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[OricWindstar]

I'd probably say Radiohead is my favorite band (or Gorillaz, it's a close call) and I can't fucking choose what my favorite album of theirs is; they're all so fucking good and so different from each other that my choice seems to change depending on the day you ask me. I generally would say In Rainbow is my favorite...but then there's OK Computer...and Kid A is fucking amazing...and...AH! Just too hard to decide.

I'm curious what the GAF consensus is on this. I'm predicting OK Computer to be the overall favorite, but let me know your thoughts. I'll even tally up the results if enough people respond. If you need a refresher on Radiohead's discography (just the studio albums):

Pablo Honey (1993)

You
Creep
How Do You?
Stop Whispering
Thinking About You
Anyone Can Play Guitar
Ripcord
Prove Yourself
I Can't
Lurgee
Blow Out


The Bends (1995)

Planet Telex
The Bends
High and Dry
Fake Plastic Trees
Bones
(Nice Dream)
Just
My Iron Lung
Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was
Black Star
Sulk
Street Spirit (Fade Out)


OK Computer (1997)

Airbag
Paranoid Android
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Exit Music (For a Film)
Let Down
Karma Police
Fitter Happier
Electioneering
Climbing Up the Walls
No Surprises
Lucky
The Tourist


Kid A (2000)

Everything in Its Right Place
Kid A
The National Anthem
How to Disappear Completely
Treefingers
Optimistic
In Limbo
Idioteque
Morning Bel
Motion Picture Soundtrack


Amnesiac (2001)

Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box
Pyramid Song
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
You and Whose Army?
I Might Be Wrong
Knives Out
Morning Bell/Amnesiac
Dollars and Cents
Hunting Bears
Like Spinning Plates
Life in a Glasshouse


Hail to the Thief (2003)

2 + 2 = 5
Sit Down. Stand Up
Sail to the Moon
Backdrifts
Go to Sleep
Where I End and You Begin
We Suck Young Blood
The Gloaming
There There
I Will
A Punchup at a Wedding
Myxomatosis
Scatterbrain
A Wolf at the Door


In Rainbows (2007)

15 Step
Bodysnatchers
Nude
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
All I Need
Faust Arp
Reckoner
House of Cards
Jigsaw Falling into Place
MK 1
Down Is the New Up
Go Slowly
MK 2
Last Flowers
Up on the Ladde
Bangers + Mash
4 Minute Warning


The King of Limbs (2011)

Bloom
Morning Mr Magpie
Little by Little
Feral
Lotus Flower
Codex
Give Up the Ghost
Separator

---

I guess if you put a gun to my head, I could settle on In Rainbows is my favorite, if only because it has Jigsaw Falling Into Place, which is not only my favorite song by them but also one of the more under appreciated on songs. But it's fucking close, man.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I like the 01-10 experiment, combining OK Computer with In Rainbows.

 

[Blader]

In Rainbows is my favorite but OK Computer and Kid A are probably their biggest accomplishments.

 

[Vicious]

The Bends and OK Computer are the ones I listen to most often.

 

[arts&crafts]

Overall I would probably say In Rainbows because every song is amazing, but kid A and OK Computer have the best individual songs

 

[OricWindstar]

I like the 01-10 experiment, combining OK Computer with In Rainbows.

Oh yeah, I did this a while back. Remember liking it a lot, but I'll have to give it another listen.

 

[Courage]

I've never seen anyone say Pablo Honey is their favorite.

 

[Shorty11857]

Kid A followed by OK Computer followed by In Rainbows

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I have to give the very slight edge to OK computer, because I even like fitter happier.

In rainbows would be second but it has faust arp which always rubbed me the wrong way.

I think I'll go make a radiohead 'best of according to me' playlist. that should take a while. a lot on there.

 

[OricWindstar]

I've never seen anyone say Pablo Honey is their favorite.

I know a lot of the "bring out their acoustic guitar at a party when no one asked them to" type that think that. It's a great album, don't get me wrong, but I generally think they've just heard Creep when they say that and moved on.

 

[Emperor Bohe]

I've never seen anyone say Pablo Honey is their favorite.

the only person in the world who thinks that is right here

 

[Mr.Pig]

I am partial to In Rainbows but it is like comparing perfect diamonds (but actually valuable). It is not easy.

 

[arab]

it's in rainbows

 

[sploatee]

I think for me it's Kid A. I adore that album. I listened to nothing else for a whole year and was still finding nuances and layers to it.

In Rainbows is probably second, and then either Amnesiac or the King of Limbs.

