Thom Yorke
Dear diary,
I fell in love with Radiohead. Does that make me Thomosexual?
It happened last year after my friend, Cracked, told me about ten easter eggs hidden in famous albums. Two of them were on Radiohead’s works, so I decided to give them a listen, starting with 1997′s “OK Computer”. Before I knew, I bought it and was listening to it repeatedly, intertwined with decade later’s “In Rainbows”!
But when I wrote on the Wall that I like them more than Porcupine Tree, some people said I’m just saying that because they’re new (for me, at least) and that it’s just an infatuation that will pass. How can they know? And why one of them, my friend and a huge Porcupine Tree fan, recommended me “Kid A”, an album released in 2000 and quoted by several sources to be one of the best of the “noughties” (i.e. the 2000s)? Yeah, good job, Lipton, way to undermine your favourite band! Because now over half a year has passed and still Radiohead works better for me than the Porcs. Dear diary, how can it be only an infatuation?
Of course I still deeply respect Steven Wilson and everything he does, with and without Porcupine Tree, and admittedly he had some great times, to name a few: “Stupid Dream”, “A Smart Kid”, “SHUTdown” with O.S.I., first half of “Lightbulb Sun”, first half of “In Absentia”, first half of… See, that’s the problem with Porcupien Tree: they have some awesome songs, often very poetic and with deep thought, but for some reason it’s tough for me to sit through a whole album of theirs. They start well, but then the excitement drops, and usually around the middle, after 5 or 6 songs, I either start over or change to something else – usually a half of a different Porcupine Tree album. And the boys called me a slut…
With Thom Yorke I experience things I never felt with Wilson… I can listen to any album (of the three I know so far) time and time again! They aren’t shallow collection of songs, like the others, they are deep they often flow one into another, and if you take a song away from the context of the album it just doesn’t make such an impression. Even those like “Optimistic”.
At the first glance, the title and a more upbeat, catchy tune – so different from the others – seem like it was supposed to be a commercial hit for repeated broadcasts on the radio. But it was never released as a single! And then you may notice the lyrics:
This one’s optimistic
This one went to market
This one just came out of the swamp
This one dropped a payload
Fodder for the animals
Living on animal farm
See how Radiohead makes fun of the people who come to their shows just to hear that one song? And believe me, it sounds much, much better in the context of the whole album than alone. It’s exactly as my aforementioned friend said about such Porcupine Tree songs as “The Sound of Muzak” or “4 Chords That Made a Million” – a catchy pop-rock songs that appeals to everyone, so everyone listens to it, and maybe someone of them takes notice of the lyrics once and realizes: “hey! It’s actually about something!”
Now I just can’t wait when Radiohead will come to my town to give some concert (which may happen, since they just released a new album, “The King of Limbs”), so we could have some more intimate moments…
