Customer Reviews

I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Having seen Radiohead last summer in Chicago, I knew they were awesome live, one of the few bands who can bring studio brilliance to the stage, and I had high hopes when I heard a live cd was being released.

What is on the cd is great, but I docked it a star for the compact length of the album, only 8 songs. They could have EASILY added another 3-4 songs from Kid A/Amnesiac that were mesmerizing live, namely You and Whose Army, Pyramid Song, Packt Like Sardines, or How To Disappear Completely. The only reason I can think of that they kept it this short is that they will release a dvd next year of an entire show, and they didn't want to let too much out of the bag at this point.

What is on the album is excellent though:

1. National Anthem: this song truly transcends the studio version. Colin Greenwood rules on the bass, providing the twangy foundation for the song, and the keyboard and echo effects make one wonder if they are listening to Dark Side of the Moon. Thom is his usual great self.

2. I Might Be Wrong: the song on the album that most closely matches the studio version, though there is some cool jamming at the end of it.

3. Morning Bell: this performance of the song is based on the Kid A version. The song starts out slow and erupts with emotion about 2 minutes in.

4. Like Spinning Plates: Most people will buy this album for two songs, this one and True Love Waits. I am not a big fan of LSP on Amnesiac, but this song is SO GOOD live. The piano brings a tenderness to the song, and Thom's voice bleeds with melancholy. Truly amazing.

5. Idioteque: an interesting change in tempo, following the slow and somber LSP. The song starts out powerfully with Phil's drumming, along with Ed and Jonny's electronic whirly sounds, and it has an edgier sound than on studio version. Thom continues his brilliance on vocals.

6. Everything In Its Right Place: another song that has a more atmospheric, dreamy sound live than the studio version. At the end of the song Thom makes things interesting by kicking in the voice modulation/echo effects.

7. Dollars and Cents: The rhythm section, Phil and Colin, impress again with the beats. Another song I am not too crazy about on Amnesiac that comes alive onstage and has some great improvisations.

8. True Love Waits: glad to finally have this on an album. It is a fitting end, and the highlight, of this live album. Coincidentally, it is also the most simple, just Thom's captivating voice and an acoustic guitar. This song really shows the true versatility Radiohead have. They can move from psychadelic, cutting-edge electronic songs to guitar-based anthems to stripped-down acoustic affairs, and blow us away equally with all of these approaches.

This album would have been better with 3 more songs, and way better if they just had released one single concert they thought was particularly good, but at least we finally got a live album out of them. Get this and enjoy what doesn't come around often enough in the U.S.: live Radiohead.

