RADIOHEAD
The Best Of
Parlophone
It’s difficult to think of a better song with which to begin any album
than Just. A minor hit on release, it’s become an indie disco classic
and a signature Radiohead tune. It also distils what’s best about the
Oxford rock pseuds – their early-mid period when they still had some
degree of pop spunk about them. It’s difficult to see past the schism
in their history immediately post-OK Computer, that saw them increase in popularity
worldwide but move away from those old-fashioned things called tunes.
It’s something that Polydor obviously feel is important, as the majority
of these 16 tracks are taken from Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer. At
their best, Radiohead have been magisterial, untouchable almost. Paranoid Android
is a Bohemian Rhapsody for the 1990s, High And Dry is a sensitive, pleading
poem while Creep is a beast of a song with its immediately recognisable riff.
Material from Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief is arguably more inventive,
but it’s the early material for which Radiohead will rightly be remembered.
BRYAN ADAMS
11
Polydor
Every self-respecting red-blooded man (and many a self-respecting women) should
have Bryan Adams’ 1984 album Reckless in their collection. Big ol’ stadium
fillers like Run To You and Summer Of ’69 loaded with earnest, tub-thumping
North American working class values. Twenty-four years later he’s returned
to that core song-writing style (which somewhat disappeared in recent albums)
on this, his eleventh LP. Lots of lighter-waving anthems for chaps in check shirts
who drive combine harvesters the size of small office blocks across vast expanses
of genetically-modified maize. Nowt wrong with that, of course, and he carries
it off with some aplomb. Tonight We Have The Stars is a decent start, all fuzzy
guitars, organ and tales of drinkin’ on Tuesdays, complete with that raspy
voice. There’s a strain of romantic tosh on the country-tinged acoustic
Mysterious Ways and Somethin’ To Believe, which pushes the ‘epic’ button.
It’s all a load of clichéd rubbish, and it’s no Reckless,
but it’s fun all the same.
GAVIN ROSSDALE
Wanderlust
Interscope
More famous for turning up in the pages of Heat magazine, running after his better-known
missus, Gwen Stefani, British singer Rossdale is a very successful artiste in
his own right. His band, Bush (named after Shepherd’s, rather than a lady’s
foofoo), came to prominence in 1994 on the coat-tails of grunge. Despite being
critically mauled for the next decade, they sold a few million records and did
very well, thank you very much. Now Rossdale is back on his own, presumably after
getting bored counting his ‘green’. That rusty-nail voice is still
in full effect, but while there’s still a demonstrable knack for writing
catchy tunes, it sounds like the bastard child of Bryan Adams and woeful rock
cretins Nickelback. “Forever May You Run,” he sings, and good lord
I hope he does. Awful.
FUTUREHEADS
This Is Not The World
Nul Records
These Mackams are probably best known for their very effective, spiky cover of
Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, but they’ve got a lot more to offer.
Definitely one of the better bands to come along in the aftermath of The Libertines,
they have an element of class that indicates some longevity. This third album
is packed with really good pop tunes that recall many a new wave band – Talking
Heads, Squeeze, Gang Of Four, Devo and XTC. There’s punchy punk pop in
the form of lead track The Beginning Of The Twist, teen-friendly indie pogo like
Radio Heart and riffy rock like Broke Up The Time. Ross Millard’s vocals
are pretty monotonous in style, but get over that and this becomes a really good
album that stands up very well against British indie rock at the moment.
INFADELS
Universe In Reverse
Wall Of Sound
Melding dance, stadium rock, indie and electroclash, this second album from London’s
Infadels positions them aside from the pure dance background of both their first
album and their label. It’s produced by Killing Joke’s Youth and
he’s nailed the rougher-edged sound the band has developed. There are some
great, almost epic tracks here such as Play Blind, with a dark atmosphere in
its swirling keyboards and minor key chorus. Then there’s the stadium dance-indie
of Million Pieces, and the techno rock of Code 1. Universe In Reverse is a fun,
impressive curveball from the left field.
James McLaren moves his feet to the beat