A POLL IN A CAGE ON ANTIBIOTICS - ILM Artist Poll #56 - RADIOHEAD - RESULTS THREAD

Albums first! I might start the tracks run down before the end of the day, let's see how it goes.

54 albums ballots were received, 11 albums/EPs were voted for..

http://i.imgur.com/xBj8Fso.jpg

11. I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings [2 votes | 66 points]

YAY results thread!!

http://i.imgur.com/M3bZetG.jpg

10. My Iron Lung [2 votes | 1 #1 vote | 68 points]

Oh fuck, there was an emergency yesterday and I forgot to vote!

Goddamn it it's 3am why would you do this to me.

Anyway can't wait!

http://i.imgur.com/GcmYq9x.jpg

09. Pablo Honey [4 votes | 119 points]

Yay @ PH even showing up!

(And hi-5s to 3 other people.)

http://i.imgur.com/koT9HiK.jpg

08. Airbag / How Am I Driving? [9 votes | 2 #1 votes | 290 points]

Love Airbag EP so much

i used to stare at the airbag ep cover when i bought it (probably because i had a total of 8 or 9 CDs at that point and nothing to do) and wonder why IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR and POLICE were underlined. looking at it now for the first time in forever, they just look like links!

also it looks like stanley donwood made it on MS Paint

I love this thread title.

http://i.imgur.com/WtNnsgt.jpg

07. The King of Limbs [10 votes | 292 points]

interesting vote distribution to have KOL land above Airbag despite having only 1 more vote and 0 v 2 #1s

They really should have released an Airbag/My Iron Lung equivalent of Kid Amnesiac b-sides.

For sure. Choosing 7-8 b-sides from that era to create a fake EP would be a fun process

http://i.imgur.com/T1LO7Lp.jpg

06. Hail to the Thief [29 votes | 3 #1 votes | 913 points]

well there's a point jump

also lol @ Pablo Honey

oh weird, people like The Bends I guess

The Bends is a great album!

http://i.imgur.com/l5p5Ucg.jpg

05. Amnesiac [31 votes | 2 #1 votes | 961 points]

Whoa at the point jump.

Of the remaining 4 albums, this being ILM, I have no honest idea of how they'll be ranked. I'd go with Bends-IR-OKC-Kid A but who knows.

http://i.imgur.com/0JJZRyI.jpg

04. The Bends [38 votes | 3 #1 votes | 1230 points]

They really should have released an Airbag/My Iron Lung equivalent of Kid Amnesiac b-sides.

― Van Horn Street

For sure. Choosing 7-8 b-sides from that era to create a fake EP would be a fun process

― Karl Malone

Problem is Airbag is from 1998 and My Iron Lung 1994 so they're not really from the same era. Itch is from 1994 too... maybe a great EP could be created with Itch+My Iron Lung+The Bends b-sides which are all dated 1994/1995, here's the list:

The Bends "B-Sides"
----------------------
1. Lewis (Mistreated)
2. Maquiladora
3. How Can You Be Sure?
4. Banana Co.
5. Molasses
6. Killer Cars
7. India Rubber
8. You Never Wash Up After Yourself
9. Talk Show Host
10. Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong
11. Bishop's Robes
12. Lozenge of Love
13. The Trickster
14. Permanent Daylight

They really should have released an Airbag/My Iron Lung equivalent of Kid Amnesiac b-sides.

― Van Horn Street

For sure. Choosing 7-8 b-sides from that era to create a fake EP would be a fun process

― Karl Malone

Problem is Airbag is from 1998 and My Iron Lung 1994 so they're not really from the same era. Itch is from 1994 too... maybe a great EP could be created with Itch+My Iron Lung+The Bends b-sides which are all dated 1994/1995, here's the list:

The Bends "B-Sides"
----------------------
1. Lewis (Mistreated)
2. Maquiladora
3. How Can You Be Sure?
4. Banana Co.
5. Molasses
6. Killer Cars
7. India Rubber
8. You Never Wash Up After Yourself
9. Talk Show Host
10. Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong
11. Bishop's Robes
12. Lozenge of Love
13. The Trickster
14. Permanent Daylight

― Moka, Monday, September 8

Lol just realized you're talking about the kid a era. We already have one of those it's called Amnesiac.

http://i.imgur.com/0VT505r.jpg

03. In Rainbows [40 votes | 11 #1 votes | 1372 points]

thank God for small favors

so Black Holes and Revelations isn't placing then?

*high 5s nearby radiohead fans*

Damn, Muse are way more popular than radiohead among spotify users.

I'm more of a Parachutes fan myself, wish that one had placed.

http://i.imgur.com/IMoQQ7n.png

02. Kid A [48 votes | 19 #1 votes | 1732 points]

http://i.imgur.com/ctqmWar.png

01. OK Computer [52 votes | 13 #1 votes | 1831 points]

Thought Kid A would win this one. More #1 votes but I guess there's a couple of ILM users who didn't even consider it in their top 5 albums.

Bleuch. ALL WRONG.

But I only have myself to blame as I got really sick and forgot to vote.

I love Muse, I'd love to run a Muse ILM poll but I figure I'd get like 3 participants.

If the albums had been ordered according to how many points their songs received in the tracks ballot, it would've been:

01. OK Computer
02. Kid A
03. The Bends
04. Hail to the Thief
05. In Rainbows
06. Amnesiac
07. The King of Limbs
08. Pablo Honey

how many total ballots again? did everyone vote OKC?

I'm viewing that as essentially a Kid A/OKC tie. With 19 #1 votes, you probably wouldn't have to tinker with the scoring system much to put Kid A in first.

yeah, like making #1 votes the only ones that count

Album rankings pretty much OTM, except I'd place Pablo Honey over The King Of Limbs. Say what you like, but as flawed as their debut is, it still boasts some (in my opinion) good material (and no, I'm not thinking about the obvious here either), and has a youthful energy to it that their later material lacks. I guess it's kinda like their Adolescent Sex to Kid A's Tin Drum, or whatever. The King Of Limbs is obviously more "exploratory" (for want of a better term) and more in the art-rock vein, but while it sounds beautiful it places, the songs at their core aren't really up to snuff IMO.

amnesiac is far too low imo. my #1.

muse are one of the least ilm-friendly bands possible

ilm just needs some training: http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Muse-Fan

did we get enough ballots for a music videos poll?

Only 4! I'll run down the top 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qMagfZtv8

03. Just [2 votes | 1 #1 vote | 73 points]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPLEbAVjiLA

02. Paranoid Android [3 votes | 96 points]

so classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5CVsCnxyXg

01. No Surprises [4 votes | 1 #1 vote | 145 points]

cool. thanks for that!

Going to start the tracks now. Hope I don't embarrass myself with the graphics, never done anything like that before. There's no rhyme or reason to the pictures used. Also, credit is due to whoever did the amazing pictures for the Madonna poll, whose style I've shamelessly stolen.

http://i.imgur.com/JsxSzEp.jpg

50. Videotape [9 votes | 202 points]

ilm just needs some training: http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Muse-Fan

― a puddle of quivering 501s (soref)

Appreciate the use of classical pieces in songs such as 'Butterflies and Hurricanes', and 'Space Dementia'. Understand that Bellamy is a genius and has many classical influences.

http://www.reactionface.info/sites/default/files/imagecache/Node_Page/images/1310408441466.jpg

Oh nate I could have helped with the banners! Should have told me! I did a quick one for a past tribute event we had at one of my bars, it would've been easy to adapt to your poll:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10477365_296838937156891_4158892196298291131_o.jpg

Ah man they would've looked amazing! I wish I had subbed it out.

http://i.imgur.com/jliZTRr.jpg

49. Palo Alto [10 votes | 1 #1 vote | 202 points]

these graphics are cool

^^

yes they work well

xp how many bars do u have

http://i.imgur.com/UoG53fk.jpg

48. Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2) [10 votes | 1 #1 vote | 208 points]

damn, these #1 votes are interesting

oh polyethylene would've totally made my ballot if it hadn't apparently totally slipped my mind by the time I dashed it off

i listened to the airbag ep mowing the lawn every week, true story

'Videotape' is one of those tracks for me that works better in the context of the album than in isolation. I don't mind it, and the effects towards the end sound great on headphones, but there's much better from In Rainbows to come in this poll, I suspect.

