Hi friends!! Welcome back to the space where I share my opinions that nobody asked for!! No but seriously thanks for checking the blog. Anyway, today I wanted to make a post about the best Radiohead album. When I make these "favorite albums" posts, I try to only pick one album from a bands discography that really resonates with me. It is a known meme among Radiohead fans that trying to "rank" or "pick a favorite Radiohead album" is too hard and you will get a lot of flack even if you put all the albums in S tier (the exception here is "Pablo Honey"). This is because these albums mean different things to some people and most grew up with different albums. Of course I never grew up with a recently released album, I've been looking back at albums released 30 or so years ago to grow up with. (Although I will say I did grow up with "Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino" and now "The New Abnormal") with how massive Radiohead is in the industry, of course I have to listen to at least a couple of their albums. And now here I am, writing a blog post about two Radiohead albums because I can't pick just one.
So I'm gonna admit here and now that I am a FAKE Radiohead fan. Yes, you read that right, FAKE. Because I don't know about the production of the albums and the headspace of the members doing the albums!! But I'll give you what you need to know. Like always, you can just skip ahead to my track-by track review of BOTH albums; I really don't mind.
First I want to start off by saying that "The Bends" was released in 1995, 2 years after "Pablo Honey", and "In Rainbows" was released in 2007, 4 years after "Hail To The Thief". I'll start with "The Bends". "Pablo Honey" was the first Radiohead album, with "Creep" being their one way ticket to fame. Not gonna get too into detail here, but "Pablo Honey" is an okay first album, it's not bad and it really isn't good. Radiohead is known for evolving and changing with every album they make. This trend started with "The Bends". It was a major leap forward for the band, both lyrically and physically. Again, I don't know much about Radiohead since I'm a FAKE fan, but when you have a smash hit like "Creep", the only way to go is up. So their production sounds noticeably better; I'm guessing with the fusion of different rock genres Ed and Jonny probably got some expensive guitar pedals and were like "bro we can do anything!!!" Apple Music calls this album "art-rock adventure fused with arena grandeur" and while that is a nice sounding compliment, this really isn't art rock. Most songs have your basic 4 chord melody and some of them just go for weird but cool sounds. (Apple Music also has this album labeled as "Alternative" so like ?????? Where's the art rock Apple????) I would also like to point out that Apple Music says this album was "plagued by writer's block and creative dead ends", in which case: wow. Even for writer's block the lyrics still meaningful and same with the creative dead ends. This album has riffs, melodies, and refrains for days. You hear this angst on the title track and then the album goes "boom: "Fake Plastic Trees".
Although "The Bends" is a great sophmore album, I would recommend "In Rainbows" as anybody's first Radiohead album. The guitars are more easy to swallow for new rock fans and Thom isn't really yelling at any point in the album. I wanna point out another stupid claim Apple Music puts on the description for this album. They say "Love and melody return as Radiohead hit a fine balance between adventure and warmth." I completely agree with the second part but love and melody has always been a part of their albums???? Even on "Hail To The Thief", "Sail to the Moon" has some lyrics that clearly express love. I bet Apple just has a guideline on how to write descriptions for Radiohead albums, or they took it from some pretentious intern who really loves Radiohead. Its funny to think about. Anyway, "In Rainbows" is a good example of a Danish word that doesn't have an exact English translation: hygge. (Its pronounced "hyoo-geh" but nobody really cares) The closest definition I've found is this: "a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture) So basically: warm. It's a warm album. Instead of jamming riffs, Ed and Jonny go for a more "layered" structure with the guitars. They string along simple melodies like it's nothing and then layer them to create this buildup that pays off on every song. So good. The drums are a little more muted and the bass is more prominent than "The Bends" and a multitude of different instruments are used here, like there's some harp, synth, and Thom stacks his voice on some tracks to make it seem more acapella-ish. There's also a sample of kids laughing that I thought was inadvertently funny. I like to say that "In Rainbows" is emotionally raw while "The Bends" is just physically raw. You can see the improvement in Thom's voice between the two albums. Another cool behind-the-album thing I'd like to point out is that Radiohead released this album when they weren't on a record label AND they were one of the first bands to post a new album online with a "pay-what-you-want" model. Here's a good video I highly recommend if you're interested in how the album did or how they pulled it off:
If we're talking about hard-hitting emotional Radiohead, you go to "In Rainbows" (or "Moon-Shaped Pool" if you really wanna cry) If we're talking about the pure "rock" part of Radiohead, we go to "The Bends". This is part of the reason I can't choose between the two. "In Rainbows" is slightly better lyrically and they play around with the time signature and chords, but "The Bends" has this nostalgic naivete and good old-fashioned crunchy sound that I just can't ignore.
