'Drill EP' by Radiohead

Pre-dating their debut album by a year, the 'Drill EP' was the first opportunity to listen to Radiohead ever presented to the world at large. The world at large wasn't especially bothered, and looking back with eighteen year's hind-sight, it's easy to see why. It's not a bad record, but it contains little indication of just how brilliant Radiohead were eventually going to be.

There are four tracks here in all, none of which are of much interest to anyone except die-hard fans of the band. 'Prove Yourself' and 'You' would go on to be re-recorded and tightened up for 'Pablo Honey'. 'Thinking About You' would be re-worked more radically. It would eventually become a gentle moment on the debut album - an acoustic interlude amongst the indie-rock. Here, it's a pretty straightforward race to a finish. The final track (not that it comes at the end) is 'Stupid Cars'. It should be the most interesting track on the record, being the only one to never re-appear in any form, but it's actually pretty forgettable. The band would revisit this subject with the far superior 'Killer Cars', but even this wouldn't be good enough to make it as an album track.

So it's okay. As part of the Radiohead back catalogue, it's worth a listen, but if they hadn't gone on to create so many better records, this would be an unremembered footnote to musical history.