[Music] Radiohead’s 40 greatest songs – ranked!

[Mellotron]

How has Burn the Witch made it on the list over pretty much any other song on A Moon Shaped Pool?

Makes it seem like they haven't really listened to the album, given they've just chosen 2 singles (BtW and Daydreaming).

The Numbers and Present Tense are both much stronger. Decks Dark and Ful Stop ain't half bad neither.

 

[PoG]

Makes it seem like they haven't really listened to the album, given they've just chosen 2 singles (BtW and Daydreaming).

The Numbers and Present Tense are both much stronger. Decks Dark and Ful Stop ain't half bad neither.

It does seems that way. The Numbers, Present Tense and Decks Dark are great tracks, top 3 of the album imo.

EDIT missed they actually included True Love Waits. Point still stands.

 

[Hotchilidog]

To be honest I never really took to the Kid A gear shift at all. I really like the first three albums (yes even Pablo Honey!)

That said when they were announced for Glastonbury in 2017 I made a concerted effort to revisit the more challenging albums and did indeed start to get it a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed their Pyramid performance which was a great balance of old school and the more experimental songs. When they played Fake Plastic Trees the goosebumps went up all over my arms (ham-fisted my arse!, It's beautiful).

I am now more open to their newer stuff than I had been in the past. I am however mystified by the lack of credit The Bends gets in some RH lists, the disdain for it on the e-fests Glastonbury forum really annoyed me more than it should have.

 

[Mellotron]

I am however mystified by the lack of credit The Bends gets in some RH lists, the disdain for it on the e-fests Glastonbury forum really annoyed me more than it should have.

I think it's almost a bit of a generational thing. I'm much more fussed about Post-Kid A Radiohead than Pre.

I link The Bends in too much with my older brother's music, with britpop, and for me this may be sacrilege but some of the guitar sounds on it have dated very badly - a good example would be Bones. The guitar sounds very cheesy to me in that.

I'm of a slightly(!) younger generation who were very much into Hail to the Thief era onwards, and I view In Rainbows as their best work. Recently got some mates into Radiohead and they love In Rainbows and - again - think the earlier stuff is a bit naff production wise.

To me, their work up until Kid A set them out as a very good guitar band, but that was it - similar perhaps to a better R.E.M. or a moodier, more interesting U2. Kid A onwards is why they get talked about more akin to Bowie or The Beatles in terms of scale and ambition. Again, only my opinion/viewpoint.

 

[Hotchilidog]

I think it's almost a bit of a generational thing. I'm much more fussed about Post-Kid A Radiohead than Pre.

I link The Bends in too much with my older brother's music, with britpop, and for me this may be sacrilege but some of the guitar sounds on it have dated very badly - a good example would be Bones. The guitar sounds very cheesy to me in that.

I'm of a slightly(!) younger generation who were very much into Hail to the Thief era onwards, and I view In Rainbows as their best work. Recently got some mates into Radiohead and they love In Rainbows and - again - think the earlier stuff is a bit naff production wise.

To me, their work up until Kid A set them out as a very good guitar band, but that was it - similar perhaps to a better R.E.M. or a moodier, more interesting U2. Kid A onwards is why they get talked about more akin to Bowie or The Beatles in terms of scale and ambition. Again, only my opinion/viewpoint.

I think you are right, there is a generational element to it. My entry point with them would have been PH, so I was very much a fan in their guitar phase. I totally get that those who came to the band later would have fallen in love with what would have been a totally different band.

As much as I disliked the new direction at the time, I very much admire their refusal to be limited by nothing other than their own musical convictions. A genuinely refreshing attitude when they could so easily have continued to milk the alt-rock market to their hearts content.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

In their hey day, I took the view that Radiohead were just a a band that music snobs said they liked, just to sound superior. When pressed for why, I rarely got beyond 'I really like 'Creep'. As a result 'Creep' was soon seen as too accessible and commercial. The music snobs moved on. They professed their love of a band whose later music was impenetrable to some. Anyhoo, I don't have a closed mind to music, so perhaps it's time to re-evaluate and see if they were just ahead of their time for some.

This may have been the reason, I never took to them.
More likely it was because i discounted them as just the latest in a long line of the chief miserablists of their generation, as I have with every other pretender to Ian Curtis's crown since 1980.


I too will have to re-evaluate as they do produce some fine music.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Just slapped them on Spotify for the rest of the day to see if I can re-educate myself

 

[Seasider78]

To be honest I never really took to the Kid A gear shift at all. I really like the first three albums (yes even Pablo Honey!)

That said when they were announced for Glastonbury in 2017 I made a concerted effort to revisit the more challenging albums and did indeed start to get it a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed their Pyramid performance which was a great balance of old school and the more experimental songs. When they played Fake Plastic Trees the goosebumps went up all over my arms (ham-fisted my arse!, It's beautiful).