 

[Dilly]

OK Computer tied with Kid A because of how different they are for me.

That sound of the synth in Everything in its right place is so great, and How to disappear completely makes me cry like a baby 50% of the time.

 

[motherxwolf]

My fav is the bends

 

[Zebra]

they're all so fucking good and so different from each other that my choice seems to change depending on the day you ask me.

Soo true, I'm the same way.

In Rainbows is usually my favorite. Every now and then Kid A will jump in front of it. Then out of nowhere a couple months ago I was listening to The Bends and it blew me away even though I had listened to it a hundred times already, so that became my favorite for a while.

I like OK Computer, but honestly it's never been my favorite even though a lot of people consider it to be the best.

 

[Mr.Swag]

I've only listened to their first five albums, and Kid A is number uno.

Ok computer #2

 

[joedan]

In Rainbows is the most enjoyable lesson. OK Computer may show the most genius but it's a challenging listen. Hard to work up the appetite to listen to it on a regular basis.

 

[Menome]

Amnesiac. I did a write-up on why a couple of years ago on another forum:

It's not Radiohead's 'best' album. That's OK Computer or Kid A, but it is my favourite. It's an album of soundscapes where it feels like you're trapped in the dead forests contained within the artwork for the album and from the secret booklet from Kid A. Each song is a fellow trapped soul, the scandalised man trapped in his own home by the press from Life In a Glasshouse, the starving people forced to eat rodents in Knives Out, and even the personification of money itself in Dollars & Cents. Behind every song there's an encroaching black emptiness that threatens to swallow up the wayward inhabitants of the album, and the listener along with it. As a person with synaesthesia, that blackness that's visible behind everything provides an unsettling coherence between the somewhat diverse style of music between tracks, that makes the album feel like an organic whole, rather than a collection of songs. It also helps that I enjoy the songs in their own right.

When this was released in 2001, I was at the impressionable age of 14 with a not very big music collection, the Radiohead albums I had listened to were all my Mum's boyfriend's, and Amnesiac was the first of theirs that was mine, bought with my birthday money from the Sainsbury's in Storrington, whilst staying with my grandparents. I could even take you to the exact spot in the store where the rather disparate CD shelf was, which just happened to have a couple of copies there amongst a bunch of tat. I brought it back, put it on the CD player in the computer study, and promptly had to do chores, so my sister actually got to listen to it all before I did. When I did finally listen to it, I was amazed. It was my first real foray into what could be termed 'experimental' music, I didn't actually hear Kid A until a couple of months afterwards, and to me, it's always sounded like Amnesiac's lesser brother. Like the ideas were there, but not quite as formulated and flowing.

It was also released around the time I started to learn my first instrument, the bass guitar, so over the summer holidays I got the tablature book from the local music shop and learnt as many of the songs as I could. A year or so later when I started on piano, I finished off learning every other song that required that, though Life in a Glasshouse changes chords so blooming often, I never quite mastered it. My GCSE Drama group even used a couple of songs from it in the first iteration of our final exam piece (which had a couple of scenes replaced at the insistence of our teacher, which unfortunately were the ones with an Amnesiac backing track).

So there's a lot of memories and sentimentality for me with Amnesiac, to go along with the music contained on the CD itself. It's part of my life, and that's why I love it.

 

[Schmitty]

It really depends on the mood you are in. I rotate between The Bends, Ok Computer, and In Rainbows. I would be happy with either of them.

 

[deli2000]

Radiohead Cycle? Radiohead Cycle.

In Rainbows > OK Computer > Kid A > The Bends > Amnesiac > Hail To The Thief > The King Of Limbs > 90% of recorded music > Pablo Honey

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Toss up between In Rainbows and Kid A. OK Computer a strong contender for third.

I don't care much for The Bends and think Pablo Honey is a down right not good record. Couldn't get into King of Limbs and while I like Hail to the Thief the failure of crowds to clap during that slow clappy song both times I saw Radiohead live ruined that album for me.

Fucking people.

 

[ratcliffja]

The Bends, then OK Computer, then In Rainbows. It's kind of bizarre that a group's first major album is widely considered its worst.

 

[Takamura-San]

I have it tied between In Rainbows and The Bends. If I have to give an edge, I would give it to In Rainbows. Such a perfect album and no wasted songs.

 

[Valhelm]

I honestly think it's In Rainbows, although I may only think so because it's the most pleasant to listen to.

 

[lobdale]

OK Computer and Kid A stand atop the rest.

 

[deli2000]

Toss up between In Rainbows and Kid A. OK Computer a strong contender for third.

