Radiohead -- 7 Television Commercials

This DVD brings together a small collection of what are, in my mind, some of the best Radiohead songs to date - from all different albums, this DVD merges different styes and sounds into a beautiful compilation that best documents Radiohead's success since their first album Pablo Honey in 1993.

It's interesting to see how Radiohead have chosen to go about producing some of these videos, in that they subtly avoid what instantly comes to mind when listening to the tracks themselves.

A good example of how Radiohead -- 7 Television Commercials takes a different perspective would be the "Karma Police" video; in which we see a car slowly follow someone down a straight road; his back lit only by the headlights in the darkness. The entire first half of the video consists of one unbroken shot, where we see through a first person perspective (the driver) as the car creeps along after the person infront; as if taunting him. At various points throughout the video, we see the camera turn around to look at the back seat - which, at first, is empty. As the video progresses, the camera swings around towards the back seat again where this time we see Thom leant forward and resting on the back of the seat infront - watching all that is happening through the windscreen. As we move into the latter half of the video, things change as a new camera shot is introduced, this time focusing directly on the victim's face. The background is lit with the headlight of the car in chase, and this hides the identity of the car in a way, giving it a sense of mystery. Next we are taken back into the car and into the eyes of the driver once again. This time, the car appears to be further back than where it was when we left off before when we switched to the face shot. The ending of the video is a real surprise, as we see that the car is leaking a trail of ful onto the road benieth. The subject being chased turns around and reveals a lit match in hand - setting the trail of fuel on fire; the flames catch up to the already reversing car and set it on fire. For one last time, the first person camera looks back at the back seat where we see no Thom as he was before. The video closes with a manic shot of the driver trying to escape and looking around frantically for an exit.

Basically, I found this video in particular to be of great difference to how I imagined it would be before seeing it. This is a typical look at how Radiohead can have some truely great ideas that nobody else thinks of right away.

There is also another video of the same simple theme - and this is "No Surprises" which, again, consists one strong simple idea. This time we see Thom wearing a diving helmet that slowly fills with water. If you look closely, you'll see that as Thom sings this powerful song, the lyrics can be seen in the reflection of the glass fronted helmet. They appear backwards because they are being reflected, but they definately say the exact lyrics, as if Thom is reading them as he sings.

Leaving this simple theme behind now, and on to something very different. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" is the most complex video on here, but is also my favourite.

The video for this track messes with the idea of time, and how it can be slowed down with great effect - the whole thing was shot in black and white film, giving it a different feel once again from everything else on the DVD. This is four videos where we see the whole of Radiohead. I feel that this video was made to concentrate at the idea of time im particular - having a strange mix of real time and slow motion footage in the same shots.

I like this video most of all because of its complexity and style, showing that Radiohead can and still do make unusual yet powerful and subtly emotive material.

"Fake Plastic Trees" is another favourite of mine, although more for it's beauty than its complexity and style. Here we see Thom and the band in a super market as they move down the isles in shopping trollies (an origonal idea, don't you think?) We see different characters along the way which I won't give away for the sake of holding something back for you to see for yourself. The idea of the video is to highlight American culture of the time, and also to question it, as Radiohead seemingly like to do.

The rest of the videos are all great in their own way, too, but it's a good idea if you get this DVD for yourself to see first hand what they have to offer.

So, to wrap up, the better tracks (in order that they appear on the DVD) are :

- Street Spirit (Fade Out)

- No Surprises

- Karma Police

- Fake Plastic Trees

And the other videos that are still good (don't get me wrong) are :

- Paranoid Android

- Just

- High and Dry

You may have your own opinions after watching this DVD and that's fine; remember there is no right or wrong.

So as a final conclusion, this DVD is about questioning culture and society (especially evident in "Just") and brings some fresh and exciting ideas to the table.

A compulsary recommendation!

I hope this review has been helpful to someone, and I hope you find this DVD as inspiring as I have.