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The best Radiohead album is In Rainbows...wait no, OK Computer...wait no, it's...

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M

Micerider

Member
The only ones I don't gladly return to are Pablo Honey (they just were not that inspired yet) and King of Limbs (very hard to listen to and I have the impression that making the "effort" of putting all your attention into it rarely pays).

I love all the others, though my preferences are going to OK Computer and In Rainbows.

But I have been surprised lately to really get myself back into Hail to the Thief, that I had somewhat underestimated upon release.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Kid A/Amnesiac is my favourite. I cannot personally separate the two, I feel they are both the same piece of work and form a cohesive whole. Kid A is the panic and the terror before and during a stressful event and Amnesiac is the fallout and recovery. Morning Bell 1 and 2 kinda show this better than anything else.

Then it's OK Computer, The Bends, In Rainbows and then HTTT and King of Limbs. Pablo Honey is right at the bottom.

Honestly wasn't keen on TKOL, although it was still pretty good. Felt like it had more of a significant Thom influence than the previous albums, almost felt like a solo album featuring the rest of Radiohead. It was odd.
 
M

Mr. Doop

Member
Honestly, you could make a case for any of the Radiohead albums being the best except for Pablo Honey and The King of Limbs. They are both alright though.
 
D

Drifter_InA_Cage

Member
I must be the only Radiohead fan who likes their entire discography except for Kid A. Even Amnesiac has a lot of reddemable qualities for me but Kid A just never did anything, except for the song How to Disappear Completely of course, that's the only proper song on there and the rest is just noise to me.

As for their best, it's close between OKC and IR but OKC takes it on most days.
 
H

hidys

Member
This is a really difficult question since most of are albums are so fucking good. In my opinion they are the greatest band of all time.

But for my money I have to go with OK Computer which I consider to be the greatest album of all time.

But one could just as easily go with Kid A, The Bends, Amnesiac, In Rainbows etc.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Mr. Doop said:
Honestly, you could make a case for any of the Radiohead albums being the best except for Pablo Honey and The King of Limbs. They are both alright though.
Click to expand...

Pablo Honey has You, which is a top Radiohead song - and the acoustic version with Jonny and Thom is incredible.
 
X

Xrenity

Member
I just wonder where their next album will fit in.

Loved everything OK Computer onwards. In Rainbows or Kid A is the best...
 
D

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Drifter_InA_Cage said:
I must be the only Radiohead fan who likes their entire discography except for Kid A. Even Amnesiac has a lot of reddemable qualities for me but Kid A just never did anything, except for the song How to Disappear Completely of course, that's the only proper song on there and the rest is just noise to me.

As for their best, it's close between OKC and IR but OKC takes it on most days.
Click to expand...

I'm kind of on the same page. I like Kid A but I honestly find it a bit overrated. I mean, it was a great, groundbreaking album, but overrated in the sense that I've just always been surprised to see so many people put it above the rest of their discography. I also think Amnesiac is the better album.
 
Pegasus Actual

Pegasus Actual

Member
OK Computer is easily the best. I am not down with this shit where Thom Yorke twitches around like a mental patient while two bald guys drum. GTFO Radiohead.
 
B

Blader

Member
Drifter_InA_Cage said:
I must be the only Radiohead fan who likes their entire discography except for Kid A. Even Amnesiac has a lot of reddemable qualities for me but Kid A just never did anything, except for the song How to Disappear Completely of course, that's the only proper song on there and the rest is just noise to me.

As for their best, it's close between OKC and IR but OKC takes it on most days.
Click to expand...

I was honestly pretty cold on it myself until I heard the I Might Be Wrong live record. Like King of Limbs, hearing the songs live gave me a whole new appreciation for them.

richisawesome said:
Honestly wasn't keen on TKOL, although it was still pretty good. Felt like it had more of a significant Thom influence than the previous albums, almost felt like a solo album featuring the rest of Radiohead. It was odd.
Click to expand...

I think listening to Thom's actual solo albums really hammers home how Radiohead-y King of Limbs actually is.
 
C

Chezzymann

Member
After looking at this thread I tried to listen to Ok Comptuer and I can barely understand the lyrics

Am I doing something wrong?
 
N

NotLiquid

Member
Amnesiac was always my favorite.

