Radiohead’s Fan-Made Mixtape Gets Official Polish on Radiotick Tracks 2

Radiotick Tracks 2 is a strange artifact. It is a Radiohead album that is not really a Radiohead album. Assembled from B-sides, covers and alternate takes, it functions as a fan-made mixtape given official polish — a tour through the band’s discarded corners rather than a statement of intent. It tries to show a group in motion, but motion without direction can just be noise.

Street Spirit Opens

The record starts with “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” and it is a bold move to open with a song many consider the band’s finest. It works. The track’s cold, descending guitar line still cuts deep, and its quiet desperation sets a tone the rest of the record struggles to match. “Killer Cars” follows, a jangly B-side that feels slight next to its predecessor, but it has a nervous energy that keeps it from stalling.

Wonderwall and Blow Out

Then comes “Wonderwall.” The cover is a curiosity, not a triumph. Radiohead strip the swagger out of it, turning the anthem into something brittle and uncertain. It is interesting once. “Blow Out” restores some grit, its noisy climax a reminder of the band’s pre-OK Computer rawness.

Lucky Anchors the Middle

“Lucky” is the album’s anchor. Already familiar from OK Computer, it sounds even more isolated here, its orchestral swell landing like a rescue signal. “High & Dry” follows with its radio-friendly chorus, a song that divides fans but works in this context as a moment of clarity.

Motion Picture Soundtrack Falters

“Motion Picture Soundtrack” is the strangest inclusion — a ghostly, skeletal version that lacks the harrowing grandeur of the later take. It feels unfinished, and not in a good way. “Bullet Proof… I Wish I Was” and “Black Star” are both solid, melancholic cuts from The Bends, but they add little new.

The second “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” is redundant — hearing it twice in one running order dilutes its power.

A Weak Back Half

“Subterranian Homesick Ailen” (the misspelling is in the track list) is a mess. A cover stretched into a loose jam, it lacks the focus of the band’s best work. “Prove Yourself” is early Radiohead, earnest and thin. “Stupid Car” is a minor B-side that should have stayed buried. “You” closes the record with a raw, punky energy that feels like a shrug rather than a conclusion.

• Two versions of “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”
• A cover with a typo in its title
• One OK Computer masterwork
• Several B-sides that explain why they were B-sides

The Verdict

This is a compilation for completists, not a gateway. The sequencing is haphazard, and the weaker tracks drag the stronger ones down. There is no coherent thread — it plays like a shuffled playlist, not an album.

The band’s brilliance is visible in flashes, especially on “Lucky” and the opening “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” But a collection that includes “Wonderwall” and “Stupid Car” is not making a case for itself. It is a document of a band clearing its vaults, and the vaults were not all worth clearing.

5 of 10.

album review · B-sides · compilation · indie rock · OK Computer · Radiohead