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The Copenhagen Collective covers Band of Horses’ break out song Funeral :
I’m coming up only to hold you under
I’m coming up only to show you wrong
And to know you is hard and we wonder
To know you all wrong, we were
Really too late to call, so we wait for
Morning to wake you; it’s all we got
To know me as hardly golden
Is to know me all wrong, they were
At every occasion I’ll be ready for a funeral
At every occasion once more is called a funeral
Every occasion I’m ready for the funeral
At every occasion one brilliant day funeral
I’m coming up only to show you down for
I’m coming up only to show you wrong
To the outside, the dead leaves, they all blow (alive is very poetic)
For’e (before) they died had trees to hang their hope
At every occasion I’ll be ready for the funeral
At every occasion once more is called the funeral
At every occasion I’m ready for the funeral
At every occasion one brilliant day funeral
Darling it’s better
Down where it’s wetter
Take it from me.
I wanted love, I needed love,
Most of all, most of all
Someone said true love was dead
And I’m bound to fall,
bound to fall for you
“I didn’t want to be your ghost
I didn’t want to be anyone’s ghost.”
[I've been listening to this song for weeks and it's still mysterious]
Cold Summer
Your teeth too big for your mouth
Every summer we’d pull the stinger out
Drinking like our parents did
Drunk at the dance, I knew you hid
Picture of her eyes under your skin
She wasen’t old enough to let love in
I can see your eyes turn blue
I can see the weather changing you
Cold summers, one after the other
Got old fast, grew tired of each other
Born across from you
Proud sleepless child, followed her
It’s getting harder to find it in me
Bite my lip, fall asleep
But now, but now can be
Falling down
Filling, filling the empty
She could sing to shipmen
I lay my eyes on you
Down where we grew lost
Find your month and winter skin
It’s getting harder to find it in me
I scab my wounds and fall asleep
But now, but now can be
Falling down
Filling, filling the empty
Let’s go downtown and watch the modern kids
Let’s go downtown and talk to the modern kids
They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don’t understand
They say
Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo
Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo
They build it up just to burn it back down
They build it up just to burn it back down
The wind is blowing all the ashes around
Oh my dear god what is that horrible song they’re singing
Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo
Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo
Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo
Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo
Rococo, rococo!
Rococo!
They seem wild but they are so tame
They seem wild but they are so tame
They’re moving towards you with their colors all the same
They want to own you but they don’t know what game they’re playing
Rococo, rococo, rococo, rococo
Rococo!
Rococo!
(Rococo)
(Rococo)
Rococo!
Rococo!
(Rococo)
(Rococo)
Rococo!
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
Kids are swingin’ from the power lines,
nobody’s home, so nobody minds.
Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
My eyes are covered by the hands of my unborn kids
No Cars Go
(Hey!) Us kids know
(Hey!) No cars go
Where we know
The Suburbs
The kids want to be so hard
But in my dreams we’re still screaming and running through the yard
Ready to Start
All the kids have always known
That the emperor wears new clothes
But to bow down to them anyway
Is better than to be alone
Rococo
Let’s go downtown and watch the modern kids
Let’s go downtown and talk to the modern kids
They will eat right out of your hand
Using great big words that they don’t understand
Month of May
The kids are all standing with their arms folded tight
Now some things are pure and some things are right
But the kids are still standing with their arms folded tight
Wasted Hours
You watch the life you’re living disappear
and now I see, we’re still kids in buses, longing to be free
Sprawl I (Flatland)
“Well, where do you kids live?”
Well, sir, if you only knew what the answer’s worth
I’ve been searching every corner of the earth
I drew a picture of you
You and your anchor tattoo
And saw the face that I knew
Covered in shame
You drew a bird that was here
A kind of sweet chanticleer
But with a terrible fear
That the cage couldn’t tame
That’s how I knew this story would break my heart
When you wrote it
That’s how I knew this story would break my heart
So, like a ghost in the snow
I’m getting ready to go
‘Cause baby, that’s all I know –
How to open the door
And though the exit is crude
It saves me coming unglued
For when you’re not in the mood
For the gloves and the canvas floor
That’s how I knew this story would break my heart
When you wrote it
That’s how I knew this story would break my heart
That’s how I knew this story would break my heart
When you wrote it
That’s how I knew this story would break my heart
Your heart felt good
it was drippin’ pitch
and made of wood
A few years ago I ranked all of the Radiohead albums, even at the time it was an unsatisfactory ranking, but since then another album has come out and I’ve spent a lot more time with the albums in general so I felt like it was time to rerank them. This year I plan on not cheating by combining Kid A and Amnesiac and just for the sake of completion I’ll include Pablo Honey. What follows the ranking isn’t a review, but more of a fan’s appreciation.
8. Pablo Honey
A perfectly respectable debut that is of interest only in seeing the later style in immature form. The one exception is Creep, which was the song that first brought Radiohead to my attention and still has some cultural cache as demonstrated in the cover by the Vega Choir for The Social Network.
7. The King of Limbs
Still fresh in my ears is their most recent effort. It hasn’t had the chance to stretch out yet so this album is at an unfair advantage against the history of hearings that the above albums have, but here is where it fits in my evaluations currently. I would like to believe the theory that The King of Limbs is part one of a two part sequence, but even taken alone it is clear that Radiohead is transforming the idea of an album in a downloadable age. But at only thirty seven minutes in eight songs it’s slight, especially when you take out the weaker contributions of Feral and Mr. Magpie. I look forward to future deep listenings, but I don’t see it climbing any higher. Favorite tracks : Little by Little, Codex, and Lotus Flower.
