EMI/ Radiohead yet again...

Radiohead 'OK Computer' and 'The Bends' 2cd reissues

EMI are at it again. Since they split with Radiohead, not only have the band made one of their greatest albums to date but their ex-label have shown themselves to be money-grabbing, corporate unpleasant-types by re-issuing and re-packaging like mad. A box set, a 'best of', a memory stick thing....and now the first three Radiohead albums are being re-released as 2cd/dvd packages with extra tracks etc. Please don't buy these! The input from the band is non-existent, these are not lovingly created re-issues with sleeve notes and thought behind them, like say the tindersticks reissues. These are 'how can we milk a bit more money out of the band?' cobbled together things that YOU DO NOT NEED.

There are no new discoveries here, no outtakes from 'OK Computer' that we haven't heard before. Nothing. What you get are the b sides from both albums, which you will already have if you bought the singles or the 'Airbag' and 'My Iron Lung' EPs and a whole lot of sessions and live tracks none of which are essential. If you want to listen to the b sides (and the likes of 'Polyethylene' and 'A Reminder' would not have sounded out of place on 'OK Computer') you can listen to them all on Spotify. EMI is not a small record company trumpeting great new bands that need your money...if they find themselves in financial troubles it is largely because of them making stupid decisions in giving pots of money to artists the likes of whom I need not mention on here.

Listening to these albums again and actually thinking about them (sometimes music becomes so familiar that you listen on auto-pilot and don't notice things anymore) takes me back to knowing and loving them back in the 90s. 'The Bends' still sounds like just a great rock album and both an attack on and a reaction to all the Britpop rubbish that was going on at the time.."this is our new song/ just like the last one..a total waste of time". At the same time it is soaring, celebratory music, somehow feelgood, despite the lyrics, not difficult listening just a great album.

'OK Computer' though....I remember buying 'Paranoid Android' when it was released and being absolutely staggered by just how incredible it was. Then, and now, one of the greatest single pieces of music I have known. The 'rain down one me' section, the guitar break at the end that seems to clear your head and ears out for you...everything, just a song that perfectly reflected the time we were living in. The album can't all be as good as this, I thought. I remember that for some reason a Japanese import of 'OK Computer' turned up at my local record shop weeks ahead of its UK release. It was extortionately priced but I bought it anyway, and listened that evening. I knew straight away that I was hearing an album that would be with me for my whole life. Glorious music, perfectly sequenced, so much going on sonically, so twitchy, edgy and unsettling. 'Let Down' still sounds like one of the greatest builds into a chorus ever, 'Exit Music' is still the perfect 'us against the world' ballad and 'No Surprises' and 'Fitter, Happier' still make me cry.

Amazing records then, that we should be glad to own and proud to have been around when they were released. But we don't need to buy tacky record company re-issues, now do we?