When Thom Yorke released an iTunes “celebrity playlist” in 2007, hip-hop enthusiasts rejoiced over the fact that he included “Raid,” a track from Madvillain’s Madvillainy. Since then, Yorke’s admiration for DOOM has promulgated — remixing a cut for the rapper’s Gazzillion Ear EP and DJing “America’s Most Blunted” at Low End Theory. It was only natural that a collaboration between the two would become a highly anticipated, if not dreamlike event.
While “Retarded Fren” certainly marks the occasion of a dream realized, it ultimately suffers from a lack of coherence; most notably, the failure of bringing out the best in both worlds. Thom Yorke and DOOM are known for their creative minds, but here, you can’t help but feel disappointed by their pedestrian approach. This is evident from the get-go, with the monotonous sampling of Jonny Greenwood’s “Proven Lands.” It doesn’t so much manipulate the original material as it does cut-and-paste the audio in a repetitive and unoriginal manner, leaving the col legno strings just as they were on There Will Be Blood. Yorke’s subtle blips and bleeps (often reminiscent of the production on The Eraser) are welcome additions, sure, but they only serve as understated ornamentations to the production as a whole. It’s a shame that more wasn’t done by the Radiohead frontman, and it’s even more of a shame that DOOM’s lazy vocal delivery can’t save “Fren” from being a let-down for Radiohead fans and DOOM fans alike.
