VA - Exit Music: Songs With Radio Heads (2021)

Originally released in 2006, Radiohead tribute album ‘Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads’ returns to its original home at BBE Music.

Featuring eclectic cover versions of Thom Yorke’s songs by Mark Ronson, Pete Kuzma, Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet, Sia, Matthew Herbert, Sa-Ra, The Cinematic Orchestra, Osunlade and RJD2 to name but a few, the album gave BBE Music its first Top 40 single in the UK, and has gone on to become an enduring classic, paving the way for many similar projects in the years since (like BBE’s forthcoming David Bowie tribute Modern Love).

Hail to the Thieves! People get confused about cover versions. They are a labour of love, not some sort of disrespectful treatment of the classics. Everyone involved in the “Exit Music” project love the music of Radiohead – “Songs with Radio Heads” doesn’t attempt to replace the originals as “definitive versions”. Instead, like the Futureheads cover of Kate Bush or the Slits cover of Marvin Gaye, this is an exercise in translating well loved tracks into a different genre.

“Exit Music” also taps into the dance-floor potential of Radiohead, long recognised by DJs ranging from Paul Oakenfold to the Scratch Perverts. The band themselves are devotees of both hip hop and dance music – commissioning remixes from respected figures such as Madlib, DJ Shadow and Four Tet. With an increasing number of under-the counter remixes beginning to surface, BBE Music thought it was time to collect together the finest hip hop and dance cover versions of Radiohead songs. Ranging from gentle acoustic treatments to raw funky versions, BBE have taken the songs of Thom Yorke into realms even he couldn’t imagine…