Radiohead: Classic or Dud?

Then something changed. But not quite Classic. They're still too awkward / nervous to really be defined as such. But far from Dud, though "Fake Plastic Trees" sounds dudder every day.

Saying that, is anyone else getting a bit freaked out by Reynolds hyping them in Uncut and The Wire?

If only for the last two albums. And Ok Computer...and The Bends.

But resolutely NOT Pablo Honey. Creep is the DUDDEST song in recording history. Shame about that but at least they learnt from their mistakes.

then, i was playing ok c much less after a while. sometimes i'd put it on and it would seem like old-fashioned overblown stadium rock (no, i don't think that of yes, thanks for asking) with empty vague misanthropic lyrics. and why couldn't he pronounce his consonants? i'd go back and read those glowing reviews and i couldn't connect with them. i'd never liked it that much, had i?

i heard kid a, again mostly to see what the fuss was. aside from "idioteque," nothing made much of an impression again. sounded like some modern rock band using watered-down versions of new electronic music trends as glossy production. i didn't listen repeatedly this time.

i sold ok computer in a clearing-out of my collection this summer.

searches: "street spirit," "let down," "idioteque"

One of the few bands that can survive having a slightly dud but hugely popular first album, but went on to overcome and go from height to height. Because they manage to progress and change their sound without losing what made them interesting in the first place.

What makes them interesting in the first place: *texture* - RH are masters of making music that sounds and *feels* interesting. Complex and multi-layered without sounding "busy". You can listen to a RH song a thousand times, and hear something different each time, as you concentrate and focus on different tiny aspects of the music.

I don't think that RH are avante guard or groundbreaking or anything like that, and that is an accusation thrown at them again and again- that they're not bleeding edge *enough* - "Oh, imitating 5 year old Warp records is hardly progressive" etc. etc. I don't think they're groundbreaking at all - what I *like* about RH is the fact that they are able to steal and borrow from the avante guard- a textural bit from GSYBE!, an approach to beats from Warp- and make it into *POP* by adding melodic hooks, vocals, guitars, etc.

Oh, and they're very good looking. That of course helps. ;-)

"Adore" is much to strong a word for how I feel about ICP, particularly after they putout the weak _Amazing Jeckel Brothers_ album. _Bizzar/Bizaar_ redeemed them somewhat, but they really should have trimmed it down to one great album as opposed to two decent ones. And, honestly, _Ringmaster_ is a phenomenal CD. They're a lot of the things Eminem claims to be, only not prepackaged for MTV. Mike E. Clark's beats tend to stomp all over Dr. Dre's, too.

Pablo Honey isn't much cop apart from the three singles. Not pleasant but it has to be said. But Creep was the right song at the right time so that's... about as much as I can objectively say about that.

When OK Computer came out, I refiled The Bends as the lesser of the two albums, but as a guilty pleasure. I still listen to it, and I'm coming to terms with its indulgence. It might be me getting older, but I just sometimes feel like indulging in this, the best angst-rock album in the world, like, ever. It sounds like the video for Drive looks. Listening to it now, you can see it's cut from the same cloth as the later stuff. There a lot that mannered and polished on the album, but there isn't anything that's fake. They pour the same integrity through the guitars that they later express through loops and stuff. It also doesn't hurt that to my ears Thom Yorke has the best voice in the world for this purpose.

I've talked enough about OK Computer over in its Classic or Dud thread. When I heard that Kid A was "difficult", I realised that Radiohead more than any other band I was willing to let go their own thing because if I wanted to hear their old stuff, I'd go listen to it again, like I did at least once a day for a few months. I _like_ their lyrics, and the fact that they're unpretentiously about paranoia and other ways we find to fuck things up. Our mad yoga teacher put the album on halfway through the class, and I was surprised to find out that the stuff I thought was dark and intense four years ago is now sort of calming in parts (Let Down, Subterranean Homesick Alien). But not Climbing Up The Walls, no. Perhaps I'm starting to indulge in this one too. Perhaps in fifty years time we'll all see them as the same album made different ways. I guess I haven't talked enough about OK Computer.

Kid A is difficult, though. I'm ignorant of a lot of its reference points, and the lack of that voice, and any proper lyrics, threw me for a while. But there's a hypnotic mood, and, yes, some fantastic textures that kept me entranced until a way in appeared.

Which was Amnesiac. I'm not sure I've listened to it enough to really appreciate, but it gets better whever I do, and a giant mix of it and the last two albums is pretty much all I listen to some days.

