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**Radiohead - My Iron Lung**
★★★★☆

In the annals of rock history, few bands have managed to weaponise their own success quite like Radiohead did with "My Iron Lung." Released in October 1994, this eight-track EP arrived like a perfectly timed middle finger to anyone who dared pigeonhole the Oxford quintet as one-trick ponies riding the coattails of "Creep." If their debut "Pablo Honey" had been a somewhat confused introduction, "My Iron Lung" was the sound of a band discovering their teeth – and learning exactly where to bite.

The backstory reads like a textbook case of artistic rebellion. By 1994, Radiohead had grown thoroughly sick of their breakthrough hit "Creep," that beautiful monster of self-loathing that had simultaneously made and threatened to break them. The song had become their albatross, their golden handcuffs, their – well, their iron lung. Thom Yorke's metaphor was brutally apt: like the mechanical breathing apparatus that keeps polio patients alive while imprisoning them, "Creep" was both sustaining and suffocating the band. They needed it to survive, but it was slowly killing their artistic soul.

Enter "My Iron Lung" the song – a savage piece of self-examination that saw Yorke spitting venom at fair-weather fans with lines like "This is our new song / Just like the last one / A total waste of time." It was punk rock nihilism wrapped in increasingly sophisticated arrangements, and it signaled a band ready to burn their bridges and see what lay on the other side.

Musically, the EP captures Radiohead at a fascinating crossroads. The grunge-adjacent alternative rock of their debut was still present, but it was being stretched, twisted, and occasionally abandoned altogether. Jonny Greenwood's guitar work had evolved from simple power chord progressions to something more angular and unsettling, while the rhythm section of Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway had developed a more fluid, less predictable approach to dynamics.

The title track remains the EP's undisputed masterpiece – a slow-burning epic that builds from whispered confessions to full-throated catharsis. Yorke's vocals alternate between vulnerable crooning and barely controlled rage, while the band creates a sonic landscape that feels simultaneously claustrophobic and expansive. It's the sound of a group learning to harness tension rather than simply release it.

"The Trickster" showcases their growing fascination with rhythmic complexity, featuring a hypnotic drum pattern that would hint at future explorations. Meanwhile, "Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong" (surely one of the greatest song titles in rock history) strips things back to acoustic intimacy, proving that Radiohead's emerging sophistication didn't require wall-to-wall noise.

The EP's B-sides reveal a band increasingly comfortable with experimentation. "Permanent Daylight" and "Lozenge of Love" feel like sketches for future masterpieces, while "Lewis (Mistreated)" and "You Never Wash Up After Yourself" show Radiohead beginning to embrace the kind of sonic adventurousness that would later define albums like "Kid A."

Perhaps most tellingly, the live versions included here capture a band hitting their stride as performers. Gone was the sometimes tentative delivery of their early shows; in its place was a group that understood the power of dynamics, the value of space, and the importance of making every note count.

"My Iron Lung" stands today as a crucial bridge between Radiohead's past and future. Without it, the leap from "Pablo Honey" to "The Bends" might have seemed impossible. Instead, it documented a band in real-time transition, struggling with success while simultaneously transcending it. The EP's influence on alternative rock cannot be overstated – it showed that bands could critique their own success without descending into self-pity, and that commercial breakthrough didn't have to mean artistic compromise.

More than anything, "My Iron Lung" proved that Radiohead were never going to be content with simply repeating themselves. In declaring war on their own past, they cleared the ground for a future that would see them become one of the most important and innovative bands of their generation. The iron lung had served its purpose – now it was time to learn to breathe on their own.