“Nightmare industrial rock”: The band that knocked out Thom Yorke
Radiohead being viewed as one of the country’s most beloved bands isn’t by virtue of one major hit. It’s largely down to a sustained period of artistic greatness that has seen a band deliver album upon album of well-crafted songs and major headline shows. But that being said, their most recognisable song to date, the one a crowd of semi-interested fans at a festival show will be guaranteed to sing along to, came almost immediately: ‘Creep’.
The phrase “burst onto the scene” is used lightly in music, and rightly so. It’s a term readily made for a reductive point of view towards art, but for a band’s debut single to be deemed one of the greatest songs of the 20th century, it makes a strong case that a scene bursting has just occurred.
What followed was a band that dodged the pigeonhole at every corner and continued a creative pursuit in the hope of innovative authenticity with every release. From their debut Pablo Honey to Ok Computer and In Rainbows, Radiohead’s discography flexed emotional depth, textural exploration and nuanced lyrical delivery that questions the human condition of every era they find themselves in.
But for any band who experiences commercial success upon their first release, the inspiration for narrative and perhaps creative vision is a well that could dry dangerously quickly. The outsider looker in view on the world becomes difficult to maintain when you’re a commercial superstar, but to Radiohead and particularly Thom Yorke’s credit, it’s a position they’ve managed to maintain and much to the benefit of their music. But where does the inspiration come from for a band who are inspiring others?
In a 2008 interview with NPR, their next album being King Of Limbs at that point, Yorke noted The Liars and their album Drums Not Dead as a body of work that turned his head more than any other.
“They moved to Berlin and it’s like all over the record in the most extraordinary way,” Yorke said. “They’re essentially, well they started out as a, I hate the term art rock, but that’s kind of, if you want to do it briefly, that’s what it was. Then by the time they made Drums Not Dead, they seemed to basically be… they’re obviously going out clubbing all the time. But they were still using their instruments too, just creating this nightmare industrial music but using you know quite soft and sensitive sounds, and lots of drums, surprisingly enough.”
To a fine tuned ear like Yorke’s, their sound has that complex textural palette whereby “nightmare industrial music” offers nuggets of human relatability ready to be harvested into Radiohead’s creative flow.
Continuing about Drums Not Dead, Yorke said, “It’s as much about the way the record’s put together for me. I don’t know how on earth they arrived at the thing they did, basically, after listening to it endlessly in my car. I still haven’t got it worked out.”
The irony is that admirers of Radiohead’s most complex work would argue the same. With King Of Limbs coming shortly after this interview, it’s arguable that tracks such as ‘Lotus Flower’ and ‘Feral’ were born from this period of inspiration. With metallic staggato stabs punctuating the rhythm sections of both those songs, it seems that Yorke was inspired by the sensitivity of that soundscape and how it related to the societal landscape of the time – one that was enduring the beginning of some major technological changes, that feel perhaps more pertinent than ever in 2024 and as such, confirming the timelessness of Radiohead’s work.
