John Scalzi a musician, blogger, and writer, recently released a cover of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” after finishing his latest novel, posting the cover under a picture of a green plastic watering can.
The original tune was released by Radiohead in 1995 on the album The Bends. And while the initial set of lyrics (which are about everything being fake and made of plastic) initially make it sound like it’s an environmentalist’s song, “Fake Plastic Trees” is actually about people being artificial. Thom Yorke called it “a breakdown of sorts”.
John Scalzi takes this feeling of a breakdown and further amplifies it with his burningly emotive falsetto. He states that the album The Bends is his favorite on his accompanying blog post. The artist’s passion for the song comes through clearly in the recording. He wrote, “This song gives me an opportunity to work on my falsetto, which is not generally my strong suit, but I think I acquit myself reasonably here.”