6. The Bends
The Bends was the first cd I bought myself…alright, fine, second album, but should Garbage’s self titled album really count? When High&Dry hit the airwaves I earmarked their name for future purchase. Once Fake Plastic Trees dropped I proclaimed them my favorite band (up there with Remy Zero, who opened for Radiohead on The Bends tour). After Radiohead I instituted the Three Song Rule, which was if I like three songs from a band I will buy an album, Creep, High & Dry, and Fake Plastic Trees sparked the first purchase under the Three Song Rule. Favorite tracks: Fake Plastic Trees, High & Dry, Just.
5. Amnesiac
I never gave Amnesiac much of a fair shake. Kid A owned my life well past Amnesiac’s released date. I liked You and Whose Army and Spinning Plates immediately, but I’ve never gotten into Pyramid Song. Amnesiac’s Morning Bell is the better version, but overall I treated the album as the b-sides to Kid A, much like the Airbag/How Am I Driving EP that was released after OK Computer. I’ve listened to it regularly, but it wasn’t until In Rainbows came out that I started listening to it in order to rank the albums. Immediately I realized how much I loved the album. It starts out a little lethargic with Packt Like Sardines and Pyramid Song and then becomes abrasive at Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors. I found it off-putting initially. It took me awhile before I got the opening. You and Whose Army goes up as one of the funniest songs in their catalogue and has always been a favorite, but in the context of the album it’s still pretty low key. It isn’t really until I Might Be Wrong that the album comes alive. Favorite tracks: You and Whose Army, Spinning Plates, and Life in a Glass house.
4. In Rainbows
Radiohead’s seventh album was released with such hype that it was impossible not to get swept up in it. This album unfolded relatively easily for me and Reckoner immediately jumped into my top 10 favorite Radiohead songs. It’s a great album top to bottom, even the pallet cleansers are interesting (House of Cards, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Faust Harp). Rigorously plotted, perhaps the greatest song progression of their career, In Rainbows is flawlessly structured and ends on a perfect note. It has slowly moved up my rankings each year. Dont’ forget Scotch Mist the video Radiohead made featuring every song from In Rainbows. Under the innovative Pay What You Want model, I paid seven dollars, which was under the average apparently. So I’m a cheapo. Favorite tracks: Reckoner, Nude, and Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.
3. Kid A
Kid A was the first album I anticipated. OK Computer just showed up at the store, but the day Kid A came out I stood at the door of the music store waiting for it to open so that I could buy it. My roommate and I each bought a copy and disappeared into our rooms. An hour later we emerged with bewilder looks and frightened thumbs up. The bobulation of Everything in Its Right Place, the alien chimes of Kid A, the ominous droning of The National Anthem before it collapses in tortured horns, it was unlike anything I’ve ever heard. In fact, I skipped the NA for the first three months solid until I got the humor of those agonized horns. Since then I’ve read that Thom giggles every time he hears them. Treefingers is certainly one of the slightest palate cleansers in the canon, and Morning Bell isn’t interesting until it’s remade for Amnesiac, but Idioteque and Motion Picture Soundtrack are perfect. Kid A is a tightly made package that even with its two tiny flaws continues to command my attention. Favorite Tracks: Idioteque, Optimistic, How to Disappear Completely.
2. OK Computer
Each time I return to evaluate Radiohead’s work I think that OK Computer will drop. Then I pull it out and it blows me away again. OK Computer defines an era; it remains one of the few true concept albums that is organic, yet sprawlingly unified. Let Down is not only my favorite Radiohead song, it is one of my favorite songs of all time. The remarkable thing is how adaptable it is to any emotional state; sad, happy, angry, or undetermined it always speaks to me. In the six years from its debut to the release of Hail to the Thief, I listened to OK Computer more than each of the other Radiohead albums combined. Over the years, songs that I liked or disliked became songs I loved and liked and loved. At one point the only song I didn’t care for was Electioneering, but that changed once the Cold War Kids version of the song helped me understand it better. I’ve been trying for several years to individually rank each Radiohead song, but the difficulty for this album (as well as HttT) is that they fit together so seamlessly that to strip it from the album causes it to lose some of its power. My only regret is that I can’t buy this album every week of the year. Favorite tracks: Let Down, Karma Police, No Surprises.
1. Hail to the Thief
Hail to the Thief was well received by critics, but begrudgingly praised. They generally seemed peeved by its length and its lack of simplicity. Even the band has acted cool toward the album. In my opinion Hail To The Thief is the climax of everything Radiohead accomplished in their previous albums. Nigel Godrich, their longtime producer, convinced bandmembers to record in L.A. in two weeks, which was the quickest recording session ever for the band. There was no belaboring of the songs, no overproduction, no endless tinkering. Relying on instinct and the skill acquired over their careers they channeled it into an epic, unkempt masterpiece. It is because of it sprawling, disparate threads that it is great. With all of their other albums I’ve needed some downtime after listening to them heavily, with Hail being the only exception. I’ve played it for weeks on end and return to it frequently. Every playlist I make, every trip I go on, features HttT. There is not a single flaw on the entire album and it’s as catchy as all hell. I could rhapsodize for longer… Favorite Tracks: There, There, Wolf at the Door, Sail to the Moon.
