from Radiohead's new album In Rainbows (perhaps you've heard of it?), remind me of the corresponding parts of Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me" from their first album Real Life (1978).  But I'll tell you, and I'll present the songs in sequence for illustration: 

In Rainbows sounds like it was recorded in a clean-room with a sentient theremin for a singer.  That said, it's the first Radiohead album I actually "get," or rather "get into," since I'm not sure that I actually do get it.  But I like it.  This album gives Radiohead an identity in my mind strong enough to push out the old one, which is "that band that had a big hit by recording the Hollies' 'The Air That I Breathe' with different lyrics."  And it also makes me want to listen to Magazine again.