Sending the internet ablaze with their 'no more albums' rumor, it comes as no surprise that Radiohead's first release since In Rainbows is an EP. Wall of Ice, which features yesterday's self-released track, "These Are My Twisted Words," delivers a digitally melancholy yet thunderously natural performance.

The title track, "Wall of Ice," is predictable -- for Radiohead. The track's jarring 9/8 timing transitions into a programmed drum beat, similar to "These Are My Twisted Words," ultimately climaxing into the sparse (and puzzling) spoken word chorus, "Time is not a charity/Words so fast/The tale is free." Thom Yorke's dulcet, countermelodious narration offers a biting criticism to internet enemy number 1, the record label. The song (and the accompanying ASCII poem to the EP) is especially relevant, considering Capital Record's impending Radiohead reissues. However, despite this reaffirmation of their musical self-consciousness, the drum track sounds like an offbeat version of 'Pokerface' if Thom Yorke remixed it and autotuned his speaking voice atop it. Trust us when we say that this is a very, very good thing.

"These Are My Twisted Words," the originally leaked single and the second track on the EP, presents itself, ostensibly, to be a hauntingly pleasing tune. But, after listening to it, we are reminded that not all songs are intended to be heard without context. "These Are My Twisted Words," conceptually, musically, and mathematically, serves as a stepping stone of which the other tracks must severely overcome by comparison in order to understand their relative greatness.

The third track, "Berglund Räikkönen (Afterthoughts On)", a tribute song to the first casualty in the Finnish Civil War at the Battle of Asplund, is uncharacteristically subtle to say the least. Yorke's lyrics are heart-wrenchingly moving as they are pulled straight from Berglund's dying words on the battlefield-- in the original Finnish. The track's poignant lyricism is highlighted by a musicality that strives to transpose "Nude" and "Bodysnatchers," swelling with distortion spontaneously, only to be tempered by Yorke's sedating falsetto harmonies. If you thought Thom Yorke was one of the best singers of our generation in English, just imagine his unparalleled conquest of the Finnish tongue.

The closing track, named after their website, "Dead Air Space," attempts to transcend the entire Radiohead-post-album-era listening experience -- and succeeds, simply because the track is not a listening experience in and of itself, but rather, hissing white noise. The track is only 38-seconds long, intended to be an outro to the E.P. While these type of "tracks" are not meant to be judged as full-fledged songs, the quality of the noise is oddly pleasing. It is the denouement to the Wall of Ice EP, a manifestation of the foreboding glacial image, a welcome prophesy of Radiohead's future.



Radiohead - Dead Air Space.mp3
Radiohead - These Are My Twisted Words.mp3
Radiohead - Harry Patch (In Memory Of).mp3

Looks like we don't have to mourn the loss of Radiohead after all.

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