A Year of Music

Whenever I see Jack Johnson’s name, Pussy Galore’s “Dick Johnson” starts to play in the back of my mind. “Dick Johnson” is sort of, well, the name is as ambitious as the song gets, but I still enjoy it about 50,000 times more than I’ve ever enjoyed anything by Jack Johnson. I honestly lack the capacity to understand how or why people would actively seek out his music.

In other news, Radiohead is coming to town.

When I heard Thom Yorke's solo work back to back with Radiohead's Hail to the Thief just now (thanks, iPod!), it really struck me how underrated Hail to the Thief is. Thom's voice is the main constant between the two ventures, and his singing has always been the most distinctive part of Radiohead's sound, but when I hear the full band come in behind him in "2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)", it becomes self-evident how integral everyone is. There is very little about this album that is anything less than deft and assured. Its problem, as far as I can tell, is that it's too self-effacing and seamless, and given the explicit political context in which it was released, people (including me) were expecting something more balls-out (or political – for all the posturing, this is as inward-looking an album as Radiohead's ever made). Or maybe we were just expecting more of a decisive break after the diptych Kid A and Amnesiac. Either way, there's a lot going on here, most of it interesting.

On a tangent: it always seems to take me a couple years to get into each Radiohead record. First I think it's massively overrated, then I get sort of annoyed with how many avant garde moves Radiohead are stealing from lesser-known, more experimental bands, then I notice all the little details tucked into the corners, then I start waking up with bits of songs stuck in my head, then I find myself just flat-out enjoying the album from start to finish. I have no idea why they're so popular. They're one of the least user-friendly popular bands I've ever heard.