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

i don't know how common this is, but for me Kid A onward definitely diminished what came before, which was perhaps not deliberate although you could at least say self-fulfilled. i loved actually all three of the first albums at the time and i can tap into that still but there is a tinge of embarrassment, albeit faint.

there was a tinge of embarrassment to Creep about a minute into Planet Telex tho.

someone mentioned japan above who are an interesting comparative. maybe if you were a japan fan at the time Quiet Life would've made you like the first two albums less. personally my record collection back then consisted of one keith harris and orville 7" so i can't say, but looking back it is hard to imagine because early japan also rules.

"I railed against them for years, I think now, simply because they were the band that everyone expected me to like."

This is also my experience. I've come to see how toxic b/c merely reactive it is for my appreciation of the arts, but I've struggled with this since I was a nerdy kid and everyone expected me to like classical music and I became a pop fan instead. Things have gotten better but my popism, such as it is, can't be separated from a fuck you against my peers.

just to add something in support of Jigsaw: it's one of those every-so-often moments that sheds light on how far these guys have come as songwriters. back in the Bends days, the band would have opted for the sudden crescendo, upping the drama through impetuous guitar noise. but Jigsaw builds to its exhilarating climax, and exacts this climax, through tension and restraint; the instruments sound clenched, like they're tending the same delimiting ground for the duration of the song. the final, ascending passage plays out within the concentrated sphere of what's come before, it's just that the intensity has almost reached breaking point. but not quite. the song develops in an organic fashion, whilst paying respect to each and every ingredient that goes into it, preserving a certain consistency from start to finish. that, to me, is one of the hallmarks of great writing.

Calling IR 'sprawling' is the maddest and most inaccurate slight about it I've read yet.

Well no, it's just someone else's different reaction to a record. Not relating to id doesn't make it mad or inaccurate.

Fair enough, was being slightly hyperbolic. It sounds very concise and well sequenced to me though.

I'll stop now, most Radiohead threads seem to devolve into circular discussions of the merits of In Rainbows at some point (and I'm certainly part of the problem).

Sometimes I feel as though Radiohead have got it in them to make a proper album one day.

Jigsaw is my ikkle bro's favourite Radiohead song and I'm inclined to say it is totally excellent.

'The Bends' and 'Bones' are def my least favourite songs on the 2nd album. 'The Bends' especially, could have easily been taken from Pablo Honey.

i can't listen to anything of The Bends these days except Planet Telex

off

The biggest problem with jigsaw is that they decided to fade the song out (?) in the middle of Jonny's guitar solo (!?)

The big climactic end section has great chords and a great arrangement, but Thom's voice sounds oddly pinched and weedy in it, which ruins the whole effect.

This band, if they could only overcome these multiple stylistic and creative hurdles we're all pointing out, they could be quite the success.

it's a fantastic vocal line. the singing itself might be a bit underpowered, yeah.

x-post

lol Scik Mouthy

http://i.imgur.com/FyPvvQO.jpg

40. High and Dry [12 votes | 243 points]

O_O at high and dry...being voted for

lol

High and Dry is great forever.

I've heard it so many times I never deliberately play it, but when it comes on the iPod on shuffle I still love it.

Hoping for an impassioned defense of High and Dry, because really?

creep and high and dry are fine songs that people would still like if they were done by some rando 90s indie band

"They're the ooo-uuhh-ooones who'll spit at you..."

is The Place Beyond the Pines based on High and Dry?

the thing with high and dry is that it sounds like the soundtrack to a mid-90s friends type of tv show, a special episode where one of the characters breaks up and is heartbroken or something, and there's a brief 45-second montage of the character looking out the window and being sad juxtaposed with shots of the other characters leading their happy lives - and during all of this the instrumental ending (the shitty guitar solo) of high and dry is playing

also coldplay

but it is sad. he can only fuck now. he has lost the ability to make love.

"High And Dry" was recorded during the Pablo Honey sessions but was dismissed by the band, who thought that it sounded like a Rod Stewart song.

surely by now they should have realized this is a pro

http://i.imgur.com/YSCxcU5.jpg

39. Nude [13 votes | 282 points]

if you squint really hard, during high and dry you can teleport into the brain of chris martin in 1996. he's listening to the bends and he's obsessed and he loves it. but somehow it's slippery, he can't quite figure it out. but then in the midst of listening to high and dry yet again, he says "this is who i am, also. i can do this". then he starts writing songs that are slightly slower and even worse than high and dry and becomes a global popstar

"They're the ooo-uuhh-ooones who'll spit at you..."

― jmm

When I listened to The Bends recently this bit really grated on me. Same on The Bends when he sings "I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy, I wish, I wish" It's moments like those that made the album seem almost as dated as Pablo Honey.

yeah but i love his delivery of "screaming ouuut"

"high and dry" is definitely the most fun song to sing on the bends (maybe actually tied with "black star" though)

Didn't make my ballot, and it's not a highlight of The Bends for me, but the bass drum sound on the intro is glorious.

Love Nude.

Didn't vote, but hoping that Airbag will place well in the tracks.

I voted for High and Dry, still love the guitar solo and the vocals even if the lyrics are a bit cringeworthy.

But yeah, you can definitely trace the emergence of Coldplay directly to the chorus.

Only bit of High and Dry I particularly like are the drum fills in the 'best thing that you ever had' breakdown.

High & Dry is a fine song but sucks by association to all the awful, "sensitive" britpop bands it spawned.

http://i.imgur.com/Q2fBhAO.jpg

38. I Might Be Wrong [15 votes | 289 points]

"High and Dry" is a beautiful song in and of itself and it's really not Radiohead's fault that every single Coldplay single is an inferior re-interpretation of it

I really really don't like I Might Be Wrong at all.

I don't know if I voted for IMBW but I love the coda.

I think it's one of those good Radiohead songs that would be great with a different producer at the mix.

last two songs appropriately placed imo

btw, how far down are we counting today?

I really really don't like I Might Be Wrong at all.

― nate woolls

Same, sounds murky and lacking in drive.

I'm planning on going to 21, might not get that far though.

"I Might Be Wrong" is fine but there are a bunch of Radiohead songs I like more

^^^