Radiohead

ALBUM RANK UPDATED: RADIOHEAD

For the past couple of weeks, Radiohead has been back on stage for the first time in years. It’s pretty great to have them back again. As much as I was enjoying Thom and Jonny’s other project, The Smile, I’ve been wanting new Radiohead for a long while. If you’ve seen the set lists they have been playing it’s otherworldly. Pulling out so many choice deep cuts as well as songs not played in years, Radiohead fans like myself are pretty ecstatic about it all. So naturally, I went through all their albums the past few days and have an updated ranking of their albums. Granted this is just my personal ranking, I do think I nailed the top five. What would your order be? What’s your favorite album?

09) Pablo Honey:

08) The King Of Limbs:

07) Hail To The Theif:

06) Amnesiac:

05) A Moon Shaped Pool:

04) OK Computer:

03) The Bends:

02) In Rainbows:

01) Kid A:

TRACK ONE: RADIOHEAD- PLANET TELEX

For a couple weeks now, I’ve been on a huge Radiohead kick. They are seriously one of those bands that every time you go back and listen to, there is something else to fall in love with. The other day, I was sitting around just listening to The Bends and I couldn’t help but restart the first song, “Planet Telex” at least 5 times. There is something really special about this song and how it really starts off the album. The way Radiohead has experimented over the years is astonishing in its own right. When you listen to The Bends, you can start to hear them moving in varying directions and “Planet Telex” is one of those sweet moments. The shoegaze mixed with psychedelia and alternative rock is magical! It’s one of those songs that you don’t want it to end.

Radiohead- Planet Telex:

New Release: The Smile- Wall Of Eyes

What a good way to start the week. Today, The Smile, the band featuring Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, and former Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner) have announced their second album. Wall of Eyes, the follow-up to their superbly eclectic and quite spelendid 2022 debut, A Light for Attracting Attention, is due out January 26 via XL Recordings. This new album sees the band working Sam Petts-Davies instead of longtime producer/collaborator Nigel Godrich. The video for “Wall Of Eyes” was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Inherent Vice, Magnolia, etc). If you haven’t heard The Smile yet, I recommend it. There’s bits of Radiohead in it but, it’s more jazzy, funky, and quite fun. I look forward to their album being one of the first of 2024 that I listen to!

The Smile- Wall Of Eyes:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=IsqqjOxEuAg%3Fsi%3DhQg-U8QNr0V50Llt

Memorable TV Performances: Radiohead on Late Night with Conan O’Brien

The date is September 14, 1993 and it’s the debut show of Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The music guest for the night is Radiohead. What a debut show! Radiohead’s performance of “Creep” is pretty classic. Looking back on it almost 30 years later, and where Radiohead has gone since is pretty astounding. It’s performances like this that you can look back on knowing that they were memorable for more than just the usual reasons. This one stands out as a definite highlight for Late Night performances.

Radiohead- Creep (Live on Late Night with Conan O’Brien- 09/14/93):

End Of Album Songs: Radiohead- The Tourist

Radiohead’s OK Computer is an absolute masterpiece! We already know that. If you’ve never heard the album, you must be living under a rock or in a deep hole. It’s truly one of those albums that will be talked about for centuries. I’m sure you’ve all heard “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police” as those two have been radio staples for years. There is a specific track on the album that I’d like to highlight and that is the final song on the album, “The Tourist.” This song, every single time I hear it, puts me in this fun trance that takes me away from where I am for a few minutes and I get so immersed in this song. The way it’s written has this “space” to it where the notes, chords, drums, synths, vocals, all hit you in these really interesting moments. There’s something else about “The Tourist” that I have always loved and that while the song has a delicate feel to it, there is a heaviness to the emotional pull that grabs you. Thom Yorke has even said about “The Tourist” “That song was written to me from me, saying, ‘Idiot, slow down.’ Because at that point, I needed to. So that was the only resolution there could be: to slow down.” Which when you think about where Radiohead was at in their career at this point makes a lot of sense. Also, one more thing that I love to do with this song is as it ends, is have Kid A cued up and that little dig at the end of “The Tourist” flows ever so perfectly into “Everything In Its Right Place. Give that a fun try when you get the chance, it’s quite the trippy little nuance!