'Palo Alto' is fucking great, though. That vocal melody is so Michael Stipe it hurts.

Yeah these images you have, Nate, are really fitting with the band's aesthetic either way! They look really nice.

xxxp: two bars so far, and a club coming up sometime next year.

also started a geocities fan website in 1997 that didn't go anywhere, truly loved underscores and clinical fonts

polyethelene popped into my head out of nowhere about 6 months ago.

http://i.imgur.com/JY54HTN.jpg

47. Fog [8 votes | 2 #1 votes | 210 points]

part 2 of polyethylene is awesome. I completely overlooked this one.

'Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)' is pretty decent, and have always enjoyed the way it starts with just Thom and acoustic, before he gives up and the band come in and start rocking. It's definitely a B-side though, in my opinion.

3 of my votes have showed up already

'Fog' on the other hand, is definitely NOT B-side material, and really should have made it onto Amnesiac. The second half of that album could definitely been improved by having more tracks of this calibre on there. Beautiful track.

also started a geocities fan website in 1997 that didn't go anywhere, truly loved underscores and clinical fonts

― mattresslessness, Monday, 8 September 2014 22:30 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the perfect aesthetic for a radiohead poll

Heh, well did a quick experiment with the template I already had but I think I ended up liking yours better.

http://i.imgur.com/AddDNma.jpg

1997 is where it all began, we are now in 17 AD

It's definitely a B-side though, in my opinion.

Compared to the other OKC songs, maybe...but it feels too substantial for a b-side.

"Palo Alto," on the other hand, is definitely a b-side, but more of the "Old Brown Shoe"/"The Inner Light" variety (i.e., a b-side you actually come back to).

I voted specifically for the live version of fog on I think the comlag ep, which is just gorgeous as anything

feel there is at least a 60% chance I browsed matt p's site back in the day

Fog is too low! I'd rate it as a top 5 song in a B-sides poll and top 30 overall.

yeah I like 'fog (again)' as well. were votes split between 'fog' and 'fog (again)'?

http://i.imgur.com/A2Y4PJU.jpg

46. Jigsaw Falling Into Place [10 votes | 1 #1 vote | 220 points]

think I felt guilty for placing 'worrywort' so high that I left 'Fog' and 'Cuttooth' out

Videotape TOO LOW (even though i didn't vote for it).

not so keen of this one

'Jigsaw Falling Into Place' too low, the guitar work on this is just sublime, particularly in the outro.

There was only one vote for Fog (Again).

"JUST AS YOU DANCE DANCE Dance Dance dance dance..." *gorgeous guitar part*

Videotape is too low indeed.

http://i.imgur.com/m3hB0Hl.jpg

45. House of Cards [10 votes | 224 points]

...and there it is, my least favourite track on In Rainbows. I find it pleasant enough while I'm passively listening to it, but have always found it a bit of a snoozer otherwise. Next!

i like the key parties reference.

very excited for your next summary xp

forgot how good Palo Alto was good, actually better than half of OKC imo.

http://i.imgur.com/8qTG0x3.jpg

44. The Bends [10 votes | 226 points]

rules

pretty cool how thom harmonizes with the opening guitar part like sad george benson

xxxpost:

Better than half of OK Computer is pushing it, but yeah, it's a great track. I've just played it again and have been thinking it would have been great if R.E.M. had attempted a version of it. The vocal melody and lyric sound firmly in Stipe territory to my ears, and it definitely sounds like Thom/the band had been listening to R.E.M. a little more than usual.

http://i.imgur.com/Kbk9UlU.jpg

43. All I Need [12 votes | 1 #1 vote | 230 points]

xxpost: yeah i'm pushing it, but i'm not the biggest ok computer fan honestly.

very excited for your next summary xp

― mattresslessness, Monday, 8 September 2014 22:52 (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

need to find yr 1997 geocities fan website on archive.org

is thom yorke drinking riesling there?

it's boone's farm. he's listening to 'radar love'.

'The Bends' is such a great track and one of my all-time favourites. While I think I'd heard and enjoyed a couple of singles from The Bends by the time of their Later With Jools performance in '95 (although I can definitely say for certain that I hadn't heard 'Creep' yet - I'd kinda neatly bypassed that whole thing), it was their performance of this track that really made me sit up and take notice. The fact that it was a great song was one thing, but there was also this sense of "holy fuck, what's the guitarist doing with that string?". I don't know how long it was after that that I was in a record store listening to them play the whole album in the background and thinking "yeah, I want this album", but I'm sure it wasn't long after I saw 'em play 'The Bends' on Jools.

http://i.imgur.com/Qo05qb1.jpg

42. Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box [11 votes | 234 points]

^^^ great song, didn't vote for it

it's a shame they don't play it live that much (25 times, latest in 2012) but yeah, great song, just off my ballot.

same here

I would have put it on a 30-track ballot

I wasn't amazingly keen on 'All I Need' at first but it grew on me steadily. I love the bass sound on it particularly, but the best moment of the track for me is the outro. They really had a thing with outros on In Rainbows: this, 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place', 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi'...

'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box' would have made my ballot with no hesitation or doubt if I'd bothered to cobble one together. In fact, I'm convinced that it should have been a single. Live versions around the time were great re-interpretations of the track, but I think it's just perfect in the form it is on Amnesiac. It's a great electropop song, and those electronic tones sound lovely to my ears. There's nothing really avant-garde about this, and the band themselves would probably disagree (as would many Radiohead fan), but 'Packt Like Sardines' is definitely a pop song... and that's a good thing!

Last one for tonight:

http://i.imgur.com/i9x9rRx.jpg

41. Creep [13 votes | 235 points]

too high

not familiar with this one.

really the thing about "Packt" for me is that it is immediately followed by "Pyramid Song", which is so immediately connected to my subconscious pleasure centers that I almost instantly forget that I even listened to "Packt" in the first place

"Creep" rules, it is one of my karaoke standards

i am very pro-"creep"

50. Videotape [9 votes | 202 points]
49. Palo Alto [10 votes | 1 #1 vote | 202 points]
48. Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2) [10 votes | 1 #1 vote | 208 points]
47. Fog [8 votes | 2 #1 votes | 210 points]
46. Jigsaw Falling Into Place [10 votes | 1 #1 vote | 220 points]
45. House of Cards [10 votes | 224 points]
44. The Bends [10 votes | 226 points]
43. All I Need [12 votes | 1 #1 vote | 230 points]
42. Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box [11 votes | 234 points]
41. Creep [13 votes | 235 points]

are the verses and chorus of 'creep' the same narrator?

um... yes?

so he says all of that creepy stuff in the verses and then realizes how creepy he is in the chorus?

see my previous post

woo my no. 1 already placed ("fog")

best thing that was ever associated with Creep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RB3edZyeYw

it's a funny song

He says 'BUT I'm a creep' not 'BECAUSE I'm a creep'. I just want the narrator to know that he is a creep because of all those thoughts in the verses.

I voted Videotape for this version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njCps4jGaks

thought strong chance creep wouldn't place which would've been fun

also, ppl need to listen to jigsaw more, that is a great song

the day Creep went Top 10 in the UK (late Summer '93) i bumped into a gloomy Damon Albarn and an upbeat Loz 'Kingmaker' Hardy sat together in a Manchester bar just before Elastica's first ever gig outside of London. DA needled me for having a Suede t shirt on but was pretty nonplussed when i asked him what he thought of an indie band going into the Top 10. seemed like a pretty big deal to me, as it hadn't happened much since The Stone Roses, if at all. Loz Hardy told me "aw they can fuck off". happy days.

Glad All I Need placed, lovely moody muscular track.

several xposts to DJP:

Yeah, those two definitely make for a great album opening. There's been a lot of discussion since Amnesiac came out of shuffling the track order and including B-sides from the same sessions etc. and while I think the album is a bit of a jumble in terms of song order (particularly the second half), they definitely got the two opening tracks right.

