Johnny Greenwood's talent is wasted in Radiohead
 

The There Will Be Blood soundtrack gives amazing evidence in support of my claim.

Discuss.

All I know is that seeing them live made me appreciate his contribution and at the same time did not feel like he was "wasted"...neither on stage, nor on record.
BTW, he can always release solo stuff at will.
That soundtrack is really nice, bodysongs had interesting bits too. He's really good.

i dont think the score to there will be blood was anything special, and as amazing as the film was, the music was one of its weaker aspects. and johnny greenwood has made some great music in radiohead too, so i think hes doing fine.

i think he's fine doing both. he seems like a multi-tasker.

I can listen to Bodysong much more than any Radiohead record, so in way I support that claim. I haven't heard this latest solo effort. Perhaps it is the effect of Thom Yorke's voice on the ear that puts me off from liking Readiohead. Still, he's a competent and at times cool musician, but not exactly brilliant.

Very competent. But like McCartney, no-one would commission his work were it not for his celebrity. I know quite a few people who deeply despise 'vanity' 'classical' composers such as Greenwood because it's the most impossible thing, if no-one knows who you are, to get a 'proper orchestra' to perform your work.

I have no strong opinions on whether he's better in Radiohead or solo, as I appreciate both quite a lot.

Yeah, Thom Yorke is like nails on a chalkboard for me too. And he sings everything as if he's singing about the saddest thing in the world.

I don't think his talent is wasted, unless you're actually saying that he appears to be a very talented guy in a merely average band. Then, I'd agree. Of course, 4/5ths of Radiohead appear to be very talented, and yet they make average music (except for a few songs that honestly are "brilliant").

I have to agree also that Thom is by far the weak link in that band. I don't mind his voice so much... but his solo record is terrible.

I disagree, I enjoy the duality of songwriting styles between Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood in Radiohead. They compliment each other extremely well has separate tracks as well as in one song in an amalgamation. I would even claim that compliment each other more than even Sonic Youth's approach. However SY's dynamics were always their strong point while Radiohead's single voice is theirs.

That said, I do really enjoy Johnny Greenwood's solo instrumental work but it requires Thom Yorkes vocal melodies to be grounded as a full package, for me.

jonny greenwood wasted in radiohead!!!! HA! THATS FUCKING FUNNY ON A FEW DIFFERENT LEVELS!

agreed. it's so hard being in the world's biggest rock band right now and not even having fans bother you b/c they know you're maladjusted and weird.

i've always known johnny greenwood was wasting his time in that band, but it kinda gives them an interesting dynamic.

while the solo record is shit, we have to accept that for a large part, radiohead songs are his songs expanded with the help of a fanstastic band. and also that silly solo record was just produced terribly, a lot of those tunes came out very well solo-live. in fact, having heard those tunes live before the record, I recall be very let down because the material itself was sparkling, the album version was just terrible.

i didn't even like the bases for the songs, though. it was just an all-around poor album, i believe.

radiohead is band that's greater than the sum of their parts and those parts are very talented, by the way.

still, i liked thom's solo album a whole lot better than in rainbows; i just hope they stop being lazy and actually start playing songs while trying shit they haven't before.

i agree about yorke's solo record, only one good song of which was the single anyways, but i loved radiohead from the ok computer to amnesiac, all great records, but hail to the thief, meh, in rainbows, double meh,. maybe theyve just overstayed their welcome? i like yorke's lyrics though. im not gonna be an asshole either, kid a is still one of the best records of the 00's in my opinion.

yknow, ive decided radiohead's problem is not their music, but the music press. instead of just being a great rock band that has put out some great rock records, all these commercial music pubs, spin, rollingstone, pitchfork, nme, whatever, theyve just rubbed radiohead in our faces so much over the last ten years its like, why the fuck wouldnt we get bored over them? if youre constantly being told how genius something is, the natrual reaction is gonna be, "fuck you it aint that fuckin great", and that is what's happened to radiohead. especially people like us, who listen to so many bands, some of whom are better than radiohead, were obviously just gonna not wana hear about them. so from now on, i refuse to read ANYTHING about radiohead, and i will only listen to their recorda when i feel like it, and will not let chuck klosterman inform me of my inferiority for not thinking radiohead is christ reincarnated as music. thank you.

