bjork vs radiohead

I listened to Kid A for the first time last year. I don't know what made it any better than say, Dave Matthews Band or something

pretty otm, radiohead-worship is so baffling to me.

I made a remark about it at the time, but I can't find it in search, so my exact impressions are lost to me.

I remembered this now! My remark was that absolutely nothing stood out for me except that part of one of the songs reminded me of part of "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles.

Which I preferred.

Listening, I remember that Vespertine is probably the least-abstract Bjork album. Not as bombastic as the louder moments of any prior album, and not quite as experimental with song structure as later albums, definitely a less-varied sonic palette.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I'm finally getting into Radiohead. Yet another sign that I've gone old and soft.

Wow, that's a very surprising result. I mean, the vote could have gone either way, but I wouldn't expect Bjork to win by such a large margin.

I don't think this vote would go this way today, fwiw

Yeah, I was thinking that, with the output of each since the original poll.

I mean, Vulnicura alone is a major achievement post-2012; I just think ILM has become an even more insanely slavish hub for Radiohead fandom

Idk, I think the popular narrative is that Bjork's albums have become increasingly hermetic and hookless after the '10s, while the last Radiohead is widely acclaimed well beyond ILM? It would be a pretty different story without A Moon Shaped Pool, since King of Limbs is their only other album in the same era and is probably their worst.

Still, they've remained very high profile with the side projects and soundtracks, and I don't know anyone irl who has kept up with Bjork.

I love the TKOL sessions :( if Supercollider and Staircase were on TKOL it’d be less maligned. It might be the third or fourth RH album I come back to the most.

Also it can’t be their worst when Pablo Honey and HTTT exists.

Wait, HTTT is now disfavored?

I've seen it get hate for being overstuffed but I love HttT

(I don't think I've ever listened to Pablo Honey all the way through tbh)

HTTT is generally ranked at the bottom with Pablo Honey and TKOL.

Also Amnesiac which is sort of a polarizing album.

I put it above Amnesiac.

HttT is awesome. Probably the worst production/mastering of their post Bends catalog though. I also like it more than Amnesiac.

Have we done a Radiohead poll?

I love Amnesiac and the beefy production/mastering on HttT :)

Time for a redo: The Radiohead Albums Poll

Amnesiac is my favorite Radiohead album that I never want to listen to

I know ranking Radiohead albums is the most basic and boring dude topic imaginable, and yet:

A Moon Shaped Pool
Amnesiac
Hail to the Thief
In Rainbows
Kid A
OK Computer
King of Limbs
The Bends
Pablo Honey

(I never want to listen to Kid A, and can't even really hear OK Computer anymore)

Seeing the Kid A/Amnesiac material performed live in 2001 was revelatory, I always hear those albums from the perspective of seeing them live at a time the band was peaking.

The album I listen to the most lately is The Bends. But many of the songs on Kid A feel like their pinnacle. Definitely amused at how many times an album poll has been conducted, but I'd be more interested in a songs ballot poll at this point.

I enjoyed participating in the Bjork ballot poll!

would rank the albums something like this

vespertine
kid a
in rainbows
ok computer
homogenic

post
debut
the bends

vulnicura
amnesiac
a moon shaped pool
fossora
biophilia

hail to the thief
the king of limbs
medulla
volta

pablo honey
utopia

That's a very respectable sorting.

Yeah Vespertine and Kid A at the top is very agreeable.

I’d place Medulla and TKOL higher though

HTTT = Post
the rest in some sort of order
In fuckin Rainbows

post has some of her best tracks, but it would only just about scrape into my top 5 Bjork LPs. even with better sequencing I'm not convinced those songs go together.

HTTT is good, yes, and doesn't get enough love.

you can lose a whole bunch of tracks from the first half of Post without much problem, the rest bangs unbelievably hard though

skip from Hyperballad to Isobel to unlock maximum 'greatest mini-album that never was' power

I Go Humble is on the Japanese version and could make it gel better. What to do with Army Of Me and It's Oh So Quiet is more of a problem though. Maybe they should just have been standalone singles. Maybe starting at Hyperballad could work? Anyway, I can not just put this CD on and listen to it.

Man you guys really love In Rainbows a lot... am I missing something with that one?

I have never heard In Rainbows

I did this poll a few years back, before A Moon Shaped Pool, would be fun and interesting to do it again:

A POLL IN A CAGE ON ANTIBIOTICS - ILM Artist Poll #56 - RADIOHEAD - RESULTS THREAD"> A POLL IN A CAGE ON ANTIBIOTICS - ILM Artist Poll #56 - RADIOHEAD - RESULTS THREAD

Damn thanks for sharing that thread - really surprised at There There making #1 over Paranoid Android and EIIRP, but totally worthy, honestly. HttT really does slay, and to me it's the last "Essential" album they dropped. Everything after begins to have that musky "old band" smell.

Absolutely. IR was dead bottom of my joint ranking. I have no idea why it has the cachet it does

it's some of their best & most accessible songwriting with rich, tasteful arrangements. nothing even close to a dud on it and a lovely warm sound too

accessible, tasteful and warm! just what i want ;)

i think there's a good case for "weird fishes" as their very best moment

skip from Hyperballad to Isobel to unlock maximum 'greatest mini-album that never was' power

― imago, Tuesday, March 14, 2023 11:22 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This seems crazy to me because Hyperballad into The Modern Things and You've Been Flirting into Isobel are the best bits of sequencing on the album.

I don't really put Björk and Radiohead on the same artistic plane. Radiohead is a decent band with some consistency. None of their albums approach Björk's work, so a ranking would start with at least 7 Björk albums, then maybe Amnesiac / OKC.

Listening to Hail to the Thief now, I think 2+2=5 was the first Radiohead song I heard, and Where I End and You Begin was a favorite, but I think my most powerful emotional reaction to Radiohead is polite attention.

And for that reason, no Radiohead album sounds significantly worse than the others to me. Björk on the other hand has some real up and downs (like 80% up 20% down).

I would be much more charitable towards Radiohead, but this is essentially otm. At the end of the day, Radiohead is a very good rock band. Bjork is . . . something else. I've probably known as many people who can't stand her music as people who adore it, but no one who is indifferent. It's sui generis.

it's some of their best & most accessible songwriting with rich, tasteful arrangements. nothing even close to a dud on it and a lovely warm sound too

otm

good ranking too ufo

Funnily, these were my two favorite acts in high school (mid-1990s), and yet I would never have thought to compare them, and don't really see any points of comparison. I would assume Bjork influenced Yorke a lot toward his desire to make non-rock, electronic-rooted music; but obviously to me, he never got close to the level of electronic brilliance...

If I were forced, I guess I'd go...

Homogenic
Medulla
Post
A Moon Shaped Pool
Vespertine
Kid A
Vulnicura
OK Computer
Debut
The Bends
Amnesiac
Biophilia
In Rainbows
Drawing Restraint 9
Fossora
Pablo Honey
Selmasongs
The King of Limbs
Volta
Utopia
Hail To the Thief

The only ones I dislike would be 'Volta,' 'Utopia,' and (the only one I hate) 'Hail To the Thief' (which just about put me off Radiohead permanently).

I really can't compare the two, there are superficial similarities (instantly identifiable singers & songwriters who have both been intensely influenced by electronic music, and have incorporated it but aren't bound by it), but I'm just glad they both exist and got that '90s/early '00s music industry $$$ to do what they've done.

Selmasongs

was surprised no one had mentioned this so far, considering the thread subject!