Radiohead- The Tourist:

Radiohead- Everything In Its Right Place:

Alternate Versions: Radiohead- How To Disappear Completely (Live 2001)
Radiohead: How to Disappear Completely, Live Version (Music Video 2001) - IMDb

Radiohead is one of those bands that are truly awesome. Their evolution as a band has been one of the most interesting to listen to and watch happen. The Bends will always be my favorite album of theirs but, 2000’s Kid A is a very close second. That album is one of the best since the change of the century and ever! Not only is it a fantastic album it also has my all time favorite Radiohead song on it, “How To Disappear Completely.” This song is so beautiful and haunting. I still remember the first time I heard Kid A and when it got to this song, I immediately had to put it on again. It’s one of those songs that just has all the right elements and arrangements, plus where it was placed in the sequence of the album is something else too. “How To Disappear Completely” is one of those songs too that isn’t played live too often (only 188 times since Kid A was released according to Setlist.fm) but, when it is, the crowd truly listens and lets the song take over. Singer Thom Yorke has said that this song is “the most beautiful thing we’ve done.” An interesting tidbit about this song, guitarist Jonny Greenwood is the only one in the band with music theory training and According to longtime producer/collaborator Nigel Godrich, when the band heard Greenwood’s score “they all just sort of burst into giggles, because they couldn’t do what he’d written, because it was impossible – or impossible for them, anyway.” Needless to say they figured it out and it became one of the most epic songs they would play live.

Radiohead- How To Disappear Completely (Live 2001):

Classic Soundtrack: Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Image result for romeo and juliet soundtrack

The 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet, you know the one with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, has one hell of a great soundtrack. It features a bunch of great bands like Radiohead, Garbage, The Cardigans, and Butthole Surfers. The Radiohead song “Exit Music (For A Film)” is featured in the film as the credits play but, was not included on the soundtrack. Instead “Talk Show Host” is. This soundtrack was a huge success and a few of the songs like “Lovefool” by The Cardigans, helped to propel the sales. The soundtrack reached number 2 on the Billboard charts and would go on to sell over 3 million copies in the US alone.


The Soundtrack:

Cover Song: Anthrax (Radiohead)- The Bends
Anthrax - Volume 8 - The Threat Is Real (1998, CD) | Discogs

Yesterday I posted a live Radiohead video and it set me on a Radiohead trip of my own. I found myself delving deeper into the albums that I haven’t listened to in a long time as well as reading about certain new things about the albums I already love. While doing that, I came across this cover of “The Bends” that Anthrax did on their album Volume 8: The Threat Is Real. This is a pretty good cover and a different approach to an already great song.

Anthrax- The Bends:



Memorable Live Performances: Radiohead- From The Basement 2008

Radiohead - In Rainbows From the Basement (April 2008) At Home #WithMe - YouTube

Way back in 2008, Radiohead was doing a lot of fun things to promote their album In Rainbows. One of the coolest things they did was this live performance of pretty much all of In Rainbows along with a scattering of other songs from their catalog. During this era, I was very fortunate to go see Radiohead live and that show is one that I still conjure up in my mind from time to time and relive. I have a live bootleg of the show I was at as well, and find myself listening to that a lot. Radiohead live is an experience that everyone should have at least once in their life. They are truly one of the best bands I’ve ever seen live. Actually, the more I think about it, I’d probably put that one show I was at in my top 10 all time. Anyways, here’s a really awesome live performance they did that you will enjoy!

Radiohead- From The Basement (2008):

 

The Score: Fight Club by The Dust Brothers

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It’s been over 20 years now since the release of Fight Club. Interestingly enough, that film and the book, are even more relevant now that ever. If you really examine the themes of it, you’d be pretty astonished by what the overall message is. Granted that’s if you’ve never really delved into both of them. One of my favorite things about the film has always been the music though. What The Dust Brothers created not only was perfect for it but, it also set a tone for a lot of other composers to follow as a template. Throughout the film, The Dust Brothers were able to tap into many different sounds to really encapsulate the vibe of the scene. The intensity of the performances mixed with the music created a very amazing tension that played off each other so well that, when you listen to the score on its own, you start to feel like you might have tapped into Jack’s inner dialogue. Interestingly, director David Fincher originally wanted Radiohead to create the music for the film but, Thom Yorke declined, as he was worn out from all the promotion of OK Computer.

 
The Dust Brothers Fight Club Score: