Track of the week: Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees

I know what you're thinking: "God, Heath, that song is more than a decade old."

Yes, I know. And that's exactly why it's my track of the week for this week.

"Fake Plastic" was by far the best song on Radiohead's 1995 effort, The Bends. The album may not stand out as the band's best after Thom & Co. have given us some masterpieces (OK Computer, Kid A, In Rainbows), but this song has endured.

It's been featured prominently on the band's current North American tour, getting the fireworks treatment at Lollapalooza and a night at All Points West this weekend. Watch the videos. Be blown away. It's clearly still a crowd favorite, a masterpiece hidden in a flawed album, if flawed only when compared to the band's other work.

It's a soft song at first, delicate and careful with acoustic strumming and Thom Yorke's soothing crooning about a woman living a life she doesn't want, feeling fake. And "it wears her out."

Then the song builds and builds until it finally explodes with full-force guitars as Thom realizes he loves the girl who "looks like the real thing, she tastes like the real thing. My fake plastic love." And you can't help but feel a bit of heartache when the song and Thom go soft again at the end and he pleads: "If I could be who you wanted, If I could be who you wanted, all the time."

Still, after all this time, this song gives me the chills.