I don't see 'Creep' in the same way that others do... I'd never even heard it until after I'd bought The Bends! I didn't know anything about how the band felt about it or anything about the band trying to shake off a "one-hit wonder" tag until much later. When I did finally hear it (post-Bends, pre-OKC) I liked it, and still continue to like it. It seems to get a load of shit off the newer fans that got into Radiohead after OK Computer, though.

He says 'BUT I'm a creep' not 'BECAUSE I'm a creep'. I just want the narrator to know that he is a creep because of all those thoughts in the verses.

― wolves at doors: they flan @ u face (Sufjan Grafton)

Don't overthink it, it's just the following clause to 'I wish I was special'.

ah, good call. it always sounded so absurd to me. like a version of 'Taxman' where George sings 'but I'm the Taxman' in the chorus.

Yeah, that's how I've always heard the lyric too, as the following clause to 'I wish I was special'. It's just Thom putting some chick on a pedestal and obsessing over her while not feeling particularly chipper about himself.

Amazing to think that even around the time of 'Creep', Thom still had 'Motion Picture Soundtrack' in his back pocket, waiting to be given the organ'n'Disney harp treatment.

it amazes me more that you could not 'bother to cobble' a ballot together when you clearly love this band and its albums
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Nyp8A9QWcbY/RuqdNu38BUI/AAAAAAAAANw/TXROvgusVqY/s1600-h/vote%20or%20die.jpg

I can't believe how few points The King of Limbs has compared to the rest of their albums (and also very surprised From the Basement didn't make the cut). Makes me wish I'd put it at number one (not that it would have done anything considering the points difference), because there's no way it isn't better than In Rainbows or HttT. Also interesting to see the earlier b-sides picking up #1 votes.

And with Jigsaw and Packt showing today I think every single one of my votes should place!

Catching up now. I was the vote for Fog (Again), love the piano.

Jigsaw is awesome, wasn't gonna vote for it until I re-listened for this poll. It was my number 18 (or something around there).

I can't believe how few points The King of Limbs has compared to the rest of their albums (and also very surprised From the Basement didn't make the cut). Makes me wish I'd put it at number one (not that it would have done anything considering the points difference), because there's no way it isn't better than In Rainbows or HttT. Also interesting to see the earlier b-sides picking up #1 votes.

And with Jigsaw and Packt showing today I think every single one of my votes should place!

― olly, Tuesday, September 9, 2014 12:53 AM

???

From the Basement hasn't been released as an album has it? On the other thread I was saying that they should join the two FTB sessions from In Rainbows and TKOL and release them as a live album since they're excellent performances.

I was the vote for Fog (Again)

and i was the other #1 vote

is every song from In Rainbows going to make it? we already have four.

2/10 so far.

I'm ok with no more IR songs making it, srsly what's wrong with y'all

nothing, must be you ;-)

i'd guess nude and reckoner will make it.

pretty sure Weird Fishes is making it also.

Nude, Arpeggi and Reckoner will surely make it. 15 Step and Bodysnatchers wont. Faust Arp depends on the joke votes.

Bodysnatchers will make it. I believe.

i feel like the representation of In Rainbows in the tracks poll is going to expose the ridiculousness of it placing 3rd in the albums poll.

glad "Palo Alto" made the cut, was in my top ten. funny how the would-be title track of OK Computer became a b-side that it's hard to imagine fitting onto the album proper, but it's so catchy.

I bought my In Rainbows vinyl at a show and it has surface nose galore.

i don't think i had any idea how divisive In Rainbows is. putting it #1 for albums was the easiest decision of my whole ballot.

i feel like the representation of In Rainbows in the tracks poll is going to expose the ridiculousness of it placing 3rd in the albums poll.

i know, should have been higher.

*throws hands up in the air*

*waves them around like ... oh wait, this is a Radiohead thread*

in rainbows is the best radiohead album

yeah i almost put it at #1 too

Wait... there's people who hate In Rainbows?

fwiw, I like In Rainbows the most out of all the post-Kid A albums that I don't like.

i don't think i had any idea how divisive In Rainbows is. putting it #1 for albums was the easiest decision of my whole ballot.

― Roberto Spiralli

Same here. It's a perfect album. Really hoping Weird Fishes makes the list. Feel like it's one of the most ignored songs on the album but it's easily my favourite.

I wish I liked anything by Radiohead after "Worrywort" as much as some folks here seem to. 'In Rainbows' was definitely a big improvement over 'Hail To the Thief,' but even still it takes both discs being culled down to 10 or so tracks to be about as good as 'Amnesiac,' which was pretty middling.

Anybody else like the 'Atoms for Peace' disc and Yorke's solo album better than anything after 'Kid A' besides me?

Personally I rank post Kid A stuff as:

In Rainbows
Eraser / TKOL
Amnesiac / Atoms for Peace
Hail to the Thief

Hail to the Thief is their best album

3/10 so far; "Palo Alto" was also in my top ten, happy that it made the list.

also, just got home from work and am seeing the images on a computer screen instead of my phone, they're great

xxpost: I have grown to appreciate it better but it still feels exhausted and all over the place for me.

Since "Creep" has already placed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTF8Cn3Z0nI

Palo Alto my number one, thanks for asking

Eraser's my second favourite Radiohead and related projects album, after okc. Although except for in rainbows I hardly know any of the later albums, lol call myself a fan. Had a few goes at atoms for peace but so far it's failed to stick.

Before last week I hadn't listened to In Rainbows for ~3 years, and for some reason in that three years my dislike of it intensified based on my kinda misremembered impressions. But on re-listen I just found it inoffensive (and still liked it more than Pablo and Bends).

Still, it's far too austere for my liking and it's the height of Thom's lugubrious moaning which is just a chore to listen to. Pretty much everything I actually like about it is done better in TKOL.

How I Made My Millions is the height of Thom's lugubrious moaning.

Austere isn't really an adjective I recognise in relation to In Rainbows.

In Rainbows is such a sprawling mess. I probably would have stopped paying attention to Radiohead after it, if TKOL hadn't been so tight and concise.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm actually kinda glad that Thom as Atoms for Peace now, so that he can stick all of his worst, shitty sprawl tendencies in that band and save his more interesting work for Radiohead.

But all I'm gonna do on this thread is complain about the order and placement and rail against Radiohead fans and people who don't even like Radiohead but still have ~opinions~ on OK Computer and so really I should shut up and stay out and admit I have nothing more to say about this band to anyone.

The albums top 5 is almost identital to my own (I had Hail to the Thief at #5) but really I think everything bar Pablo Honey is great (even King of Limbs which only really clicked with me last week). HTTT is the closest to being too sprawling for me but the ratio of great songs to okay-ish songs is still incredibly high.

I don't recognise IR as sprawling, either! It feels really tight and focussed to me, with a nice balance of consistency of mood and tone and style to give it a sense of gestalt, and just enough variation to keep it interesting. The only track I don't like is Videotape. It feels like their most whole album qua album to me. Which is, obviously, a wanky rockist thing to think/feel, but I do.

HTTT feels far too sprawling and loose to me; the sequencing doesn't make sense, and there are a bunch of songs that I like aspects of but don't enjoy the whole of; Myxamatosis, Punch-Up At A Wedding, to name two. I suspect had it been sequenced 'better' (for my brane) then I'd like those songs more. I feel similarly about Amnesiac. Kid A works for me as an album, I just don't like it as much as IR.

Stick Cuttooth and Fog and Twisted Words and a load of other Amnesiac and HTTT b-sides together and you've got something as good as, or better, than Amnesiac or HTTT, as far as I'm concerned.

Spent two and a half days solidly listening to nowt but Radiohead last week while I decorated the nursery; not sure I've ever listened to them that intensively before. Really enjoyed it. I railed against them for years, I think now, simply because they were the band that everyone expected me to like.

very surprised at how low Creep placed. I know it's way way played out now, but I still expected it to go top 15 at least.

i don't know how common this is, but for me Kid A onward definitely diminished what came before, which was perhaps not deliberate although you could at least say self-fulfilled. i loved actually all three of the first albums at the time and i can tap into that still but there is a tinge of embarrassment, albeit faint.

there was a tinge of embarrassment to Creep about a minute into Planet Telex tho.

someone mentioned japan above who are an interesting comparative. maybe if you were a japan fan at the time Quiet Life would've made you like the first two albums less. personally my record collection back then consisted of one keith harris and orville 7" so i can't say, but looking back it is hard to imagine because early japan also rules.

