Jump to content
✨ STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE WORLD TOUR ✨

Radiohead


Recommended Posts

  • 4 weeks later...

So, I just started listening to Radiohead, and OHMYFUCKINGGAWDICANTSTOPTHISISTOOGOOD!!! As in, seriously, OK Computer is the only album I've ever given a solid 5 stars to every single song. It's just THAT GOOD. Not even AROBTTH was that impressive. I've also gotten HTTT and Kid A, but those two albums simply don't compare.

Overall, I r8 8/8 Radiohead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting to see a bit of hate for the Thom Yorke's recent solo album. It's brilliant.

 

I suggest people look at it in the context of all his recent work, if that helps them realise it isn't a decline. You've got the most recent Radiohead album which was beautiful, Atoms For Peace's album which was one of the best I've heard and now this solo one which is subtly fantastic and out of nowhere, all of which have been released in the last five years from a guy who has been bringing out music for over two decades. To be honest, I find it staggering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still haven't listened to Tomorrow's Modern Boxes. Also it seems like Radiohead are/have been recording new stuff recently so that's cool. Not that I don't like Thom's other projects, but I want a new Radiohead album/tour more than anything right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I've just got my first record player so it'd be awesome to celebrate with a new Radiohead album.

 

Debating whether to open my King of Limbs record that I bought a few years back. I got the limited edition Newspaper version and had planned on keeping it sealed so I could sell it on if I ever needed the cash. I could just buy the regular version and listen to that, if I still think I'll do that. They are currently going for about a hundred pounds right now and would likely be going for a lot more in a few decades time, especially if they broke up. Could really do something with that money if that happened.

 

But then I'm gagging to listen to it and can't justify buying another vinyl right now. Instant gratification and not making art into a commodity versus sensible planning. Hmmmm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I've just got my first record player so it'd be awesome to celebrate with a new Radiohead album.

 

Debating whether to open my King of Limbs record that I bought a few years back. I got the limited edition Newspaper version and had planned on keeping it sealed so I could sell it on if I ever needed the cash. I could just buy the regular version and listen to that, if I still think I'll do that. They are currently going for about a hundred pounds right now and would likely be going for a lot more in a few decades time, especially if they broke up. Could really do something with that money if that happened.

 

But then I'm gagging to listen to it and can't justify buying another vinyl right now. Instant gratification and not making art into a commodity versus sensible planning. Hmmmm.

 

SENSIBLE PLANNING. UR GOING TO REGRET IT LATER IF YOU GIVE IN NAUWWW

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am I the only one who absolutely can't stand them? I do not like any of their songs and I hate it when people compare them with Coldplay.

 

I found out Radiohead 3 years ago when I became a Coldplay fan (because of all those comparings). I listened to them and didn't find them interesting. I even kind of hated Thom Yorke. But I recently tried to listen to them again. Everything sounds different at this time. Now I adore their music and I think they will be in my favourite bands list. What I want to say that maybe you just need to give them some time. : )

 

Btw Jonny Greenwood is adonis. His face and hair are unusually beautiful and it inspires me to draw him :wideeyed:

