Radiohead‘s acceptance of their origins has been a slow burn. It’s only recently that they began to play breakthrough classic “Creep” live again, and this year saw the re-release of OK Computer featuring long-buried B-sides that hinted at the direction they could have gone in. Instead of becoming figureheads for “smart” hipsters they could have been palling around with Robbie Williams and Take That.
That 1997 album was a bold move and paid off incredibly, but it was also the gateway to the band’s iffy experimental years. This isn’t to say that the work they’ve done since then hasn’t yielded great tunes, but the output of accessible, concise material has drastically decreased. For every “Optimistic” or “Knives Out” there was a “Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors”, “These Are My Twisted Words”, and “Feral”. It’s become apparent that the band is now actively eschewing standard pop music structure. (Strange then, that they tried to land the opening theme to the last James Bond movie).
All that said, this list stretches across their discography. It’s not one of those heretical countdowns that ignores anything from this millennium. Nor is it sheer adulation for the band’s “brave stand” against the conventions of old. There’s a little bit of everything, including some oft-overlooked songs that merit some recognition. Alright, let us go.
