Radiohead
I would by no means call myself a fan, but Radiohead count as perhaps the biggest 'authentic' latter day rock band that are currently active. They also have a relatively short list of studio albums to navigate, and they are:
Pablo Honey
The Bends
OK Computer
Kid A
Amnesiac
Hail To The Thief
In The Rainbows
The King Of Limbs
A Moon Shaped Pool
PABLO HONEY
Released 22nd February 1993
Radiohead
I remember reading an article somewhere, probably at the tail end of 1993 or in 1994 which was bemoaning the tendency to misery and low self esteem in the upcoming rock acts of the day. I guess much of this was having dig at Nirvana and grunge in general, but I recall both Beck's 'Loser' and Radiohead's 'Creep' being cited as prime examples.
The wisdom today goes that Radiohead got fed up with 'Creep' because it was unrepresentative of what they were all about, but it is fair to say that it is
pretty
representative of the rest of Pablo Honey. It certainly wrongfooted me, because by the time OK Computer came out and all the music journos were hailing them as the champions of nu-prog-rock (well, they might have called it that), I was still under the impression that they were a second tier British grunge outfit that had disappeared after the success of their first and, to date, most successful single.
There's a lot of wailing guitars, crashing percussion and Thom Yorke's pissed-off vocals. They're probably only guilty of following the rules early on, in tribute to the adage that you need to have mastered them before you can break them. 'Creep' is the standout for me, but mainly for the almighty crunch that Johnny Greenwood gets out of his guitar, a sound I don't think I've ever heard on any other mainstream chart song.
There's some straying into Manic Street Preachers territory too. 'Vegetable' and 'Prove Yourself' are quiet verse
, wall of sound guitar chorus and murmer-to-scream vocals with a good dollop of the old self-loathing thrown in, but they do break out of all this right at the end with the lounge pop of 'Blow Out'
, but even that descends into screaming chaos at the end.
You
Creep
How Do You?
Stop Whispering
Thinking About You
Anyone Can Play Guitar
Ripcord
Vegetable
Prove Yourself
I Can't
Lurgee
Blow Out
THE BENDS
Released 13th March 1995
RADIOHEAD
There are lots of ways of defining a great album, but it's a fairly reliable guide that if you look down the tracklist, recognize none of the titles, listen to it and realize you know quite a few of the songs, then you're onto a winner. As stated for Pablo Honey, I was aware of Radiohead as one of many bands ploughing, to my mind, a similar furrow in the Britpop pastures, but had no connection to what they were about. My Radiohead bioographer, whose critique of Kid A I'm listening to as an audiobook, insists on comparing them to Travis, Coldplay and U2. I can see the Travis and Coldplay thing I suppose, but there's little of Radiohead's bleakness in even early efforts from Martin, Healy and their mates. The U2 thing completely misses me, but I think it's more a suggestion that they followed a similar career arc. Incidentally, about the most annoying thing about the book (This Isn't Happening by Steven Hyden) is the use of the word 'oughts' to describe the first decade of this century. Is that really a thing?
This is a definite progression from Pablo Honey's reasonably straightforward rock grunge stylings to what would come to fruition in OK Computer. It's calmer, woozier and a lot more threatening. Those songs that I already knew? 'High and Dry', 'Just' (I probably thought it was called 'You Do It To Yourself') and 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'.
There's a sneaky little Beatles reference in the intro to 'My Iron Lung' and overall, this is a much more traditional album, in that it's a collection of what can clearly be described as rock songs rather than an art-rock mess, which the unsympathetic might expect from a Radiohead album.
Planet Telex
The Bends
High and Dry
Fake Plastic Trees
Bones
(Nice Dream)
Just
My Iron Lung
Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was
Black Star
Sulk
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Released 21st May 1997
OK COMPUTER
Radiohead
My progress with Radiohead has been even slower than the previous encumbent of the R.O. main blog post, Elton John, but this is not because they are as tedious as him, rather that the albums become ever more complex and deserving of proper attention.
OK Computer could be viewed as their breakthrough, except Pablo Honey and The Bends also qualify. It's not so much a reinvention each time, as development and maturing meaning each of The Bends and this feel like a step up in terms of coherence and craft. Just like The Bends there are tracks on here that have seeped into the subconscious. 'Paranoid Android', 'Karma Police' and 'No Surprises' were all released as singles and as a result act as tethers at the beginning, middle and end of the tracklist that much of the rest hangs from.
I got Lucy In The Sky topnotes from 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' and there's some obvious Kraftwerkery going on in 'Fitter Happier', possibly reflecting the very German-robotnik album title. Elsewhere they really are paving the way for the lighter, more digestible copiers of their style such as Coldplay and Travis with 'Exit Music (For A Film)', 'Let Down' and the less memorable single 'Lucky'. They even 'rock-out' a little on 'Electioneering'.
