Official RADIOHEAD thread

Jeremy Blackman · May 18, 2005, 07:57:05 PM

RK wins.

I'm still not exactly sure why I have such different opinions of Amnesiac and Kid A. I think Amnesiac is less apologetic. Half of Kid A is similar to OK Computer, kind of like HTTT... but Amnesiac is undivided.

Myxo · May 18, 2005, 08:34:43 PM

Ok Computer for me is the record that embodies the genius of Radiohead. You've got everything from music video friendly tracks to heart wrenching moments. The stars all aligned for that album and I have a hard time imagining them ever duplicating it.

The Bends put Radiohead on the map in terms of respect. Tons and tons of musicians started tuning in. It's a natural progression from a very immature Pablo Honey. I think alot of critics were blown away that this band could ever recover from 'Creep' and produce anything but a one-hit-wonder.

In my personal opinion, Kid A is Radiohead's most "complete" record from beginning to end. It must be taken in whole and I admit it took me a while to really appreciate that quality. It's outstanding music late at night on a long road trip. People can just chill out.

Amnesiac feels like leftovers to me. It is fucking brilliant, so don't get me wrong. But I've always felt like it was a very easy record to skip from track to track on. I can't say that about the above three albums.

Pablo Honey is what it is. Being a debut album, I wonder if the band would be anything at all without the success of 'Creep' and the madness that followed. For me, Ripcord is a great track.

Pubrick · May 18, 2005, 08:50:24 PM

Quote from: MyxomatosisThe Bends put Radiohead on the map in terms of respect.

who cares what it did, it sucks now.

tpfkabi · May 18, 2005, 10:47:06 PM

to those who are not putting OK Computer as number 1, (i'm talking in relation to Radiohead, yet it also happens to be my number 1 overall) when did you get into the band? meaning what was the first album you bought or at least really got into? for me it was OKC, after i couldn't get the Karma Police video and melody out of my mind.

to play the game:

OK Computer
Kid A The Bends
Amnesiac
Hail to the Thief

for Kid A and The Bends i will probably like which ever one i'm listening to at the time. slight edge to Kid A because of it's cohesiveness. i used to rank Amnesiac a little lower, but it took me a while to get it. HTTT, though it has been out a while, is still "new." probably won't comprehend it's worth until the next LP comes out.

oh yeah,
Pablo Picasso.

Stefen · May 18, 2005, 11:08:46 PM

Yeah, I think people who don't list either the bends or ok computer as their favorite means they started listening to radiohead when everyone else did, when Kid A came out or were late and came around when Amnesiac came out. Cause I have a hard time believing how amnesiac and kid a are better than their last two.

cron · May 18, 2005, 11:16:22 PM

Quote from: StefenYeah, I think people who don't list either the bends or ok computer as their favorite means they started listening to radiohead when everyone else did, when Kid A came out or were late and came around when Amnesiac came out. Cause I have a hard time believing how amnesiac and kid a are better than their last two.

they've done better than the bends and ok computer, regardless of their fame. i set my list chronologicaly backwards because i think they get better each time they release an album.

Sleuth · May 18, 2005, 11:16:47 PM

Pablo Honey on cassette. I don't know if everyone here was alive in 93, but Creep was sort of a big thing

Jeremy Blackman · May 18, 2005, 11:51:00 PM

Quote from: bigideasto those who are not putting OK Computer as number 1, (i'm talking in relation to Radiohead, yet it also happens to be my number 1 overall) when did you get into the band?

Quote from: StefenYeah, I think people who don't list either the bends or ok computer as their favorite means they started listening to radiohead when everyone else did, when Kid A came out or were late and came around when Amnesiac came out.

I started with OK Computer.

Stefen · May 18, 2005, 11:54:44 PM

haha, i'll believe it when i see it.

tpfkabi · May 19, 2005, 06:44:36 AM

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman
Quote from: bigideasto those who are not putting OK Computer as number 1, (i'm talking in relation to Radiohead, yet it also happens to be my number 1 overall) when did you get into the band?
Quote from: StefenYeah, I think people who don't list either the bends or ok computer as their favorite means they started listening to radiohead when everyone else did, when Kid A came out or were late and came around when Amnesiac came out.
I started with OK Computer.

ok. do you think you were artistically mature at the time?
for me, it was the album that made me think of music in a different way, the same way Vertigo was to film for me.

