The members of Radiohead formed the band at high school – they were originally named On A Friday, reflecting their practice regime at Abingdon School in Oxfordshire. It took them an album to find their feet – debut Pablo Honey contained the hit ‘Creep’, but was lacking in personality compared to their later work. But they launched themselves into the big leagues with 1995’s The Bends, and have never looked back, and are clearly the most significant and acclaimed rock band to emerge in the 1990s.
Like The Beatles and David Bowie, the group’s triumph isn’t being the most experimental group out there, but that they were able to bring adventurous sounds to the mainstream; far more listeners have heard Kid A than have heard the Can, Autechre, and Oliver Messaien recordings that inspired it.
Here’s my take on Radiohead’s nine studio albums, from worst to best. It’s also worth remembering that, in the best British tradition, the band have placed a lot of good material on b-sides, and it’s worth hearing non album material like My Iron Lung and the OK Computer extended edition.
#9 – Pablo Honey
1993 Radiohead’s debut album launched the hit ‘Creep’, but it has less personality than the group’s other work – the only album where they’re trend following and unsure of themselves. Despite some good tunes, it often sounds like the work of a now-forgotten 1990s alt-rock band.
#8 – The King of Limbs
2011 The King of Limbs is a brief collection of songs that sound like b-sides compared to Radiohead’s usual high standards. Even a weak Radiohead album has its moments, however, like the beautiful ‘Codex’ and the brooding ‘Little By Little’.
#7 – Amnesiac
2001 An album of songs drawn from the same recording sessions as Kid A, Amnesiac is a more difficult listen, with some of Radiohead’s most abstract work. But stand out tracks like ‘You And Whose Army’ and ‘I Might Be Wrong’ that mean that Amnesiac deserves official studio album status, rather than relegating these excellent tunes to b-sides.
#6 – A Moon Shaped Pool
2016 Radiohead returned from a five year hiatus album with A Moon Shaped Pool, an album that doesn’t break any new ground, but which is often beautiful and heartfelt. Songs like ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief’ and ‘Ful Stop’ are strong.
#5 – Hail To The Thief
2003 It’s a little overlong, but there’s a lot of great material on 2003’s Hail To The Thief – ‘There There’ is my favourite Radiohead song, combining the group’s rhythmic exploration and beautiful melodies, while ‘Sail To The Moon’ is another gorgeous piece.
#4 – OK Computer
1997 It’s provocative to place the acclaimed OK Computer at #4, but Radiohead have a lot of great albums. Radiohead’s last rock album has great songs like ‘Airbag’ and ‘Paranoid Android’, which overshadow the lesser numbers like ‘Electioneering’ and ‘Fitter Happier’.
#3 – In Rainbows
2007 In Rainbows was famous for its sale technique, where fans could nominate their price for the album, but it’s also one of their strongest records, with the gentle electronics giving the album a dreamy, consistent sound. ‘All I Need’ is especially beautiful.
#2 – The Bends
1995 The Bends was Radiohead’s great leap forward – if they were perceived as one hit wonders after Pablo Honey, The Bends cemented their place as one of the most significant bands of their generation. ‘Street Spirit’ and ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ are among the best known songs, but it’s full of strong pieces – opener ‘Planet Telex’ shimmers, ‘Bones’ seethes, and ‘Black Star’ jangles.
#1 – Kid A
2000 Kid A was a daring move from Radiohead – challenging their listeners with more esoteric material after establishing their career as a rock band. The sonic territory staked out on Kid A has effectively fuelled all of the band’s subsequent studio albums. Despite the adventurous eclecticism of the album, ranging from the ambience of ‘Tree Fingers’ to the demented marching band of ‘The National Anthem’, Kid A is full of memorable ideas, and holds up as the band’s finest.
Agree? Disagree? Do you have a favourite Radiohead album?
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
31 Comments
Good write-up, I would just shuffle the top four to put “OK Computer” at #1, then the Bends, In Rainbows and Kid A. “OK Computer” still feels like an organically-conceived masterstroke. I know they are not a group to spin their wheels but after that they were a little too self-conscious about not being a straight-ahead rock band. Or maybe I’m too conventional. Anyway, a top-ranking band no matter how you slice it.
I’ve always struggled with OK Computer a little – feels like half of the tracks are amazing good, and the other half are just OK. I get the too self-conscious about being a rock band thing – U2 went through a similar stage in the 1990s.
