So I haven't heard the Thom Yorke solo record yet, but its very existence worries me. We may wind up looking back on The Eraser or whatever it's called as the moment Yorke began to break away from the 'Head. It'd be one thing if this was Yorke's quirky rap project or whatever, but from what I've read it doesn't sound much different from Radiohead's more electronic-y records. The band, meanwhile, are concurrently working on the follow-up to Thief.
Eraser is apparently an outgrowth of Yorke's creative process, born of the four-track noodlings whence emerge Radiohead songs. Does this mean that the stuff on Eraser isn't good enough for a Radiohead record? If it's inferior work, why put it out? Or does Yorke set aside certain bits and pieces that he really likes for his solo work? Isn't he therefore depriving the band of some of his better work and diluting his talent in the process? Or is the solo album a collection of work Yorke liked enough to present to the band only to have it rejected? Does this mean he's frustrated by his bandmates, unhappy with their current direction, and investing more energy in other work?
Any of these possibilities is a negative one. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I don't think solo albums, by the frontman no less, are ever a good sign for the future of any band. On top of this, the record was released with minimal promotion, ostensibly to keep it from distracting the public from Yorke's main gig, but is being praised to the skies anyway. It's even been nominated for the Mercury Prize in the UK, where Yorke could probably stand for just about any seat in Parliament these days and win going away.
Am I overreacting? Perhaps. Radiohead are arguably the biggest band on a global scale, in terms of both commercial and critical success, to come out of the British Isles since U2. Regardless of whether you believe that band to be past their expiration date, you must notice that the media continues to treat a new U2 album as an event, a remarkable feat for a band who've been in the spotlight for about a quarter-century. If you're looking for a reason for the band's perpetual relevance, you could start by giving a listen to one of Bono's solo albums.
Same goes, to a lesser extent, for R.E.M.; Stipe could have gone solo years ago (it would have made perfect sense after Berry left), but is smart enough to know that his career longevity rests in no small part on the stability of the band and its creative interaction.
Ditto Vedder and Pearl Jam; you may not have given a shit about them for some time now, but they continue to pack arenas for multiple-night stands whenever they tour. Vedder alone? Probably do one night at a large theatre.
Conversely, you could argue that Washing Machine was the last album on which Sonic Youth were culturally relevant to an audience broader than their core following. It was released around the same time as Moore's Psychic Hearts and Gordon's Free Kitten project.
You can run this meme all the way back to acts like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd (discounting a movie soundtrack Waters collaborated on in 1970): their peaks lasted so long due to a combination of lineup stability and singularly focused energies.
I'm not saying Radiohead will break up next week, nor do I think their next album will be a clunker; it's a subtler and more gradual process than that. What I am saying is that when the ride comes to an end, as they all inevitably do, a lot of listeners may wind up pointing to this era as the turning point, and either Thief or the next one as their last good album.
2 comments:
dude you leave out one very important factor regarding the longevity of pink floyd and zep IMO: money
Story goes that Thurston Moore's Pyschic Hearts was an outgrowth of SY not really knowing where to go next after Experimental, Jet Set (which was clearly the product of a band that had no idea where it needed to go--while certainly interesting and even good in places, it's their only album on which nothing seems particularly intuitive). They said at the time that Psychic Hearts was in many ways responsible for the freshness of Washing Machine. Typically when SY made a record, Thurston would bring in a batch of songs and the band would work on them, Kim and Thurston would divide vocal duties and then they'd throw ol' Lee a bone. On Washing Machine, Thurston didn't have a batch of songs because his post Ex/Js/Tr/Ns songs ended up on Psychic. And so, as the story goes, the creation of the WM songs were more of band collaboration from the ground up than they had been on any record since Shelley joined.
I could see a similar result with Yorke and Radiohead. It seems that being in Radiohead is no fun for anyone, especially Yorke. If what Thom wants at this point is to be working on his stuff with Nigel without the politics and pressure that surely go in to making a Radiohead record that's fine... and if that's what he wants for good then I'd rather see Radiohead break up than turn into a sicko solo project masquerading as a great band a la the Animals/Wall/Final Cut era of Floyd. At least then we'd be spared the "Johnny's been playing loads of guitar lately" stuff, which has really got to stop already. How many years do these poor bastards have to spend apologizing to Bends fans in particular and old rock critics in general for Kid A? Fuck those people. Enough already. I can see how it could just about break your spirit...
However, need proof that it takes more than a little frontman moonlighting to upend a truly great band then look no further.
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