EMI and Parlophone are releasing Radiohead: The Best Of on June 2 in the UK and June 3 in the US, while Radiohead is on tour. The release will include thirty songs on two discs, “spanning a 12 year career at Parlophone.” Other formats include digital download and a four vinyl LP version.
Aversion pointed out, “The one-disc edition is a quick-and-easy intro to the band, while hardcore types are going to have to turn to the double-disc edition to get their hands on rarities like Talk Show Host and a live version of True Love Waits.”
EMI has embraced viral marketing and began promoting The Best Of Radiohead by releasing a Facebook application and widget. The application streams ten music videos: Just, Paranoid Android, Karma Police, Creep, No Surprises, High and Dry, My Iron Lung, There There, Pyramid Song, and Fake Plastic Trees.
Since Radiohead’s In Rainbows was released independently of EMI, none of their new material will be on the Best Of. It’s interesting to note that the US version on Amazon includes Optimistic on disc one, while the UK version listed on Amazon does not.
Disc: 1
1. Just
2. Paranoid Android
3. Karma Police
4. Creep
5. No Surprises
6. High and Dry
7. My Iron Lung
8. There There
9. Lucky
10. Fake Plastic Trees
11. Optimistic
12. Idioteque
13. 2+2=5
14. The Bends
15. Pyramid Song
16. Street Spirit (Fade Out)
17. Everything In Its Right Place
Disc: 2
1. Airbag
2. I Might Be Wrong
3. Go To Sleep
4. Let Down
5. Planet Telex
6. Exit Music (For A Film)
7. The National Anthem
8. Knives Out
9. Talk Show Host
10. You
11. Anyone Can Play Guitar
12. How To Disappear Completely
13. True Love Waits
From the Radiohead press release:
Radiohead will release their new single Nude on XL Recordings on March 31st.
The single, taken from their No 1 album In Rainbows, is available on 7″, CD and to download.
The 7″ b side is 4 Minute Warning and the CD also features Down Is The New Up; both tracks were previously only available on the In Rainbows box set. The Nude UK single will also be available on iTunes in the US on April 1.
Radiohead will be giving fans the opportunity to do their own remix of Nude, details of which will be announced soon.
On April 1, the group will play a very special free concert for BBC Radio 2 at the BBC Radio Theatre, which is in Broadcasting House in central London. Fans can apply for tickets until Thursday March 13 by calling 08700 100 200. Other BBC radio networks will also be giving away tickets on air. Recipients will be chosen randomly.
Some tickets will also be available from www.radiohead.com. Tickets through both the BBC and the website are available only to fans based in the UK.
The group tour North America starting on May 5th and start a European tour in Dublin on June 6. They return to the US in August and will take the tour to Japan in October.
While thumbing through Rolling Stone Brazil, Fernanda Alcantara noticed that Puddlegum is mentioned in the current issue, with Radiohead on the front cover. She took photos and quickly emailed me, after jumping up and down in excitement. Here is the translation from Portuguese to English:
Radiohead’s Enigma
“Out in October 10th - ten years after Ok Computer - the latest Radiohead album, In Rainbows, also has ten letters in its name, besides its 10 songs. This site brings a combined playlist, suggesting that both albums are just one. Believe if you dare.”
BEIJING - In November last year I got a call from a flustered Chinese magazine editor. ‘Would you be able to do an 800 word album review for our December edition?’ she asked, adding ‘by tomorrow?’.
Normally I would have turned this down as the money tends to be poor and the deadline was a bit abrupt, but the magazine in question was Rolling Stone China - re-named ‘InMusic‘ after a disastrous launch left them unable to publish under that name - and the album was Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows‘. Ultimately the prestige of the publication and the immediate relevance of the album (I had it on rotation at that point) saw me sitting down the following day to churn it out.
It was only after I got my copy back that I started to wonder why they had approached me, a westerner, to review such an important album. I met for a coffee with my editor Lua Zhou to ask how it came about…
Lua Zhou: There is a problem with Radiohead. We talked about this in the editors meeting and we found that so many people love Radiohead but no-one has ever clearly said why they are so good. There is no clear answer, no clear review in the past. So I thought maybe I should find a foreign writer to write about it. Especially someone who has experience working in the western music industry, or who is a musician, because they are really a musician’s band - that way we can find out technically why they are good.
