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I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings

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For the song, see Amnesiac (album).
I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings
Live album by
Radiohead
Released12 November 2001
RecordedMay–August 2001
Genre
Length40:11
Label
Radiohead chronology
Amnesiac
(2001) 		I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings
(2001) 		Hail to the Thief
(2003)

I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings is a live album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 12 November 2001 in the UK by Parlophone and a day later in the US by Capitol Records.

I Might Be Wrong comprises performances of songs from Radiohead's albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), recorded during their 2001 tour. It also includes an acoustic performance of "True Love Waits", a song Radiohead did not release until their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool. As the songs had been developed through studio experimentation, Radiohead rearranged them for live performance.

I Might Be Wrong received mainly positive reviews. Critics praised the performances and arrangements, but criticised its brevity and lack of earlier Radiohead songs.

Content

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I Might Be Wrong comprises performances of songs from Radiohead's albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), recorded during their 2001 tour.[1] It also includes a performance of "True Love Waits", by the singer, Thom Yorke, on acoustic guitar.[2][3] Radiohead did not release "True Love Waits" until their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.[3]

As Radiohead had developed Kid A and Amnesiac through studio experimentation,[4] they rearranged the songs to perform them live. For example, the electronic track "Like Spinning Plates" was rearranged as a piano ballad.[2] The guitarist Ed O'Brien said: "You couldn't do Kid A live and be true to the record. You would have to do it like an art installation ... When we played live, we put the human element back into it."[5] The drummer, Philip Selway, said Radiohead "found some new life" in the songs when they came to perform them.[5] Yorke said: "Even with electronics, there is an element of spontaneous performance in using them ... It was the tension between what's human and what's coming from the machines. That was stuff we were getting into, as we learned how to play the songs from Kid A and Amnesiac live."[6]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic76/100[7]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[9]
Entertainment.ie[10]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[11]
Mojo[12]
NME[13]
Pitchfork8.0/10[2]
Q[14]
Rolling Stone[15]
StylusA−[16]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, I Might Be Wrong has an average score of 76 based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[7]

The Entertainment.ie critic Andrew Lynch wrote: "Unlike most live albums, this one captures some of the excitement of actually being there and gives Radiohead back the human dimension they've recently been in danger of losing."[10] Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club wrote that the album "cast new light" on Kid A and Amnesiac.[17] In Rolling Stone, Jonah Weiner described it as "explosively raw", praising the "twisty, insular" performance of "Idioteque" and Yorke's "beautifully chilling" vocals on "Like Spinning Plates".[18] Matt LeMay of Pitchfork also praised "Like Spinning Plates", saying it showcased Radiohead's "songwriting virtuosity rather than their sonic adventurousness".[2]

LeMay said the performance of "True Love Waits" was "absolutely gorgeous" and that the song "holds its own" against any on Radiohead's 1997 album OK Computer.[2] He felt it justified the release of the live album, along with "Like Spinning Plates".[19] Ted Kessler of NME praised Yorke's vocals on "True Love Waits" as "clear and true".[13] However, the critic Mac Randall felt the performance, with "whiny" vocals, was inferior to a widely shared bootleg version. He wrote: "One gets the feeling that this was a song Radiohead knew they liked and knew audiences liked but the band never came to grips with an arrangement for it; finally they threw up their hands, putting it out as it is."[20]

Several critics felt I Might Be Wrong was too short. Thompson found it "marred by characteristically unrevealing packaging and inexplicable brevity".[17] Randall wrote that its brevity made it "something of a letdown", and that the lack of earlier Radiohead songs meant it did not capture "anywhere near the scope of a real Radiohead concert".[20] LeMay also criticised the lack of older songs, and said the album had the feeling of a "promotional item" for Kid A and Amnesiac.[2] Sam Samuelson of AllMusic suggested it could instead have been packaged with Amnesiac as a complete package from the Kid A sessions, rather than a "couple of thrown-together releases".[8]

Reissues

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Radiohead left EMI after their contract ended in 2003.[21] In 2007, EMI released Radiohead Box Set, a compilation of albums recorded while Radiohead were signed to EMI, including I Might Be Wrong.[21] Radiohead had no input into the reissues and the music was not remastered.[22]

