Airbag EP

RadioheadAirbag EP (Reissue)For the whole of my adult existence I've considered Radiohead's OK Computer to be the best album I've ever heard. Sure, it's not an original album to pick as a favorite, but there's a reason an entire army of Gen-Xers cue Radiohead's third album up in their car before heading into job interviews they'll never get. It really, really, really is that good. Better than Pet Sounds. Better than Revolver. Better than Born to Run. It's even better than Dark Side of the Moon. But that's all hyperbolic, irrational, subjective malarkey. One thing that's for certain is that OK Computer's accompanying seven-song EP, Airbag / How Am I Driving?, is, by scale, just as conquering - ranking as my personal second favorite EP of all-time (Pavement’s lean, mean Watery, Domestic will forever take the top spot on that list).

Upon its initial limited release, Airbag was marketed as a "mini album aimed at the USA." Soon enough the EP (or as they insisted, “mini album”) was out of print and ultimately largely forgotten by the general music-buying public. Late bloomers who never had a chance to buy the $6 extension of OK Computer were left to either buy the $30 Japanese import version, No Surprises, or pay collectors prices online for a used copy. I, for one, had both the U.S. and Japanese versions; they had different album artwork and slightly different tracklists, but for the most part housed the same lot of first-rate B-sides. Eventually I sold both versions for collector's prices, knowing that someday the band would offer up a proper reissue. I'm very smart when it comes to “mini albums” being reissued.

As predicted, Capitol Records have just reissued Airbag / How Am I Driving? right smack dab in the middle of what seems to be the longest Radiohead drought yet. The EP is presented almost exactly as it was before: no extra songs; no cleaned up sound (doesn't need it); no retrospective essays; and no new fancy packaging. It's basically the exact same, and why shouldn't it be? Would you change anything at all about OK Computer? (If you just said "yes," please forget my name and turn the page.)

As for Airbag’s content, well, all you really need to know is that all six songs are from the OK Computer sessions. If you like OK Computer, then you’ll like Airbag, as none of the songs were left off of OK Computer because they were inadequate, but rather, they just didn’t fit into the puzzle as well as the others. Highlights include the hypnotic “Palo Alto,” the wonderfully disjointed “Polyethylene (Parts 1&2),” the slow-burning “A Reminder” and the wonderfully prog-rockin’ “Pearly.” Like OK Computer, Airbag features loads of layered guitar work by Jonny Greenwood and all of Thom Yorke’s signature paranoid writing and ranting. Basically, Airbag is, to date, the last cohesive glimpse of the pre-Kid A band that damn near changed rock music. Everything since, at best, has offered momentary moments of brilliance, but nothing near The Bends, OK or Airbag. (And yes, Kid A is great for what it is: a follow-up to an impossible to follow up album).

Yeah, Airbag is prog-rock, but thankfully not in the synth-heavy, pretentious, soul patch sort of way. It’d be a damn shame for any Radiohead fan to move onto their free-form jazz phase without first hearing “Pearly” and “Palo Alto” at least a few dozen times.  9/10

Written by G. William Locke