Thom Yorke and Radiohead Show Lotus Flower Dance Moves

It seems to be an immutable fact that artists don’t get better over time. In fact there are few that last the decades. Even those that do, take for example U2 (who we’ve never really been fond of), never seem to surpass their original glory.

In the words of Paul Simon, “still crazy after all these years”.

For us, In Rainbows was their best album to date…and even if you have a different view, you’ve got to admit its arguably in their top 3. Their new album, King of Limbs, look like its going to be the same (we’ve had one listen so far…we want three before we give views, such is our reverence). So how do they stand out as the one band to reverse the age/quality correlation?

We can’t anwer it completley, but part of it seems to be the unique position they hold in popular music. They do not fit into any genre. They came out at a time when indie was all the rage..and while it was easiest to calssify them as such, they never really seemed to wear the label, their songs taking as much from classical music as they did from the prevailing fashion of the day. At the same time, they have never sought to classify themselves, making them free from being seen as of a certain time, or scene.

We’ve been aware of hipsters trying to latch on to their music for the last 15 years at least…yet they’ve never really laid claim to them. We hope and we’re pretty sure this will continue.

At the same time, Radiohead fans have never been susceptable to hype. This might seem like a ridiculous statement given how Twitter is currently in a frenzy with Thom Yorke talk. However, this is in response to a new album, after a wait of years. You won’t catch fans deliberately gaming twitter because Thom Yorke said in an interview he likes girls with blonde hair or some other blah statement (as the time of writing Justin Bieber is trending again for seemingly no reason at all).

Radiohead’s music seems to have attracted an adult audience. When we say adult, we don’t mean in terms of age. A 15 year old can be more adult than a 35 year old. Instead we mean a better more intelligent audience….is this music snobbery? Yes, but look around the site, we’re hardly snooty about who we love. Radiohead has an audience that has grown organically from people with ecclectic tastes, the common thread being that they know good music and get cerebral about lyrics. This has given Radiohead a the chance to produce music without constraint, and still be successful…a seemingly unique position that gets the best results.