“It really has been thought about”: the genre Jonny Greenwood called exhausting
It would be foolish for anyone to try to put Radiohead in any neat box as a band. They started off making alternative rock in the vein of Nirvana and Pixies, but in many ways, the word ‘alternative’ describes their entire presentation, always looking for a new type of music that no one else would usually touch when looking for hits. Although there is little that is off the table for the band when they get together, Jonny Greenwood knew that some genres were best left in the background of their sound.
If there’s one style that they would probably never play again, though, it would most likely be grunge. The whole concept of the band starting off as a wannabe grunge act on Pablo Honey is still treated like a joke by longstanding Radiohead, and while the record itself is inoffensive and genuinely great in some places, it was clear that they wanted to move on to something else once The Bends and OK Computer began.
They were not the same that fluked their way into having a hit on ‘Creep’, and they would spend the rest of their days pulling at the fabric of their sound. Kid A was already their line in the sand, saying that they wouldn’t be a band defined by one album, and everything after has been another creative risk. Sometimes, it would be a return to their old sound on In Rainbows, and sometimes, it would become an orchestral masterpiece like A Moon Shaped Pool.
And going through many of their records, it’s Greenwood’s attention to detail that keeps things interesting. Many people might shower Thom Yorke with praise since he’s the one out front, but Greenwood’s willingness to push himself has been the main reason why they’ve kept things interesting, eventually turning into one of the greatest orchestrators on their albums and only picking up the guitar when absolutely necessary.
“All those records were very pastoral, and they’re preaching about unicorns and dinosaurs.”
Jonny Greenwood
The band was capable of expanding themselves like their heroes did before them, but that didn’t mean going into prog-rock territory. Many critics may have thought they had the 1990s answer to Pink Floyd on their hands when listening to OK Computer, but Greenwood thought he would rather be anything but a successor to bands like Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who were noodling for the hell of it.
For him, that was needless jamming, and the guitarist knew he would easily get bored if he kept going down that road, saying, “The problem with prog stuff is it sounds like it really has been thought about. And it’s exhausting as a result. All those records were very pastoral, and they’re preaching about unicorns and dinosaurs.” And when listening to the band’s approach to music, it’s easy to understand why.
Yes, a lot of their songs lean into different production tricks that are a bit unorthodox, but that was about them serving their influences. Prog bands loved playing with time signatures like Radiohead did on ‘Paranoid Android’, but their love of everything from the jazz style of Miles Davis to the expansive landscape The Police created whenever they made their masterpieces.
So, while the prog-rock explosion may have laid the groundwork for Radiohead to make the music they want to, there’s a distinct difference between how they approach their music and how a band like Yes approach theirs. It was still about progression, but that didn’t mean that it had to be progressive to get its point across.
