I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings is a live album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 12 November 2001 in the UK by Parlophone and a day later in the US by Capitol Records.
Recorded during Radiohead's 2001 tour, I Might Be Wrong comprises songs from their fourth and fifth albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001). Radiohead developed the songs through studio experimentation and rearranged them for live performance. I Might Be Wrong also includes an acoustic performance of "True Love Waits", a song Radiohead did not release until their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.
I Might Be Wrong received mainly positive reviews. Critics praised the performances and arrangements, but criticised its brevity and lack of earlier Radiohead songs.
Content
I Might Be Wrong comprises live performances recorded on Radiohead's 2001 tour.[1] It features songs from Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001),[1] plus a solo performance of another song, "True Love Waits", by the singer, Thom Yorke, on acoustic guitar.[2] Radiohead did not release "True Love Waits" until their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.[2]
As Radiohead had developed Kid A and Amnesiac through studio experimentation,[3] they rearranged the songs to perform them live. For example, the electronic track "Like Spinning Plates" was rearranged as a piano ballad.[4] The guitarist Ed O'Brien said: "You couldn't do Kid A live and be true to the record. You would have to do it like an art installation ... When we played live, we put the human element back into it."[5] The drummer, Philip Selway, said Radiohead "found some new life" in the songs when they came to perform them.[5]
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, I Might Be Wrong has an average score of 76 based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[6]
The Entertainment.ie critic Andrew Lynch wrote: "Unlike most live albums, this one captures some of the excitement of actually being there and gives Radiohead back the human dimension they've recently been in danger of losing."[9] Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club wrote that the album "cast new light" on Kid A and Amnesiac.[17] In Rolling Stone, Jonah Weiner described it as "explosively raw", praising the "twisty, insular" performance of "Idioteque" and Yorke's "beautifully chilling" vocals on "Like Spinning Plates".[18] Matt LeMay of Pitchfork also praised "Like Spinning Plates", saying it showcased Radiohead's "songwriting virtuosity rather than their sonic adventurousness".[4]
LeMay said the performance of "True Love Waits" was "absolutely gorgeous" and that the song "holds its own" against any on Radiohead's 1997 album OK Computer.[4] He felt it justified the release of the live album, along with "Like Spinning Plates".[19] Ted Kessler of NME praised Yorke's vocals on "True Love Waits" as "clear and true".[12] However, Mac Randall felt the performance, with "whiny" vocals, was inferior to a widely shared bootleg version. He wrote: "One gets the feeling that this was a song Radiohead knew they liked and knew audiences liked but the band never came to grips with an arrangement for it; finally they threw up their hands, putting it out as it is."[20]
Several critics felt I Might Be Wrong was too short. Thompson found it "marred by characteristically unrevealing packaging and inexplicable brevity".[17] Randall wrote that its brevity made it "something of a letdown", and that the lack of earlier Radiohead songs meant it did not capture "anywhere near the scope of a real Radiohead concert".[21] LeMay also criticised the lack of older songs, and said the album had the feeling of a "promotional item" for Kid A and Amnesiac.[4] Sam Samuelson of AllMusic suggested it could instead have been packaged with Amnesiac as a complete package from the Kid A sessions, rather than a "couple of thrown-together releases".[7]
Reissues
Radiohead left EMI after their contract ended in 2003.[22] In 2007, EMI released Radiohead Box Set, a compilation of albums recorded while Radiohead were signed to EMI, including I Might Be Wrong.[22] Radiohead had no input into the reissues and the music was not remastered.[23]
In February 2013, Parlophone was bought by Warner Music Group (WMG).[24] In April 2016, as a result of an agreement with the trade group Impala, WMG transferred Radiohead's back catalogue to XL Recordings. The EMI reissues, released without Radiohead's consent, were removed from streaming services.[25] In May 2016, XL reissued Radiohead's back catalogue on vinyl, including I Might Be Wrong.[26]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Radiohead, except where noted
