Rating: 2 Stars (Purple) * *
Rating: 3 Stars (Blue) * * *
Rating: 5 Stars (Gold) * * * * *
Rating: 5 Stars (Gold) * * * * *
Rating: 3 Stars (Blue) * * *
Rating: 3 Stars (Blue) * * *
Rating: 4 Stars (Silver) * * * *
Rating: 4 Stars (Silver) * * * *
I am a big fan of Radiohead, and so I shall do a broad overview of their entire catalouge up to this point.
They began with a one-hit album, Pablo Honey. I've listened to it and agree with the general consensus with critics that really the only good song on the album is Creep. The rest of the album, I really don't remember much about how it sounds because it all sounds like padding. The band could've easily fizzled out after this rather weak opener.
However, the second album The Bends is often considered to be the album where the "real" Radiohead got off of the ground. Planet Telex, High and Dry, Nice Dream, Just, and My Iron Lung are all songs that I love off of this album. In addition, many of the B-Sides that didn't make it on the actual album are in my opinion better than most of the stuff that actually did make it, with B-Sides like The Trickster, Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong, and Talk Show Host. However, like I hinted with the B-Sides being better than many of the songs on the actual album, some of the songs are pretty bland.
Ok Computer further propelled the band as it was one of the best albums of the 1990s. Fusing electronic elements with their usual spacy sounding rock made this album a total success. Paranoid Android is probably the best Radiohead song out there, and Airbag, Subterrainian Homesick Alien, Let Down, Karma Police, Electioneering, and Climbing Up the Walls are all iconic Radiohead. Some B-Sides are great too, namely Meeting in the Aisle and Climbing Up the Walls (Zero 7 Mix). The album has a feeling that's like no other album i've heard from anybody.
Then came the album that divided Radiohead fans and started their run of albums that sounded like they built up songs, then purposely destroyed them and made them strange. Kid A, which is retrospectively considered one of the best albums of the last decade, is a great but very inaccessable album. Fans of OK Computer might be off-put buy songs like Everything In Its Right Place, Kid A, Treefingers, Idioteque, and Motion Picture Soundtrack. Best songs on this album in my opinion are Everything In Its Right Place, The National Anthem, Optimistic, and In Limbo.
Amnesiac was basically the "leftovers" that came from the Kid A sessions. Though stuff like Pyramid Song, You and Whose Army?, I Might Be Wrong, and Dollars & Cents stand on their own as great songs, but much of the album suffers from taking what Kid A started too far, with many of the songs trying to hard to be unconventional and strange.
Hail to the Theif felt to me like Amnesiac part II, suffering from the same problem. Mixed amongst the weirdness though is gems like 2+2=5, Sail to the Moon, and Go to Sleep.
In Rainbows saw the end of the weirdness, returning to more listenable sounding songs. This album was very famous for it's "pay what you want" model, those this was discontinued for the next album, which suggests Radiohead didn't view the experiment as a huge success. 15 Step and Bodysnatchers are a welcome new sound for the band, and others are soothing like Weird Fishes, House of Cards, and Jigsaws Falling Into Place.
The bands most recent album released last year is The King of Limbs. This album upon it's release seem to have a similar effect to Kid A, dividing fans due to it's unusual sound, being electronic, yet having a ethereal organic feel. I am a fan of this album, as the unconventional melodies in songs like Morning Mr Magpie, Little by Litte, and Lotus Flower are very hypnotizing. I first heard this album while driving on a rainy day and it felt perfect. However, there is drag on the album and it's understandable why some might not like it.
That's my retrospective assessment of Radiohead's discography thus far. Here's hoping to many goodies from them in the future.
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