What do you think of Radiohead?

[oscillations.]

A few weeks ago, I attempted to post an In Rainbows poll that questioned whether or not voters felt it was up there with their best work or if it was of secondary importance and quality. For whatever reason, I could not successfully post the poll (forum glitch?), so I abandoned the idea of broaching the topic.

But now, I think, I'll just go ahead and ask for people's broader perspectives on the band, their work, their legacy, and their CURRENT status. I know this forum's tastes generally run the towards radio-driven/mass market variety, but I also feel Radiohead is a significant and visible enough band for most posters to be familiar with in some regard.

So, please. Post your thoughts on In Rainbows if you like. Otherwise, please share your general views on the band, favorite songs/albums, etc. Should be interesting.

I'll post my ideas a bit later. I notice when the OP types a long entry at the beginning of a thread, no one else replies.

GO!

[galvanize]

I've been a Radiohead purist since 2001.

Favorite albums:

01 - The Bends (Their Like A Prayer)
02 - OK Computer (Their Ray Of Light)
03 - In Rainbows (Their Confessions On A Dance Floor - it's that brilliant!
04 - Kid A (The album that started my obsession with them, Everything In It's Right Place, Idioteque, How To Disappear Completely: all brilliant!)
05 - Amnesiac (Great choice of singles & great album tracks You & Whose Army? & I Might Be Wrong)
06 - Hail To The Thief (Still a great album but not as strong as it should have been. There There is massively overrated but the subsequent singles were amazing. Still a number of lovely tracks in there though.)

------------------

07 - deleted Honey - Enough said.

They are the quintessential British band to cross over in the '90s & their cultural relevance has been at an all time high since 2000 - you can't tear them down. And Thom Yorke still remains one of the top 10 best lyricists of our generation - especially in All I Need & Nude).

[John77]

I think they are one of the most overrated bands in all of music today. I mean, "Creep" is a great song, but even that one has explicit lyrics. Outside of that, I can't say any of their music has ever done a thing for me.

[CammyCan]

Feb 9, 2008 12:42:55 GMT -5 John77 said:

I think they are one of the most overrated bands in all of music today. I mean, "Creep" is a great song, but even that one has explicit lyrics. Outside of that, I can't say any of their music has ever done a thing for me.

Explicit lyrics discount their contributions to music? That's a first.

[John77]

Feb 9, 2008 20:11:06 GMT -5 CammyCan said:

Feb 9, 2008 12:42:55 GMT -5 John77 said:

I think they are one of the most overrated bands in all of music today. I mean, "Creep" is a great song, but even that one has explicit lyrics. Outside of that, I can't say any of their music has ever done a thing for me.

Explicit lyrics discount their contributions to music? That's a first.

Incorrect. Very rarely are explicit lyrics necessary to get a point across in a song.

[banet2001]

Radiohead is easily one of the most creative and innovative band that has hit the mainstream in the last 15-20 years.

What I love about Radiohead is that they are not defined by their hits or well known songs. They try to define the band through the totality of their catalog, not by the number of hit singles or their album sales.

When you see Radiohead live, you never know what they will play. The set list is different every night. You do not know what song they will open with, what song they will close with, which hit songs/well known songs they will play/omit in their set, and which catalog album they will choose to emphasize at their show. The fact that they pretty much have stopped playing Creep at their live shows years ago and the fact that the fans don't miss it says a lot about the quality of material they have produced in the last 10-12 years. How many acts out there can sell out just about any arena in the US and Europe and have a pretty random set list that does not guarantee any obligatory hit singles in their set? Not many, and that is the way I think live shows should be. They shouldn't be the same every night with the same set list and the same in between song banter.

[WotUNeed]

Feb 11, 2008 9:16:12 GMT -5 John77 said:

Feb 9, 2008 20:11:06 GMT -5 CammyCan said:

Explicit lyrics discount their contributions to music? That's a first.

Incorrect. Very rarely are explicit lyrics necessary to get a point across in a song.

Nothing is "necessary" to get a point across. There are different ways of expressing any given idea. Otherwise, songwriters ... nay, all writers! ... actually, all people engaging in any form of artistic expression at all ... would find themselves with a very limited range of possibilities. They would be bounded not by their own creativity, but by rigid boundaries that eliminate the artistic part of artistic expression.