But my favourite here is 'Karma Police' which is weirdly but pleasingly structured, starting with failry conventional verse/chorus before heading off at a tangent at the end. It almost harks back to their miserablist, grunge roots, but there's no crunching guitar, just a migraine-inducing white noise howl right at the end.
Airbag
Paranoid Android
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Exit Music (For a Film)
Let Down
Karma Police
Fitter Happier
Electioneering
Climbing Up the Walls
No Surprises
Lucky
The Tourist
Released 2nd October 2000
KID A
Radiohead
There's probably a couple of reasons why you might choose to listen to this.
1. You are writing a blog about all of Radiohead's albums in release order and you've got to their fourth (niche, but it does happen);
2. You are looking for some incidental music for the closing scenes of your bleak, dystopian drama where the camera focuses on the lead protagonist's anguished face (Radiohead have form here with Street Spirit (Fade Out) accompanying the mushing by train of a handful of Handmaids)
Otherwise, it's hard to think of a reason, assuming you are in a fairly stable frame of mind. That's not to say it's bad, quite the opposite, but if I were doing this journey in real time I think I might consider that Radiohead have now crossed the rubicon from rock band to something much more arty and I might not be anticipating their next effort quite so much.
The book I chose to help me bone up on Radiohead was focussed on Kid A. The author was clearly a fan, but that didn't get in the way of some pretty insightful analysis. The theory goes that this is our musical introduction to the chaos and paranoia of the 21st Century. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it is certainly a stressful listen. It's also meant to be a reflection of Thom Yorke's frame of mind at the time after a burnout from the success and expectation set up by the first three albums. Lyrically Yorke tends to just string together and repeat idioms. In 'Idioteque' it's "Women and children first", "Laugh until my head falls off" "Throw it in the fire" and so on just coming at you relentlessly over a jagged beat.
The artwork is quite Roger Dean, which may have helped their reputation as the modern saviours of prog.
I believe that there's a school of thought that Radiohead are very overrated (which is not saying much, there's a similar school of thought about every band) and I imagine it stems from this, where they either evolved into something new or simply jumped the shark, depending on your commitment to the cause. Like all their albums, it repays repeated listens, but it becomes harder and harder to invest the time when everything is getting so bleak.
Everything in Its Right Place
Kid A
The National Anthem
How to Disappear Completely
Treefingers
Optimistic
In Limbo
Idioteque
Morning Bell
Motion Picture Soundtrack
Untitled
Released 30th May 2001
AMNESIAC
Radiohead
I hear it's a favourite Radio fan pastime to put togther the Kid Amnesiac tracklist. They certainly form a pair, being recored pretty much at the same time and released within 6 months of each other. Kid A is regarded as the 'classic' and Amnesiac as the 'afterthought'. To my ear you can't really get a cigarette paper between them, but I don't think I'd necessarily consider Amnesiac inferior. Yorke is still largely using his vocal as an instrument rather than the medium via which any message is being delivered and there's lots of electronic pops and fizzes. However the singles 'Knives Out' and 'Pyramid Song' are a bit more accessible than much of Kid A.
The last two tracks are interesting for different reasons. 'Like Spinning Plates' sounds like some nasty creature slurping from a dish at the start, but it's all been recorded backwards, turned upside down, the backwards vocal has been manually reproduced forwards and then turned around again. At least I think that was the process. Whatever, for all that it;s still recognizably Radiohead, which tells you something.
The conclusion to the album is 'Life In A Glasshouse', in which collaboration with now much missed host of 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue', Humphrey Lyttleton results in a kind of freeform jazz background to some classic Yorke light wailing.
Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box
Pyramid Song
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
You and Whose Army?
I Might Be Wrong
Knives Out
Morning Bell/Amnesiac
Dollars and Cents
Hunting Bears
Like Spinning Plates
Life in a Glasshouse
Released: 9th June 2003
HAIL TO THE THIEF
Radiohead
Fed up with all the fiddling about in the studio involved in producing Kid A and Amnesiac, the story here goes that they took a much more spontaneous approach. First impression from the opening tracks is that it's certainly more urgent than it's immediate predecessors and the tracks can be fairly safely described as 'songs'. In fact the latter parts of '2 + 2 = 5' have an urgency that the Sex Pistols might have been proud of.
It's also supposed to be their most overtly political album, but since Radiohead aren't really overt about anything to do with the meaning of the songs by this stage, it takes quite a lot of work to get the message. However I suppose that "We don't really want a monster taking over/../We don't want the loonies taking over" from 'Go To Sleep' is quite clear, even if the political monsters and loonies in 2003 now look quite benign in comparison to our more recent examples.