"I railed against them for years, I think now, simply because they were the band that everyone expected me to like."

This is also my experience. I've come to see how toxic b/c merely reactive it is for my appreciation of the arts, but I've struggled with this since I was a nerdy kid and everyone expected me to like classical music and I became a pop fan instead. Things have gotten better but my popism, such as it is, can't be separated from a fuck you against my peers.

just to add something in support of Jigsaw: it's one of those every-so-often moments that sheds light on how far these guys have come as songwriters. back in the Bends days, the band would have opted for the sudden crescendo, upping the drama through impetuous guitar noise. but Jigsaw builds to its exhilarating climax, and exacts this climax, through tension and restraint; the instruments sound clenched, like they're tending the same delimiting ground for the duration of the song. the final, ascending passage plays out within the concentrated sphere of what's come before, it's just that the intensity has almost reached breaking point. but not quite. the song develops in an organic fashion, whilst paying respect to each and every ingredient that goes into it, preserving a certain consistency from start to finish. that, to me, is one of the hallmarks of great writing.

Calling IR 'sprawling' is the maddest and most inaccurate slight about it I've read yet.

Well no, it's just someone else's different reaction to a record. Not relating to id doesn't make it mad or inaccurate.

Fair enough, was being slightly hyperbolic. It sounds very concise and well sequenced to me though.

I'll stop now, most Radiohead threads seem to devolve into circular discussions of the merits of In Rainbows at some point (and I'm certainly part of the problem).

Sometimes I feel as though Radiohead have got it in them to make a proper album one day.

Jigsaw is my ikkle bro's favourite Radiohead song and I'm inclined to say it is totally excellent.

'The Bends' and 'Bones' are def my least favourite songs on the 2nd album. 'The Bends' especially, could have easily been taken from Pablo Honey.

i can't listen to anything of The Bends these days except Planet Telex

off

The biggest problem with jigsaw is that they decided to fade the song out (?) in the middle of Jonny's guitar solo (!?)

The big climactic end section has great chords and a great arrangement, but Thom's voice sounds oddly pinched and weedy in it, which ruins the whole effect.

This band, if they could only overcome these multiple stylistic and creative hurdles we're all pointing out, they could be quite the success.

it's a fantastic vocal line. the singing itself might be a bit underpowered, yeah.

x-post

lol Scik Mouthy

http://i.imgur.com/FyPvvQO.jpg

40. High and Dry [12 votes | 243 points]

O_O at high and dry...being voted for

lol

High and Dry is great forever.

I've heard it so many times I never deliberately play it, but when it comes on the iPod on shuffle I still love it.

Hoping for an impassioned defense of High and Dry, because really?

creep and high and dry are fine songs that people would still like if they were done by some rando 90s indie band

"They're the ooo-uuhh-ooones who'll spit at you..."

is The Place Beyond the Pines based on High and Dry?

the thing with high and dry is that it sounds like the soundtrack to a mid-90s friends type of tv show, a special episode where one of the characters breaks up and is heartbroken or something, and there's a brief 45-second montage of the character looking out the window and being sad juxtaposed with shots of the other characters leading their happy lives - and during all of this the instrumental ending (the shitty guitar solo) of high and dry is playing

also coldplay

but it is sad. he can only fuck now. he has lost the ability to make love.

"High And Dry" was recorded during the Pablo Honey sessions but was dismissed by the band, who thought that it sounded like a Rod Stewart song.

surely by now they should have realized this is a pro

http://i.imgur.com/YSCxcU5.jpg

39. Nude [13 votes | 282 points]

if you squint really hard, during high and dry you can teleport into the brain of chris martin in 1996. he's listening to the bends and he's obsessed and he loves it. but somehow it's slippery, he can't quite figure it out. but then in the midst of listening to high and dry yet again, he says "this is who i am, also. i can do this". then he starts writing songs that are slightly slower and even worse than high and dry and becomes a global popstar

"They're the ooo-uuhh-ooones who'll spit at you..."

― jmm

When I listened to The Bends recently this bit really grated on me. Same on The Bends when he sings "I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy, I wish, I wish" It's moments like those that made the album seem almost as dated as Pablo Honey.

yeah but i love his delivery of "screaming ouuut"

"high and dry" is definitely the most fun song to sing on the bends (maybe actually tied with "black star" though)

Didn't make my ballot, and it's not a highlight of The Bends for me, but the bass drum sound on the intro is glorious.

Love Nude.

Didn't vote, but hoping that Airbag will place well in the tracks.

I voted for High and Dry, still love the guitar solo and the vocals even if the lyrics are a bit cringeworthy.

But yeah, you can definitely trace the emergence of Coldplay directly to the chorus.

Only bit of High and Dry I particularly like are the drum fills in the 'best thing that you ever had' breakdown.

High & Dry is a fine song but sucks by association to all the awful, "sensitive" britpop bands it spawned.

http://i.imgur.com/Q2fBhAO.jpg

38. I Might Be Wrong [15 votes | 289 points]

"High and Dry" is a beautiful song in and of itself and it's really not Radiohead's fault that every single Coldplay single is an inferior re-interpretation of it

I really really don't like I Might Be Wrong at all.

I don't know if I voted for IMBW but I love the coda.

I think it's one of those good Radiohead songs that would be great with a different producer at the mix.

last two songs appropriately placed imo

btw, how far down are we counting today?

I really really don't like I Might Be Wrong at all.

― nate woolls

Same, sounds murky and lacking in drive.

I'm planning on going to 21, might not get that far though.

"I Might Be Wrong" is fine but there are a bunch of Radiohead songs I like more

^^^

The live version of I Might Be Wrong is far superior

It's funny, I only voted for one song on "Amnesiac" (not this one) but it was #2 on my album ballot. Harder really to abstract individual tracks from it even than with "Kid A" - it's a mood piece. "Kid A" is arctic depression, "Amnesiac" more gauzy melancholy. "I Might Be Wrong" nestles into the flow of it just fine.

http://i.imgur.com/iUJXGF1.jpg

37. Where I End and You Begin [13 votes | 293 points]

I agonized over cutting "Knives Out" off of my ballot (it ended up in my top 25) but it never even occurred to me to keep "I Might Be Wrong" past the initial shortlist compilation stage; its placement here feels about right.

WIEAYB is another just-missed track; there was a point where I seriously considered just submitting every HTTT song but that would have been silly and a total disservice to the rest of the Bends through HTTT run, which borders on impeccable for me.

xp "I Might Be Wrong" was my number 3. Love the murkiness, like a drone.

Where I End is proof that it's impossible to go wrong biting Theme for Great Cities.

Speaking of songs that sound like the Chili Peppers

i sacrificed I Might Be Wrong at #20 for a sentimental selection. i guess those points would've bumped it up a spot at least

http://i.imgur.com/DtiI1RV.jpg

36. Myxomatosis [14 votes | 300 points]

How can Nude place lower than Where I End? Tell you what, fuck this poll and fuck the lot of you. I'm off.

<3 you really, even though you're all wrong

might be, anyway

I like the groove on I Might Be Wrong, kind of a bouncy country thing

are you a rabbit? no? then you don't have myxomatosis, Thom.

Not sure how I feel about Myxomatosis. I don't like the way it just starts like that.

X post he's a rabbit in your headlights.

HTTT is the album where they wrote a bunch of songs based off of funny words they found in the dictionary

myxomatosis would have been in my top 5 if i voted

http://i.imgur.com/hWD4W0n.jpg

35. Black Star [13 votes | 300 points]

at their art-rock best imo xp

Black Star holds up well. Unlike H&D, it sounds very 90s in all of the right ways imo.

http://i.imgur.com/64ou6Mk.jpg

34. Knives Out [13 votes | 304 points]

i still can't hear the supposed Smiths influence in Knives Out. great song though.

i think the influence is just in the melodic chiming circular riff to it, but yeah, it doesn't stand out too much to me either. there are also people who say that it's just a barely reworked version of paranoid android, which again, i can barely hear but doesn't bother me at all.

quite surprised to see 'Nude' drift by with a low ranking and no discussion, were people disappointed by the recorded version after much anticipation or what?