For some reason it flows the best to me and has the most unique Radiohead tracks. There's a lot of times I want to say Kid A but I could never get over The National Anthem.

Also I'm convinced that You And Whose Army would be the song Thom Yorke would produce if he was ever drunk.

Chezzymann said:
After looking at this thread I tried to listen to Ok Comptuer and I can barely understand the lyrics

Am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

Thom Yorke's voice is the musical equivalent of marmite. You either love it or hate it.

I only started liking Radiohead after I listened to most albums post-OK Computer, which ironically was when people began to be split on what was the band's better period. Yorke's vocals really took a backseat in a lot of subsequent albums and they went for a more experimental rock approach with a lot of electronics.

I feel like Yorke's voice works the best when he's only really complementing the music, kind of like another instrument. I was never big on when he had to carry the music.
I was also more of a Muse fan.
I have warmed up to OK Computer in recent times though, and some tracks are amazing.
 
M

mellz

Member
King Of Limbs would be a 10/10 album if it was the Basement versions and if they replaced a couple of songs with The Daily Mail and Staircase.

The Basement versions of some of the songs are fucking amazing especially Bloom and Staircase.
 
M

MercuryLS

Banned
Kid A
Ok Computer
The Bends
Amnesiac

Don't really care for their other albums. Kid A was and still is one of the most awe inspiring albums of all time.
 
K

Kevtones

Member
Kid A was my first Radiohead record and it's my favorite/the best. I bought it upon release after seeing a video for 'Optimistic' on The Box channel (weird shitty MTV alternate). The record was nothing like Optimistic and all my friends and I were coming out of our Nu-Metal phase.

None of them could get into it but I fell in love and saw them for the Amnesiac tour a short while later.
 
P

Phillip E.

Neo Member
No love for Amnesiac? I tend to listen to Amnesiac and In Rainbows the most, with the Basement version of King of Limbs shortly behind.

mellz said:
King Of Limbs would be a 10/10 album if it was the Basement versions and if they replaced a couple of songs with The Daily Mail and Staircase.

The Basement versions of some of the songs are fucking amazing especially Bloom and Staircase.
Click to expand...
I definitely agree.
 
H

Helmholtz

Member
It's really hard choosing between OKComputer, Kid A, and In Rainbows as my favorite. If I had to rank their albums, it'd probably be:

1. In Rainbows (2 disc version)
2. Kid A
3. OK Computer
4. Amnesiac
5. The Bends
6. Hail to the Thief
7. The King of Limbs

In Rainbows is the most enjoyable listen for me. It's something I can throw on no matter what mood I'm in. OK Computer just has a lot of great songs (Let Down, No Surprises, Paranoid Android etc). Kid A is sonically fantastic, and perhaps their most ambitious and different album. I like it a lot, but it's not something I can listen to all the time, I really have to be in a certain mood for it. But it's a very impressive album, and a masterpiece in my eyes. Listening to Kid A, to me, feels like going on a journey of sorts. It's just very atmospheric and unique.
The rest of their albums don't feel quite as complete to me. They each have tracks on them that I feel detract from the album. Basically cases of really high highs but pretty low lows. Because they also have a lot of good tracks on them too, some of which I'd consider the best the band's made.
 
J

jblank83

Member
It's OK Computer, which is consistently excellent across every song. It's not just that every song is consistently excellent. It's also that every song feels like it is a coherent whole and that each song feels like it perfectly sets up the next song, all of them telling a story, or, more appropriately, each a different perspective on the same theme. It's one of the best albums of all time from any artist, IMO.

The Bends is almost consistently excellent but falters here and there. Kid A is great and different and creative and interesting, but doesn't hit the same metaphysical highs OK Computer does. Pablo Honey has Creep, one of the greatest songs of all time, but other than that, whatever.
 
H

Helmholtz

Member
mellz said:
Everyone dissing The King of Limbs should basically listen to this.
Click to expand...
King of Limbs is actually a very good album I think. The fact that I find myself listing it near the bottom of my ranking is a testament to how great Radiohead really is. My main issue with the album itself, is that it takes a while to get to the truly great stuff. "Bloom" is a great album opener, but tracks 2-4 I don't care for all that much, while 5-8 are mostly great tracks.
I honestly think they needed to include tracks like The Butcher, Supercollider, Staircase, Identikit, and The Daily Mail on this album. I prefer pretty much each of those to tracks 2-4 on the album. And I feel like they're sonically quite similar to the rest of the album, so I don't really get why they weren't included on the album proper. Maybe they weren't finished in time?
 
