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Rating: "Pablo Honey" (1993), for many, was a pleasant surprise. Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass), Ed O'Brien (guitar), and Phil Selway (drums), from Oxford, had piqued the interest of many music lovers in search of new introspections and new musical horizons. They debut dreaming of REM, but their debt to U2 is undeniable: yet, Radiohead are neither clones nor photocopies. They are four talented musicians capable, as a first album, of producing a record that is not perfect but still very enjoyable like "Pablo Honey".
The big hit, the one that would make them international stars, is "The Bends" (1995), followed by the epochal "OK Computer" (1997). Few, however, (and often even the most attentive discographies do not include it) remember the EP that Radiohead composed after "Pablo Honey" and "The Bends". "My Iron Lung" (1994), is still today, for many, a phantom record. And, to be honest, if we really want to, it's not something to tear one's clothes over if one never had the chance to listen to it, also because, perhaps, it is the worst record of Radiohead's entire career. "My Iron Lung" is a very curious mini-album containing, upon closer inspection, only one track worthy of note, "Lozenge of Love", a sort of innovative ballad very similar to those of Nick Drake. That's all, even though the piece is truly excellent. The acoustic version of "Creep" is not bad either (but it's anything but exhilarating, even though technically it's worth a lot), and a couple of tracks that are somewhat banal, "The Trickster", a violent and obsessive track, perhaps too obsessive, and "You Never Wash Up After Yourself", a track very similar, at least according to many critics, to a lullaby.
The album came out in stores, especially in Europe, in a quick and painless manner, and it was an inconsiderate public (and critical) failure, reevaluated, but not, as often happens, excessively, only in more recent times, thanks also to the incredible success of "OK Computer", and today it is very difficult to find it commercially (easily found only on www.amazon.com at often prohibitive prices). But, as I said at the beginning, there's no need to regret this failure: Radiohead's career is rich with fascinating and gigantic albums (besides the already mentioned "OK Computer", it would be a crime not to mention the equally excellent "Kid A", 2000), and after all, this "My Iron Lung" is only a disappointing musical search that Radiohead had the chance to experiment with before creating masterpieces of much considerable scope.
A curiosity: Thom Yorke's voice, which many detest, (and which instead, according to me, is truly beautiful and unsettling) here is really awful, but this issue of singers' changing voices is an old problem, as old as the world, listen to some Bob Dylan records, his nasal voice often seems particularly excellent, other times it appears confused and blatantly out of tune ("Under the Red Sky" is the best example).
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 My Iron Lung (04:36)
Faith, you're driving me away
You do it everyday
You don't mean it
But it hurts like hell
My brain says I'm receiving pain
A lack of oxygen
From my life support
My iron lung
We're too young to fall asleep
To cynical to speak
We are losing it
Can't you tell?
We scratch our eternal itch
A twentieth century bitch
And we are grateful for
Our iron lung
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
Suck, suck your teenage thumb
Toilet trained and dumb
When the power runs out
We'll just hum
This, this is our new song
Just like the last one
A total waste of time
My iron lung
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
And if you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's OK
And if you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's OK
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
02 The Trickster (04:40)
Rust in the mountains
Rust in the brain
The air is sacred here
In spite of your claim
Up on the roof tops
Out of reach
Trickster is meaningless
Trickster is weak
He's talking out the world
Talking out the world Hey
Hey
Hey
This is only halfway
Hey
Hey
Hey
This is only halfway
I wanted you so bad
And I couldn't say
All things fall apart
We wanted out so bad
We couldn't say
These things fall apart
We're talking out the world
Talking out the world
Hey
Hey
Hey
This is only halfway
Hey
Hey
Hey
This is only halfway
Truant kids- a can of brick dust worms
Who do not want to climb down from
Their chestnut tree
Long white gloves
Police tread carefully
Escaped from the zoo
The perfect child facsimile
It's Talking out the world
Talking out the world
03 Lewis (Mistreated) (03:18)
Bummed out again by your only business friend
The smell of fear is thicker than you think
Don't do it, don't jump
Changed shape to fit, in the end you just feel sick
A million love songs under anaesthetic
Hey don't do it, don't jump
Lewis, save yourself the pain, you'll never get there
Lewis, save yourself the pain, it never really mattered
We never noticed, we never understood
He just get crushed to fit, he never even smelt out the best
It's the best, it's the best day of your life
Lewis, save yourself the pain, you'll never get there
Lewis, save yourself the pain, it never really matters
No, I swear, I swear, I swear
Oh, mistreated, a low corporate
Mistreated, a low corporate
I don't wanna to talk about it
I don't wanna to talk about it
I don't wanna to talk about Lewis, Lewis, Lewis
I don't wanna to talk about Lewis, Lewis, Lewis
04 Permanent Daylight (02:48)
Loose ropes still tied knots
I can't believe that i returned
loose threads still they sew
It's just i can't believe that we returned
Let's get out
Out
Will you come out with me?
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