I think Radiohead still writes songs like they did way back when, they’ve just become quite adept at deconstructing those songs and rebuilding them into something that lots of people find “experimental.” Those are people who have never heard real experimental music.

Im saying experimental in terms of their own music.
They began to mess with electronic music and minimalistic music in Kid A, because Thom was a big fan of a music label that did that kind of music.

Ey, even Thom said recently that he was finally ok with ¨making songs¨ something the band wanted to do for a long time. Thats my point.

Agreed. One of their biggest strengths has always been the ability to take those disparate influences and turn them into something more palatable, with a greater emphasis on melody and "hooks" (both of which I think all of their post-OK albums are rich in).

TKOL is a fantastic album -- easily among their most cohesive, if not their best, records. The lukewarm reception to it compared to A Moon Shaped Pool -- a record I find mostly pretty good but underwhelming by their standards -- has always puzzled me.

This is me as well, WCT -- though I probably have a deeper long-term connection with "OK Computer" that puts the two records on a more or less equal plane, but these are the twin pillars for me.

I honestly can't stand to listen to "The Bends." That whiny, meowing falsetto on songs like "High and Dry," "Fake Plastic Trees," and "Street Spirit" ("in a fake pla-aaahhhh-stic..." "all bearing down on meeeee"), which are basically a showcase for that voice and little more, just makes my skin crawl. It's kind of like Vedder's voice on "Ten" to me -- a hallmark of its time that was pilfered by lesser artists and has aged really badly as a result. My favorite songs from that era are all B-sides: "Maquiladora," "Talk Show Host," "Molasses," "India Rubber," "Bishop's Robes."

I also agree with Blaine that "The King of Limbs" is underrated.

I disagree with this. I think they started well before Kid A. That's what made OK Computer so "ahead of its time," and frankly I think people conflated the album's sound (more heavily influenced by electronic/minimlaistic music) with its theme (futuristic -- which is something I also disagree with (hell, Paranoid Android is about spilling red wine on a chick in an LA bar, not some weird AI takeover)). Songs like How to Disappear Completely were written with or at the time of OK Computer.

My point is this: what you hear on Kid A is just an extension of what they were doing for awhile, and it, rather than the straightforward "rock" and "hook" songs from the Bends (which are great to be sure) is to me what defines this band and off of what it built itself. And for that reason, while people may prefer the songs off of the Bends, I could never buy the argument that the band was at the height of its career when it wrote those songs in 1992, 1993, or 1994, or the songs off of OK Computer for that matter.

I agree with KD that The Bends is tough to sit through. Though for me it's less about Yorke's voice and more just the general nature and quality of the songwriting, which I think is leagues below what came after.

I just don't think Radiohead were particularly great as a straight-ahead grunge/brit-pop outfit. And while there's definitely some forward-thinking stuff on that album ("Planet Telex"), songs like "Just" and "Bones" just strike me as painfully middle of the road '90's rockers, not much better than the stuff on Pablo Honey. I think it's an uneven record, at best.

I'm inclined to agree that the b-sides are superior, too. I think "Talk Show Host" is easily their best song pre-OK Computer.

i could not get into TKOL when it came out. but i really like it now though, and appreciate what they were trying to do.

and songs like these are my twisted words and the daily mail are probably some of my favorite radiohead b-sides/releases.

OK Computer and In Rainbows, I agree, are the twin pillars. Complimenting TKOL while bad-mouthing The Bends, however, makes me want to throw up.

those two albums couldn't be more dissimilar

duh

sooooooooo .......

Cut the foreplay and just ask, Chris.

fine

are you drunk joe?

AL

I'm saying one of those albums is a stone cold classic and one of them is utter garbage. So, I agree that they couldn't be more different. My point is seeing people shit on the stone cold classic while elevating the utter garbage makes me want to vomit.

I think Street Spirit and Talk Show Host are easily the best Bends era songs.

And The Bends and Fake Plastic Trees the most overrated.

what is it about TKOL that you don't like?

i confess, the stuff translates way better live than on the album. and man, listening to live mr. magpie is plain cathartic.
i mean, go on a run with this in your ears and you'll tear it up:



lilttle by little is right up there:



and separator . . . TOP 5:



you know where there are moments in songs that get you ever time, separator at about the 4:40 mark on . . .

TKOL was a grower, but i'm firmly team TKOL now. it's way more balanced than a Moon Shaped Pool, and I'll take it over a Moon Shaped Pool any day (although Daydreaming, Decks Dark, and Ful Stop are amazing).

it's funny, the song that i listen to the most from that album is a song that they haven't played in 25 years and probably won't ever play again (and it's not high and dry, where tom yorke sounds terrible).

Those Live from the Basement sets are magnificent.