#com lag (2plus2isfive)

Fog - Radiohead

For nearly every album in their career, Radiohead have released an accompanying EP, which often merely collects the b-sides of the LP's singles. In this case, Com Lag includes live tracks, remixes, and alternate versions from Hail to the Thief, which now feels like something of a transitional album for Radiohead. After the experimentation of Kid A and Amnesiac, HTTT seems a bit overstuffed and underdeveloped. In fact, it remains their longest album, both in number of tracks and running time. So what to make of these leftovers from their most unwieldy album?

Given Radiohead's propensity for developing songs over an extremely extended period (I believe In Rainbows' "Nude," for instance, predates OK Computer from a decade earlier), perhaps it's not surprising that several of the studio tracks on Com Lag are more in line with The King of Limbs than either HTTT or In Rainbows. 

Give a listen to the jittery "Where Bluebirds Fly," which concludes Com Lag: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qtPe_SyZuM

Or "Paperbag Writer," a track that blends almost overwhelmingly tense atmospherics with a disarmingly bouncy bass line: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qKH5VwvnYA

Both tracks wouldn't feel out of place on TKOL, which includes songs that have a similarly stitched-together dynamic. Really, does either track feel much different than TKOL's "Feral" (a favorite of mine from an album on which I'm still a bit lukewarm): 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajdqdCbvGY

Aside from the neurotic, glitchy tracks, Com Lag features a few somewhat "traditional" guitar-oriented songs that I just don't find as interesting: "I Am a Wicked Child" and "Gagging Order." Both are fine, but they're truly b-sides, rather than alternate paths that the band might have taken for the full-length album. 

Finally, I have to point out the lovely piano-only performance of the Amnesiac b-side, "Fog." For some reason, the live version is titled "Fog (Again)," and Yorke's vocals seem a bit sped-up, especially compared to the studio version. Still, it's a nice inclusion, given how distinct the two renditions are from one another. Here's the Com Lag version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlDdaaE0DQ

And the studio version from the "Knives Out" single, which I prefer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxh5rq_CGJI