Z

zeitgeist

Member
It's always a tie between The Bends, OK Computer and In Rainbows for me. I tend to gravitate towards whichever one I have listened to most recently.

Codex is their best song though.
 
B

Blader

Member
NotLiquid said:
I only started liking Radiohead after I listened to most albums post-OK Computer, which ironically was when people began to be split on what was the band's better period. Yorke's vocals really took a backseat in a lot of subsequent albums and they went for a more experimental rock approach with a lot of electronics.
Click to expand...

Oh I disagree, I think his vocals are more important than ever, especially on something like King of Limbs where his voice is basically treated as an instrument. It's the lyrics that probably aren't as important.

Helmholtz said:
King of Limbs is actually a very good album I think. The fact that I find myself listing it near the bottom of my ranking is a testament to how great Radiohead really is. My main issue with the album itself, is that it takes a while to get to the truly great stuff. "Bloom" is a great album opener, but tracks 2-4 I don't care for all that much, while 5-8 are mostly great tracks.
I honestly think they needed to include tracks like The Butcher, Supercollider, Staircase, Identikit, and The Daily Mail on this album. I prefer pretty much each of those to tracks 2-4 on the album. And I feel like they're sonically quite similar to the rest of the album, so I don't really get why they weren't included on the album proper. Maybe they weren't finished in time?
Click to expand...

Yeah none of those songs were actually done before the album, except The Butcher which they thought sounded out of place with the rest of the tracks.

And Identikit is fairly new, it'll almost definitely be on the next one.
 
Z

Zach

Member
For me, it goes:

Kid A
OK Computer
The Bends
Hail to the Thief
In Rainbows
Amnesiac
Pablo Honey
The King of Limbs

They're all good in their own way, though. A few are some of the greatest albums I've ever heard.
 
P

Pavaloo

Member
Depends on the seasons and mood I'm in, but I really love it all.

If I had to pick 3 right now I would be picking

Kid A/mnesiac
In Rainbows
The King of Limbs

so really, I'd be picking 4 lol

I think TKOL gets a lot of flak and as someone who has heard all of Thom's solo stuff - I really don't feel like he had the most control over the album. If anything it sounds most like Johnny than anyone else.

Plus, I mean come on - Separator is one of the greatest songs they've ever made.
 
G

Golden Slumbers

Member
It's always been between In Rainbows and Kid A for me. I think Kid A is the better album but In Rainbows is the first Radiohead album I ever listened to and loved so it's kind of special. Also, Reckoner. That song is unbelievably good.
 
N

NotLiquid

Member
Blader said:
Oh I disagree, I think his vocals are more important than ever, especially on something like King of Limbs where his voice is basically treated as an instrument. It's the lyrics that probably aren't as important.
Click to expand...

That's essentially what I said in the next paragraph, how his vocals complement the music like that of another instrument, so I basically agree with what you're saying. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that, I probably should have used the words "lyrics" in the quoted sentence instead.
 
A

alichino

Member
1. Amnesiac
2. Kid A
3. In Rainbows
4. The Bends
5. OK Computer
6. Hail to the Thief
7. The King of Limbs
8. Pablo Honey

I ranked this list with replay value and overall album concept in mind. Amnesiac/Kid A both take the cake for me with the less obvious hooks leading to more interesting repeat listens. In Rainbows takes the best parts of The Bends and OK Computer for me and blends them into something a bit more interesting, although OK Computer's overall theme of the paranoia behind technology taking over our lives and the numbness it leaves behind hit at just the perfect time when the internet was growing in popularity and really starting to make an impact on society in the late 1990's.
 
E

ElectronicOldMen

Banned
OK Computer, Kid A and In Rainbows are definitely 1, 2 and 3, I constantly change my mind as to which order they should be in though. OK Computer has some of their best individual songs, Kid A is probably their most ambitious and experimental record and In Rainbows is probably the most cohesive as an album, and acts as a really great meeting point between the 'The Bends-OK Computer-Hail to the Thief' sound and the 'Kid A-Amnesiac' sound. It almost sounds like a best-of compilation album, in some ways.