I'm surprised Knives Out is this low, it's one of my favorites although I guess I'm biased toward their more guitar-centric stuff

Yeah I've heard the Paranoid Android thing said (only ever on ILM), I can't hear it at all.

Knives Out is the first of my top ten songs to place.

The chord progression to "Knives Out" is similar to the chord progression of the A section of "Paranoid Android"; once PA gets to The Riff, the similarity goes away.

xpost I have to admit the studio version was slightly disappointing. I was so used to the version with glockenspiel on Meeting People is Easy. Also the MPIE seemed to have a light innocence that the IR version somehow lacked?

this is the version of nude (from 1998) i was talking about: YOUTUBE link

sorry for going on about this but i meant that the musical accompaniment with the hammond organ and glockenspiel in the 1998 version was light and innocent (whatever the fuck i mean by that). obv the lyrics have always been stereotypical radiohead downerism. but i think i preferred the older version because the music and lyrics were such a great contrast

I'd never heard that. Maybe that's why I like the IR version so much. It's a cool version, but I actually miss all of Thom's oooo-ahhhs.

Sorry to be contrary but I really have no idea what's so special about "Nude". I mean, I just listened to that YouTube clip three minutes ago and I can't even remember what it sounded like.

yeah the most amazing 'new song' bit in Meeting People Is Easy was that solo version of How To Disappear..

http://i.imgur.com/5HXzlW7.jpg

33. Bodysnatchers [15 votes | 332 points]

this song rocks

Yeah, I love this.

I might be wrong, black star and knives out where always some of my least favorite Radiohead songs. Where I End and Bodysnatchers on the other hand...

I really hope the gloaming is making it.

Nude is beautiful and sensual. I'd never previously heard the early version but I remember thinking it was the first time I'd heard Radiohead sounding so mellow and at peace with themselves. The sung ooohs towards the end are particularly special to me.

And I'm Def one of those people who can't help but hear Knives Out as a poor man's Paranoid Android. The guitar motif is just too similar.

Bodysnatchers suffers from being a heavy rock track on an otherwise fairly chilled album and I often find myself skipping it for that reason.

Always saw Black Star as one of the lesser tracks on The Bends but I think it's actually improved with age. Hope its neighbour, Bulletproof, places though

Bodysnatchers end part goes perfectly with Nude, in my opinion.

"Bodysnatchers" is the song that keeps making me think I don't find In Rainbows boring; then I try listening to the whole album and it's like instant naptime

great song, though (really many of the IR songs are good; they just don't work as an album for me)

http://i.imgur.com/7laL112.jpg

32. 2 + 2 = 5 [17 votes | 335 points]

Great song, didn't vote for it (it was on the bubble)

it's fun to listen to 2+2=5 with only the left earbud in

http://i.imgur.com/FrIGQXB.jpg

31. In Limbo [16 votes | 1 #1 vote | 353 points]

Bodysnatchers suffers from being a heavy rock track on an otherwise fairly chilled album and I often find myself skipping it the rest of the album for that reason.

good run here, I like all of the last 4 a lot

such a great, weird song

yeah this has the most slurred and mumbled chorus that's ever been on an album that's gone to Number 1 in America surely. i like it.

Alright, now we're getting to the good stuff. In Limbo was my #2. I just love it.

If "High and Dry" is the template for Coldplay, then "Pearly*" (which I am guessing won't place but I love, it was in my top 5) is surely the template for Muse.

http://i.imgur.com/Q4JGfe4.jpg

30. The Tourist [15 votes | 2 #1 votes | 376 points]

I predict all of Kid A will make it safe for Treefingers.

The Tourist is another of my top ten, for a long time it was probably my favourite song ever.

Coulda been my #1...it was 2nd on my ballot by a fraction of a sliver.

Lucky > The Tourist

The 2 of them together is a powerful album closer.

It's my 6th highest placed OKC track. Absolutely stunning song that I underrated forever.

they are a great closing 1-2 but i did not feel compelled to rank either track very highly individually

If "High and Dry" is the template for Coldplay, then "Pearly*" (which I am guessing won't place but I love, it was in my top 5) is surely the template for Muse.

― The Velvet Fog called me a motherfucker (Sandy), Tuesday, September 9, 2014 1:22 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lucky > The Tourist

― stacked as fuck & imposing (DJP), Tuesday, September 9, 2014 1:35 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

with this post, i hope to highlight the OTMness of the above two posts

http://i.imgur.com/HncH57g.jpg

29. Life in a Glasshouse [16 votes | 1 #1 vote | 379 points]

This was my number one. So haunting, so mournful. Amazing New Orleans horns.

The Tourist was in my top ten, possibly the flat out prettiest song Radiohead ever did

http://i.imgur.com/dOssRCY.jpg

28. A Wolf at the Door [17 votes | 1 #1 vote | 389 points]

Closing tracks!

woah, that's weird

wolf at the door is my #2. A FLAN IN THE FACE!

I love this song

didn't vote for it

don't you dare. don't you dare. don't you FLAN IN THE FACE

i think of "high and dry" as 1995's vital other side of the coin to "common people" and i prob would've put it #1 if i had known it would end up so low

The live version of I Might Be Wrong is far superior

Really? I thought it was too fast.

I've said it already, but I'll say it again: Knives Out is probably the most miserable-sounding song ever.

sonically or just the overall attitude of the song? I like how miserable it is

Both

http://i.imgur.com/UDP1Pbi.jpg

27. Kid A [18 votes | 399 points]

I really should have voted for Kid A. It is great even on its own. I also just realized that I forgot to vote for Gagging Order.

Yeah I'm regretting passing over the tourist and kid a both. Both just beautiful pieces of work.

does anyone recall the leaked version of HTTF? it had some pretty differently mixed versions of some songs and some sounded better than the final mixes. Wolf At The Door was one.

A bunch of stuff I voted for showed up including all of my top 3 (In Limbo, Myxomatosis, Wolf at the Door ). Unspeakably livid that In Limbo got beat out by the fucking Tourist btw!!!

http://i.imgur.com/27IfIn8.jpg

26. My Iron Lung [20 votes | 407 points]

Kid A is soooo good.

it wasn't at the top of my ballot but I think I enjoyed voting for "the tourist" more than any other track. it's almost a throwaway and then it spreads its winfs

xxxposts "high and dry" is that one that sounds like a dry run for "fake plastic trees" yes?

"my iron lung" riff is all-time greatness. glad tom lost his megaphone he made some questionable choices when it was around imo and yes i voted for this and "the bends" make of that what you will

winfs. things are coming out all weird where is autocorrect when I neeeed you?

The Bends is great! Definitely the high point of that record along with Planet Telex for me. I like it when they rock.

"Kid A" ended up being one of only a couple songs from Kid A that i voted for, it's funny to think of it being one of my top 2 songs from that album but it really is.

Well, just got back to see how this is unfolding:

'High and Dry' - Great to see this place, there seems to be a group of fans that seem to bash this track, if only because it was an obvious influence on what Coldplay (amongst others) ended up doing, but to me this is a great song that in my mind is far superior to anything that Coldplay and their ilk achieved. At the time, I derived the same kind of pleasure out of the song as I got from listening to various tracks on Automatic For The People.

'Nude' - Easily one of my highlights of In Rainbows, one thing that sticks out to me about this one is the drum sound, weirdly enough.

'I Might Be Wrong' - A nice enough guitar riff, but not much of a song, in my opinion. Live versions are far superior, I think.

'Where I End And You Begin' - Why the hell wasn't this a single? My favourite track on Hail To The Thief, and the version that they performed in Live From The Basement absolutely slays. I love the little 2/4 measure pause that they insert just before the second verse, not to mention where Thom kicks it up into a higher gear in the last verse before the outro.

'Myxomatosis' - Excellent track, fucking evil keyboard riff and again the Live From The Basement version rules.