In February 2013, Parlophone was bought by Warner Music Group (WMG).[23] In April 2016, as a result of an agreement with the trade group Impala, WMG transferred Radiohead's back catalogue to XL Recordings. The EMI reissues, released without Radiohead's consent, were removed from streaming services.[24] In May 2016, XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl, including I Might Be Wrong.[25]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Radiohead, except where noted

I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)VenueLength
1."The National Anthem" Vaison-la-Romaine, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
28 May 2001
4:57
2."I Might Be Wrong" South Park, Oxford, England
7 July 2001
4:52
3."Morning Bell" South Park, Oxford, England
7 July 2001
4:14
4."Like Spinning Plates" Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH, USA
8 August 2001
3:47
5."Idioteque"Arthur Kreiger, Paul Lansky, RadioheadSouth Park, Oxford, England
7 July 2001
4:24
6."Everything in Its Right Place" Vaison-la-Romaine, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
28 May 2001
7:42
7."Dollars and Cents" South Park, Oxford, England
7 July 2001
5:13
8."True Love Waits" Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, Norway
9 September 2001
5:02
Total length:40:11

Personnel

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Adapted from the liner notes.[26]

Release history

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Country Date Label Format Catalogue number
United Kingdom 12 November 2001 Parlophone LP 12FHEIT 45104
CD CDFHEIT 45104
United States 13 November 2001 Capitol Records CDP 7243 5 36616 2 5

References

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  1. ^ Marianne Tatom Letts (8 November 2010). Radiohead and the Resistant Concept Album: How to Disappear Completely. Indiana University Press. pp. 156–167. ISBN 978-0-253-00491-8.
  2. ^ a b c d e f LeMay, Matt (17 December 2001). "Radiohead: I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings". Pitchfork. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  3. ^ a b Reilly, Dan (10 May 2016). "The 21-year history of Radiohead's 'True Love Waits', a fan favorite two decades in the making". Vulture. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  4. ^ Fricke, David (24 May 2001). "Radiohead warm up with Amnesiac". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Radiohead take Amnesiac on tour". Rolling Stone. 21 June 2001. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  6. ^ Fricke, David (27 June 2003). "Bitter prophet: Thom Yorke on Hail to the Thief". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  7. ^ a b "Critic Reviews for I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings". Metacritic. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  8. ^ a b Samuelson, Sam (2001). "I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings review". AllMusic.
  9. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Radiohead". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  10. ^ a b Andrew Lynch (14 November 2001). Radiohead – I Might Be Wrong review Entertainment.ie. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  11. ^ Brunner, Rob (7 December 2001). "I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings". Entertainment Weekly. p. 105. Archived from the original on 6 September 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  12. ^ "Radiohead – I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings EP review". Mojo: 114. December 2001.
  13. ^ a b Kessler, Ted (7 December 2001). "Radiohead – 'I Might Be Wrong' review". NME. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  14. ^ "Radiohead – I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings". Q (#184): 127.
  15. ^ Moon, Tom (22 November 2001). "Recordings: Radiohead, I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 15 December 2001. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  16. ^ Keith Gwillim (1 September 2003). Radiohead – I Might Be Wrong – Review Archived 4 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine Stylus. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  17. ^ a b Thompson, Stephen (12 November 2001). Radiohead: I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings Archived 13 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine The A.V. Club. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  18. ^ Weiner, Jonah (20 June 2016). "Radiohead: A Complete Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  19. ^ LeMay, Matt (17 December 2001). "Radiohead: I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings". Pitchfork. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  20. ^ a b Randall, Mac (1 February 2012). Exit Music: The Radiohead Story Updated Edition. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-1-4584-7147-5.
  21. ^ a b Nestruck, Kelly (8 November 2007). "EMI stab Radiohead in the back catalogue". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
  22. ^ McCarthy, Sean (18 December 2009). "The Best Re-Issues of 2009: 18: Radiohead: Pablo Honey / The Bends / OK Computer / Kid A / Amnesiac / Hail to the Thief". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 20 December 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  23. ^ Knopper, Steve (8 February 2013). "Pink Floyd, Radiohead Catalogs Change Label Hands". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  24. ^ Christman, Ed (4 April 2016). "Radiohead's Early Catalog Moves From Warner Bros. to XL". Billboard. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  25. ^ Spice, Anton (6 May 2016). "Radiohead to reissue entire catalogue on vinyl". The Vinyl Factory. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  26. ^ I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings (liner notes).
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