After that I'd probably put Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief and The Bends as 4, 5 and 6. Amnesiac is basically Kid A Part 2 which is still really great but less interesting the second time around, Hail to the Thief is fairly underrated and The Bends is a bit overrated.

The King of Limbs is kinda OK, and Pablo Honey is just not a good album.

If I was to rank them at the moment:
1. In Rainbows
2. Kid A
3. OK Computer
4. Amnesiac
5. Hail to the Thief
6. The Bends
7. The King of Limbs
8. Pablo Honey

They've put out a lot of really good music, as it turns out.
 
D

Doominated

Member
OK Computer > Kid A = The Bends >> In Rainbows

Everything else depends on mood pretty much. Those four are very close though.
 
A

aceface

Member
I graduated high school, started college, met my wife in 1997. Ok Computer was there for all of that so right time right place for me. Probably my #1 album of all time.
 
P

pinsomniac

Member
No love for the I Might Be Wrong live album? The live recordings of The National Anthem & Idioteque are glorious (not to mention first official version of TLW).

OK Computer = The Bends > Kid A > Amnesiac = Hail To The Thief > Pablo Honey

No rank: In Rainbows (never listened to it enough to form an opinion — though I remember enjoying how it started [15 Step] and ended [Jigsaw Falling Into Place + Videotape]), The King of Limbs (honestly never listened to it at all). Need to catch up.
 
T

TJ Verboten

Member
King of Limbs should've been an EP....just feels so slight, even though I love Bloom and Lotus Flower, and really like Codex. Give up the Ghost is forgettable. Separator is half really nice/other half middling. Magpie, Little by Little and Feral sound like B sides. First Radiohead album that's disappointed me......it should've been called an EP.

Oh well, they cemented their legacy with In Rainbows. It gave them 4 knockout, stone cold classic albums, the first 3 of which you could make legit arguments for.
I'd order them this way -

1. Ok Computer
opening 6 songs are still the best stretch of any of their albums....Let Down is a personal favorite....then you've got Climbing up the Walls, No Surprises and Lucky, pretty amazing.
Electioneering is the only track that's lacking. Should've been Polyethylene in that spot.

2. Kid A
most groundbreaking, fresh, cohesive, atmospheric album they've done. Everything in its Right Place, How to Disappear Completely, Ideoteque, Morning Bell, stand out the most, but I love swimming in the album start to finish. Nice lean 10 tracks helps too.

3. In Rainbows
Most enjoyable listen consistently. The strings on this album are wonderous.
Reckoner is one of their 5 best songs, gorgeous. Love when Ed comes in singing on Weird Fishes, 2nd half of Bodysnatchers is amazing, Nude is beautiful, All I Need great, 15 step great opener, wonderful album start to finish. House of Cards is the least interesting track, and unfortunately the longest track on the album...but it's still a good tune.

4. The Bends
Still one of the great rock albums - remains great fun to listen to. Hard to beat Fake Plastic Trees, Nice Dream, Just, My Iron Lung, Street Spirit, etc.

5. Amnesiac
Some of their best songs (Pyramid Song, You and Whose Army, Dollars and Cents)
Weakest opener by a mile (Packt like sardines....) brings it down, as does the unnecessary Morning Bell redux. I know some like Pulk/Pull but I've never found it that compelling, besides some interesting bass. Hunting Bears is skippable. Worrywort, Fog, Amazing Sounds of Orgy would've been better choices. Also, while Like Spinning Plates is a Twin Peaks like excellent track....the live version kills it.
Amnesiac is a great album, despite it flaws....but it could've cracked Radiohead's holy trinity top 3 albums had they made some different choices.

6. Hail to the Thief
Still a really good listen, but by far their most bloated album. 14 tracks is just far too many. This thing should've been 10-11, 12 tops, and they would've had something. I still think it doesn't hit the highs of the albums above it (sans 2+2=5 and maybe Where I end and you begin, wolf at the door.)
I would've cut out Sit Down, Stand Up (love the first half of this song....never cared for the climax of electronic drums that go on forever), the Gloaming, and I Will (the alt. version of this song is better).

7. Pablo Honey
You and Lurgee are two of my favorite Radiohead songs. Creep is still Creep. Couple other tracks are enjoyable.

8. King of Limbs
Reasons stated above but this thing should've been an EP. Pablo Honey feels more essential to me than the King of Limbs.
 
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