Radiohead tributes often come up with a title phrase that sounds alienating or vaguely cybernetic -- see Plastic Mutations: The Electronic Tribute to Radiohead -- and
Corporate Love Breakdown is no different in that respect. It does differ in the quality department, though. While many tributes alternate between dull and overeager, this one focuses instead on deft arrangements and zeroed-in melody. The incongruity of instrumental bluegrass takes on "No Surprises," "Knives Out," "Paranoid Android," and "You and Whose Army?" actually helps the musicians. They don't worry about perfect replication, or being as opaque and robotic as they believe
Radiohead to be. Instead they find the dreamy twinkles, gloomy shadows, and bittersweet melodies of the originals, and re-create them with little more than a mandolin and an acoustic guitar.
Corporate Love Breakdown is too studied to warrant repeated listens. But it's great as a casual reassessment of
Radiohead's work. ~ Johnny Loftus