If one only stuck to a "necessary" component, then every love song would simply say "I love you," all songs of pain would say "I'm hurt," &c. That would not be a good thing at all.

[oscillations.]

What do you all think of In Rainbows specifically?

And at the profanity comment. The nitpicking over their (one) song that features a mild expletive represents the type of steadfast & intolerant attitude that pervades the arts & renders them into inoffensive & pleasant, nebulous background noise for the masses to enjoy (read: ignore). It's what precludes progressive and provocative work from ever transcending a niche audience; it's a way to ensure that the most palatable, harmless entry is always the winner. This is how people like Thomas Kinkade sell their "paintings" to MOR homes nationwide, how movies like "National Treasure" dominate the box office, and how the dulcet pap that dominates AC convinces otherwise intelligent adults that having an impressive octave range makes you a great artist. I remember once being told by a generally sentient relative that American Beauty was a terrible movie because of its controversial content. At the time I was only 14, but I knew this was no grounds upon which to judge a movie. So, I went out and saw it for myself and found it to be one of the greatest movies of the last century (an opinion I still firmly hold).

It just makes me really sad to see a discussion on Radiohead, a band which could inspire a million graduate theses, be reduced to something as elementary and insignificant as to whether they use profanity or not to get their point across. At first I thought that remark was supposed to be ironic or something; then I realized, sadly, that it wasn't. It was all too sincere.

[jazklash]

Colleen, two questions:

1 - Haven't you paid attention before to said subject's previous commentaries on decency and such? Not to mention how said subject is prone to statements for which etiquette can only go so far as to describe them as seriously unaware of notions like logic and discernibility.

2 - Have you forgotten where you are? ;)

[oscillations.]

YOU'RE RIGHT. Sometimes I give people the benefit of the doubt too generously.

[banet2001]

Feb 11, 2008 16:23:20 GMT -5 oscillations. said:

What do you all think of In Rainbows specifically?

I think In Rainbows is another terrific album from Radiohead. Radiohead are in a tough position these days. They have created some of the most innovate and creative music that has reached the mainstream in the past fifteen to twenty years. They have earned and deserved their stellar reputation. On the other hand, it is very difficult to live up to the high standards they have set for themselves. Anything less than a stellar album would be considered a dissapointment.

In Rainbows is a very consistent album, perhaps the most consistent album they have released since OK Computer. In Rainbows is their most straightforward album they have released in some time. It lacks the experimentalism that may have turned off much of the masses about their previous releases. Still while it lacks the experimentalism of its predecessors, In Rainbows is a lovely album filled with some of their prettiest songs of their career. Songs like Faust Arp, Nude, House of Cards and All I Need are lovely songs that could be stand outs on any Radiohead release.

While In Rainbows is certainly not Radiohead's best work (how could it live up to their previous work), it adds to the impressive catalog they have released in their career. There are not many successful acts in the history of popular music that continue to release interesting and challenging material that is on a similar level to their peak work. Most big name bands simply mimic the music of their peak work and stop challenging themselves. Radiohead is not one of those bands that simply live off their legacy and continue their career on auto pilot.

[jazklash]

Feb 12, 2008 13:46:39 GMT -5 banet2001 said:

Feb 11, 2008 16:23:20 GMT -5 oscillations. said:

What do you all think of In Rainbows specifically?

Radiohead is not one of those bands that simply live off their legacy and continue their career on auto pilot.

That's where you and I disagree. I actually think they've been that way ever since Hail To The Thief. In 2003, their album felt - and it still feels - like a too obvious attempt to regain the fans who had been left a bit puzzled by Radiohead's electronic diasporas on Kid A and Amnesiac by making some sort of compromise between the OK Computer and the electronic aficionados they managed to grab, with some attempts at pop accessibility just to spice things up a bit. And it felt very deeply on the stilted, calculating record that came out. With In Rainbows, it's pretty much the same thing, but even less compelling, because, in a way, it's like they're trying to regain some of "weirdness factor" back. But what was truly staggering with Kid A and Amnesiac just becomes uneventful in this album. There's nothing there that wasn't tried before, and better by them.
Another thing: a good sign that the record isn't that good is when a staggering majority of the reviews praise it, but actually address the music very little and focus much more on the "pay what you want" download scheme that on what the record sounds and feels like. In many ways, I actually agree with an acquaintance of mine when he says that Radiohead pulled a clever publicity stunt out of their ass, because they knew the album wasn't all that in the first place.
Just to end things over: another acquaintance of mine also has a great expression for some records he feels are just too clever-clever for their own good: music that doesn't have any signs of intelligent life, whether in or out of itself. That's what Hail To The Thief and In Rainbows come across to me.