And that's all the albums, but not all the story. Last October I saw them when their tour pulled into Punchestown Racecourse, and saw the other half. Kid A above all is a fractured and neurotic album and I imagine a number of people in the crowd were slightly worried for Thom's mental state. But the live performance is amazing, because they're still a pop band. They may worry for the state of the world, and they may have produced an album of drawing-in and murmurs, but they worry because they love. They've got new ways of expressing this, but they still get the guitars out for the old hits, and you can see the common thread. They don't make guitar music anymore, but they don't regret it. They tore it up for Just, and there isn't an inch of fake on them. They've made an album of the stuff inside their heads, and the kids went mad for it, and they genuinely appeared to be the happiest band in the world. And the look on Thom's face after the crowd went crazy after the floating down the Liffey line was magic

Uh, that's it. I'm done now.

Hated them at first though. I saw them support Kingmaker (PAH!), a juggler and Kingmaker's slightly sexist video/art-film. Anyway, I thought they were a hopeless, noisy, generic, grey-sludge (schm)indie band, totally interchangeable with any and every other hopeless, noisy, etcetera, band out there.

My friend, who dragged me there in the first place, tried to defend them to me: "but they've got this song called 'Creep' that's amazing... " Nah, I still prefered Kingmaker (PAH!).

I felt vindicated during the 'Pablo Honey' period, though 'Creep' *was* growing on me. Not that I would admit it.

I bought 'The Bends'. I liked it. Most of it. Thought it was a bit too 'straightforward' (whatever *that* meant), noisy-indie still. Played it a few times then filed it away.

'Paranoid Android' I thought was the best single I had heard in forever and ever. A shaking with rage/trembling with fear, blast- furnace of a song. Total Droid rage. More than that the nudge-nudge, wink-wink, forced, day-glo jolity of BritPop and Loaded-Lad culture had become wearying. During the Cool Britannia party Radiohead were sat on the stairs, head in hands, muttering darkly to themselves. 'OK Computer' saw them swing from anger to sorrow, intensely at odds with an increasingly bankrupt culture where beauty seems to be drifting further and further out of reach and emotions have become numbed in meek surrender to consumerism. Every time I listen to it I end up walking away in a bad mood. I don't listen to it that often as a result. Not all the way through anyway.

Then I went off them. It was all too much. 'OK Computer' was this dark place that I was too afeared to re-visit, and just what *was* Thom Yorke's *problem*? His petulant behaviour was making him come across as more spoilt teenager than world-weary visionary; rage replaced by ugly querulousness. Ah well...

I ignored 'Kid A' when it came out, it didn't interest me. So Radiohead had disappeared up their own wazzoos, so what? What else was new?

A friend taped me a hissy, muggy copy and I gave it a listen.

Instead of the "difficult", "obtuse" and "avant garde" mess-about I had expected, 'Kid A' damn nearly broke my heart on first listen. I immediately recognised the world within and I gladly let the gentle undercurrant pull me under. It's a real headphones on under the duvet record. Not so much as too escape the 'real world' but to re- experiance it with an empathetic arm around the shoulder. The bruised, haunting voice and the distant clicks and whistles may have been indistinct but it perfectly matched how I have felt on occasion, in the murk of a sleepless pre-dawn. And so on...

I still haven't *connected* with 'Amnesiac': it's too juddery; disjointed. Flashes of majesty come and go but I'm left feeling more impressed than... I dunno, *involved*. Still, 'Pakt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box'; 'Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors' and the aching, Smiths- like romantic-disappointment of 'Knives Out' are three of the best things I've heard this century.

Thom can annoy me if I let him but Radiohead are beautiful. Just beautiful...

lol u got rick rolled

even if they are good they suck, because loads of knobs like them.

given that 2/3 of the british student population like them, you're bound to get a few knobs in there. alongside diamonds like myself. ;-)

"PROG ROCK INNIT"

not such a bad thing compared to some of the less imaginative bands around now, just not really my cuppa tea.

One of the maybe five active rock bands worth listening to.

They're a fine-sounding band, who I can find no obvious fault with.

And yet I can't be arsed with them.

is it wrong that around the time of ok computer i thought they were basically the faces for the 90s?

i wonder how max feels about his doppelganger using phrases like loads of knobs like them.

not as good now as they were in the mid 90's, when they weren't as good as oasis.

They're this era's U2, except they're actually good. No wait they're this era's Pink Floyd, except they're actually good. No wait, they're just Radiohead and they're a really good band. Realy good.

Are they not this era's R.E.M. except they're more groundbreaking in terms of what is considered popular? I fell in love with them the first time I heard "Creep" (and still dig that first album), own every single b-side but, like others here, for some reason don't play them much at all. Something about over-exposure will do that.

Like Pink Floyd, and to some extent U2, they are just plain damn good. Or, at least they were in the 90s.

It would be cool if they wrote a song as catchy as "Creep" again.

It would be cool if they wrote a song as catchy as "Creep" again.

You mean something as catchy as "High And Dry" or "Let Down" or "Idioteque" or "Knives Out" or "Where I End And You Begin"? Yeah, that would be cool.

Listen before you leap.

I listened to all of the main albums today and after ignoring it for years because I didn't like it too much at the time (last heard it the week I bought the CD) I'm now completely blown away by HTTT. </shame>

I also find that I now seem to like Kid A & Amnesiac less than I always thought.

I share your shame. For whatever reason, it wasn't until I revisited HTTT (three years after its release) that it's now sunk in and, for me, surpassed all of their others LPs in terms of balance/quality/strength.

HTTT sounds like a Radiohead greatest hits compilation composed of completely new material

HTTT sounds like a Radiohead greatest hits compilation composed of completely new material

I couldn't have articulated my assessment or appreciation of HTTT any better. Cheers.

Saw Radiohead live last night. Light show was fantastic. Many of my fave songs were played. I was aghast that they could do Climbing Up The Walls and In Limbo and Dollars & Cents and Talk Show Host, still in 2008, in the same show. I mean boy that's the way to Bimble's Radiohead heart for sure.

But they also fucked up a song from In Rainbows (whatever the really quiet one is with an acoustic guitar, I can't be bothered to look it up) and though people laughed, it really wasn't all that funny and I shouted out "Neil Young". Because it sounded like Neil Young anyway, what they were playing.

I was left feeling that even if Radiohead are past my prime, I may be past my prime as well. I struggled with the indifference of those around me. All around me, people just standing there motionless. Who were they, why were they here? They didn't give a fuck about Radiohead.
Luckily there were some girls just behind me who were at least showing some enthusiasm.

I struggled realizing that if a person was here and was say 20 years old, they would not necessarily remember the Radiohead show I saw here in 2001. Yeah I really struggled with that, too.

The only thing I held against them was the lack of Paranoid Android. I mean wow, how could they leave THAT one out? But okay you know, we're all getting older all the time, maybe we're too old for Paranoid Android?

But it was a good show, I don't mean that. There was nothing wrong with the performance aside from that song, really. And what was the new bass & drums thing they added to the fucking GLOAMING??? WOW!

I would be sort of pissed if they left out P.A.

Awwww...thanks. That makes me feel better.

According to the setlist at At Ease they did play a bit of Neil Young when they screwed up "Faust Arp":

"Faust Arp [Thom messes up lyrics several times, starts singing Neil Young's "Tell Me Why"; Jonny tries to follow along but can't quite get the chords. Phil comes out and drops an American dollar bill out in front of Thom and Jonny and runs away laughing. Thom and Jonny crack up completely to loud cheers. Thom tries again, says "Fuck it!", but then continues and finishes the song.]"

Yes, I'm ashamed to admit that I check the setlists for Radiohead shows I didn't go to.

You know, I'm realizing now though, that I craved to hear "Airbag" at the concert, too, and didn't hear it. That's the only other one I craved.

Yes they did play bloody Neil Young? Oh my god, really? Cause holy shit I didn't even know that. I don't even know that song at all. What the hell? Fantastic. I <3 Radiohead.

i for one would love to hear radiohead cover "tell me why."

No, but I remember wanting to know what that song was. I didn't recognize it. I don't understand how I guessed it was Neil Young. I mean I'm not trying to say I'm some supreme psychic or something, but that flips my lid completely because that was the one moment at that gig where I just felt they lost me.

And what was the new bass & drums thing they added to the fucking GLOAMING??? WOW!

ooooh yes this was one of the biggest highlights of Houston show a couple months back. so stunning & creepy. i would take the gloaming (esp. this new version) any day over paranoid android, for the record.

Look, I've got a thing for Colin to begin with, man. That shit sent me over the moon. He is the sexiest thing on wheels.

I <3 Bimble

Heehee! Stop. *blush*

And what was the new bass & drums thing they added to the fucking GLOAMING??? WOW!

They've been doing that since 2003. A very good twist, to be sure.

But Ned, no...don't tell me that.

Please don't tell me that.

I have to have the live versions now.

I normally didn't like that song, but shit.

xpost Ned, i don't recall that at ALL from the 2003 tour.

the deep rumbly bass, yes, but not the drum parts.

actually, they should just go full prog ffs <<<vmic

i was thinking a more down-home approach (with some twists and surprises, naturally) would be a logical step now. They can't have run out of ideas, surely?

i don't think they've even started work on a new one yet, but the smile album is probably on its way sometime soonish

my forbidden opinion is that In Rainbows led them up a creative cul-de-sac that they've been unable to emerge from. rewind to HTTT and relaunch from there, except more fun pls

'Very 2021 Rmx', heh. Definitely a troll.

what about long tunes that aren't proggy like paranoid android? 'these are my twisted words' was an interesting direction for them

imago, how is In Rainbows a significant turn/dead end to HTTT? I mean, they're different albums but it's not like they're vastly different

"These Are My Twisted Words" is very much in the 'itchy twiggy loops' style of TKOL

imago, how is In Rainbows a significant turn/dead end to HTTT? I mean, they're different albums but it's not like they're vastly different

― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin)

I don't know about creative dead end, but the two albums are about as different as Radiohead albums could be - one sprawling, disjointed, a little abrasive, the other focused, concise and dreamy.

i was thinking a more down-home approach (with some twists and surprises, naturally) would be a logical step now.

