Radiohead
Airbag/How Am I Driving? E.P.

THE REVIEW

"Sometimes to get rid of the nausea caused by a certain type of music, you first have to increase it to the limit..."

On the cardboard cover (I sincerely hope the dwarves can find it easily), it says "This mini-album is aimed at the USA", so if you found yourself some time ago in the right place at the right time (for example in 1997/98 in Washington...), you have a decent E.P. in your hands. The booklet inside contains some statistics and multiple-choice tests on city cleanliness, living with today's fears, and how it's always a nice thing to smile at others (nothing at all about a single note played on the record).

The period, as one can guess, is that of Ok Computer; the sound too. It opens with Airbag, the only song also included in the LP: clearly, I do not even remotely dream of describing it, in fact, I already feel a slight stomach cramp from the fact that we're still here discussing it. The track that deserves the most on the E.P., along with "Pearly" (also featured in Lost Treasures), is "Polyethylene [Parts 1 & 2]": an arpeggiated acoustic guitar accompanies Thom's lament along a sweet melody (like Street Spirit), then suddenly a change of rhythm and the guitar becomes electric. Now Jonny doesn't arpeggiate, he strikes harshly, and the whole thing feels a lot like Paranoid Android mixed with Just, only bass guitar voice and drums... fantastic... not even a strange electronic "freak out"... just Rock'n'Roll.

Unfortunately, the mini-album, which could have been a masterpiece among the many from the band, slightly falls with the first notes of "Meeting In The Aisle": a hip-hop-like base accompanied throughout its duration by a "spacey" guitar riff, full of fade-ins and fade-outs, delay, and various loops à la Massive Attack, and not a single sung verse... you can already feel the urge for Kid A. It closes with "Palo Alto", where the old and new Radiohead blend: Thom sings about how uncertain the future is, the angry guitar interludes and riffs are reminiscent of those from 1997, but there's the "crooked Electronica" element (National Anthem) that starts to sneak in forcefully in the background, making the whole sound more Chemical Bros feat. Someone Else than anything else.

That's all, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to vomit.