Search - Radiohead :: I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings

Very good

finulanu | Here, there, and everywhere | 05/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A compilation of what I believe to be the Kid Amnesiac-era tour, considering that out of these eight songs, three are from Amnesiac and four are from Kid A. And really, that's all I can come up with about this album. It's certainly good, but it's only necessary for the converted. However, if you are converted, you'll find that there's a lot to like, including the huge reworking of "Like Spinning Plates", when it becomes a thoroughly beautiful piano ballad! Yes, that's right, it goes from some crazed, frigged-out avant-techno experiment to that! How did that happen? Well, however it happened, I like it. "Dollars and Cents" is also massively improved upon, removing the freaky noises and as such turning it into a somewhat great song. And the moody "True Love Waits", which never made it on a studio album, is the other fantastic highlight. Thom Yorke's falsetto and his acoustic guitar are a very good combination. On the other hand, "Morning Bell", "Idioteque", and "I Might Be Wrong" are nothing to write home about. If you've heard the originals (and I'm assuming you have), you're heard the remakes. They don't do anything particularly wrong, since "Morning Bell" and "Idioteque" so happen to be two of the best songs from Kid A (same with "I Might Be Wrong" on Amnesiac). It's just that, given what they do to "Like Spinning Plates", there was so much more potential. Come to think of it, the only song I'm really unimpressed by is "The National Anthem". Yorke's vocals just don't do the job for me, and the barely audible vocal scatting taking the place of the crazy horn section ruins the song. Let's face it, two or three people singing scat isn't going to wipe you out the way a horn section blowing whatever they please does. The remake of "Everything in Its Right Place" isn't the best, either. Still, it's interesting to hear Radiohead take some of their most challenging songs and put them in a live format, most of the songs are good, and none of them is bad. So it's a worthwhile addition to any Radiohead collection."