I don't care much for The Bends and think Pablo Honey is a down right not good record. Couldn't get into King of Limbs and while I like Hail to the Thief the failure of crowds to clap during that slow clappy song both times I saw Radiohead live ruined that album for me.

Fucking people.

We Suck Young Blood?

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief are my favorites. In Rainbows, The Bends, and OK Computer all have some good moments as well. Their first and last album are not very good imo, though I do love Creep, Anyone Can Play Guitar, Lotus Flower, and Separator.

 

[outunderthestars]

For me, OK Computer by a wide margin.

 

[Mr. Doop]

I've never seen anyone say Pablo Honey is their favorite.

There are quite a few people in This thread.

On topic, my favorite Radiohead album switches between The Bends, Ok Computer, Kid A, and In Rainbows pretty frequently. I hope their next album is as good as those 4.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

I have it tied between In Rainbows and The Bends. If I have to give an edge, I would give it to In Rainbows. Such a perfect album and no wasted songs.

IR is pretty good, but I think Nude is one of the worst things they've ever done.

 

[Your Entertainer]

Ridiculously amazing band.

 

[Diablos]

The Bends, OK Computer and Kid A. The trifecta. I can't single out one of them as being the best, because they're all so different, and it's really amazing how they put them out in succession like that. I don't know if they were seriously planning for such an impressive run of albums, or if it was a happy accident. Perhaps a bit of both? Just amazing regardless of how you look at it, especially when you couple it with all the b-sides and live performances from that period.

Everything else ranges from good to great. I'd have to say Hail to the Thief is probably their worst album; while it does have some really strong tracks (i.e. 2+2 = 5, There There, Myxomytosis), as an album it falls flat. In Rainbows is their best post-Kid A album for sure.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

The first half of "Hail to the Thief" is some of the best pieces of music in a sequence. It's magnificent how much they crammed in that session. All the way to "I Will" the album is just perfection. It's one of the reasons why I will always have that album in rotation whenever possible.

 

[A-V-B]

Best albums are The Bends and OK Computer, with a shoutout to In Rainbows. But they don't really have any bad albums. No, not even Pablo Honey. It's weak compared to their other work, but it's so early that it's not like you can hold it up to every single album they ever did.

 

[Neol]

Ok Computer is my fav followed really closely by Kid A.

The Bend and In rainbows are pretty good as well.

 

[OricWindstar]

In Rainbows is the most enjoyable lesson. OK Computer may show the most genius but it's a challenging listen. Hard to work up the appetite to listen to it on a regular basis.

That's interesting, I had never thought of it like that. That may be a big reason why I feel that way I do.

 

[Einhander]

I could never get into Radiohead, and only like a handful of their songs, but hands down, the album which had the greatest effect on me was Kid A, and that was for two songs on there--which I consider to be the two best songs Radiohead has ever made--Idioteque and Optimistic. With that said, sorry Radiohead-GAF, the band isn't all it's cracked up to be.

 

[Zakalwe]

1. Hail
2. Rainbows
3. Bends

 

[Majine]

In Rainbows personally.

But a diversity in favorites among the fans is a sign of a consistently great artist.

 

[OricWindstar]

In Rainbows personally.

But a diversity in favorites among the fans is a sign of a consistently great artist.

Agreed. I love how they've evolved over time.

 

[KidB]

Kid A is my favourite as a complete album, but OK Computer and In Rainbows have the best individual songs.

 

[Zakalwe]

Ridiculously amazing band.

Different level band.

 

[A-V-B]

I could never get into Radiohead, and only like a handful of their songs, but hands down, the album which had the greatest effect on me was Kid A, and that was for two songs on there--which I consider to be the two best songs Radiohead has ever made--Idioteque and Optimistic. With that said, sorry Radiohead-GAF, the band isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I adore the fuck out of the jazz jam in Optimistic's end.

 

[kingocfs]

I only started coming around on In Rainbows a few years ago. It's definitely my favorite now, though.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

1. Hail
2. Rainbows
3. Bends

Let me buy you a beer!

 

[Gouty]

I'm thrilled to see so many people rightfully placing In Rainbows up there with Kid A and OK Computer. It's genius probably isn't as obvious straight out of the gate like those other two, where you know you're hearing something special from the opneing moments of the album. But over time its depth becomes more apparent and as a whole is a very sensual album, which was new territory for them.

 

[Crayons]

In Rainbows > Kid A > OK Computer > All the rest

 

[sixteen-bit]

Kid A