“Electioneering” is actually one of my favourites off OK Computer, but I agree with your statement about too many throwaway tracks. While it’s a fantastic album, I feel like the flow of it is disjointed (I don’t like to listen to the songs in tracklist order) and it switches kind of erratically from mood to mood with each track.
I feel like “The Bends” will always hold a special place for me because the first Radiohead song I ever really listened to as a kid was “High and Dry.” What a track.
The Bends and Kid A were the two Radiohead albums I connected to when I started liking them – I was pretty resistant to OK Computer for a while.
Obviously any list drives us all crazy. But I can’t comprehend a world where OK Computer isn’t #1 or 2 – it’s an either/or with Kid A by any calculation of their catalog every time IMO. I would also posit that In Rainbows never fall below #3. The Bends is a dynamic leap forward from Pablo but still lacks the master strokes of to their more fully realized classics.
I do think if I swapped OK Computer and The Bends on my list, it would be reasonably close to consensus picks – as much as anything can be when a band’s released a lot of great records.
Not knowing the catalogue especially well, I cannot comment on the whole list. But I did listen to OK quite a lot at the time, and later when the excellent 3LP set came out. To be honest, despite whether one likes individual songs a lot or a little, I’m a bit non-plussed by the word ‘throwaway’. It means disposable or tossed-off, doesn’t it? I must be hearing something differently, I guess. It sounds extraordinarily thoughtful to me; in fact that was a barrier when I first heard it: too self-aware and ‘prepared’. But disposable? Half-hearted? (Shakes head puzzledly)
Kid A is a brilliant re-imagining of music I love, and I love it to bits.
As a result of this interesting list, I’m now on the look-out for In Rainbows.
Cheers, Bruce.
Sorry – it probably wasn’t a great choice of words. I do feel like it’s too much of a two paced album for my liking though – there are about 6 amazing tracks that tower over the other 6 for me, and make it feel inconsistent.
Lots of people have mentioned In Rainbows in the comments so it’s not just me – I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it.
So today, in a local Op Shop, I picked up a CD copy (in great condition) of ‘In Rainbows’ for a dollar.
Looking forward to giving it a spin.
Be interested to hear what you think. I feel like they staked out new sonic territory with Kid A, and all their subsequent albums have more or less inhabited that space. In Rainbows isn’t very ground-breaking for the group, but it’s a very tight, accomplished record.
An interesting list… and while OK Computer has fell off the top spot for me in recent years, it’s only a few wood shavings below In Rainbows. It may well occupy top spot again, as is the transient nature of such lists.
Anyway, aside from In Rainbows and OK Computer, the remaining spots in my top 5 are currently occupied by Kid A, A Moon Shaped Pool, and The Bends.
Looks like there’s a consensus about Radiohead’s stronger albums. I probably need to give A Moon Shaped Pool more time – it’s pretty.
Definitely worth spending time with. I found it underwhelming at first, but after putting it down for a few months, I found myself immersed in it when I returned. Really magnificent stuff.
Kid A is the classic universally beloved album I will never get. God knows I have tried! Give me OK Computer, The Bends, In Rainbows, and even Hail To The Thief over it any day. Maybe it is just that I dislike electronic music?
Anyway, great write-up.
I struggle with electronic music sometimes too, but Yorke’s voice gives it enough of a human touch for me to be able to access it. I like your new music site!
It’s a fair point indeed.
Thanks a lot! I am glad you enjoy it! =D
An important band but maybe a bit overrated. Nowadays I tend to find their music too miserable so I don’t go back often. Agree Pablo Honey is the band’s weakest LP yet I still love the hit Creep.
I find them easier to admire than love, but my favourite Radiohead albums are pretty ingrained in me now.
Electioneering is my all time fave ‘Head Jam. So I’m clearly in the OK Computer/ Bends camp. Strangely my third fave album by them is The King Of Limbs
A fine post, LOVE Radiohead!
Nice call on All I Need, what a bassline – and the jangling guitar on Black star is right up there for me too.
I’d likely go:
9 King
8 Amnesiac
7 Moon
6 Rainbows
5 Pablo
4 Kid A
3 Hail
2 Bends
1 OK
But I don’t disagree with your order either!
Thank you! You’re keener on Pablo Honey than the average punter.
I have a weakness for mid-90s guitar bands!
The only albums of theirs I know and own are your top 4, all of which I like. I go back and forth between the Bends and OK computer as my favorites.
I really liked your Harrison ranking btw – didn’t really feel qualified to comment as I only know All Things Must Pass.
