The Radiohead POX

They probably changed my life, you know

Anyway...

Like Spinning Plates
Life in a Glasshouse
Pyramid Song
Wolf at the Door
Exit Music
Meeting in the Aisle
How to Disappear Completely
Kinetic
Talk Show Host
Street Spirit

1. Blow Out
2. Nice Dream
3. Paranoid Android
4. Meeting In The Aisle
5. Palo Alto
6. Idioteque
7. I Might Be Wrong
8. Sail To The Moon
9. Myxomatosis
10. That B-side whose name I can't remember, dammit, but I liked it cause Isobel from Drugstore sang harmony vocals on it argh argh argh I'm so dumb but since I can't remember its name, I'll pick Talk Show Host in its place. Sigh.

That was really difficult. And I'm going to change my mind again as soon as I hit post.

Only ten is simply impossible, this is more like a POXX...

To bad you can only pick 10, it's a shame to leave out Just, Let Down, Exit Music, Idioteque, The National Anthem, Knives Out, Where I End And You Begin, There There, etc.

(Can't this be up to 20, instead?;> 10 forces some damn hard choices.)

Anyway, here is my POX. It looks very much like an alternative OKC track listing, not because everything else they've done sucks, but before OKC was such a classic:

1. Exit Music (For Films)
2. Paranoid Android
3. Let Down
4. Subterranean Homesick Alien
5. Lucky
6. Airbag
7. High And Dry
8. Karma Police
9. Fake Plastic Trees
10.The Tourist

Too hard! And Amnesiac works so well as an album, it's almost impossible to pick specific tracks.

Pyramid Song
Life in a Glass House
There There
The National Anthem
True Love Waits (the version with keyboards!)
Exit Music (for a Film)
Lucky
Paranoid Android
Just
Creep

Paranoid Android
Let Down
Idioteque
Pyramid Song
Everything In Its Right Place
Optimistic
Exit Music (For A Film)
The Tourist
No Surprises
Reckoner

that was really hard...i left a lot out

oooh, I'll play...

Sulk
How Can You Be Sure?
Black Star
Lucky
Just
Idioteque
India Rubber
Pop Is Dead
The National Anthem
No Surprises

...I liked In Rainbows but it occurs to me I haven't listened to it for a few months and can't really remember any of the songs now. Damn.

Nude
Everything in its Right Place
Talk Show Host
Reckoner
Paranoid Android
Pyramid Song
All I Need
Backdrifts
My Iron Lung
Subterranean Homesick Alien

1 "Intro"
2 "It's Alright"
3 "This Is Why I'm Hot"
4 "Girlfriend's Fav MC"
5 "Where I Belong"
6 "Cop It"
7 "Big Black Train"
8 "They Don't Wanna Play"
9 "Like This"
10 "Just Like That"

Pop Is Dead

You can't be serious.

1. I think I'm dumb
2. Ether
3. Bjork
4. Fuck with your soul
5. Teach u the king u no u
6. ZZ-Top
7. Will win
8. positive cuz negativity spreads faster :(
9. EMONEM SHUT UP
10. Carol Shepp responded by telling McCain to "shut up his bitch".

Airbag
Reckoner
The National Anthem
Where I End & You Begin
Paranoid Android
15 Step
Just
Sit Down Stand Up
Let Down
Morning Bell

Airbag
Reckoner
The National Anthem
Where I End & You Begin
Paranoid Android
15 Step
Separator
These Are My Twisted Words
Nude
There There

idioteque
kid a
there there
no surprises
knives out
morning bell
fitter happier (yea)
scatterbrain
subterranean homesick alien
myxomatosis

cool interview from 9/23/94:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPUTSXXrh7U

street spirit (fade out)
airbag
let down
palo alto
everything in its right place
idioteque
like spinning plates
backdrifts
there there
house of cards

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Motion Picture Soundtrack
There There
How to Disappear Completely
Where I End & You Begin
Lucky
Idioteque
House of Cards
Paranoid Android
Nude

I like that list. "Reckoner", those HTTT songs, and "Everything" are real highlights for me too.