I Might Be Wrong is a live recording of a set Radiohead took across Europe (Oslo, Berlin, Vaison-la-Romaine, and erm Oxford)in 2001. Minus all the songs that made their name. 3 songs from Kid A, 3 from Amnesiac, 1 that crops up on both those records, Morning Bell, and a new track, True Love Waits. The prospect of listening to the offspring of those two sibling albums: potentially bug-eyed, three-legged and otherwise "seriously" deformed, may not be a particularly attractive one. But I Might Be Wrong has denied modern genetics and is actually a cracking album in its own right.
The National Anthem and I Might be Wrong kick proceedings off. Wired, buzzing, electrified and raw, these songs take on whole new dimensions when performed live.
Morning Bell has now popped up on 3 different albums within 2 years. Bridging the gap between the Kid A original and the more organic, funeral-like take on it during Amnesiac, the song is driven by a gorgeous patter of drums by Phil Selway and a lonely keyboard, or treated piano, motif. Mid-way through, the song suddenly takes off, fuelled by a buzzing electrified *noise* presumably from one or other of Johnny Greenwood's instruments, before all but the drums cut out as Yorke demands "Cut the kids in half, cut the kids in half". The song appears to be about divorce before any of you start getting worried out there. Yorke mutters in deep paranoia, and then an almost religious trance as Greenwood picks out ugly notes on his guitar.
And then comes the most startling track. Like Spinning Plates was one of Amnesiac's more horrible pieces. Eventually the backwards, slightly sickening, swirling track did grow, and take on a spectral landscape feel. Here, however, Yorke is backed only by himself on piano. To say the song is sumptuous is an understatement. A hushed respectful silence falls on the crowd, as Yorke cries out: "I'm living in cloud cuckoo land. And this just feels like spinning plates, Our bodies floating down the muddy river". A gigantic round of applause turns into whoops of delight as the beat to Idioteque kicks in.
Had this been released as a single back with Kid A, I'm sure it would have topped the charts. An infectious, dancey, trippy, electronic piece of *weirdness* containing perhaps the definitive lyrics of this period from Radiohead. Yorke comes alive on the record and round about "We're not scare-mongering, This is really happening, Happening, We're not scare-mongering This is really happening, Happening, Mobiles working mobiles chirping, Take the money and run, Take the money and run, Take the money and run", the whole crowd bursts out into spontaneous sing-along. Now this song is about as far away from Wonderwall, or How You Remind Me as you can get. It just goes to show the breadth and depth of Radiohead's reach. At the end of the song Yorke giggles indulgently and self-congratulatory. The "miserable dwarf"..., can't contain himself. That's how good it is.
Everything in Its Right Place finally kicks in, with yet another beautiful underlying piano motif. The song is as subdued as its Kid A counterpart, and rather suffers from what has preceded it. That's not to say it isn't hypnotic, especially when Yorke's words are somehow cut and split into each other, colliding into one long headache, with the odd word bursting out. As the song apparently deals with Yorke's frustration with the outside world and his messed up head during the OK Computer world tour, it illustrates his feelings perfectly. The wailing pre-natal screech that cuts in at around 5 minutes 30 is deeply unpleasant, and this track certainly won't appeal to those who hated Kid A.
Dollars and Cents follows, another of the weaker efforts from Amnesiac. It is frankly amazing that having ignored songs of the quality of Pyramid Song; You and Whose Army?; Knives Out; Motion Picture Soundtrack and Kid A, (all of which could have been pulled from the parent albums), let alone the numerous crowd pleasers from the Bends and OK Computer era, that Radiohead have come up with such a strong album. Dollars and Cents fully evolves on this offering. From a rather murky, non-descript song on Amnesiac, it is beautifully realised. An organ provides a perfect companion for Yorke's voice, while a threatening bassline rumbles in the background. "We are the dollars and cents, And the pounds and pence, And we're going to crack your little skull" spits out Yorke, before the song ends in a curious Johnny Marr-esque solo, minus any of the playfulness of the Smiths guitarist.
True Love Waits is the absolute highlight. A quiet, acoustic solo-Yorke ballad: it is one of the greatest songs Radiohead have ever done. "I'll drown my beliefs, To have your babies. I'll dress like your niece, And wash your swollen feet." Later Yorke pleads "Just don't leave" in the chorus and states "I'm not living, I'm just killing time". The lyrics and Yorke's voice are haunting, passionate, cold and yet warm. They sum up this record perfectly.
Whatever, this record is a must if you own Kid A and Amnesiac, if only to allow you to go back to those records, and see how the songs grow, once you have heard them in such a raw environment. If you own neither Kid A nor Amnesiac, I would strongly suggest buying Amnesiac first, and then this album. Anyone who loves electronic music, buzzing basses, or spine-tingling ballads with a twist will find something for them on this record. It perfectly completes the triptych. The only question is, where do Radiohead go from here?

This album, in many ways, is a bitter pill for me to swallow. I had tickets to see Radiohead play Bull Run, VA. - a show that was rained out and cancelled. So "I might be wrong" is really the only chance I have to hear the band play material from the last two albums live.

On the whole, the album is very successful. In many cases I prefer the more straight forward or energetic versions performed live to the studio versions. Highlights include the gorgeous "Like Spinning Plates," the frenetic "Idioteque," and the warped and spiraling "Everything in its Right Place."

"True Love Waits" is a beautiful and haunting song, and the version on this album is the best recording of it available, but Thom's vocals sound a little thin compared to bootlegged versions available online. Still, it's great to finally have a CD version of one of my favorite Radiohead songs.

The only disappointing track, for me, is the title track. The dissonance Radiohead has successfully embraced over the last two years just doesn't work here. The album version is clearly superior. Still and all, a nice sampling of Radiohead's tour-de-force live show that will whet my appetite until the next tour, when Radiohead better return the Baltimore/Washington area!