Pubrick · May 19, 2005, 08:52:17 AM

Quote from: Stefenhaha, i'll believe it when i see it.

it's the opposite actually. the ppl who are listing OK Computer and the Bends at the top are only doing it cos they hav the emotional attachment of probably having discovered them at that time. whereas the ones listing Amnesiac/Kid A/HttT are actually ranking them based on what's good, not what they think makes them seem "more down".

Myxo · May 19, 2005, 10:46:54 AM

Quote from: StefenYeah, I think people who don't list either the bends or ok computer as their favorite means they started listening to radiohead when everyone else did, when Kid A came out or were late and came around when Amnesiac came out. Cause I have a hard time believing how amnesiac and kid a are better than their last two.

Part of it has to do with how old you are really..

I'm 28 and Ok Computer came out when I was 20 and right in the middle of my "discovery" of great music. Alot of people here are in their early 20s and I suspect never had a chance to enjoy the music "scene" in the late 90s away from high school. So, it makes sense that Kid A/Amnesiac/HTTT are favorite records for others.

grand theft sparrow · May 19, 2005, 12:38:39 PM

Quote from: StefenYeah, I think people who don't list either the bends or ok computer as their favorite means they started listening to radiohead when everyone else did, when Kid A came out or were late and came around when Amnesiac came out.

Not necessarily.

Pablo came out when I was in high school. I picked up the Creep "cassingle" (that's a word I've not heard in a long time... long time) with Faithless, the Wonder Boy on. Good songs but I wasn't inspired to buy the album.

Bends came out my freshman year of college. Since I didn't have a TV in college, I missed the genius that was the Just video and I missed the album altogether because all the hippie fucks on my floor in my dorm were playing Phish, the Grateful Dead, 311, and Dave Matthews. I wanted to saw my own head off. I immersed myself instead in the exact opposite of all that shit: funk (real funk - Parliament, Brothers Johnson, Slave, Prince, etc., not Blood Sugar Sex Magik). So I had no idea.

My first exposure to OK was when I went to England in the summer of 97 and randomly caught the last half of Paranoid Android on MTV. I'm watching this cartoon of a naked fat guy chopping down a light pole and I was like, "What the fuck is this?" Turns out it was, as I exclaimed, "The fucking 'Creep' guys?!" The rest is history.

The thing is, OK is phenomenal from start to finish but Kid A was a musical revelation as far as I'm concerned. The first time I heard it, it knocked me on my ass.

As for Amnesiac, it's great and it's more out there than Kid A is in a lot of respects but it's more inconsistent. But I think that if you want definitive Radiohead, you need the one-two punch of OK and Kid A, Kid A having the upper hand for sheer originality.

RegularKarate · May 19, 2005, 01:31:04 PM

My experience started with Pablo Honey, like most people my age... like Trem pointed out, it was kind of a big deal.

It pulled me sufficiently out of my metal phase. I sold my Megadeth, Metallica, etc... CDs (not that metal was all I was into... I had already started to grow tired of it... those were just the only CDs I had) and I bought with the money PH on CD.

I was huge into Creep for the longest time and a few other songs, then I got bored and way into Nirvana and then Nine Inch Nails and forgot PH completely. Then the Bends came out and hooked me again. Once I heard the first ten seconds of Paranoid Android though, I realized they were geniuses and after OKC was released, I wouldn't listen to anything else for pretty much two and a half years.

Stefen · May 19, 2005, 01:53:45 PM

If thats the case rk, it seems like the bends and ok computer changed your life, how can you put kid a and amnesiac ahead of them? And if Pablo Honey was the album that got you into radiohead, how can you refer to it as pablow honey? The first three are so different from the next two that they really aernt comparable, you would need two seperate lists really. Rate the first three, then on a second list rate the next two. And you can throw in httt in whichever list you want. Thats the way it should go. Radiohead are like the styx of our generation.