Com Lag EP

RADIOHEADCOM LAG (REISSUE)

For starters, let’s face it: Radiohead will probably never again be half as good as they were in the late 90s. After months of press attention, “Punk Floyd” finally released their long awaited sixth album, Hail to the Thief, in 2004 to much anticipation. The album, a clear caricature of the band’s past work, wasn’t outright injurious, but it certainly left pockmarks the band’s reputation for being inventive and fresh each time out. Following Thief the band’s label, Parlophone, released a Japan-only EP, Com Lag, which was immediately rumored to be the band’s last release for their longtime label. Parlophone has since been exercising their right to milk the band’s lesser known material, starting with the My Iron Lung EP and inevitably working their way up to Com Lag, which was only briefly obtainable in the U.S. at high dollar import prices.

Comprised of 10 tracks from the band’s Thief era, Com Lag carries a full-length price tag due to it’s lengthy tracklist and aging (read: gainfully employed) fanbase. Com Lag is also unique in that it stands as the only Radiohead release that was clearly put together with very little thought or effort. Included on the EP are two live tracks, two remixes, what appears to be a demo version of “I Will” and all five B-sides from the Thief recording sessions. So, more or less, Com Lag is what you get when you dig in the cushions of Radiohead’s couch.

Let’s start with the remixes for “Myxamatosis” (cleverly titled “Remyxomatosis” here) and “Skttrbrain.” Sure, they’re amusing to hear once, but with a dozen or so largely unheard songs from the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions just sitting around, why squander disc space letting a couple of electronic New Jacks blip around with perfectly good songs? Songs like “Fast-track,” “Kinetic,” “Fog,” “Worrywort,” “Cuttooth,” “Trans-Atlantic Drawl,” and “The Amazing Sounds of Orgy” continue to be heard only by obsessive downloaders and folks who’d rather buy an import single than the latest Travis or Coldplay record. Let’s not even get started on The Bends era B-sides or still unreleased OK Computer and Kid A/Amnesiac tracks.

Now, the live tracks. “2+2=5” kicks off Com Lag with what just might be the most accurate live recording in Radiohead cannon. For the most part they stay loyal to all the song’s original moves, but they do so with a whole lot more fire and fight. The other live offering comes in the form of the earlier mentioned Kid A/Amnesiac castoff, “Fog” (here called “Fog Again”). Originally issued as a B-side on the “Knives Out” single, “Fog” is a slow moving, lush track that’s presented on Com Lag as a stripped down piano ballad that immediately brings to mind a more well known Radiohead B-side named “True Love Waits” from Radiohead’s live EP, I Might Be Wrong.

The five B-sides here - originally released  via Thief singles - come off as somewhat folky demos, lacking the customary Nigel Godrich-produced sheen heard on everything since their very early days. Two of the tracks, “Where Bluebirds Fly” and “I Am Citizen Insane,” are half-baked instrumentals that would’ve been better left in the vaults. Com Lag really pays off with the trio of “Paperbag Writer,” “I Am A Wicked Child” and “Gagging Order,” three songs that see Thom Yorke and Co. stretching their legs in the (believe it or not) fitting realm of unpretentious production. The thing, blippy “Paperbag Writer” dances on Colin Greenwood’s dominant bass licks while “I Am Citizen Insane” swaggers through alleys, harmonica and all, as Yorke sings “I am the devil’s son.” “Gagging Order” is, much like “Fog Again,” a simple acoustic song that hangs on Yorke’s every sweetly sung word.

And of course there’s the “Los Angeles version” of “I Will,” a song that originally appeared on Thief. Whether or not the recording is included to tease fans or not is unclear, one thing’s for sure: Radiohead sound really, really good without their typically dripping thick production on “I Will.” The same goes for the aforementioned B-sides.

Likely the best B-side/EP band of their time, Radiohead (or Parlophone, who knows) have finally made yet another valuable collection of rare tracks available to their loyal Stateside fanbase. Com Lag might not be as necessary as Come To Florida, My Iron Lung or Airbag, but it’s undoubtedly worth having in spite of its tossed together nature.   7/10

Written by G. William Locke