It's hard to believe that it's 20 since this came out and many a track would be a staple of my Futuristica Music sets on a Wednesday night (especially in Freshers Week) but this is the only place where Radiohead tracks sit comfortably between warm, soulful cuts and hip-hop, house an leftfield electronica!
Back in 2006, Radiohead were the thinking man's pop/rock, I distinctly remember a barmaid singing along to 'Creep' on the pub jukebox at the time as though he was a doing a full on Oliva Newton-John on the karaoke; possibly why the executive producers didn't include thier big indie hit (Ed. Must ask Lee Bright).
Even now, Oxford's finest split oppinion. I played the unplugged version of 'No Surprises' at a Vinyl club night very recently and overhead some say, "this is depressing" and someone else
say at the end, "what a brilliant song that is". Well, no surprise that Shawn Lee (he of many a project, see HERE) takes his version of 'No Surprises' to a wonderous Christmas card hip-hop funk.
And that, individualism is evident throughout this compilation, often where 'modern' artists team up in unusual combinatios, which results more than stands the test of time. Perhaps at one end, Morning Bell by The Randy Watson Experience featuring Doon to Mark Ronson featuring Alex Greenwald ('Just') - (Ed. What happened to Mark Ronson?)
Talking about big names, Sa Ra Creative Partners ('In Limbo') were going to be the 'next' big thing at the time (very much one of Gilles Peterson's favourites) whilst almost unheard of Sia ('Paranoid Android') is very much well known now.
The other thing that is great album this album is that it goes from a dubbed out samba beat of Osunlade featuring Erro with 'Everything In Its Right Place', Wajeed (from Platinum Pied Pipers) featuring Monica Blaire on the stunning 'Knives Out') to typically leftfield (near leftbank) of 'Nice Dream' by Matthew Herbert featuring Mara Carlyle.
Jazz heads are more than covered with Meshell N'Degeocello and Chris Dave been quite "free2 on 'The National Anthem' and why wouldn't you pick a jazz trio (The Bad Plus - at that time led by Ethan Iverson on piano for a 7 minute plus version of 'Karma Police'.
There's a 20th Anniversary bonus track by Vikter Duplaix, 'Treefingers' but one track, even amongst all these goodies stands out as an emotional mod-soul-jazz classic, 'High & Dry' by Pete Kuzma and Bilal; the 'kids' used to ask, "Who is this!".
As you might guess, I'm not the biggest fan of Radiohead, I did see Tom Yorke appearing solo at Big Chill Festival one year and that was enough - but in 2006 this was fantastic (and went on to other 'tributes' compilations on the label for David Bowie and Talking Heads on the label) and it's just as fantastic in 2026!
BUY LINK / PRE-ORDER: ▶︎ Exit Music: Songs With Radio Heads (20th Anniversary Edition) | BBE
Artist: Various Artists
Title: Exit Music - Songs With Radio Heads (20th Anniversary Edition)
Release date: 30th October, 2026
Label: BBE
Cat. No: TBC
Format: Vinyl Digital / Bandcamp
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