radiohead

The Worst Debuts From Great Bands

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There’s a certain art to a good debut.

On the one hand, the debut has to be captivating enough that it can stand as a self sufficient statement on its own. On the other, there has to be enough untapped potential to keep future releases from getting stale. It’s generally a bad idea to just keep releasing the same record over and over again.

But sometimes, even great artists whiff it at their first at-bat. In fact, some of the artists responsible for some of the most gorgeous music ever started their careers with albums that barely have even have a glimmer of what they would go on to create.

Disclaimer: not every album on this list is bad per se. They just fail to offer any sort of representation of what the band would be capable of.

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Record #685: EOB – Earth (2020)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no denying that Radiohead is among the most celebrated outfits in musical history. Much of the talk of their work is centered around two of the five members—singer Thom Yorke and multi-instrumentalist and composer Johnny Greenwood.

However, there is a hidden gem in their shadows in Ed O’Brien. For years, he has been relegated to the background, getting even less attention than Phil Selway, often mentioned in conversations of the best drummers in the world, and even Colin Greenwood, whose bass lines are undeniably groovy.

But now, he has emerged with Earth, his first solo record. And it’s pretty quickly apparent that we need to be apologize for ignoring him all this time.

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2018 Year End Lists

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 2 Comments

At midnight tonight, the earth will continue another circle around our star.

And while it might be a pretty arbitrary marker of time, it’s a great way to group music together to quantify it. And since I am an amateur music critic, I’m obligated to create my own year-end lists.

2018 was a banner year for music—not just because of the relentless onslaught of incredible new albums, but I also saw more shows than ever and discovered a fair amount of music that I missed. And in this article, I’m counting them all down. Continue reading →

Bands Who Did Their Best Work While The Public Wasn’t Paying Attention

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Public opinion is a fickle thing.

Once you catch the public’s attention, it can be difficult to keep it. A hit single is no guarantee that you’ll maintain relevance. Just ask any of the hundreds of artists deemed “one-hit wonders.”

But a number of these alleged one-hit wonders actually have long and storied careers that the general public has largely ignored.

And by God, it makes me so irritated.

Today, I’m counting down my favorite bands whose best work went mostly unnoticed.

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Record #181: Atoms for Peace – Amok (2013)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Fugazi post for tonight’s purchase.

Any new Radiohead-related release is always treated with a heavily stirred mix of eagerness and dread. One the one hand, Radiohead (or Thom solo) has never released anything that was anything less than stunning (Pablo Honey excepting, and I’ll still fight anyone who knocks Hail to the Thief). But every time they release any new material, pressing play is always preceded by a moment of, “what if this is it? What if their talent has run out? What if this is the one where Thom gets too out there?” And given that two of my favorite releases of the two past years were the creeping, skittering King of Limbs and Nigel Godrich’s moody, grooving Ultraísta, my hopes for Amok were high. So high in fact that I purchased the record without being fully convinced that it was worth the money beforehand.

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