Haha, I have crush on both Jonnys - from Radiohead and from Coldplay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember when I first listened to Radiohead I didn't like them very much. The first album I listened to was The Bends and I just didn't like Thom's voice. Then I tried again about a year later and I guess my tastes had changed or I'd matured a bit or whatever and I tried OK Computer and instantly got hooked. It took me a while to appreciate more of their songs, and there are still a few songs that I just can't get into (Idioteque for example) but I'm glad I persevered. I'm not saying that they're for everyone, but I'm sure that most people can find at least one song that they like, their back catalogue is that diverse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I liked Creep when I was four as my sister would listen to it (she was nine). My sister and Dad both enjoyed The Bends and OK Computer and so did I, though I was still young at the time so I'd have had to really dislike it not to have taken to it with the amount it was played and the amount I respected my families taste in pretty much all things. Anyway, I started getting into the likes of Coldplay and then The Strokes and Kings of Leon (back when all those three were good - soooooo long ago) and hadn't kept up with Radiohead as I hadn't heard them on the radio. Anyway, as soon as I hit college around the time Hail To The Thief came out I made a friend who randomly put on the Kid A album while I was waiting for him to do something downstairs. I hadn't even realised they'd released any music after OK Computer and I didn't even know it was them until the vocals kicked in but I was hooked from the first note and new it was something special. After listening to the first four tracks on my own in a dark room I discovered they'd released three albums since I'd last listened to them (or rather followed them - I still listened to OKC and other tracks from the first two albums) so immediately consumed those and had my new favourite band. Another friend also got me into Bjork at the same time so it really marked a shift in my tastes away from the indie, acoustic and garage rock I'd moved towards when all on my own (my high school friends had awful tastes in music, my sister had moved out and my Dad wasn't listening to that much contemporary music at that point so I was exploring music mainly on my own at that point, unlike when I'd first started out and was heavily influenced by my family).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember first liking Creep from almost out of nowhere, and playing it around friends. Keep in mind, this was like 2011, so most people had already known this song. It was my first semester of college, and despite Mylo Xyloto releasing, I found myself listening to Radiohead more and more. When I discovered the god that is Idioteque, I even told myself, "This is college music." (Whatever the fuck that means.) I ended up buying The Best Of (I know, I know!) and pretty much only listened to that for a few months until I just got too tired of listening to it.

 

So I took a break. Told myself my "Radiohead phase" was over. And it was, until early 2012. I'm not even sure what happened, but I got really interested in them and went full force into their discography. I took it album-by-album and before I knew it, was becoming obsessed with the band. In the period of about three years, I've switched favorite albums multiple times, but I feel incredibly confident that I'll never get over how incredible The Bends' b-sides are.

 

Sort of like how Coldplay shaped my musical taste into alternative-only, Radiohead's shaped my musical taste into the experimental side and I love it. They aren't easy to get into, but when and if you do, it's like a journey that won't ever stop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Guest howyousawtheworld
Am I the only one who absolutely can't stand them? I do not like any of their songs and I hate it when people compare them with Coldplay.

 

I had a reputation on this site years back of being an avid Radiohead hater, embarrassingly so. So bad a troll that it was like 'LOL, Radiohead and their fans are gayyyyyy'. But back then everything was far from mature and musically only chained to vocal melody (!). Regardless, it doesn't matter what stage of development your musical taste buds are at, some are convinced that their taste in music is the best no matter how embarrassing your stance is. I would insist to myself that they were overrated crap and that I could never get myself to "get them". But I got it wrong. Badly wrong. Over time you get exposed to a range of musical theme and a depth of emotions, particularly when you up sticks to university and live independently as what happened to me. It was only through the avenue of getting into other music acts, notably Sigur Ros, Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins and even recognising and respecting the ambition shown in U2s Zooropa and Pop albums (yes even that!) that I started understanding Radiohead and their ambition. I still love a pop melody first and foremost but once you start opening your ears and moving yourself away from certain kinds of melodies into wider soundscapes you really start to appreciate them. When they balance things beautifully on songs like How To Disappear Completely and Codex, it's astonishing.

 

Some of their work away from the Radiohead fold is stunning particularly Johnny Greenwood's composition work (There Will Be Blood especially!) so there's no doubting their wonderful scale of ambition and talent. Radiohead and Thom Yorke aren't immune from criticism. In fact I still haven't cottoned on to Yorke's solo work. In the grander scheme of things I find it bang average but his work and contribution with Radiohead is something else.

 

Some things just take time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting article

 

http://bigthink.com/insights-of-genius/what-radiohead-teaches-us-about-musical-innovation

 

What Radiohead Teaches Us About Musical Innovation

 

The following is a forthcoming article for CreativityPost.com

When Radiohead sat down to record the follow-up to their 1995 album, The Bends, lead singer Thom Yorke said he wanted to create a record with, “an atmosphere that’s perhaps a bit shocking when you first hear it.” So the band traded in the guitar-driven sound of The Bends for more diverse instrumentation, “including electric piano, Mellotron, cello and other string, glockenspiel, and electronic effects and rhythm.” In addition, Yorke replaced the introspective and soul-searching lyrics that defined The Bends with a more positive tone. The result was an unconventional sound that,in the eyes of the record company, was unmarketable. Regardless of these initial concerns, OK Computer was released in June 1997 and went on to sell millions of copies, receiving near universal critical acclaim and launching Radiohead into international fame.

