I was listing to the forthcoming Ulrika Spacek album in the car yesterday, and halfway through it my girlfriend turned to me and said it was the most Radiohead-sounding album not by Radiohead she'd heard. I had been thinking something similar, but more along the lines of that this is what an album by a band in love with a handful of latter-era Radiohead songs instead of the band's full breadth of work would sound like. If Paloalto's self-titled 2000 album was a resurrection of Bends-era Radiohead, Ulrika Spacek's EXPO is what someone unfamiliar with their pre-Kid A work might come up with.
Radiohead are clearly now a bedrock in the musical landscape and for most bands Radiohead has always existed as a part of their life. There is no pre-Radiohead world for them. I mean, Radiohead can tour whenever they feel like it despite not having released a new album in about a decade now, yet still sound very much of the now, and not like some legacy act. So I respect their rightful place as demigods in most musician's playbooks.
I started doing the quick mental math and almost choked upon realizing Radiohead has now been around actively for over 35 years. It doesn't seem like it could possibly be that long to me! To put that in context—or at least my personal context—when The Who reunited to resurrect Tommy after their first break-up a few years earlier, it was right around the time of that album's 20th anniversary. So they had already broken up once, and their with their most influential output was arguably long behind them by that time. It didn't stop me from shelling out what to me was a ton of dough for the pay-per-view performance they did and savoring that VHS tape for years. But The Who were very much a legacy act by then, and they'd only been around a total of, what, 25 years!
I don't know. That kind of blew my mind and made me realized how much our perspective (and expectations) of rock bands have changed over the years. I'm also starting to feel my age insofar as it relates to how most other people relate to this stuff, despite my relative inability to get sentimental about single periods in time since it's all been a continuous stream to me with little slowing down or stopping. I might not have seen it all, but I have seen a lot.
Anyway, to close the loop here, don't read my opening observations of EXPO as slight incitements. It's a pretty nice little album and I think a lot of people will dig it. If Radiohead's not gonna make Radiohead music any more, it's still fun to hear someone who is.
Programming note: This little site is already one of the more long-running blogs still in existence, and I've decided this year will see my return more regular posting. So expect more fragmented thoughts like the above as I just share what's rattling around up there without worry too much about it being particularly concise or focused. I'm done letting my fear of not framing my thoughts perfectly get in the way of me posting my thoughts at all. Y'know what I mean?
