Present Tense: A Radiohead Compendium

by Barney Hoskyns

' Present Tense is an anthology to savour . . . giving you as sharp a portrait of this unknowable band as you could hope for . . . Radiohead fans will love it' Classic Rock

A Rock's Backpages anthology of Radiohead, the most radical and fascinating rock band in modern music history, edited and introduced by Barney Hoskyns.

For over 25 years, Radiohead have been the most radical and fascinating rock band in the world. Fearless in their desire to change and shape-shift, the Oxfordshire quintet has - through the nine studio albums from 1993's Pablo Honey to 2016's A Moon-Shaped Pool - consistently stretched the boundaries of what 'rock' means and does. Anchored in Thom Yorke's soaring voice and elliptical lyrics, and in the compositional genius of guitarist/keyboardist Jonny Greenwood, Radiohead continue to astonish as they approach their fourth decade.

Present Tense collects the best writing on this most literate of pop groups, from the earliest local reports about On A Friday - Radiohead's first moniker - through the inspired commentary of Mark Greif and Simon Reynolds to the trenchant profiles of Will Self, John Harris and others. It's an anthology that goes a long way towards explaining what Rock's Backpages editor Barney Hoskyns describes as the band's 'seriousness, emotional grandeur and willingness to stare humanity's dystopian hi-tech future in the face'.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

299 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2019

Reviews

[Richard Fletcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be a bit of a mixed bag. This is, in part, because I didn’t appreciate that the book was a collation of articles, rather then a biographical book. Which makes my judgement a little unfair but, here it is anyway.

I thought the book nicely tracked the band’s progress using interesting opinions written at the time of their releases. At the height of their power around OK Computer and Kid A you get very in-depth musical and cultural breakdowns. These are interesting but come with a fairly thick layer of pretentious rhetoric. Both fascinating and tiring when read cover to cover.

I would have liked In rainbows to have been covered in the level of detail shown to other albums. But, perhaps this is an indication of how the album was received at the time.

I liked the concept of stitching together articles from music publications and much of it did resonate with me. But reading it cover to cover on a train rather than sitting and comparing my thoughts to that of the journalists dampened the experience for me.

[drdrwhite · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides the occasional insight into the band and I also found it enjoyable to read some of the reviews of albums when they were first released. Overall you'll probably enjoy it as much as you enjoy any music journalism - there's plenty of pontificating and waffle, but also some real gems.

[Craig McQuinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should probably listen to this band one day.

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some excellent pieces in this selection of writing about Radiohead, culled from the archives of music journalism website, Rock's Backpages. Clare Kleinedler's 1996 Q&A is illuminating, Will Self's 2003 stroll round Oxford with Thom is entertaining and Simon Reynolds on Kid A opens with a fascinating meditation on British rock music.
Elsewhere, though, there is too much filler. Mark Greif's essay, which the editor, Barney Hoskyns, says "may be the most extraordinary thing ever written about the group" has been anthologised already at least twice, including once in another collection of Radiohead writing.
Ronan Munro's early writing on the band is indeed prescient but whether an editor with more material to choose from would have put in three of his pieces is debatable. As is the inclusion of three pieces from Wyndham Wallace, who is competent but not as talented a writer or as perceptive a critic as some of those who appear just once, such as Paul Lester, Nick Kent or Hoskyns himself.
It's in the final section of the book, covering 2007-2016, where the sparsity of the Rock's Backpages archive becomes clear. A search of the website reveals that Hoskyns has thrown in pretty much everything the site has. The only In Rainbows review available is one from a critic who seems not to have listened very closely; it's only true that "Yorke has never written a more direct love song than [...] All I Need" if one listens to the chorus and none of the other lyrics. Meanwhile, the King of Limbs review comes from the BBC website, rather than a major music publication, and is by a writer so little-known that even Hoskyns has forgotten to include him in the list of contributors. There's no review of A Moon Shaped Pool at all because, well, Rock's Backpages hasn't got one.
Making up numbers - why else include them? - are a review of one of Phil Selway's solo albums, which even the writer admits is not great, and a review of Thom Yorke's side project, Atoms For Peace. Neither of Yorke's solo albums merits a review.
Radiohead obsessives will find lots to enjoy here but those seeking a complete overview of the band's career won't find one. In hardback, this costs £20 in the UK. It isn't worth half that. Wait for the paperback.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Это просто хороший сборник интервью моей любимой группы.
Самое приятное в этой книге – это чувствовать эволюцию Radiohead по изменяющемуся отношению прессы к их творчеству.

[Gulnaz Davletshina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Полюбила Radiohead еще больше 🩶

[среда јуниор · Rating 5 out of 5]

greatest band in the world

[Mathew B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read!!

Learned some new things about Radiohead:
- initially named “On a Friday”
- name then changed to Radiohead, based on the Talking Heads song
- all band members are super educated and have differing personalities but it all somehow gels all together perfectly.

Would recommend this to fans of the band, I think seeing Thom Yorke live this year inspired my purchase.