A live compilation from Radiohead's last two (and two most controversial) albums was inherently a risky proposition; it could have turned into a die-hards-only proposition and been even less newbie-friendly. But here Raidohead has struck the right balance. For those too alienated by Kid A and Amnesiac, and those who (rightly) didn't think the hype was really worth it, I Might Be Wrong gives an interesting snapshot of some of the same material - not really changed, but turned up a notch in the live situation. Thankfully there's no "Creep," otherwise I'd have to take it down a star.. in fact, they ignore the previous three albums altogether to highlight their past two releases. The new-but-not-really "True Love Waits" is lonely and sad; only slightly out of place here since it came from the era of The Bends. "National Anthem" burns in a vicious groove. "Morning Bell" ebbs and flows even more than before (it's the Kid A version here, not the dreary dirge it became on Amnesiac). "Like Spinning Plates," minus the half-backwards studio treatment, is beautiful and absolutely spooky. I'd have to say the only tune that's a step down from the original is "Idioteque" - the powerful beat that drove it along on Kid A is reduced to a quiet backbeat, largely due to the sound mix.

Those who disliked the coma approach of those two albums will enjoy hearing some energy here. For those who haven't heard either Kia A or Amnesiac, this could serve as Kid Amnesia Lite - it's a good sampler that doesn't go overboard as a full 60- or 70-minute recording probably would. For those who liked both, well.. it's more of the same, played with a little more fire. Thom still makes half the words unintelligible. The group still stretches and twists and turns within the songs, not making drastic changes but exploring within.

Curious about the Kia A/Amnesiac hype? Pick this one up first; if you like it, buy the others as well.

"I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings" apparently does a great job of capturing the feel of Radiohead during their 2001 tour in support of Kid A and Amnesiac, which is great for people like me who didn't get to catch the tour. Everyone's favorites from the Kid A/Amnesiac duo make an appearance on the live recordings: "Like Spinning Plates" is STUNNING; instead of keyboards or synthesizers, we're treated to a piano accompaniment to Thom's vocals, which makes lines like "I'm being cut to shreds" sound even more haunting. "Idiotheque" is full of energy, you can just FEEL the buzz from the audience on this song, and "True Love Waits", a previously-unreleased track, has about as much, if not more, melancholy than Creep or How I Made My Millions. These tracks alone make the CD worth getting.

Despite the fact that there are some AMAZING (repeat, AMAZING) songs on "I Might Be Wrong", I feel a slight bit cheated: I expect more from Radiohead than a 40 minute, 16 second CD. Come on, I've seen opening bands play this long, if not longer... there's a full thirty-four minutes left on the CD that could have been used for extra tracks, and I KNOW they played on stage for longer than 40 minutes.

It's nice to see an album devoted to live songs, instead of getting the occasional live track on one of their numerous b-sides, but when I'm buying a full album, that's what I'd like: a FULL album. Despite the small track listing, the song quality more than makes up for this fact, making it an album no Radiohead fan should be without.

The last two years have been very productive for Radiohead. Two full length LPs and now a live album. When a band/artist releases a live album it is either as great as their albums (Bob Dylan's Live At Albert Hall comes to mind) or it is very boring and a waste. What makes "I Might Be Wrong" as great as their albums is because instead of trying to recreate the original recordings live, they reinvent the song for live performance making it fresh and organic. Bob Dylan once said that he never listens to his old songs after he records them because he knows them already. I would apply this same quote to Radiohead. They do not see their songs as already set in stone but songs that evolve and change throughout time. I am finally happy to see "True Love Waits" making its way onto album. This has always been one of my favorite Radiohead songs and I'm glad they finally released it. This version is breathtaking and beyond words to describe how great it is. The other highlights are "Idiotque" and "Like Spinning Plates." The "Idiotque" version on this album has so much energy and has great sound effects in it. I never did like "Like Spinning Plates" but the version on "I Might Be Wrong" is amazing. It is done by Thom Yorke on piano. It is the way I think the song should've originally been recorded.

