To continue my ever popular music series and my second foray into new songs, I decided to bring these two songs to the attention of you guys (though some of you probably have heard at least one of them before. And if not- shame shame shame- this is Radiohead we are talking about 
)
As well as being one of the most popular cult bands on the planet (some would perhaps question the use of the pejorative cult with Radiohead- a band which does receive tv and radio play but I think it suits. Certainly fans of band don't often like to see them simply as either popular music or rock and I have often heard people acclaim their wide music knowledge by simply stating a liking of them or have it derided for the same reason. This actually sounds like another thread that I was thinking of making. Hmmmm . ) Radiohead tend to leave a couple of years between the release of each album so I wasn't expecting to hear anything new from them for a while following the release of In Rainbows in late 2007.
However earlier on the summer came two new songs quite quickly after the other. Apparently the new songs don't signify the release of the new album, but just projects the band were working on at the minute. The first was, as you can easily see by the title, was released following the death of Harry Patch, the last surviving man to have fought in World War One and briefly the oldest man in Europe.
[YOUTUBE]OsbjtNs5R4s[/YOUTUBE]
The second song "These are my twisted words" was leaked by a music website and there were initially a lot of questions as to whether it really was Radiohead or if it was a new single or an old song that had been found. To my credit I initially refused to believe it was Radiohead, and that it was instead first a clever impersonator, and then Thom Yorke singing with another band. Some fan I am Radiohead finally ended the questions by stating on their website that the song was in fact theirs, and that it was a new song. Different music press then heavily rumoured that it had been written for New Moon- the second Twilight film, but it isn't included on their soundtrack- though a new Thom Yorkers song is.
[YOUTUBE]F2ztWvuyXeU[/YOUTUBE]
Initially I didn't really like the Harry Patch song too much. I have listened to some of Johnny Greenwoods orchestral compositions in the past and liked them, but I didn't think much of his work here- it seemed too simplistic for my taste. I also wasn't sure about Thom's vocals- they seemed out of tune with the rest of the music. But as with all Radiohead songs, the longer I listen to it, the more I appreciate it. It is a nice calming relaxing song that does give one pause to think, though I still think that there isn't enough to it to let it become on of the better Radiohead songs- it feels too easily forgotten. It does seemingly continue the trend started in In Rainbows, of making there music a little less dark than it was before.
The second is altogether a different piece of music and seems to find Radiohead in a completely different frame of mind, and a return again to the full band sound on a on a much longer timescale than there previous work. I liked this song from its initial play, the dark foreboding sense it seemed to create, has always created images of dark woodland for some reason in my head. Again though I like it and find it interesting, it doesn't seem to have quite the quality that there better songs seem to have within an album. Overall though I would prefer the next couple of Radiohead songs to explore this path than that of the Harry Patch song.
In any case, these are merely my thoughts, and I am more interested to see what you guys and girls think. But please, no pushing and fighting
)As well as being one of the most popular cult bands on the planet (some would perhaps question the use of the pejorative cult with Radiohead- a band which does receive tv and radio play but I think it suits. Certainly fans of band don't often like to see them simply as either popular music or rock and I have often heard people acclaim their wide music knowledge by simply stating a liking of them or have it derided for the same reason. This actually sounds like another thread that I was thinking of making. Hmmmm .
) Radiohead tend to leave a couple of years between the release of each album so I wasn't expecting to hear anything new from them for a while following the release of In Rainbows in late 2007. However earlier on the summer came two new songs quite quickly after the other. Apparently the new songs don't signify the release of the new album, but just projects the band were working on at the minute. The first was, as you can easily see by the title, was released following the death of Harry Patch, the last surviving man to have fought in World War One and briefly the oldest man in Europe.
[YOUTUBE]OsbjtNs5R4s[/YOUTUBE]
The second song "These are my twisted words" was leaked by a music website and there were initially a lot of questions as to whether it really was Radiohead or if it was a new single or an old song that had been found. To my credit I initially refused to believe it was Radiohead, and that it was instead first a clever impersonator, and then Thom Yorke singing with another band. Some fan I am
Radiohead finally ended the questions by stating on their website that the song was in fact theirs, and that it was a new song. Different music press then heavily rumoured that it had been written for New Moon- the second Twilight film, but it isn't included on their soundtrack- though a new Thom Yorkers song is.[YOUTUBE]F2ztWvuyXeU[/YOUTUBE]
Initially I didn't really like the Harry Patch song too much. I have listened to some of Johnny Greenwoods orchestral compositions in the past and liked them, but I didn't think much of his work here- it seemed too simplistic for my taste. I also wasn't sure about Thom's vocals- they seemed out of tune with the rest of the music. But as with all Radiohead songs, the longer I listen to it, the more I appreciate it. It is a nice calming relaxing song that does give one pause to think, though I still think that there isn't enough to it to let it become on of the better Radiohead songs- it feels too easily forgotten. It does seemingly continue the trend started in In Rainbows, of making there music a little less dark than it was before.
The second is altogether a different piece of music and seems to find Radiohead in a completely different frame of mind, and a return again to the full band sound on a on a much longer timescale than there previous work. I liked this song from its initial play, the dark foreboding sense it seemed to create, has always created images of dark woodland for some reason in my head. Again though I like it and find it interesting, it doesn't seem to have quite the quality that there better songs seem to have within an album. Overall though I would prefer the next couple of Radiohead songs to explore this path than that of the Harry Patch song.
In any case, these are merely my thoughts, and I am more interested to see what you guys and girls think. But please, no pushing and fighting