What’s remarkable about OK Computer is how different it is from The Bends. By any account, The Bends was a commercial and artistic success. It reached number four in the UK Album Chart and went triple platinum in the UK and Canada as well as platinum in the US and the EU. It also landed on numerous end-of-year lists and was ranked 111 on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time. Despite its success Radiohead chose to completely change their sound. Why?

Radiohead has never been fully satisfied with their direction. However, this musical malaise drives them to craft novel songs that challenge the listener. Fans of the band know that this is precisely what makes them great. Each album is an innovation, not an imitation. Whereas ten years of Nickelback singles sound identical, the difference between “Fake Plastic Trees” and “Paranoid Android” is far-reaching.

Radiohead, of course, isn’t the only band compelled to constantly reinvent its sound. Nor is Thom Yorke the only musician who despises the musical status quo; IgorStravinsky, BobDylan, and others also come to mind. What unites these creative geniuses is their yearning to replace the expected with the unexpected. As Yorke would say, they want to shock the audience.

When viewed from an evolutionary perspective, musical innovation appears odd. It’s obvious why we are motivated to eat, drink and reproduce; the origins of our desire to push musical boundaries, on the other hand, are less clear, especially considering that spending a lifetime crafting songs doesn’t appear to serve any adaptive advantages whatsoever.

In trying to understand why people like Thom Yorke are intrinsically motivated to innovate their craft, it helps to understand why humans enjoy music in the first place. One line of reasoning, which many cognitive scientists endorse, is that our appreciation for music, as well as our ability to create it, is a byproduct of evolution. That is, music is the product of several cognitive mechanisms that are functional outside of their intended purpose. Steven Pinker, for instance, famously called music ‘auditory cheesecake’ to suggest that music stimulates our auditory system in the same way that delicious food stimulates our taste buds.

If music is about auditory pleasure (as a result of a byproduct or otherwise) then good bands write songs that “[stimulate] our senses in novel ways.” Pop music does this especially well. Regardless of your music preference, the catchiness of the latest Rihanna or Lady Gaga single is undeniable. However, Rihanna and Gaga songs illustrate that the pleasure we receive from pop music is usually fleeting. Although pop songs are initially more pleasurable as a function of exposure, they eventually reach a peak and we enjoy them less and less thereafter. In fact, after enough further exposures they can even be annoying - no one has ever rejoiced in having a song stuck in their head.Anyone who listens to music understands this from experience and knows that this pattern is certainly not limited to western pop music.

Great bands and musicians that have transcended time and sustained interest over long periods of time follow a different trajectory. Classics such as “The Rite of Spring” and “Like a Rolling Stone” were bemoaned at first because they were exceedingly novel and complex. Whereas pop singles share many similar components (i.e., length, bpm, time signature and placement of choruses and verses), the work of Dylan, Stravinsky and other musical geniuses typically goes against musical norms by introducing new and more complex sounds. With enough exposure, though, listeners adjust and eventually appreciate the novelty. This is why classic aren’t fleeting: innovative instrumentation and complex sounds give us something different with each listen. That is, we don’t get sick of “Paranoid Android”because there is something new with every listen; it takes many repeats for overabundance to downgrade its value.

The implication is that great bands and musicians are masters at reverse engineering our cognitive capacities for music in the same way bakers are masters at reverse engineering our taste buds. In both cases, they are taking advantage of what the brain finds pleasurable. Like a good chef, Radiohead’s eminence might be a result of their superior taste. What’s novel to us is stale to them.

The evolutionary mechanics behind Radiohead’s musical aspirations are not completely understood, of course, and we might never fully understand why some musicians and bands spend their entire lives creating music. But it appears that a byproduct of our auditory system (in addition to other distinct cognitive processes) gives us a craving to seek out and create novel sounds. The members of Radiohead likely feed off of this evolutionary quark in a way that motivates them to innovate their music for the better.

