CD Reviews

Easy Star All-Stars

Radiodread | Easy Star

By WILL SPITZ | August 29, 2006

3.0 Stars

This album has me worried. Am I really such a fawning fanboy that I’ll swallow whole any Radiohead tribute? Crunk Radiohead, classical Radiohead, jazz Radiohead, electronic Radiohead — I’ve enjoyed ’em all. And now this: a song-for-song reggae interpretation of the Best Band in the World’s masterpiece, OK Computer. (Well, their true magnum opus is Kid A/Amnesiac, but we can sweep that little detail under the rug for now.) Sounds ridiculous, right? No, really: the Easy Star All-Stars and Easy Star in-house producer Michael Goldwasser — the same folks who brought us Dub Side of the Moon — have put together a well-conceived and expertly executed tribute with the help of a cast that includes Toots Hibbert, Citizen Cope, and Israel Vibration. That’s not to say Radiodread isn’t without missteps like the cringe-worthy histrionics on the chorus of “Subterranean Homesick Alien.” But “Exit Music (For a Film),” a creepy tune reimagined as an even creepier dub track, and “Let Down,” played with a jaunty ska beat, sound as if they could’ve been written and recorded by friends of the Wailers back in the ’70s. Or maybe I’m just a hopeless Radiohead fanboy.

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Topics: CD Reviews , Radiohead, Citizen Cope, EASY STAR ALL-STARS

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