Ed Peto: Would none of your writers be more suited to write about Radiohead for the Chinese audience?
LZ: In the past I have given my writers a list of things to write about to make a perfect article: Relationship the musician has with label, what kind of instruments do they use, who is the producer and how have they influenced the music. They all say to me, ‘why do you want to be so technical?’, because Chinese writers are only used to writing things from their feelings.
There is no clear line between categories of music as the genres are not mature enough, it is not so clear what type of music you are playing so things are described in a more general way. Reviewers do lots of comparisons - Say compare this album to Kid A. I don’t think they can do as much technical analysis. Traditionally they don’t do this. They always start with a factual band introduction - which I normally cut - then go into the spiritual side, the meaning of the lyrics and how it makes you feel.
EP: Do you think genre awareness is important?
LZ: I think China is a real mash-up country. We just listen to different stuff. The record shops don’t tell us what is what, they just put all the records together and you take all different styles at the same time.
EP: So would Chinese musicians not understand genres and the recording process and be able to write technically?
LZ: Actually, I included a small interview with a Chinese rock musician after your review. He’s a guitarist from a band (Sound Fragment) that actually quotes some of Radiohead’s songs in their music. He gave me very short answers. He could not explain why Radiohead is good.
Do you listen to Radiohead? : Yes.
How did you hear about In Rainbows? : The Internet.
Why is it attractive to you?: Because they are Radiohead.
Are you satisfied with the album? What do you think of Thom Yorke’s performance?: Surprisingly wonderful experience.
What do you think of how they released this record?: Because they are rich, they can play with their record.
So, when you write about Jigsaw Falling Into Place, it sounds like a band who has very good control of their music, of their skill:
“It is back to the five-guys-in-a-room for album highlight and first single Jigsaw Falling In To Place. If ever there was a song to unite all Radiohead fans past and present this surely must be it. Starting with a simple acoustic guitar riff, then beefed up with bass and drums, then enter the vocals and backing vocals. There aren’t many acts in the world that can build this level of heat from the basics of band music. It just requires the change in vocal pitch to send this into the stratosphere, ready for the smooth middle section on 2.53, once again building to a second climax, now including strings, then winding down to a breathless finish.”
- Excerpt taken from original English draft of my article.
It takes a good technical explanation to show this. Chinese writers would never write like this, how Radiohead make the peak, how they control it with the voice.
EP: How would a Chinese writer describe that song then?
LZ: They would use an image to describe it. I think it is about the language. The Chinese language is more about scenery than English - more emotional. I think English is more technical. Colder.
EP: So what do you think are the advantages to writing in a more cold, technical way? Why do you want to influence your writers in this direction?
LZ: I think we need professionals. It is a basic thing, as a music journalist, you should know how the music is made and then you can go on to talk about the emotional side. Because anyone can write about emotions. After we published this article I sent it to all of my writers and said ‘take this as an example of how western writers write about music’. I think they can do this if they just learn.
EP: Is that not telling them that they do not know how to write?
LZ: Japanese review writers also always talk about their personal life or feelings in the review. I don’t care about their personal life, all I care is if this album good or not, how did they make it, what type of sound it has. I guess this situation in Japan is similar to China.’
N.B: For any Chinese readers wanting to read Chinese music writers, here is a quick list of some of the better known blogs:
EMI and Parlophone are releasing Radiohead: The Best Of on June 2 in the UK and June 3 in the US, while Radiohead is on tour. The release will include thirty songs on two discs, “spanning a 12 year career at Parlophone.” Other formats include digital download and a four vinyl LP version.
Disc: 1
While thumbing through 
BEIJING - In November last year I got a call from a flustered Chinese magazine editor. ‘Would you be able to do an 800 word album review for our December edition?’ she asked, adding ‘by tomorrow?’.
It takes a good technical explanation to show this. Chinese writers would never write like this, how Radiohead make the peak, how they control it with the voice.