• A special thanks to Mark Changizi for helping me out with this post. Check out this paper of his, which informed some of my ideas here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/03/radioheads-ok-computer-to-be-immortalized-in-the-library-of-congress/

 

From COS

[h=1]Radiohead’s OK Computer to be immortalized in the Library of Congress[/h] [h=2]The band's third album archived for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to the musical cannon[/h]screen-shot-2015-03-25-at-8-06-43-am.png?w=807

 

Each year, the Library of Congress archives 25 recordings that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to the musical canon. This year’s entires include Radiohead’s landmark 1997 album, OK Computer.

Library of Congress curator Matt Barton discussed the significance of OK Computer, saying, “I see it as part of a certain ongoing phenomenon in rock music that maybe begins with The Velvet Underground but also The Doors, who are on the registry this year. Pop music is not entirely positive in its outlook, shall we say. I think we can say that OK Computer really sums a lot of that up.”

Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, The Doors’ 1967 self-titled debut, and Joan Baez’s eponymous 1960 debut have also been designated preservation, joining U2’s Joshua Tree, Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah”, the theme song to Shaft, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence, and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On as among the 425 recordings that have been archived since 2002. Click here to see the full list of recordings in the national registry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Cool article

http://mic.com/articles/114190/6-ways-radiohead-foresaw-the-future

 

6 Eerie Ways That Radiohead Predicted the Future

 

 

Radiohead has long served as rock's modern heroes. Arcade Fire thinks so. Coldplay thinks so. Even Kanye has stepped down from his throne and acknowledged the band's influence. But at the core of Radiohead's music, there's always been a larger and more prophetic message than most musicians ever muster. Theirs is socially conscious art that speaks to the ills of society. 1997's OK Computer was about technological alienation; 2003's Hail to the Thief centered on political reform; 2011's The King of Limbs was all about environmental concerns.

They're the seers of the rock world. The response to Kid A, Pitchfork's best record of the 2000s, was especially keen on this point. Released in 2000, the album was later noted by music critic Chuck Klosterman as a bizarrely accurate prediction of the Sept. 11 attacks. Pigeons & Planes wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece about other things Radiohead predicted, but there's actually some legitimacy to Radiohead's visionary status. They may not see the future, but they see more clearly than anyone else how the present is shaping up — which is itself a sort of foretelling.

"People sometimes say we take things too seriously, but it's the only way you'll get anywhere," frontman Thom Yorke said in an early interview, back in 1991. "We're not going to sit around and wait and just be happy if something turns up. We are ambitious. You have to be."

More than two decades later, those ambitions have cemented the band as one of rock's most prescient acts. Here are six songs where Radiohead saw the present and the future more clearly than any of us.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QuCY7ldETM8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

the songs of Radiohead's early days still emphasize an important idea: that pop music will become homogenous and everything sounds exactly the same. "Oh no, pop is dead, long live pop / It died an ugly death by back-catalogue," Yorke sings. It's a line that foreshadows his harsh criticism of the music industry — and especially Spotify, which he called "the last desperate fart of a dying corpse."

 

With the popularity of apps like Shazam leading to the "Shazam Effect," it's clear that mainstream music is increasingly less about good songwriting and more about commercialism. Radiohead prematurely eulogized that decline back in 1995, but they knew it would come soon. "It will only be a matter of time — months rather than years — before the music business completely folds," Yorke once said. "[it will be] no great loss to the world." That mix of apocalypticism and optimism suits a band that pioneered one of the most successful new models for selling music: pay what you want.

 

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u5CVsCnxyXg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

The OK Computer track paints an all-too familiar portrait of a picturesque suburban life that is far from perfect: "I'll take a quiet life / A handshake of carbon monoxide." Yorke saw the environmental implications of suburban living even when global warming wasn't a popular talking point. As of last year, about 50% of all U.S. household emissions came from the suburbs alone, mostly due to the carbon dioxide emissions from commuting between city centers. Understanding the impact of carbon footprints is something Yorke has long struggled with too, especially on tour. When the Guardian asked if he felt hypocritical playing live arena shows, a growing concern for stadium rock concerts, he responded frankly: "Yep. Absolutely."