Thanks for doing this. I like Radiohead a lot but don’t know enough of their albums well enough. I own ‘OK Computer’ and ‘Hail to the Thief.’ I won’t try to rank them as I don’t have time. I’ll just enjoy some of these and maybe report back.
O.K. Computer, then Kid A, followed by Amnesiac. Afterwards they slid into pretentiousness, if they weren’t already. Very similar to U2, as someone else already mentioned. Still a good band though.
The Bends has always been my favorite. Its just a perfect album for me. It was released at an unusual time in my life and resonated with me more than anything I’d heard since the 1st time I heard London Calling in 1980. I’d have ok computer 2nd, but I do agree with you about the split among the great songs and the tunes I sort of resist. “Airbag”, “paranoid android”, ” subterranean…..”, “let down”, “no surprises” are all brilliant the rest i just kinda wade thru. I’d have In Rainbows next, its just a gorgeous album. I suppose I’d probably have rainbows 3a and kidA 3b. The rest of your order is spot on for me….though I might list Pablo over king of limbs which I find almost unlistenable. Pablo has “anyone can play guitar”, “ripcord”, “you”, “stop whispering” all songs i kinda dig.
The Bends and Kid A were the albums that sold Radiohead to me – I took a long time to warm to OK Computer. Pablo Honey and King of Limbs are miles behind the rest for me – King of Limbs feels slight while Pablo Honey sounds like a completely different band.
Very very very ineresting blog. As usual lists are (and must be) very personal and they cannot help but prompting debates. As far as radiohead is concerned I would have swapped “OK computer” with “In rainbows”.
Thanks for writing in! I know my Radiohead views are a little unorthodox, although they do just have a bunch of really good albums anyway.
OK Computer is a masterstroke of a concept album. Even “fittier, happier” makes sense in the context of the album. Sadly, the band seems to have veered towards being self-consciously weird than making roudn-breaking music in recent years. I fear they will fall into the Mark Hollis trapo and never fully realize their potential.
Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
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Good write-up, I would just shuffle the top four to put “OK Computer” at #1, then the Bends, In Rainbows and Kid A. “OK Computer” still feels like an organically-conceived masterstroke. I know they are not a group to spin their wheels but after that they were a little too self-conscious about not being a straight-ahead rock band. Or maybe I’m too conventional. Anyway, a top-ranking band no matter how you slice it.
I’ve always struggled with OK Computer a little – feels like half of the tracks are amazing good, and the other half are just OK. I get the too self-conscious about being a rock band thing – U2 went through a similar stage in the 1990s.
“Electioneering” is actually one of my favourites off OK Computer, but I agree with your statement about too many throwaway tracks. While it’s a fantastic album, I feel like the flow of it is disjointed (I don’t like to listen to the songs in tracklist order) and it switches kind of erratically from mood to mood with each track.
I feel like “The Bends” will always hold a special place for me because the first Radiohead song I ever really listened to as a kid was “High and Dry.” What a track.
The Bends and Kid A were the two Radiohead albums I connected to when I started liking them – I was pretty resistant to OK Computer for a while.
Obviously any list drives us all crazy. But I can’t comprehend a world where OK Computer isn’t #1 or 2 – it’s an either/or with Kid A by any calculation of their catalog every time IMO. I would also posit that In Rainbows never fall below #3. The Bends is a dynamic leap forward from Pablo but still lacks the master strokes of to their more fully realized classics.
I do think if I swapped OK Computer and The Bends on my list, it would be reasonably close to consensus picks – as much as anything can be when a band’s released a lot of great records.
Not knowing the catalogue especially well, I cannot comment on the whole list. But I did listen to OK quite a lot at the time, and later when the excellent 3LP set came out. To be honest, despite whether one likes individual songs a lot or a little, I’m a bit non-plussed by the word ‘throwaway’. It means disposable or tossed-off, doesn’t it? I must be hearing something differently, I guess. It sounds extraordinarily thoughtful to me; in fact that was a barrier when I first heard it: too self-aware and ‘prepared’. But disposable? Half-hearted? (Shakes head puzzledly)
Kid A is a brilliant re-imagining of music I love, and I love it to bits.
As a result of this interesting list, I’m now on the look-out for In Rainbows.
Cheers, Bruce.
Sorry – it probably wasn’t a great choice of words. I do feel like it’s too much of a two paced album for my liking though – there are about 6 amazing tracks that tower over the other 6 for me, and make it feel inconsistent.
Lots of people have mentioned In Rainbows in the comments so it’s not just me – I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it.
So today, in a local Op Shop, I picked up a CD copy (in great condition) of ‘In Rainbows’ for a dollar.