HK Bobo?

They should do a Back to Our Roots "rock" record.

full orchestral shit only imo

I don't know about creative dead end, but the two albums are about as different as Radiohead albums could be - one sprawling, disjointed, a little abrasive, the other focused, concise and dreamy.

― chap, Tuesday, July 13, 2021 4:22 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hmmm... The first two songs on In Rainbows would easily fit on HTTT whereas there are loads of dreamy tunes on HTTT that would fit on IR. I don't really hear them as particularly focused through-and-through. They are Radiohead albums with slightly different bents, sure, but I don't understand why IR could be considered a "cul-de-sac", especially since there have been several releases since then.

the smile is their way out.

the band, The Smile, which happened after phil was sacked, along with colin and ed.

it's sort of a joke, but also, that one set was very good and had lots of incredible ideas. that's their way forward. "they" = thom and jonny. they don't need ed there adding his tiddly-doos and his "ahhhhhs". colin is great but who needs bass. and phil, well. he's been sacked. they sounded incredible as a tight 3-piece. i could hear everything jonny was doing so clearly, every little thing. the smile. it's just as bad as "radiohead". it's great. the smile. that's what they're doing now. it's better.

Have been enjoying you so stubbornly sticking to your conspiratorial guns, KM
(I'd actually be 100% on board with that posited turn of events, since I was really impressed by the Smile's Glasto video set and think Skinner is a pretty perfect foil for them)

the trick is to fool yourself, too! i mean, to me, that happened

seriously though, i think they sound great that way, as a 3-piece. i've heard some thom/jonny duets before, of course, including the lovely ones with PT Anderson and a quiet drum machine. those always sounded like what they were - one-offs. with a real drummer (and a really good one, skinner), though, combined with new songs that fit that format? they were LIGHTNING

(Also would have maybe preferred The Erase as a good bad band name for this new trio, perhaps a passably Spinal Tap stupid-funny thing for them to try and pull, like 'well, the r was just, like, eraaased, man', plus that way it'd fall a bit more closely in line with Atoms For Peace)

personally i would have gone with T+J Maxx

Now we're typin'

Am imagining a scenario where Phil Selway lurks ILX occasionally for Krautrock recs and, in a moment of curiosity, reads this thread and subsequently starts frantically Googling for news sources on his own sacking.😄

*phil googles self, sees breaking news*

"bald british batería banned by bandmates"

"fuck."

Phil reads on, hoping against hope that it was the drummer from Portishead

...or Gaydaddiohead

Anything from “the smile” released yet ?
(Don’t kid yourselves, it’s a terrible name)

full orchestral shit only imo

As someone who loves 'Harry Patch (In Memory Of)' and their unused theme for 'Spectre' endorse this 100%.

i dont wanna see these sad old bastards do anything but have bad hair in a performance hall while they revive endangered instruments and do more penderecki shit.

lol

lol pic.twitter.com/up9HlVwHuj

— br◎seph (@on3ness) July 14, 2021

So, everything's now on Bandcamp, pretty much. Or at least a lot of it.

https://radiohead.bandcamp.com/music

No singles/B-sides from the first two albums but the expanded OK Computer is up as well as the forthcoming Kid A/Amnesiac reissue with the bonus tracks (but not all the B-sides), plus the King of Limbs remix album and the second disc of In Rainbows.

I totally forgot about that second disc to In Rainbows. It's supposed to be a pretty nice EP, alternating between instrumentals and what are essentially outtakes, correct?

Personally I only find “4 minute warning” to be the highlight of that collection. Mk1 and mk2 are pretty much jokes, so it’s only 6 tracks.

bangers and mash goes hard

I do like it better than Bodysnatchers but people keep telling me I’m wrong about that one. The only part I love about Bodysnatchers is the bridge.

who are these "people"

bodysnatchers is fine, but the riff is p basic

The riff near the end reminds me of "Oh, Pretty Woman"

"bodysnatchers" is great

best of the in rainbows outtakes is "go slowly", i would have put that on the album. the rest were left off for a reason

iirc they said "bodysnatchers" was inspired by wolfmother which is a pretty funny reference point to have had

“Go Slowly” is iirc inspired by Can’s “The Thief” and it was kind of an alternate experiment for “There There”.