You
Bones
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Everything In Its Right Place
Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
Cuttooth
Where I End and You Begin
15 Step
Codex
Identikit

I'm not a Radiohead fan but here are some memorable moments off the top of my head

1. The way the melody explodes upward when Thom sings "anyone can play guitarrrr" (Pablo Honey is the album I enjoy returning to the most)
2. A ghost memory about having feelings and feeling them when listening to The Bends album, pretty sure I know all the words to "Fake Plastic Trees", but those feelings are unfamiliar to me now
3. The drums dropping in and out on "Airbag"
4. The exquisite guitar picking pattern in the a-section of "Paranoid Android", also notable is the self-parodic line "the crackle of pig skin" which was when I got off the "I care about Thom's lyrics" train
5. Feeling like I was the only person on the internet who thought "Electioneering" was the best OKC song, and that "Let Down" and "Lucky" were cold garbage
6. The first .5 seconds of "Everything In Its Right Place", unable to sit at a Rhodes for more than a minute without playing those chords
7. Jonny's delicious string arrangement on "How To Disappear Completely", the guitar riff on "National Anthem" (and nothing else about that song)
8. Thinking that the Kid A bear was very clever bit of branding
9. Being obsessed for a day over "Like Spinning Plates", reversing the track in my DAW and listening, and searching for live recordings; disliking every individual song on Amnesiac otherwise
10. Listening all the way through "Hail To The Thief" exactly once, feeling impressed when it goes "the raindrops, the raindrops", then remembering that I hate this band by the time Thom sings "it's a drunken punch-up at a wedding"
11. Enjoying all of In Rainbows thoroughly, especially the live performance of "15 Step" with marching band, the rising vocal coda on "Nude", debating with a friend whether or not it was OK to delete "Faust ARP" from the iTunes
12. Going to see the band for free, watched their soundcheck and was non-plussed, then saw them play with the full lighting rig and was blown away, felt like I knew and liked every song they played
13. Dancing memes
14. Feeling envious of Jonny's film scores, feeling whatever about Thom's solo album, loving the live set of Atoms For Peace
15. The new album floated by my head without a single Thom contribution making an impression

Oh and somewhere in there I forgot but I stan for their cover of "On Your Own Again"

Oh also: the drum sound on "Reckoner", prob my #1 favourite thing about this band

15. The new album floated by my head without a single Thom contribution making an impression

there are a lot of guitar and piano moments that sound Thom-y to me though (his solo albums helped me realize how much this is true).

Oh also: the drum sound on "Reckoner", prob my #1 favourite thing about this band

so great, the '60s stereo thing with the whole drumkit panned hard to one side, and the perfect tambourine sound in the other channel.

Yeah, that's great! I could have just listed all of In Rainbows tbh.

1. My Iron Lung
2. Airbag
3. Subterranean Homesick Alien
4. Everything in its Right Place
5. Optimistic
6. Pyramid Song
7. There There
8. 15 step
9. Separator
10. Daydreamer

5. Feeling like I was the only person on the internet who thought "Electioneering" was the best OKC song, and that "Let Down" and "Lucky" were cold garbage

I have definitely argued for "Electioneering" as the best OKC song before, but can't imagine ever in a million years disliking "Let Down"

"Lucky" has a good chorus, but is hard to feel any type of way about besides

oh yeah & I 110% agree w/ hosannas for the "Reckoner" drum sound. instantly recognizable (at least, it stands out from the rest of their stuff, sonically) yet familiar... Jordan sez 60s stereo mixing, but I hear the echo of late Talk Talk as well

debating with a friend whether or not it was OK to delete "Faust ARP" from the iTunes

not okay, but only because of the lovely moment when the strings come in, which is a minor album highlight for me

xp clarification: shoulda said something like "unmistakable but familiar" -- within seconds, the music impresses upon me a sense of time&place that are just as strong as the 90s britpop heyday evoked by the churning guitars of The Bends, if somewhat more nebulous

I should also-also note that the crisp, dry drum sound kicking off "Weird Fishes" is equally great, albeit in a totally opposed way

hearing this version of Arpeggi for 2 and a half years before IR came out ruined the song for me. this is such a beautiful song, i really can't stand the meat & potatoes arrangement on the record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrKPrpOvfCI

okay whoops -- I'm relistening to "Faust ARP" & realizing the strings are present from the very first; in my memory, it was a lot more spare, acoustic gtr+vox, no strings until they come in under I love you but enough is enough. the string+wordless vocal coda, I had forgotten about altogether!

There there
Last Flowers til the Hospital
Kid A
Scatterbrain
Let Down
Airbag
Knives Out
Morning Bell
Idioteque
Myxomatosis

Supercollider
Staircase
Ful Stop
Burn The Witch
Identikit
The Daily Mail
Feral
Codex
Bangers & Mash
15 Step

^ are the ones I most feel like listening to at the moment.

"Ful Stop" was so amazing on their Glastonbury set last night. So groovy and hypnotic.

I agree. 'Ful Stop', to me, is basically the kind of thing that they were going for on The King of Limbs but perfected.

yeah I was blown away by that Glastonbury performance of "Ful Stop" - the video stream I saw started right in the middle of it. they played "Daydreaming" and "Lucky" before it, right?

