Review Summary: This respectable EP seems to be a combination of one track from Radiohead's Amnesiac era and their more recent work.
Radiohead never fail to surprise us. Every single one of both their LPs and EPs have been full of almost every genre at one time or another- jazz, psychedelic rock, quasi-dubstep, electronic, experimental, alternative...And although many of us have known Radiohead for about twenty years, we don't really. We never quite know what to expect from them. And this EP is no exception. The album itself is nothing groundbreaking lengthwise (it barely scrapes the nine-minute mark) but the two songs it presents us with are very satisfying indeed.
The first song that hits us is The Daily Mail, which starts off as a moving piano ballad with Thom Yorke on his own, which instantly reinforces the idea that, while he always has been, he is becoming ever more controlling of the band. Yet as the piano becomes slightly more intense and Thom's voice starts to thicken we soon realise that this is not going to be merely a Yorke-only affair. Then Phil Selway's drums kick in (oddly simple and aggressive for Radiohead's recent work, but extremely effective) and we start to realise that this is very different from their last album. Then we start to want more from the members, and as we start to crave the pounding bass that seems to be missing, of course Colin Greenwood bites into the composition along with a small band of fuming brass instruments that ultimately plunge us into Radiohead's Amnesiac era. The furious trumpets and trombones add such panache to the piece but the song quickly fades back onto Thom, and Radiohead is once again his own. The song reminds us though of how its members, that seem to have somewhat lacked 'work' in previous works, are still there and working together to create passionate (and in this case angry) music. Such a shame it is then that this song seems to be over as soon as it starts, at a meagre 3:37.
With Staircase we are instantly pulled out of the Amnesiac nostalgia and placed back into The King Of Limbs. Containing pretty much the layout and style of These Are My Twisted Words, Staircase stays pretty much the same throughout the song, with a more orthodox drumbeat from Phil, and a precise electronic beat from fellow musician Clive Deamer. The bass line from Colin is fitting and delivered on-the-dot, as are the synths and guitar fiddling from Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, however the song seems to lack much driving force in the end, and due to the fact that we don't know where we are headed, Staircase seems to become a dulling almost drone-like tune (for Radiohead standards).
It would perhaps be wiser to rearrange the order of these songs to perhaps keep more consistency and to create some sort of destination for the EP that The Daily Mail provides. While an excellent song, Staircase seems to be lacking any direction, whereas The Daily Mail does quite the opposite.
But no matter in which order you play it, this EP will bring back memories of Radiohead's earlier and newer works and make you wonder in which direction they will be headed in their next exploit.