As far as live albums go, this is an excellent one. In order for live albums to be worth their salt they must possess versions of songs that are different than on the studio albums. Radiohead do not disappoint here. 'Like Spinning Plates' is an amazing revelation. I had always been less struck by it than all the other songs on "Amnesiac" until I heard the piano version here. Yorke's vocals are truly extraordinary. 'Everything in Its' Right Place' also benefits from the live treatment, Johnny Greenwood distorts Yorke's vocals with great success and with absolute relevance to the song itself.

'The National Anthem' and 'Idioteque' are naturally great live tracks, and the versions presented here, although not radically different from the originals on "Kid A," are nevertheless fantastic.

The gem of this album, and it is worth the (dollar amount) alone, is the previously unreleased 'True Love Waits.' It is an acoustic effort from Yorke, and it is a wonderful addition to an otherwise mostly expected set of songs.

This should appeal to both the Radiohead afficionado as well as to the relative newcomer.

Considering how some jaded critics said how impenetrable Kid A and Amnesiac are, the live reworkings of seven of the albums' songs on I Might Be Wrong are a remarkable statement by Radiohead. Not only do Radiohead deftly recreate the sound of their past two albums in a live setting, they actually make all the songs sound better than the studio versions.

I Might Be Wrong is less a live album than a remix EP, and thankfully, the crowd noise is kept to a minimum in the mix so listeners can enjoy hearing Thom Yorke, Johnny Greenwood, and Company deliver blistering, desperately urgent versions of 'The National Anthem', 'I Might Be Wrong', and 'Idioteque'. The quickened pace of the title track alone is chilling, while 'Idioteque' works strangely well as a stadium rocker. More downtempo songs like 'Morning Bell' and 'Dollars And Cents' showcase the band's skill at subtle accompaniment to Yorke's impassioned vocals. 'Everything In Its Right Place' posesses as many kooky effects as the studio version, but also an all-too-human flub at the beginning, and the band hardly miss a step and begin a few bars later.

The most startling improvement is on 'Like Spinning Plates', a song which I originally considered to be Amnesiac's worst. Instead of being an indecipherable miasma of loops and effects, the song is given spare treatment, in the form of a piano ballad, and the result is enthralling. The previously unreleased track 'True Love Waits', which goes as far back as 1995, makes a long-overdue appearance, in atypically simple form, just Yorke and his guitar, and compared to Kid Amnesiac's esoteric lyrics, the song is startlingly honest.

I Might Be Wrong is so surprisingly good that it makes one wish for a complete live recording, either on cd or dvd. Besides, many of Radiohead's fans, like myself, live in cities where they'll never, ever visit. Radiohead is a terrific live band, and proof that you don't need big power chords to connect with the audience, and this new live collection leaves you thirsty for more.

What can I say? This live cd is really great. You get the true experience of listening to a Radiohead concert. These tracks are not just the studio versions played live. No! These are tracks with new energy, new arragements, and at times new instrumentation. For example "National Anthem" has a new intro with Thom doing a crazed human-beatbox vocal which add a great new dynamic to the song, not to mention the bassline being really fuzzy, making for the ultimate groove. On "idioteque", Phil helps out on acoustic drums to complement that techno beat. Finally on "like spinning plates", instead of the weird/warped/backward studio version, here it is a piano piece with synth strings swooshing in and out with the rest of the band warping Thom's vocals.
So, these songs are bigger and def. better than their studio versions. A def. must for those wanting the definitive radiohead live as well and cool versions of their studio favorites. All the songs were recorded in Oxford, Oslo, Berlin, and Vaison La Romaine.

ps
you also get "true love waits", thom and acoustic guitar, a song they have played for years but never officially released!

I wouldn't really consider myself a casual fan, but I do prefer "The Bends" and "OK Computer" to the newer stuff. Having said that, this CD is great.

If you like "Kid A" obviously you will like this, (even though if you are reading this, lets be honest, you probably own both) but if you are like me and didn't take to "Kid A" right away, this is still a great album.

The recordings are really good and the "True Love Waits" track is a lot higher quality than the bootleg one you downloaded-and it's easily worth the price of the CD to finally have this elusive song.

The "Kid A" material is great and showcases what makes Radiohead such a great act. The energy in the performance gives the songs a different, more welcoming feel and you even hear guitars occasionally

Extremely highly recommended; every song is excellent.