Yep. Full set audio here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vkbfb

phil's playing has gotten a lot more creative over the years. the live version of ful stop is a great example

'Daydreaming' is such a fucking awful way to start a set.

this is what i think of every time i see phil selway on stage

https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/databank_lobot_01_169_8a50d7ae.jpeg?region=0%2C0%2C1560%2C878&width=768

no i'm not drunk.

https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/databank_lobot_01_169_8a50d7ae.jpeg?region=0%2C0%2C1560%2C878&width=768

'Daydreaming' is such a fucking awful way to start a set.

No way, it's a really sweet way to ease in to a set. Not every show has to open with a banger. The pacing of their sets is really spectacular imo - look at the first four songs of the Glastonbury set: lulled in by Daydreaming; going into Lucky, which starts off moody and slow then explodes; into the hypnotic & droney Ful Stop; and then a supercharged version of Airbag. That's a great way to start a show.

It did get a bit morose there in the middle of the set though I thought. Ok it's Radiohead etc. When they played "Ful Stop", I felt I was in some Can in the 70s vibe tho

xpost:

Not every show has to open with a banger, but I'd prefer them to open with a song that is worthy of actually being an opener.

honestly i was unconvinced by radiohead playing the old shit, which they did for most of their glasto set. when thom sings ok computer songs it's frequently pretty obvious that he was 20 years younger when they did that album. "the king of limbs" is their worst record since "pablo honey" but when they played "bloom" it was a breath of fresh air after their fairly dire stab at "let down". i'm not saying they're in zep '77 territory or 2017 michael mcdonald or anything but not having really paid attention to the group live since around 2003 i was a little shocked at how much worse the ok computer songs sounded, and since the album was a knife-edge away from morose parody in the first place...

I thought 'Bloom' sounded terrible. They've played versions of it which have been astounding, but it wasn't at Glasto.

The setlist spread at Glasto, for anyone who is arsed:

Pablo Honey: 1
The Bends: 2
OK Computer: 7
Kid A: 2
Amnesiac: 2
Hail to the Thief: 4
In Rainbows: 4
The King of Limbs: 2
A Moon Shaped Pool: 2

so out of 26 songs, _four_ of them were less than 10 years old!

the greatest trick radiohead ever pulled was convincing the world they weren't an oldies band.

Radiohead are not an oldies band. That's a festival setlist - AMSP stuff is not really suited for a festival environment, and the abundance of OKC material obviously had something to do with the reissue. and of course it'd go over well with a broad crowd. Three days earlier in Dublin, the set breakdown was this:

A Moon Shaped Pool: 6
Kid A: 4
OK Computer: 4
In Rainbows: 3
Hail to the Thief: 2
The Bends: 2
The King of Limbs: 2
Amnesiac: 1
OKNOTOK: 1

Pretty typical for a band that's been making records for 25 years.

xpost:

They were playing a festival setlist, and OK Computer has just been reissued. Their usual non-festival sets haven't been been like that.

i forget which radiohead thread was being used to discuss the OKNOTOK cassette tape, but it's shipping worldwide today so i expect we'll be able to hear it very soon

ordered mine, will report back

can we all swear a sacred oath to bump this whenever it leaks? and by all i mean you and me at this point, tetrahedron

i will go ahead and draw my own blood in preparation for the oath

because this tape will definitely meet all of my expectations and i won't be disappointed in the slightest

Relevant to your interests KM

thanks!

jigsaw falling into place
let down
optimistic
sulk
paranoid android
reckoner
street spirit (fade out)
idioteque
2+2=5
talk show host

Current POX

Fake Plastic Trees
Climbing Up the Walls
Separator
Staircase
Supercollider
Kid A
Everything in its right place
How to disappear completely
Worrywort
I might be wrong

I don’t think I’ll ever love an album of theirs as much as I love Kid A so that’s always top tier for me but I find it weird that the songs from the TKOL sessions are the other ones I keep coming back to the most. Is TKOL my second favorite Radiohead album!?

I did mine a while ago. Ordered, too (highest first)

Planet Telex
2+2=5
Paranoid Android
Bodysnatchers
Pyramid Song
Climbing Up The Walls
A Reminder
Little By Little
Supercollider
A Punchup At A Wedding

aaaaahhh uhhhhhh without fussing over it too much:

jigsaw
national anthem
fog
the gloaming
wolf at the door
let down
ful stop
house of cards
there there
seperator

"there there" is almost nowhere to be found top of this thread!

there there
the national anthem
a punchup at a wedding
where bluebirds fly
black star
maquiladora
arpeggi (2005)
up on the ladder
I might be wrong
morning bell

The Tourist
Bodysnatchers
Let Down
There There
Present Tense
Knives Out
Lotus Flower
Sulk
Reckoner
Idioteque