'Black Star' - I'm really surprised to see this place. Back in '95/'96 this used to be one of the highlights of The Bends for me, but I had got the impression that it had been forgotten about or overlooked with the passing of time and the more material the band put out. I certainly know that I'm a bit guilty of overlooking this one in recent years.

'Knives Out' - This is one of those Radiohead tracks where my opinion of it changes according to the mood I'm in. In the right frame of mind, I get taken in by the gorgeous guitar playing, but when I'm not in the mood for it, it just feels like Thom is needlessly moaning while staring at his bellybutton.

'Bodysnatchers' - God, this rocks... although my favourite part of the song isn't so much the guitar riff as to when it opens out during the middle eight.

'2+2=5' - Really surprised to see that this, alongside 'Where I End And You Begin' didn't place higher. Having said that, it's definitely lost a lot of lustre for me since I heard it for the first time through overplay.

'In Limbo' - Works better as part of the suite on the second half of Kid A than in isolation, IMO.

'The Tourist' - Probably my least favourite track on OK Computer that isn't 'Fitter Happier'. It makes for a great album closer (especially that lone bell right at the end), but I'd probably skip it if it came up on a shuffle play.

'Life In A Glasshouse' - This and 'We Suck Young Blood' have their fans. I'm not one of them.

'A Wolf At The Door' - Fucking excellent! Really glad to see this place.

'Kid A' - Again, surprised to see this come so high, but I love it all the same... particularly the bit towards the end where the sustained synths fade in. Great stuff.

'My Iron Lung' - Way too high, one of those tracks from The Bends that doesn't really float my boat anymore.

Why did I let My Iron Lung fall off the bottom of my ballot?

If "High and Dry" is the template for Coldplay, then "Pearly*" (which I am guessing won't place but I love, it was in my top 5) is surely the template for Muse.

― The Velvet Fog called me a motherfucker (Sandy), Tuesday, September 9, 2014 8:22 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For me the template for Muse is when the drums and distorted bass kick in on 'Exit Music (For A Film)'.

Tracks I voted for today: Nude, 2+2=5, My Iron Lung

Tracks I feel bad for not having voted for: Where I End and You Begin (that baseline!), Bodysnatchers, A Wolf at the Door.

I really love the Easy Stars version of The Tourist, feel free to shout at me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJJIfhbd3jc

I'm happy A Wolf At the Door made it, love that song. Actually, I voted for all three of the closing tracks that placed in a row.

Surprised there wasn't more Life in a Glasshouse love. Guess it just hits me with that special type of frisson during the "Someone's listening" part.

I can barely recall "In Limbo," and I've never really loved "Kid A" the song. I really need to throw on a pair of headphones and re-listen.

chap!

had four place today, up to six now.

Iron Lung is the song I didn't vote for that immediately lodged itself in my head after I'd sent my ballot. Is it a proto Paranoid Android? The wig-out-y bits feel very similar to me in isolation, though I've not played them back-to-back.

I thought very hard about whether to vote for High & Dry, because I used to adore it, and I do still love that kick drum sound in the intro. In the end it was a toss-up between that and Fake Plastic Trees, and I decided to go for the latter, just because it feels a little more sophisticated and therefore rewarding longterm strcuturally.

A great run here.

Iron Lung is my favourite song on The Bends and the song that sold Radiohead to me as more than just a post-grunge one hit wonder. I was pretty much obsessed with it as a teenager and spent years trying to perfect the intro riff on guitar. Voted it high at #3.

Despite the much-discussed sequencing issues on more recent Radiohead albums, they certainly know how to start and finish a record and that clutch of finishing tracks that came up is brilliant.

Wolf at the Door is excellent and creepy and kind of violent and I like the arpeggiated keys.
Voted Life In a Glasshouse high too: every so often Radiohead will surrender to pastiche, but in this case they use the Louis Armstrong-esque brass blues sound to maximal effect. They could stand to do more songs a bit like this.

And how can anyone not like The Tourist? Some have said it's an anticlimax, but it's the perfect closer for OKC for me - that feeling of inertia, clinical and airtight despite Thom insisting we 'slow down'. chap - I listen to the Easy Star version of OKC almost exclusively now, partly because I've heard the R'head version so many times and partly because the songs just work so well in dub mode.

The other thing that makes me feel as though 'Knives Out' is a retread of old material, as well as recycling the guitar part from Paranoid Android, the opening line sounds like Thom's about to sing 'I waant yoou to know (tice).. when I'm... not arouuund'

'Kid A' was the first thing I heard off the album - they were playing it in Time Records in Colchester on the day of release - and although I'd come to the shop expressly so I could buy it, I couldn't help but feel a mixture of excitement and disappointment.

On one hand my reaction was 'Wow, Radiohead are making music that sounds like THIS!' on the other, it did feel very heavily indebted to the Warp Records stuff I'd been getting into at the time and coupled with the TDR-friendly packaging (remember the secret booklet behind the CD caddy?) I couldn't help feeling my favourite rock band were in danger of parroting certain electronic music tropes and doing it badly. It took me quite a while to understand just how much more there was going on on Kid A (the album) than that. I'm still a bit hot and cold on Radiohead's more overt forays into electronica - sometimes it reminds me of when metal bands attempt to 'go techno' or slightly dodgy industrial music... Well maybe not that bad but still things like Eraser, Pulk/Pull, Kid A and a lot of King Of Limbs do little for me beyond making me feel slightly embarrassed.

My issue with their overt forays into full-on electronica was always that they didn't mix and master things like the people they were aping; they mixed and mastered things like a rock band, and a lot of the really subtle synaesthetic joy I get from Warp artists, Orbital, etc etc, comes in the way things were mixed and mastered so that they sounded so different from rock music. And this was phenomenologically like rock music, even as it aesthetically moved away from that.

At least to my ears, that is.

It could be that. All I associate with TKOL is awkward clacketty twiggy rhythms that don't really propel the songs any one way or the other. The songs have a lot of potential but there's barely any oomph in the production. It ends up feeling a bit like a rock band's impression of what electronic/dance-based music is. OTOH when they get the balance right (thinking about Idioteque especially) it works really well.

Never got Idioteque. Didn't vote for it.

I like it, but even Idioteque can feel a bit like it's missing a certain essential frequency that even the most average dance/electronic acts would include by default. Makes me realise how often I find myself complaining about this problem - recent work by Animal Collective and Arcade Fire also do this - in which big art-rock bands decide they're going to adopt an electronic influence but somehow find themselves unwilling or unable to inject the same lifeblood into their productions as their influences do. These guys are all clearly listening to avant-electronica, techno, dub/bass music etc, but why their productions all too often end up sounding so thin and ricketty is anyone's guess. Maybe, as Mouthy says, it's all down to mixing/mastering habits?

I wonder if we're likely to expect any more b-sides - especially ones form the pre-Kid A era? I'm especially fond of Talk Show Host, Bishops Robes, A Reminder and Melatonin but I doubt these'll get very high at all.

I think 'Talk Show Host' is in with a chance.

Is Talk Show Host Gazza's favourite Radiohead song?

Worrywort's probably gonna make it. Lots of people talking about it in the voting thread.

Also, I voted a non-album track at number 2, so hopefully that one comes through.

As tracks in the lower echelons of this poll regularly have 1 or 2 #1 votes, I'm not so sure it will

Speaking of non-album tracks I really hope Supercollider and Staircase make it, looking less and less likely at this point.

I had 'The Tourist' as my #1 but the other two album closers in the last batch have never been favourites of mine - my own edited-down version of HTTT finishes with 'Scatterbrain' which works nicely I think, it lets a bit of light back in.

can I belatedly say "In Limbo" is a gorgeous, gorgeous song

It is, but one which doesn't really work in isolation for me.

It only just made it onto my ballot but yeah it really is lovely. Great vocal.

It's a shame we couldn't have a side projects poll
Band Aid 20 ftw

http://i.imgur.com/26BBdHY.jpg

25. 15 Step [20 votes | 1 #1 vote | 411 points]

My number 1. I adore this song.

