Christopher O Riley has skills that are unmatched as far as musicianship, talent, and overall playing. But instead of singing his own songs [which I'm sure he has], he has dedicated his career so far to playing the hits [and b-sides] of the popular British rock band Radiohead. He is a huge fan of Radiohead and I am a huge fan of Radiohead but I don't think I would put out two cd's of me playing another artist when I could be doing other things. This shows you just how dedicated this man was to bringing the sound of Radiohead to people who love piano and not the aggressive and modern rockers that Radiohead are today.
The playing on here is just unbelievable. Some songs that I don't even recall the beat to such as {Nice Dream] when I hear him playing the piano the lyrics to the rare song even pop into my head. His playing fits the beats of the songs perfectly as he doesn't try to do anything drastic he just plays his favorite Radiohead songs like the CD cover says he will. And he put some surprises in here such as the beautiful "How I Made Millions" the electronic lead "Like Spinning Plates" and the acoustic b-side from HTTT "Gagging Order". Excluding "Like Spinning Plates" I had never had that much love for these songs but Riley's playing really got me into them and made me see how perfectly Thom's vocals would fit his piano playing, "Gagging Order" still amazingly has it's acoustic touch even though it's played on piano. This guy is just unbelievable.
He plays the hits well too. The most epic Radiohead song ever written "Paranoid Android" is were O'Riley proves [and on 2+2=5] that he can handle beat changes even of the likes of Paranoid Android. Instead of taking the easy way out and doing the song in 3 parts, O'Riley does the most difficult Radiohead song all together composing it beautifully. "2+2=5" is lighting quick after the chorus but besides that minimally fast, how is he going to handle such a beat change? As in Paranoid Android he handles it swiftly with as little rough parts as possible in his piano playing. "Talk Show Host", is the attempt to make things a little bit epic a 7-minute version of the song! You can tell that this is one of Riley's favorites as he of course extends the song but plays the keys harder and softer, in rock this is what we call a jam session, in piano [I really don't know what they call it] but I will call it going absolutely crazy and the song ends up being insanely good and one of the best of the album. "Sail To The Moon" is beautiful but the little piano solo at the end makes it an even better song. So Christopher O'Riley is just playing Radiohead, he's remaking it to fit his own style. If O'Riley were Alone On An Island this is how he would want his Radiohead to be played so he is going to jam when he wants to, and keep the songs short and simple when he wants to. You have to admire the production and time he must have put into this to make all of the songs sound absolutely perfect, and he probably should get honored for it. The lack of "Ok Computer" and "Kid A" kind of hurts this album but he still does a great job of putting together the songs he has left over of "True Love Waits". This is just an unbelievable job overall.
But this album just seems to short. Without the vocals of Thom or his singing to it, it just doesn't make as an enhancing experience as the real Radiohead is. I always thought the best Yorke solo album would be him just singing to his beat on piano, hit high notes and kind of just winging it without the electronics and guitar. It would be an overall brilliant album because of how beautiful it would be. O'Riley could have made this come true if he plugged Yorke's voice in, or sang it himself but the album is still just brilliant. The album overall is unbelievable, and it really his a disadvantage since O'Riley used up a lot of Ok Computer and Kid A on the first disc, but this sounds just as good if not better. A great album from a talented musician.
4.5/5
Pros:
Matches the real songs perfectly
Time and production are just wonderful
It is just beautiful overall.
Cons:
There should be some vocals somewhere.
