Mark Ronson f/ Alex Greenwald: "Just"

In theory, there’s no way I can possibly like this song. Coming off what strikes me as perhaps the worst conceived of all the Radiohead tributes yet, Exit Music: Songs for Radio Heads, Mark Ronson’s cover of the classic Bends track has four strikes against it straight out of the gate. First, the idea of Rapster and BBE putting out a Radiohead tribute album makes me alternately laugh and hate the world. Second, Ronson brings Alex Greenwald, quite possibly my least favorite singer in all of pop music, to sing Thom Yorke’s part. Third, we’ve had enough shitty covers and remixes of Radiohead songs. Most of them are on the b-sides and serve to make Radiohead look even better in comparison. Fourth, they’re fucking with “Just.” C’mon, guys, it was pretty much perfect to begin with.

This leads me to the weirdness of not being able to stop listening to it: somehow Ronson has managed the impossible.

My explanation (er, justification) lies in the drums. “Just” was always primarily a Jonny Greenwood song. Sure, Yorke got to wail his lungs out, but it was Greenwood who made his guitar scream in ways we never knew were possible. Phil Selway was basically just there to keep time. Ronson goes the other way, making the drums irresistible and upping the bass line, not to mention calling in the Dap-Kings to provide a horn section that makes the track positively unstoppable. Greenwald sounds enough like Yorke that I can just sort of ignore the whole Phantom Planet thing for a couple minutes and enjoy this thing. It’s certainly strange, but Ronson has really managed it: a Radiohead cover that lives up to the original, albeit in a new and creative way.