[Adz]

I think that In Rainbows lacks coherence. I'll post a detailed analysis later.
But in a short The Eraser > IR & HTTT.

[oscillations.]

My response is coming later, too. I actually agree with parts of everything Ricardo, banet, Adz, and WotUNeed said. I feel IR is a "solid" if unremarkable effort, kind of like New York Fashion Week.

I'm too keyed up to even think about music right now. So I'll return to this later, bbz.

[Matt4319]

I fully recognize they're among the most talented bands of this generation... but I can't fully get into them. Rather, I haven't listened to their stuff enough to find what may be a few more tracks I like.

My 5 favorite:

1. Idioteque (Kid A)
2. Creep (deleted Honey)
3. High and Dry (The Bends)
4. Black Star (The Bends)
5. Karma Police (OK Computer)

[oscillations.]

"Black Star". Interesting choice. It's probably the most straightforward rock song on The Bends..."My Iron Lung" and "Fade Out" are my favorite songs from that release. It's a tough call, as ulimately, that album hovers somewhere in the upper echelons of my theoretical "all-time favorite albums" list.

I'm pretty sure most of OKC & TB would grow on you with a few listens. Kid A is a mixed bag in terms of accessibility, if not quality (it's a 10/10 album).

[Matt4319]

Feb 14, 2008 14:35:36 GMT -5 oscillations. said:

"Black Star". Interesting choice. It's probably the most straightforward rock song on The Bends..."My Iron Lung" and "Fade Out" are my favorite songs from that release. It's a tough call, as ulimately, that album hovers somewhere in the upper echelons of my theoretical "all-time favorite albums" list.

I'm pretty sure most of OKC & TB would grow on you with a few listens. Kid A is a mixed bag in terms of accessibility, if not quality (it's a 10/10 album).

Well, I haven't listened to a single Radiohead album in full. The song came up on random on my iPod one day and I ended up liking it. But from what you've described about it, it doesn't bode well for my getting into their less-accessible stuff.

[Pipa]

After months of fighting my inital bias against Radiohead, I really like "Bodysnatchers". I can already tell that it's probably one of their weakest songs, though.

[oscillations.]

Bodysnatchers isn't "weak" per se, it just sounds like Radiohead-by-numbers. Like they listened to their own prior material to figure out how to capture their own "essence" in a single. I still enjoy it, though.

Matt: Actually, I think you'll find The Bends a very accessible album.
Just: www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5X7HKxpiQA
Street Spirit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrZTNhW44-o
My Iron Lung: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPLWVjyeoVs

[Arson]

The only album I have is Amnesiac (given to me by my cousin who is a huge fan) so sometimes I end up listening to the album on the computer when I'm working and not really paying attention when it queues up. I think I would like them more in smaller doses... sometimes it's hard to resist changing to something else.

[oscillations.]

This is a band that should release a GH ASAP. It would be immaculate and I'm sure it will sell very well.

[Coin-Operated [Boy]]

Setting aside all comparisons with their previous work, In Rainbows shows humanity in their music. I think it's one of the most "human" things they've done. The sound of the songs just feels very organic, and they are erudite but not too overreaching imo. I think it's one of their best (not the best as I am always undecided) career-wise.

I think In Rainbows shows how Radiohead is completely in control of their artistry and sound that they can still exhibit excellence with no traces of age or weariness.

[Deleted]

I loved OK Computer! Listening to In Rainbows was somehow strange, but it grew on me.

[tortuga]

They have a lot of songs that I either love or hate. "Bodysnatchers" for example, I hate that song, but I love "Nude".