The band’s history is the stuff of Saddle Creek lore - the all boys private school, the close childhood friendships, the restrained Catholic response to “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” (“You Never Wash Up After Yourself”). Originally released in 1994 (only in Australia) and then again in ’98 (just in time for Christmas), My Iron Lung is an eight song EP that was recorded and released between Radiohead’s first full-length album Pablo Honey and 1995’s The Bends.
While these songs lack both the relatively simple alternative rock of Pablo Honey and the brilliance of The Bends, what we do have is a record of a young band in turmoil, unconfidently switching gears in a depressing sound vacuum. Ten and twelve, guys, ten and twelve. “Lozenge Of Love” is unexpectedly Ryan Adams-ish with its delicate guitar picking and heart on sleeve singing. But thankfully has none of Adams’ unquenchable taste for abundant picturesque landscape adjectives (“The rivers they run/They run until they get too tired”). “Trickster”, oh the drama, the swoon - okay, okay Muse does kind of sound like Radiohead here. The opening of the song is a precursor to the bands awesome OK Computer work.
“Permanent Daylight” shows Radiohead’s technique as a soundscape artist. At first listen the title might seem a reference to Jerry “I’m wearing a diaper” Stahl’s smack addled memoir but no, the song was written in a similar style and out of respect and admiration to St. Sonic Youth. “Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong” - ah that’s the early 90’s Radiohead stuff, all Nirvana comparisons waiting to happen, sweet guitars riffs and fuzzery. “Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong” has a commonality with “Lewis (Mistreated)”: they could be included in Now That’s What I Call Mid-90’s Alt-Rock.
Book ending those six songs in the middle of My Iron Lung that you’ve never heard of is one that would be included in The Bends, title track “My Iron Lung”. At the other end is an unplugged “Creep” – the hit Radiohead had already started to hate. Here “Creep” plays more like an f you, than a nod to the words ‘n sounds that put the band on the map. This sarcastic, almost painful rendition begs the question: What’s filled with more self-loathing, the song (“I’m a creep/I’m a weirdo”), Thom Yorke (“I wish I was special”) or the band as a whole (“What the hell am I doing here/I don’t belong here”)? Strange considering it’s…their song…that…they wrote. Luckily, soon Yorke’s need to express himself artistically would outweigh his self-loathing. Or his self-loathing desperately needed an outlet found in music - one of those. |