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Originally Posted by Fritz Chrome  Eh I don't think U2 is that unfair a comparison for early Radiohead - Planet Telex comes to mind as a particularly U2ish track, even though I like it better than most U2.
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The sound isn't all that similar, but they were certainly going for big and dramatic. The lyrics undermine that vibe, though, at least on The Bends. Yorke is way more cynical than Bono's ever been.
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| Dear Science really was a fine album, the first that really lived up to the hipster hype machine for me. I guess I can see the appeal of Cookie Mountain, but somehow it felt kind of gimmicky to me, in both the songwriting and the production. Dear Science feels like they decided to stop wanking about and just try to make a album of songs as polished, punchy and fully realised as possible. |
I tend to think that I like Cookie Mountain better, but in looking at the tracklist, Dear Science actually has more good songs. I think it's that the first half of Cookie Mountain (up to "A Method") is so strong, but Dear Science is more consistent overall (although I'm not all that fond of "Halfway Home," which sounds like a weak attempt to bridge the gap between "Wolf Like Me" and the Dear Science sound, or "Golden Age").
I think I
admire Cookie Mountain more, though. It's a weird, dense rock album, and a substantial innovation on Desperate Youth. Dear Science just adds a little rhythm to the mix and cleans up all of that busy percussion and guitar noise.
And, yeah, OK Calculator is pretty much unlistenable.
