Perhaps I was born in the wrong decade or do not hang out with the right people, but for whatever reason I do not feel like Radiohead ever get their due for being the greatest band of the past twenty years, and quite possibly being the best band of all-time.
Having been locked in conversation with one of my followers about this subject, I got the urge to write about their albums. He told me that both of Oasis’ first albums were better than OK Computer – this is about the time I stopped paying much attention to the tweet-versation.
Over the next few days, I will be reviewing every Radiohead album. Considering how prolific they have been, this is quite an undertaking. But I have nothing but time. But before I got into the individual albums, I thought it would be advisable to explain why it is that I love Radiohead, and why they are my favourite band of all-time.
No one makes music like Radiohead. And even if they did, it does not even compare. The quality of The Bends tore to shreds the best works of some pretty talented bands, Oasis and Blur, to name a few. It was the pinnacle of brit pop, and will have to go down as the best album of that genre. That’s right, better than Oasis’ What’s The Story Morning Glory or The Stone Roses self-titled.
It’s the notes that Thom Yorke can hit, like no other human being hits them. It’s the juxtaposition of happy sounding songs with macabre lyrics. It’s the quality of instrumentation. The riffs from Jonny Greenwood. The pulsating pacing courtesy of Phil Selway and Colin Greenwood. No bands made music like they did, and few make music like they do. Whether it is the simplicity of “Fake Plastic Trees” or the nearly overwrought “Idioteque” Radiohead has created their own distinct sound that no other band is capable of duplicating.
They allowed their fans to decide how much they wanted to pay for an album. During a time in which a 16 year-old nose picking nerd can legitimately claim to be a pirate via all of the music he’s downloaded at no cost to him, creating an album and then telling fans that they could pay a pence for it was nearly unprecedented. The release of In Rainbows was certainly unlike any for any album I had ever purchased. Fans were notified via the band’s website just ten days before the album’s release. I paid a pence for it, and it was the best pence I ever spent.
So that was part one. I will review Radiohead’s albums in chronological order, so be on the lookout for a review of Pablo Honey here.