I like Hail to the Thief okay, it's got some AMAZING songs (and probably their worst song ever, "drunken punchup at a wedding")... but I think In Rainbows is by far their worst album.. I'd rather listen to Pablo Honey honestly.

Kid A IS totally great, and I will go so far to say it is an IMPORTANT album in the history of music. I mean, honestly, it was somewhat Radiohead saying, "Hey, we like Eight Frozen Modules, Autechre, and Brian Eno!" .. but the whole thing honestly was pretty damn daring and well-made. A straight-up mainstream HUGE rock band doing cold electronics, free jazz, ambient drone (!), and even some noise (see the end of "In Limbos"...)? Pretty fucking amazing, honestly, and it could've been terrible.

i thought in rainbows was pretty good. i like it better than hail to the thief. pablo honey is just a boring piece of crap. i mean some songs are good, but i'm glad they evolved from that.

favorite radiohead albums in order.
1. ok computer
2. kid a
3. the bends
4. amnesiac
5. in rainbows
6. hail to the thief



















7. pablo honey

I remember enjoying Hail to the Thief, but I haven't listened to it in awhile

I dug Yorke's solo album.

kid a is the best radiohead record, and one of the best of the 00's.

I agree....it had more cool moments than In Rainbows for sure. I have the 2nd disc of In Rainbows on my computer, but still haven't got the itch to listen to it. What do you guys think of it? Is it as shitty as the album?

i thought the soundtrack to there will be blood was a bit over the top and generally not needed.

that's what's good about it imo. ha.

i'm very fussy about music in films

I love A punchup at a wedding.

the last two tracks on disc 2 are two of the best tracks they've ever done and that makes up for the rest of the album.

I agree.

The only thing that is wasted in Radiohead right now is Radiohead. The last 4 albums ( with the exception of Hail to the Cheif ) aren't even radiohead. They are mostly just Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood. Kid A, Amnesiac, and In Rainbows shouldn't have been called Radiohead. They should have been called Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood because that is essentially what they are, the two of them in a studio making music.

Now that isn't neccisarily a bad thing, it's still mostly pretty good music. It's just sometimes frustrating to people who got into radiohead through Pablo Honey, the Bends and Ok Computer. I just wish they'd make a new " Radiohead " album, an album that has the guitar players playing guitar, the bass player playing bass, the drummer playing drums and Thom Yorke playing guitar and singing, and radiohead hasn't done that since Ok Computer. Even Thom Yorke admits the band has intentionally strayed away from that and probably won't ever work in that way again :/

And since were making absolute statements, the best radiohead is either Ok Computer or Pablo Honey

Many thanks for this HBJ. BTW, it's good to know that some things never change. ;-)

When Kid A was released I only liked half of it, it has grown on me since but there are still a few tracks that I find disappointing. On the whole I now see it's a great record, I just find it a bit uneven.

Good point.

OK computer is miles ahead of Pablo Honey in my opinion, but to each his own.

all of their "brave electronic experimentation" just sounds like bits pinched from the first two boards of canada records to me. fortunately i love those records too so we still get along, definately victims of the hyperbole.

incidentally Thom yorke was behind me in the bar at the neil young show with the super tall guitarist and the bass player. thom and the bass player vanished as thought they had some kind of sixth sense about thirty seconds before a girl got up the courage to ask for a picture, the guitarist totally made her night though and seemed like a nice fella, Thom Yorke, in what i believe is the norm for rock stars, had an oddly large head for his body and also seemed like a really nice fella (albeit one with a sixth sense and vanishing skills).

apologies if this is a cheesy story.

actually it got even better as during the actual show richard ashcroft was sat behind us and was responding to everything neil young said as though the two of them were having a conversation in between shouting out "you don't sit down for rock and roll!" whilst sat down, during the acoustic section of the show. and then when we got into a row with some disgusting pissed up coke monkey that was hassling the lady next to us, richard ashcroft was staring at us from between the fingers of his hand covered face with a look of such horror that we could only assume his trip had just turned very very bad indeed.

and the show was amazing too. great night.