Herky jerky rhythms; too clever for its own good reference to 2 step except, you know, smarter; not quite awkward enough not to fall apart completely; and do I detect a hint of warmth in there? Yup it's Radio head in 2007.

i believe i had 15 step at #3 in the end. compulsively listened to it when IR first came out

I don't love it, but there's something satisfying about the way the drums and guitar lock together.

http://i.imgur.com/MxUcWfL.jpg

24. Optimistic [18 votes | 1 #1 vote | 427 points]

Like many I can't really unlock In Limbo and Optimistic from each other. That second part of Kid A is just too good to split up. But I really like Optimistic. The sort of background organy sound during the 'try the best you can' part really does it for me.

"Optimistic" has one of my favorite moments on Kid A, in fact, one of my favorite moments in Radiohead's oeuvre: the slight, nervous uptick in tempo near the end.

I love Radiohead's rhythm section and 15 Step shows them off perfectly. I love the way it starts with it's electronic bait and switch, and the way the live groove then falls in. I adore the little punctum bits when the kids voices come in ever so slightly.

Can't remember if Optimistic made my ballot. I like it, but I think there are similar examples of this kind of thing - krauty, nervous, tense - that they've done which I prefer.

No, you didn't vote for it.

http://i.imgur.com/hBl7nEi.jpg

23. Talk Show Host [20 votes | 431 points]

Optimistic was my #1. To me it's the most representative song of the band, and it consistently sounds amazing live.

http://i.imgur.com/yxTGxrz.jpg

22. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi [20 votes | 1 #1 vote | 452 points]

Ah great to see Talk Show Host there. Didn't know it was a fan fave. Was it in a film or something?

Yeah Romeo + Juliet I think.

I didn't vote for Talk Show Host instead I plumped for its neighbour on the single, Bishops Robes, but they're of a piece in my mind

I love the end section of Optimistic where they finally start rocking out with massive cymbal crashes after the twitchy nervinous most of the song. Terrific release. Also one of Yorke's best lyrics I think.

TSH has one of my favourite lines of his as well: "I'll be waiting with a gun and a pack of sandwiches".

Yeah great line. And it kind of precedes OKC with some of those nice electronic flourishes too

AFAICR it came out between OKC and Kid A, which makes sense.

It was a b-side of "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" in early 1996.

Ha, shows what I know.

Weird fishes was my #2. This is far too low, ILM, you should be ashamed of yourself

I've always thought of it as a bridge from TB to OKC.

It was a b-side of "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" in early 1996.

Speaking of which..

http://i.imgur.com/oefjLbc.jpg

21. Street Spirit (Fade Out) [21 votes | 1 #1 vote | 471 points]

weird fishes is a beautiful song. gives me all of the feelings.

I liked it a lot upon IR's release. I think the "IR is booooring" folks got to me with that one.

Street Spirit is amazing and deserves to be top 10 ;_;

I guess the 'Thom vocables as major part of song' starts there, actually

when checking to see if a guitar is in tune I still play the main Street Spirit riff, just out of pure instinct. I think it was the first fingerpicky sorta thing I learned in that formative time.

http://i.imgur.com/MO9XcsA.jpg

20. No Surprises [19 votes | 2 #1 votes | 472 points]

I am starting to get very worried about some of my pet fave album cuts ;_;

i'm guessing permanent daylight isn't going to make the cut (no way it would beat talk show host, that's for sure). i didn't think it would, but i threw it a pretty high vote so i was hoping someone else would join me. last time i saw radiohead play they played permanent daylight and it was such a treat

Apart from the iconic riff I actually find No Surprises kind of dull.

No surprises was my number one. Just feels like it sums up the band's raisin d'être about as well as any single song.

I love it. Was my #4.

No Surprises fell off the end of my ballot; I'm glad to see it here but there are other songs I go to bat for (RIP "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors", you are still an excellent trip-hop/industrial mashup that could have been inserted on Pre-Millenium Tension and not been out of place)

anyone doing a spotify playlist of the countdown?

http://i.imgur.com/IpmosSi.jpg

19. Just [21 votes | 2 #1 votes | 476 points]

Great song.

Made my top 10. The Whammy bit near the end knocks me out every time.

Yeah my fave Radiohead in straight out Indie rock mode. Still didn't make my ballot.

The Just video was my entry point into The Bends; it's a fantastic introduction

yet another awesome song that I did not vote for

Not gonna lie, Mark Ronson is the reason I didn't vote for Just

I like the instrumental bridge that almost sounds like chamber music or something.

this song rules and it was high up my ballot. i didn't vote for no surprises or street spirit but maybe should have, i eschewed them for some deeper cuts.

I remember that for a year+ The Bends was a "featured" cd at best buy, like super cheap, bc I guess capital was trying to break them past Creep in the USA, and they had a video watching kiosk with the "Just" video, and I loved it but didn't buy the cd bc I was annoyed that best buy had been pushing it so hard. "the 90s"

Happy to see Weird Fishes make it. It's been my favourite Radiohead song ever since I first heard In Rainbows. It's so beautiful the way it just builds and builds until the "I get eaten by the worms" bit.

Just has been been ruined for me by going to same indie club every week for almost two years when I was 16/17. It's my own fault really.

you did to yourself then? it is just?

The Just video was my entry point into The Bends; it's a fantastic introduction

Otm. Same here. Official beginning of my Radiohead fandom.

first heard "ok computer" at a circuit city listening station.

you did to yourself then? it is just?

― Bitterer than Bitter (Sufjan Grafton)

Ha! Can't believe I didn't see the potential for that joke myself.

i'm guessing permanent daylight isn't going to make the cut (no way it would beat talk show host, that's for sure). i didn't think it would, but i threw it a pretty high vote so i was hoping someone else would join me.

This made the top half of my ballot. I really dig it. But yeah no chance of placing :/

http://i.imgur.com/qvUE3Jf.jpg

18. Subterranean Homesick Alien [22 votes | 1 #1 vote | 483 points]

Nice! This seems like one of those tracks that's too easy to overlook. I don't even think I considered it for my ballot until I did my big relisten before voting, after which (I think) it made my top ten.

My relationship with Radiohead went something like:

- heard "Creep"; liked it, didn't love it
- ignored pretty much everything from The Bends because it wasn't breakbeat/jungle/trip-hop/The Cure/Prince
- saw the video for "Paranoid Android", went "wait, THAT'S Radiohead?????"
- bought OK Computer, lost mind, decided they'd become amazing
- saw the video for "Just", went "holy shit they've been amazing for a while!"
- bought The Bends, lost mind again
- bought Pablo Honey, fell over laughing, promptly intentionally lost Pablo Honey
- bought on release and loved: Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief
- listened to In Rainbows, fell asleep
- listened to several In Rainbows songs in isolation, went "oh hey these are actually good", played the album again, fell asleep
- bought King of Limbs, loved it, played it three times, never went back

Yes! This is the best Radiohead track, with the best lyrics and best arrangement. Nick Drake meets Joe Zawinul.

I guess the Creep video aired 57 times in a 24 hour period once (how is this even possible?) but for some reason I dont think I heard it once until I'd already become a massive fan of The Bends

*aired on MTV

Weirdly, "Subterranean" didn't work live at all. Strictly dullsville. It wasn't helped by Radiohead trying to stick as closely as possible to the studio arrangement, but the chorus was awful; Phil Selway hacking away at his hi-hat vainly trying to keep the energy up, guitar arpeggios barely audible, and Thom sounding like a cheerleader in front of a squad of people who don't give a shit.

Love the studio version, though.

Some fantastic songs I didn't vote for. Starting to get an idea of what the top 3 will be. Am I allowed to guess? Am I?

Yeah carry on!

1. Paranoid Android
2. There There
3. Uh... Exit Music for a Film...?

Reckoner, idiotheque

Actually Pyramid Song might be #1

Really regretted not voting for subterranean the moment I pressed send on my ballot.

Where will karma police place?

http://i.imgur.com/GniEs8u.jpg

17. Climbing Up the Walls [20 votes | 2 #1 votes | 494 points]

Worth a nod for the final couple of bars alone. Xpost to self

Never really been a fan of that one, it's the only OK Computer song that I haven't loved at some point.

Climbing Up The Walls, that is.