Oh, and as we discussing freeform jazz in connection with Amnesiac and Humphrey Lyttleton, they have another go here in 'We Suck Young Blood'. There's also some more slurpy electronic jiggery-pokery on 'The Gloaming' in the vein of 'Like Spinning Plates'
The flatulent synth of 'Myxomatosis' is rather enjoyable too. It's not going to sound like a compliment, but it reminded me of Genesis' 'Lurker/Dodo' from Abacab.
Not sure what the deal is with all the subtitles, the likes of 'We Suck Young Blood', 'A Punch Up At A Wedding' and 'Myxomatosis' are more than enough for any song.
2 + 2 = 5 ("The Lukewarm")
Sit down. Stand up. ("Snakes & Ladders")
Sail to the Moon. ("Brush the Cobwebs out of the Sky")
Backdrifts. ("Honeymoon Is Over")
Go to Sleep ("Little Man being Erased")
Where I End and You Begin. ("The Sky Is Falling In")
We suck Young Blood.("Your Time Is Up")
The Gloaming.("Softly Open our Mouths in the Cold")
There there.("The Boney King of Nowhere")
I Will.("No man's Land")
A Punchup at a Wedding.("No no no no no no no no")
Myxomatosis.("Judge, Jury & Executioner")
Scatterbrain.("As Dead as Leaves")
A Wolf at the Door.("It Girl. Rag Doll")
Released 10th October 2007
IN RAINBOWS
Radiohead
So the rot sets in. I have listened and listened and listened and nothing jumps out of this at all. I said at the end of the Kid A piece that their albums repay repeated listening, but this one just doesn't. The loops and Yorke's vocal get wearing. In fact, it's taken me so long to form an opinion on this that I feel like I've actually just given up and had to admit that it's not very good and I just need to give myself a pass and move on.
It has significance in its status as an early pay-what-you-want download. That seems to have deflected a little from whether anyone actually thought it was any good, although it does feature somewhere in Rolling Stone's top 500 of all time, but I found it tedious and impenetrable. It really could do with a catchy tune somewhere along the line. In some ways I'd rather listen to the new Adele thing, at least it would raise some emotion in me, even if it was massive annoyance and despair at what people will fall for.
15 Step
Bodysnatchers
Nude
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
All I Need
Faust Arp
Reckoner
House of Cards
Jigsaw Falling into Place
Videotape
Released 18th February 2011
THE KING OF LIMBS
Radiohead
The pattern is maintained. Lots of electronic drum loops and Yorkeist whining. Over the last two albums they also seem to have discovered a generally annoying popping quality to the sound. Rather like the aural equivalent of sprinkling space-dust on your tongue.
It is more engaging than In Rainbows and there are elements that do start you haul you in, but Radiohead really do seem to be just pleasing themselves now. And that's fine, they've earnt it and they can rightly say that if you don't like it then you don't have to stream it virtually for free. It's not like the old days where you had to fork out a few quid to listen to the new album from your faves and therefore they might have felt a smidgeon of responsibility for producing something you might at least appreciate, if not enjoy.
Also, by now Johnny Greenwood is developing a significant movie soundtrack sideline, so for him at least, there's an income stream to support whatever noodlings he feels like playing around with when he's with his band.
Bloom
Morning Mr Magpie
Little by Little
Feral
Lotus Flower
Codex
Give Up the Ghost
Separator
Released 8th May 2016
A MOON SHAPED POOL
Radiohead
As I've progressed through Radiohead the music has become more and more dense and abstract. It's the kind of arc thatI should have expected, I knew that their most commercial days were well behind them. I wasn't quite prepared for just how much they had morphed into a band that did instrumentals, with the understanding that Thom Yorke's vocals are now essentially just another instrument used in the composition as a whole. Having said that, this is more accessible than at least the previous three albums, which is not to claim it was likely to win them new fans. It might have content which is more recognizable as 'songs' but I still struggled to engage with it.
It sums them up to characterize them as a game of two halves. From Pablo Honey to OK Computer they are building a reputation and finding their way from depressed grungists to a true alternative rock band. Then they start experimenting and caring less about whether anyone is going to like what they are doing. That's fine, they had to earn that right, but it becomes harder to work out the narrative from Kid A onward, so if you are doing a journey like mine you start to get lost in the woods. Radiohead have taken me far longer than I thought they would. Nine albums was supposed to be a palate cleanser after the junky binge that was Elton, but if I mangle the metophor to its full extent, they got stuck in my throat instead. I'm unlikely to ever go back to any of the last 5 albums.
Burn the Witch
Daydreaming
Decks Dark
Desert Island Disk
Ful Stop
Glass Eyes
Identikit
The Numbers
Present Tense
Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief
True Love Waits