Looking forward to giving it a spin.
Be interested to hear what you think. I feel like they staked out new sonic territory with Kid A, and all their subsequent albums have more or less inhabited that space. In Rainbows isn’t very ground-breaking for the group, but it’s a very tight, accomplished record.
An interesting list… and while OK Computer has fell off the top spot for me in recent years, it’s only a few wood shavings below In Rainbows. It may well occupy top spot again, as is the transient nature of such lists.
Anyway, aside from In Rainbows and OK Computer, the remaining spots in my top 5 are currently occupied by Kid A, A Moon Shaped Pool, and The Bends.
Looks like there’s a consensus about Radiohead’s stronger albums. I probably need to give A Moon Shaped Pool more time – it’s pretty.
Definitely worth spending time with. I found it underwhelming at first, but after putting it down for a few months, I found myself immersed in it when I returned. Really magnificent stuff.
Kid A is the classic universally beloved album I will never get. God knows I have tried! Give me OK Computer, The Bends, In Rainbows, and even Hail To The Thief over it any day. Maybe it is just that I dislike electronic music?
Anyway, great write-up.
I struggle with electronic music sometimes too, but Yorke’s voice gives it enough of a human touch for me to be able to access it. I like your new music site!
It’s a fair point indeed.
Thanks a lot! I am glad you enjoy it! =D
An important band but maybe a bit overrated. Nowadays I tend to find their music too miserable so I don’t go back often. Agree Pablo Honey is the band’s weakest LP yet I still love the hit Creep.
I find them easier to admire than love, but my favourite Radiohead albums are pretty ingrained in me now.
Electioneering is my all time fave ‘Head Jam. So I’m clearly in the OK Computer/ Bends camp. Strangely my third fave album by them is The King Of Limbs
https://steveforthedeaf.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/electioneering-radiohead/
A fine post, LOVE Radiohead!
Nice call on All I Need, what a bassline – and the jangling guitar on Black star is right up there for me too.
I’d likely go:
9 King
8 Amnesiac
7 Moon
6 Rainbows
5 Pablo
4 Kid A
3 Hail
2 Bends
1 OK
But I don’t disagree with your order either!
Thank you! You’re keener on Pablo Honey than the average punter.
I have a weakness for mid-90s guitar bands!
The only albums of theirs I know and own are your top 4, all of which I like. I go back and forth between the Bends and OK computer as my favorites.
I really liked your Harrison ranking btw – didn’t really feel qualified to comment as I only know All Things Must Pass.
Thanks for doing this. I like Radiohead a lot but don’t know enough of their albums well enough. I own ‘OK Computer’ and ‘Hail to the Thief.’ I won’t try to rank them as I don’t have time. I’ll just enjoy some of these and maybe report back.
O.K. Computer, then Kid A, followed by Amnesiac. Afterwards they slid into pretentiousness, if they weren’t already. Very similar to U2, as someone else already mentioned. Still a good band though.
The Bends has always been my favorite. Its just a perfect album for me. It was released at an unusual time in my life and resonated with me more than anything I’d heard since the 1st time I heard London Calling in 1980. I’d have ok computer 2nd, but I do agree with you about the split among the great songs and the tunes I sort of resist. “Airbag”, “paranoid android”, ” subterranean…..”, “let down”, “no surprises” are all brilliant the rest i just kinda wade thru. I’d have In Rainbows next, its just a gorgeous album. I suppose I’d probably have rainbows 3a and kidA 3b. The rest of your order is spot on for me….though I might list Pablo over king of limbs which I find almost unlistenable. Pablo has “anyone can play guitar”, “ripcord”, “you”, “stop whispering” all songs i kinda dig.
The Bends and Kid A were the albums that sold Radiohead to me – I took a long time to warm to OK Computer. Pablo Honey and King of Limbs are miles behind the rest for me – King of Limbs feels slight while Pablo Honey sounds like a completely different band.
Very very very ineresting blog. As usual lists are (and must be) very personal and they cannot help but prompting debates. As far as radiohead is concerned I would have swapped “OK computer” with “In rainbows”.
Thanks for writing in! I know my Radiohead views are a little unorthodox, although they do just have a bunch of really good albums anyway.
OK Computer is a masterstroke of a concept album. Even “fittier, happier” makes sense in the context of the album. Sadly, the band seems to have veered towards being self-consciously weird than making roudn-breaking music in recent years. I fear they will fall into the Mark Hollis trapo and never fully realize their potential.