Will they influence the Radiohead album?...
Scott Colothan

16:14 24th January 2007

Thom Yorke has unveiled his favourite contemporary songs through iTunes, perhaps giving us an insight into what the next Radiohead album will sound like.

The singer hand-picked his choice ten tracks to appear on his ‘Celebrity Playlist’ – joining the likes of Brian Wilson and Samuel L Jackson who have submitted theirs in recent months.

After immersing himself in Warp records in the late Nineties then, churning out the baffling electronic masterpiece that is ‘Kid A’, the question is whether his eclectic choices will be sculpting his band’s ever-evolving sound.

Amongst those included on the list are Gigwise cover star Bat for Lashes, New York experimentalists Liars, the criminally under-rated Dears and former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus. However, his favourite record of last year was Spank Rock’s ‘What It Look Like.’

Whether this list gives us an insight into what the new Radiohead will be like is anyone’s guess.

His full playlist and all the blurb is as follows:

"dear iTunes listener . . .
this is just some stuff that really floats my boats at the moment. the list is meant to be played from start to finish in the order you see it with a slight crossfade set in the preferences of 4 seconds like an old mix tape.
err . . . maybe. XX love thom

[Bat for Lashes] "Horse and I" (Track 1): "natasha khan of bat for lashes ain't scared. i love the harpsichord and the sexual ghost voices and bowed saws. this song seems to come from the world of grimm's fairytales, and i feel like a wolf."

[Modeselektor & Sasha Perera] "Silikon (Featuring Sasha Perera)" (Track 2): "Hello Mom! break this. into your drink. then stir it. drink down in one go. then go out. for conspicuous consumers everywhere. 'should a known he'd leave you for that little hooker heather.' oh yeah. Modeselektor are genius. no-one has ever cut up a voice like this."

[Madvillain & Medaphoar] "Raid" (Track 3): "i'd play this on the radio and get your moving your ass in a traffic jam 1st thing in the morning . . . if i was a dj, which i'm not. some people know how to sample. some people know how to rap. but then there's those who show you how it's really done . . . like these guys. produced by quasimoto."

[Stephen Malkmus] "I've Hardly Been" (Track 4): "genius non-generic nutville not rock music. should have been a hit. i guess this compilation is POP music - at least it is to me . . . with the best guitar solo that never happened . . . "

[Surgeon] "Scorn" (Track 5): "this is like the storms that await us in our future. i found Surgeon after OK Computer, it is the true sound of post-rave darkness. this is an early one from my favorite bits of vinyl, Basictonalvocabulary."

[The Dears] "No Hope Before Destruction" (Track 6): "i heard this a while ago and it has stuck in my head ever since. the way the voice comes in and your speakers freak out. and what he's saying. it sounds all soppy, oh but then all hell breaks loose. i don't know much else by them."

[Boxcutter] "Skuff'd" (Track 7): "i love this record because of the lizard bass sound. i don't know nothing about it. turn the drum machine on."

[Quasimoto & Madvillain] "Closer" (Track 8): "quasimoto and madvillain have done some amazing records. madvillain has the best rhymes . . . nursery rhymes mixed with stream of consciousness and venim and straight observation that read like poems. and quasimoto's way of constructing tracks is like nothing else."

[Liars] "Drum Gets a Glimpse" (Track 9): "more terror from the subconscious. i love LIARS. they make records that are as good as my favorite records. records that make you think what the f- is this? and then you fall head over heels for it. this and Spank Rock's YoYoYoYoYoYo are my fav records last year."

[Spank Rock] "What It Look Like" (Track 10): "when this record came out last year, it cut through all the sh*t for me. it was like a slap 'round the face. the computers speaking over their reference points and pointing to something brand new. turn it up. night night."


Photo: Sharjo