I am now more open to their newer stuff than I had been in the past. I am however mystified by the lack of credit The Bends gets in some RH lists, the disdain for it on the e-fests Glastonbury forum really annoyed me more than it should have.

Agree with this it feels more like a list pushing away the more commercially successful efforts which smacks a bit like music snobbery. The Bends and Ok Computer were huge at the time of release and the absence of some of the big tracks from those albums plus the lowly placing of Creep where it all started makes the list look a bit weighted to their later efforts.

That said these are opinion pieces so everyone would have a different top 40.

 

[Grombleton]

My two favourite songs of theirs don't even make the list.

Let Down
Black Star

Rip the list up and start again.

 

[brakespear]

No 'Fitter Happier' or 'Mxymatosis' My other favourites at 21 ('A Wolf at The Door') and 19 ('Motion Picture Soundtrack'). 'Kid A' and 'Hail to the Thief' definitely my favourite albums of theirs, never really took to much they did after the latter.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My two favourite songs of theirs don't even make the list.

Let Down
Black Star

Rip the list up and start again.

With There There at number 1

 

[Skaville]

12. Street Spirit (Fade Out) (1995)
34. Creep (1993)

Street spirit is my number one

 

[Machiavelli]

I think it's almost a bit of a generational thing. I'm much more fussed about Post-Kid A Radiohead than Pre.

I link The Bends in too much with my older brother's music, with britpop, and for me this may be sacrilege but some of the guitar sounds on it have dated very badly - a good example would be Bones. The guitar sounds very cheesy to me in that.

I'm of a slightly(!) younger generation who were very much into Hail to the Thief era onwards, and I view In Rainbows as their best work. Recently got some mates into Radiohead and they love In Rainbows and - again - think the earlier stuff is a bit naff production wise.

To me, their work up until Kid A set them out as a very good guitar band, but that was it - similar perhaps to a better R.E.M. or a moodier, more interesting U2. Kid A onwards is why they get talked about more akin to Bowie or The Beatles in terms of scale and ambition. Again, only my opinion/viewpoint.

I'd go along with just about every single word of this. I also agree with your earlier post about Darks Dek and Ful Stop, which is all part of my seriously upgrading my view of A Moon Shaped Pool since its release.
It was The Bends (and its singles) that got me into them. My problem with it is its subsequent impact, spawning a whole genre of awful music -- Coldplay most prominently -- which I loathe.
I get @HerrTubthumper's point about them not being as original as The Beatles, but I think you've captured it perfectly in identifying scale and ambition as what puts them into that exalted company.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Great band. I prefer pre kid A to post but they have an undeniably fantastic back catalogue.

In The Bends, O.K computer, Kid A and In Rainbows they have not only four outstanding albums but four outstanding albums that are distinct from each other. And with O.K computer they have possibly the greatest album of al time. Love, love LOVE that album. There is a good case for putting every single song on it in the top 40.

 

[Mellotron]

To provide a bit of balance after some mild Bends-bashing there are some great tracks on there, including one that hasn't even been mentioned in this thread yet..

[yt]KkCgUI_g2oo[/yt]

 

[Mellotron]

I'd go along with just about every single word of this. I also agree with your earlier post about Darks Dek and Ful Stop, which is all part of my seriously upgrading my view of A Moon Shaped Pool since its release.

I get @HerrTubthumper's point about them not being as original as The Beatles, but I think you've captured it perfectly in identifying scale and ambition as what puts them into that exalted company.

Yeah - Moon Shaped Pool I thought was "fine, decent enough" on release but it has really grown on me a lot since.

He's right, they aren't as original, but I think that's also a timing thing. To be consistently innovative and stay "on top" is very, very difficult nowadays. I can barely think of any bands/artists who have done this more effectively than Radiohead in the past 15-20 years.

 

[Badger]

Radiohead are one of those bands that I should like. I was a teenager/early-20s when they were at their biggest. I like listening to melancholy, chilled out music with interesting sounds. I tried listening to them at uni, one of my housemates in my first year was really into them. I just couldn't though. As soon as I hear Thom Yorke's dreary voice I'm reaching for the "skip track" button or changing the radio station.

My friend invited me to see a well respected Radiohead cover band last year. I thought I'd give it a try. Maybe I'd get a new appreciation of their music. Nope. If anything, it made me even less interested in listening to them. They were on for over 2 hours and I just didn't have the willpower to stay until the end.

It's funny how some bands tick so many of your boxes, but you just can't get into them.

 

[Live by the sea]

I couldn’t name any Radiohead song ! They all sound the same to me, dreary, boring & not very good vocals. Now Duran Duran that is a proper band ...

 

[schmunk]

With There There at number 1

Liked 90s Radiohead then and now; Kid A etc. left me cold; haven't really listened to anything newer.

Just listened to There There for (I think) the first time. It's a whole heap of "meh" for me.

 

[BN9 BHA]

I couldn’t name any Radiohead song ! They all sound the same to me, dreary, boring & not very good vocals. Now Duran Duran that is a proper band ...