It’s difficult to imagine the members of Radiohead—one of the most revered and successful acts in the world—being anything other than wholly certain of their own reputations at this point. The quick-fire release of A Moon Shaped Pool back in May threw their ever-adoring fans—of which there are literally millions—into a state of apoplectic shock, hyperventilating on social media for a full week. “AH GAD NEW RADIOHEAD SO FUCKING GOOD,” seemed to be the thrust of it. Radiohead should, in theory, be behaving like Muse, gallivanting around, getting hammered, writing songs about George Orwell novels because they can. They should be throwing parties in castles and developing crippling personality deficiencies along the way.But they ain’t. No, Radiohead still sound like young upstarts, awkward around stars that were kids when they came up, unsure of themselves and their audience’s commitment. Over the weekend, English dad rock magazine Q ran the first interview with Yorke since the release of the band's ninth studio album and the frontman was in a humble mood. When asked about the positive response to the record, Yorke admitted to being shocked. “We expected the opposite," he said. "I cherish the band, but I don’t expect anyone else to.”WHAT? Come on, Thom. You must know by now that your fans are basically rabid dogs, chomping with frothing mouths at the perfectly grotesque severed leg of your dulcet tones. I don’t wish to imply that Thom Yorke is being disingenuous here, but, then again, I only wish not to imply that because I treat Thom Yorke with a certain degree of reverence. See the problem here? The man is too loved to deflect love. Goddamnit.To back that up, Yorke also explained to Q why the band have started playing the long-dismissed "Creep" at live shows again. He says it started when a fan at a show in Amsterdam spent the whole night screaming for the song to be played. "I kind of wound him up by starting to play it," Yorke said, "which was a bad idea as it was like lighting a fire.” Note to belligerent assholes at live shows: keep screaming for your favorite song, after twelve years or so, it'll wear the band down.In other Radiohead news, Ed O’Brien revealed to Ninja Tune late last week that he spoke to Kanye West about God at the Rio Carnival in 2012. Kanye gave no shits and “wasn’t really interested in me at all.” Things took a turn, though, when O’Brien steered what seems to have been an awkward conversation into the ever-calm waters of monotheism, opening up with a statement about his home nation’s heathen ways. “If you asked pretty much any British musician whether they believed in God, I'd tell you that 99 percent of them would say, ‘Don't be stupid, of course not,'" he apparently told Kanye. This, apparently, shocked Ye—“blew his mind,” according to O’Brien—who couldn’t fathom the sweeping atheism of the British Creative Class.Poor Kanye, confronted by this difficult reality while just trying to enjoy himself at the Rio Carnival. What a relief it must be that such a horribly areligious nation will now attempt to cut itself entirely from civilisation and return to its natural state of cannibalistic, racist barbarism.Alex Robert Ross thinks "Brexit" is probably an unreleased Radiohead demo from 1996. Follow him on Twitter.
Advertisement