Climbing up the walls is my favorite ok computer song

loved permanent daylight & the EP was my way in to radiohead & getting hooked on music more generally, tho I don't feel especially sentimental about it. that & talk show host were the only pre OKC things I voted for. live version of permanent daylight is proper sonic youth stuff

Climbing is another one I probably should've voted for. I think I made a subconscious decision to make my ballot as OKC light as possible for some reason.

Actually Pyramid Song might be #1

No doubt this will be considered sacrilege by nearly everyone on here, but for the most part I don't really care if albums work as albums, I just view them as a collection of tracks*. The tracks that I like, I listen to a lot. The tracks I don't like, I just forget about once I've given them a few goes. I vaguely recall there was a poll on here for Amnesiac a while back and I was bewildered when Pyramid Song won because I can't even remember it. It's not just that I don't like it (or presumably didn't like it in 2001), I can't remember anything about it at all.

*the exception being where they're joined together like the second half of Kid A

Never really been a fan of that one, it's the only OK Computer song that I haven't loved at some point.

― nate woolls, Wednesday, September 10, 2014 4:03 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same here. It's by far my least favorite song on the record. It always reminded me of Nine Inch Nails.

(wait, no, I think I dislike "Electioneering" more...or at least as much)

ah dang just realized my favorite httt track won't place

Street Spirit is amazing and deserves to be top 10 ;_;

Don't blame me I voted it #1

It may not even be the best track on The Bends but after knowing this act solely based on "creep" and "high and dry" US airplay and having zero interest in pursuing them further this was the track that made me sit up and take notice.

I did love Electioneering for a few days in the summer of 97.

I have to say, I did too, and I remember being glad they chose to play it on their Tonight Show appearance. But it hasn't aged well for me.

CLIMBING UP THE WALLS IS SO SO SO SO SO SO SO GREAT

I love climbing's lyrics, and the production is quite unique and awesome set in the radiohead catalog imo

depending on the day, it's my fave/2nd fave/3rd fave OK Computer song

I've realized that Hail to the thief is kinda like Climbing Up the Walls: The Album at times

I love how tightly wound and claustrophobic the song is initially, how it winds tighter and tighter, slowly building to that great explosion, and then BUILDS SOME MORE to that amazing final howl

yeah if wolf at the door is my favorite Thom vocal as a whole, that final howl is my favorite Thom vocal moment

http://i.imgur.com/wf218xw.jpg

16. Planet Telex [27 votes | 522 points]

prob nothing from my ballot is going to appear from here on out, but then mine was designed according to "radiohead songs i still have a desire to hear"

I always forget how great "Planet Telex" is

"Planet Telex" blew my mind on first listen; "THIS is what those flash-in-the-pan 'Creep' guys came up with?!"

haha yes, that was basically my reaction when I first played The Bends (although it was muted because I already had OK Computer on endless repeat)

yeah I'm kinda falling in love with The Bends all over again thanks to this roll out. I keep wanting to complain. But I listen to the track first, and then I can't complain really.

I love how Planet Telex prefigures later stuff while still sounding a bit dated in its own right - not in a bad way, just that you wouldn't mistake it for OKC. It occupies its own unique space.

has The Bends ever been remastered? the CD i have is shockingly quiet and muffled.

The Bends sounds brilliant on CD as far as I'm concerned.

Don't think I voted for this but really, really wish I had in hindsight.

http://i.imgur.com/kNtInqb.jpg

15. Morning Bell [23 votes | 525 points]

come now too low

I thought this would be a #1 contender

the Kid A version is obv better but i do have a soft spot for /Amnesiac and my vote was kinda for both

Kid A version >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Amnesiac version

Same here. I think of Amnesiac's as the hungover Sunday morning version.
xpost

OK Computer is really going to run away with this poll in the top 10

Just one #10 vote for Morning Bell/Amnesiac.

I really like Amnesiac for the most part but the amount of ill-will "Morning Bell Amnesiac" generates in me colors my reaction to every song on the album after it with searing, intense dislike, to the point where I had to put the album on shuffle in order to appreciate "Life In A Glass House"

Let Down has surely got to be in the Top 50 Radiohead songs?

let down
exit music
airbag
par and
lucky

these will all place i should imagine. what is left off of bends, fake plastic trees?

yep

"Bones" won't make it :'(

http://i.imgur.com/sOjf2UJ.jpg

14. Exit Music (For a Film) [23 votes | 2 #1 votes | 529 points]

drum fill -> synth = classic, obviously

And I guess Bulletproof won't make it ether?

I like that photo. Thom as Slender Man.

did not make my original 20 but i slipped it on the end in recognition of it being a big deal for me and my favourite radiohead song between the ages of 20 and 23

My favourite section is the 'breathe, keep breathing' part, gorgeous.

such a great way to hear it for the first time; the end credits of Romeo And Juliet. seemed like a long time until OKC came out after.

There was almost a year between R+J and the release of OKC. Ah, the mid-'90s!

http://i.imgur.com/6NIS66I.jpg

13. Fake Plastic Trees [21 votes | 2 #1 votes | 536 points]

How did Radiohead get so attached to that movie as to have two songs connected with it?

I'm reading Wikipedia right now and this is mind-blowing: "In August 1996, Radiohead toured as the opening act for Alanis Morissette"

Not keen on FPT, just sounds boringly straightforward to me. Was unsurprised when David Cameron named it his favourite Radiohead song.

XP ha yeah me too.

re R+J ..
Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann commissioned Radiohead to write a song for his upcoming film Romeo + Juliet. Luhrmann gave the band footage of the final 30 minutes of the film, and Yorke said "When we saw the scene in which Claire Danes holds the Colt 45 against her head, we started working on the song immediately." Soon afterwards, the band wrote and recorded "Exit Music (For a Film)"; the track plays over the film's end credits but was not included on the soundtrack at the band's request.

it was my favorite off The Bends in high school

CLIMBING UP THE WALLS IS SO SO SO SO SO SO SO GREAT

had it #5 but wish I'd placed it higher now

jmm dont forget Clueless!

http://i.imgur.com/QuzoRvZ.jpg

12. How to Disappear Completely [24 votes | 3 #1 votes | 549 points]

My #5!

high five to the fellow number 1 voters! i was convinced it was a top 3 lock.

http://i.imgur.com/AhlLoiX.jpg

11. Karma Police [24 votes | 557 points]

a good spot for it. so no lotus flower, huh?

karma police was my #1 music video

a good spot for it. so no lotus flower, huh?

I don't suppose it's giving too much away at this point to say there's no King of Limbs songs in the top 50.

yeah, I'd guessed by now. it is still surprising, though! I expected lotus flower to be in the back 25 at least.

No. 65, highest placed KoL song.

That's really too bad. All of who don't like the album should try just skipping the songs that pull you of it and focusing on the better ones (like seperator, which is a top 10 radiohead song imo)

My KOL is still in the shrinkwrap.

separator is another good one, yes

Actually, my mistake, Separator was no. 54.

i really did not expect karma police to place, certainly not this high

I thought it would be perfect ilm challops for it not to place

No #1 place votes though. It's the highest placed song without any #1 votes.

I think I know the top 10 tracks at least. But it hinges on worrywort being top 10, which seems like wishful thinking?

"Karma Police" is pretty much the only song besides "Creep" that i still occasionally hear on US rock radio, and has become really tiresome to me (especially since i love most of The Bends singles that used to get airplay).

my top 3 (Just/Morning Bell/Subterranean) have just been dispensed with but i'm happy how high they all got.

I can think of nine tracks that I'd be surprised not to see. The tenth will either be Motion Picture Soundtrack or True Love Waits.

yeah, the tenth is the hard one. I think it's a battle between those two, worrywort, and a non-There,There hail to the thief track.

lurgee

i think i know what the top ten is and that "Motion Picture Soundtrack," "True Love Waits," "Worrywort" and "Electioneering" are all going to be left out.

so it's a surprise Hail to the Thief track?

oh wait, I forgot that people really like Faust Arp. I have no idea anymore.

i dunno what 9 ones you've thought of but i really think you're forgetting a big one

I fully expect "There There" to be top 10

oh, definitely. I'm talking about another sleeper Hail to the Thief track