Why Radiohead Deserves a Win at the 2012 Grammy Awards
There aren't a lot of bands that have managed to produce flawless albums one after the other for 26 years, without critics daring to say anything close to a negative comment. Actually, there is, and that band is Radiohead.
Radiohead is one of the most ingenious, innovative bands of today, and anything unenthusiastic said against this group will be combated with a bunch of convoluted explanations from devoted fanatics from all over the globe - from YouTube threads, to forums, to "intellectual" music fan sites.
And the Academy should take notice of this (again).
This eccentric quintet form one of today's most sought-after act, making the band deserve a win for the 2012 ceremony. If this does not happen, the essence of the Grammys will rot in a hopeless box of candy pop and tasteless music (or at least most of the music-listening audience would think so).
Radiohead has won 3 Grammy awards in the past, one for "Ok Computer" (1998), "Kid A" (2001), and their previous release, "In Rainbows" (2009) - all for the same category: Best Alternative Music Album. Their latest full-length record, "The King of Limbs" was released on Feb. 18 and is nominated in the same category. The album will bout with My Morning Jacket, Death Cab for Cutie, Foster the People, and Bon Iver (who should take the award if Radiohead ends their streak) in the category.
Now that The King of Limbs has a single (Lotus Flower) that stretches out to the other categories such as "Best Rock Performance" and "Best Rock Song," it is only fair that it nabs both recognitions. The album is a manifold of different auditory moods and emotional drifts that excites all senses in all possible ways.
After all, the band is against the likes of rock acts that might have taken Radiohead as their inspiration before all of them got started.
Why Thom, Jonny, Colin, Ed, and Phil need to get up on that stage on February 12
Formed in the spring tide of 1985 in Oxfordshire, England, Radiohead emerged into the mainstream with their debut release "Pablo Honey," or what the critics say the nativity of one of music's greatest epiphanies.
The eminent single from the album "Creep" propelled the band into worldwide acclaim and instead of making a mediocre follow-up, the band shed a brand new skin with the album 'The Bends' in 1995. The Bends is a dysphonic train moved by tracks that tug to the hidden, cerebral portions of the listeners' feeling - as if it's a railway to deliver the mind's resistance to the heart's welcoming contemplation.
'Fake Plastic Trees,' a song about the undying love for an addicted lover, is enough for a budding musician to pick up a guitar and compose a similarly-hopeless song, while 'Sulk' makes a listener stick to his or her head and will end up churning the decision afterwards.
Two years later, 'OK Computer' was released, and the rise of the band's popularity escalated into a Velvet Undergound-esque following - a ubiquitous cult that understood beguiling, impeccable, and captivating music without any foolish gimmicks at all.
The honest, well written lyrics and undeniably prodigy-like musicality from the members made OK Computer one of the best albums of the 1990's. With hit singles such as 'Paranoid Android' and 'Karma Police,' the band's sound morphed into a tiny universe of phantasmal and perplexing auditory and (sometimes, mental) trips.
'Kid A' (2000) showed the rich skill of each member, especially guitarist Jonny Greenwood, whose music theory background played much part in recording the album. Skillfulness aside, each track tells a different story about each member, making sure that a couple of hums won't cut the quality quota or critics worldwide.
'Amnesiac,' (2001) was a secondary jolt to the electronic phase the band went through in Kid A. Unlike Kid A that had mellow, placid notes to the tracks, Amnesiac was a full forced nudge of genre-shifting songs without losing the band's personality.
To many, 'In Rainbows' (2003) was undeniably the best album the band has released, with lucid, calming tracks (Videotape, Nude, Weird Fishes), and buoyant licks (15 Step, Jigsaw Falling into Place) mashing the kind of experience and innovation the band continues to offer.
In Rainbows was released electronically and for a time; the band allowed fans to pay as little or as much as they want to make them see the real value of music. Critics suggest that this kind of sublime record deserves all the money cheesy pop stars make in a decade.
Throughout the years, Radiohead's music can be described as an aural journey from the deserts of melancholic, depressing-yet-glorious anthems to the futuristic realms of intrepid and exhilarating beats.
Another reason why Radiohead deserves some of the highest praises in music this year is their unyielding dedication to make music without thinking of it as labor.
"More work? This is a young person's thing. Music is music, and that's f*cking nonsense." says front man and songwriter, Thom Yorke, in an interview.