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JQC1SAC50EM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Much of 1997's OK Computer was about the unemotional and unavoidable integration of technology into our daily lives — the title is enough evidence. But the Stephen Hawking-esque computer voice of "Fitter Happier" is a great snapshot of the album's concept, and it's an oddly good forecast of where technology like the Apple Watch has taken us. "Fitter, happier, more productive / Comfortable / Not drinking too much / Regular exercise at the gym," the voice intones. We can quickly "keep in contact with old friends" (Facebook). We can "eat well" (apps like Nutrino). We can keep "sleeping well" with "no bad dreams" (Sleep Cycle). The end of all these apps and our constant monitoring is, in part, the reduction of every person to a data point, of every life to a set of efficient proceedings.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/21TmsT1qsPo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

An early version of "Palo Alto" was included on the OK Computer collector's edition, but the track originally appeared in the band's 1998 Airbag/How Am I Driving? EP. The song feels like a lost track within their vast catalogue, yet it offers an early, astute observation of the booming California tech scene and where it was headed. After they toured Xerox and several other tech companies in 1996, the city became Radiohead's inspiration for a "happy" but busy place in the future: "In a city of the future / It is difficult to find a space / I'm too busy to see you / You're too busy to wait."

This song precedes Google's first office in Palo Alto by about three years. In the past 10 years, real estate prices have more than doubled; Palo Alto has become a futuristic landscape where life is only getting busier.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X7bIYSVpYSU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

It's hard to ignore the outward calls for awareness in 2000's "Idioteque," especially when the lyrics turn political: "We're not scare-mongering / This is really happening." At times, its electronic spareness feels apocalyptic. The cover of the album is even a picture of ice surrounded by water.

It's a clear foreshadowing of many environmental discussions over the past decade, many of which have dealt with accusations of scare-mongering. But Radiohead has kept an unflinching focus on global warming for a while now. "My son really loves wildlife," Yorke told Friends of the Earth in 2007. "And every time he draws a polar bear, I want to tell him there probably won't be any by the time... he's my age. That's kinda hard to deal with."

Environmental concerns persisted in Radiohead's music for several more years, as evident in 2011's The King of Limbs. The album title was inspired by one of Britain's oldest trees, and its deluxe edition was deemed the world's first "newspaper album." The accompanying materials (featuring two vinyl records, numerous pieces of art and "a piece of oxo-degradable plastic to hold it all together") were offset by the Universal Sigh project, which measured and negated the carbon footprint of the newspaper's release.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s2VzLn6DMCE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

he video for "Pyramid Song" features a city completely underwater. Cars, houses and people now exist at the bottom of some mysterious ocean. Similar to "Idioteque," the video served as a call for change. But 2006, when the video was released, was a benchmark year for global warming. It was the hottest year Britain had seen since 1659, and some legislation in the U.S., like the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, was finally starting to take effect. Radiohead was at the forefront, using their music to advocate for awareness early on. It wasn't until much later that the rest of the world took notice; now, rising sea levels are only getting much, much worse. We could all benefit from a bit of Radiohead's foresight.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Thom Yorke Joins Portishead On Stage at Latitude Festival

This weekend marks the 10th edition of Latitude Festival, taking place in Suffolk, England. Tonight's headliner at the Obelisk stage, Portishead, brought out a surprise guest for their encore: Thom Yorke. The band and Yorke performed "The Rip", off 2008's Third.

 

[video=youtube;drFZypj4Ztw]

 

http://pitchfork.com/news/60435-thom-yorke-joins-portishead-on-stage-at-latitude-festival/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember my first time listening to Radiohead, which was only a few months ago. I heard "Creep" like most people, and the name Radiohead always floated around the Coldplay fandom. I bought individual songs like Reckoner and The National Anthem on iTunes and said, "huh... This is strange... This is unique." I got hooked pretty quickly and pretty much flooded myself with Radiohead ever since then. In my opinion, they are really good, their songs are well crafted and Thom's a babe. In comparison to a lot of other famous people, he seems more "real".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...