Radiohead: South Park, Oxford
Nick Hasted, Uncut, September 2001
IT'S ALWAYS been easy to hate Radiohead, and I always have. There have been undeniable sparks of beauty on every album ('High And Dry' to 'Knives Out'). But Thom Yorke's complaints never seemed to have substance to me, apparently powered by self-hate and contempt for his fellow humans. When the sometimes pompous OK Computer was acclaimed as a deathless masterwork, I wanted to give it a mercy killing, and when Kid A arrived with the secretive self-importance of an interstellar landing, only to sound on first impressions like a whimpering abdication of any attempt at communicating with an audience, it made a frisbeed exit from my life.
Total word count of piece: 752