Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead

[Doc Sarvis]

I am listening now to the second of two solo piano collections of piano music based on Radiohead songs - this one is called "Hold Me to This", the first was "True Love Waits".

I can highly recommend both of these. O'Riley (who hosts a classical music show on NPR I believe) really understands Radiohead music, and reinterprets it in a way that will appeal to everone from Radiohead junkies to Scriabin sonata afficionados (I happen to be both!).

Check them out if you haven't already.

P.S. Not to go off-topic, but this year marks the 10-year anniversary of The Bends, which I belive has taken its place as one of the four or five great "classic rock" albums of all time, right up there with Led Zep and the other greats. Any thoughts on that???

 

[wrhawk]

Hey Doc,

I'm a huge Radiohead fan, and saw O'Riley live last year. I'll grant him that he's a very talented and dedicated pianist, i prefer to leave Radiohead's piano work to Thom. Two things really stuck out when seeing him perform that pretty significantly got in the way of my being able to close my eyes and enjoy the music:
- His 'interpretation' feels like a highlight reel from the recording, as he only has two hands and 88 keys, and as such, some key parts must be left out of the song.
- In being forced to make so much music on such a limited canvas, things tend to spill over, and on a few occasions, his metering would slip or there would be a stutter, and the song'd be lost for me.

Call me picky, but that's how i felt. If you can dig on his recordings, awesome - the piano is a beautiful instrument and what better music to play on it than some Radiohead! However, if you dig around enough, you'll find a few of Thom's live piano works that are sure to impress. 'I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings' and 'Com Lag' are the first to come to mind. Look especially for 'Fog/Alligators in New York Sewers' and 'Like Spinning Plates.'

Also, understand that my nitpicking only applies to a few of the songs he played, and that some of his stuff i whole-heartedly enjoyed. But, in accordance with 'Team Source First' - if i can get the original band, that's who i'll listen to.