(Credits: Press)
Tue 11 November 2025 15:00, UK
Nothing that Radiohead ever did has been about pleasing the masses.
They had made that mistake when trying to make their major label debut, and while that did get them one of their biggest hits, it’s not like they were completely satisfied with the final results. Thom Yorke knew that they were capable of so much more than grunge knockoffs, and every single choice they made afterwards was centred around pushing themselves instead of trying to get that one catchy single.
If anything, it seemed like they were trying to make uncommercial music when they started to become the biggest band in the world. OK Computer was a great way for them to close the door on the 1990s, but it turned out that would be a wave goodbye, especially when you look at how synthetic ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ sounded the moment everyone dropped the needle on Kid A. They needed to move on, and you can feel that restlessness all throughout The Bends.
That didn’t stop them from having hits, though. It’s clear that they weren’t going to repeat the same mistakes of Pablo Honey, but even for as strange as it was, ‘Just’ was one of the greatest songs of the decade that no radio station could have denied. ‘High and Dry’ may have been one step too far towards pop territory for Yorke’s taste, but ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ was almost too beautiful to ignore when the band first began working on it.
The acoustic ditty may have been the closest thing to a traditional ballad that they had in their arsenal at the time, but this wasn’t the same mentality as the 1980s-style ballads. Yorke had seen what someone like Jeff Buckley could do in a live setting, and while he’s nowhere close to that kind of God-given vocal range, there was a certain emotional vulnerability on the record that no one could touch.
So when the idea came in for the band to remix the song for radio with Bob Clearmountain, Yorke was never going to go along with it, saying, “I was called by the American record company insisting, well almost, insisting, that we used a Bob Clearmountain mix of it. I said ‘No way’. All the ghost-like keyboards sounds and weird strings were completely gutted out of his mix, like he’d gone in with a razor blade and chopped it all up. It was horrible.”
In all fairness, Clearmountain was only doing his job half the time. He knew how to make tracks sweeter and create the kind of mix that radio absolutely loved, but let’s take a look at the names he’s worked with. All music legends to be sure, but Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, and Huey Lewis? Yeah, they’re fantastic in moments, but it’s not exactly something that would have worked with Yorke’s voice, or Jonny Greenwood’s guitars, for that matter.
Maybe Clearmountain could have brought out a side of Radiohead that he had when he worked with Roxy Music, but Nigel Godrich was always the perfect person for the group. He was practically the George Martin of the band, and even if their singles didn’t do as well as they could have done, they were far prouder to stand behind songs that showcased them the best than worrying about competing with the likes of whatever Britpop band was climbing up the charts.
‘Fake Plastic Trees’ is far from the band’s best song from a writing perspective, but it would have been a tragedy to see it gutted to shit in post-production. It’s a fairly simple song if you look at everything going on, but even if it doesn’t have the most commercial sound, it has an emotion that no one else could compete with.
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