Alright guys its the track-by-track review hour!! I'll be going through "The Bends" first and then "In Rainbows" but if you're looking for a specific song you can just scroll to it. Again, my final thoughts on each album will be in the section after this so if you're looking for a TLDR then just skip this section.
"The Bends"
1. "Planet Telex"
Solid opener. I wouldn't say it's their best opener, but it's definitely up there. Such a basic riff but the delay and fuzz pedals they use make it so much more than that. You hear this abrasive riff and think "oh man he's probably venting", but he isn't. I love this album for this exact reason. Sure there are these menacing riffs, but Thom is really just a sad boy singing sad songs under the guise of a "rock" band.
2. "The Bends"
I want to comment on the 10 seconds or so of seemingly random sounds at the beginning f each song. They sounds useless, but they set up the song more than you would think. THis song is a good example, the sounds at the beginning sound like windchimes and a TV playing in the background so you imagine this nice mellow scene with a house with windchimes and some old couple watching TV but NO, the riff just pops in and is like "YOU THOUGHT". This is just another thinly veiled love song but it's more of a "man I'm stuck in this relationship where do I go from here?" than the angry guitars would suggest. It's also really headbang-worthy.
3. "High and Dry"
Chances are this song and "Fake Plastic Trees" have popped up in your "For You" playlists at some point if you've been listening to some sad acoustic guitar songs. Personally this song is more melancholy and hopeful than just straight up sad. (saving that "straight up sad" for "Fake Plastic Trees" don't worry) The chorus ends on a high note, indicating there's this hope that's still there muddled under the sad acoustic guitar. One of the best songs on the album that has been a staple on most of my playlists.
4. "Fake Plastic Trees"
So here we are. "Planet Telex" - energetic, "The Bends" - abrasive, "High and Dry" - hopeful, and now you're thinking "oh man can I get another guitar riff please?" No. The answer is no. You get an actual depressive song with deep meaning and one of the saddest climaxes I've ever heard. Yes, this is the "cry yourself to sleep" song. As soon as your hear Thom's "not-quite-whiny-but-still-complaining-about-something" voice singing "A green plastic watering can", you know you're sitting through this song and you know it will be hard. I envy anybody who hasn't heard this for the first time. This is one of those songs that gives you chills. And Radiohead has the gall to put this RIGHT in the MIDDLE of the album. I don'y wanna get into it to much, just know you should listen to this song at some point. Highly recommend adding this to your obligatory sad playlist.
5. "Bones"
The song's intro is just some panning guitar around your ears, so you think "oh man oh man when is it gonna start c'mon just give me something to get over fake plastic trees" (this is probably just me) The riff starts pretty mellow, but then you hear Thom's falsetto in stark contrast to the mellow and it's like "oh thank god I can jam out again". A short song, but a pretty good one.
6. "(Nice Dream)"
Such a happy track for a seemingly misleading album. But again, while the melody sounds like it's the happiest day of your life, the lyrics tell a different story. This is a song that I think is a precursor to "In Rainbows". There's the warmth, slightly muted electric guitar, and even some violin if you listen hard enough. It's the halfway point through one hell of an album that's for sure. The electric guitars come back in to lead up to the climax but then after, it's just the acoustic guitar and Thom. The outro sounds like wind, and I never thought wind sounds would be such a good way to end a song.
7. "Just"
Best riff and headband potential on the whole album. If you want to show off your guitar skills, just play this song. Seriously. The intro riff is its own monster, there's some light fingering around the chorus, a simple solo, and then if you REALLY want to show off you can learn the fingerstyle to the melody. But I digress. There really isn't anything here, just your run of the mill rock song. Seething, but again, there's still some hope here and there.
8. "My Iron Lung"
Personally this is my favorite depressive song on this album. After the intro you hear this one line that Thom sings: "Faith, you're driving me away/You do it everyday" with only the drums and bass playing in the background. Such an underrated line. I just love the intro riff, it sounds like there's hope but it just sputters out. It feels so wrong. The melody is so misleading and seemingly happy and then the lyrics are depressive. And then at around 2 minutes in the abrasiveness comes back for like 30 seconds and then disappears again. And then it comes back AGAIN at 3 minutes in, almost like a thought you can't get rid of no matter how hard you try.
9. "Bulllet Proof... I Wish I Was"
I'm gonna be honest, this and "Sulk" were always my skips for this album but oh MAN I missed out. This is another acoustic depressive in the same vein of "Fake Plastic Trees". There's just some ambient sounds on top of the sad acoustic guitar that make it feel more empty. The falsetto and subsequent guitar melody right after Thom says "Bullet proof" is a high point of the album. There's some bells leading up to Thom's falsetto that sound like sparkles. And I hate them because they add so much more to the song and they make me want to cry.
10. "Black Star"
I recently got addicted to this song for how neutral it is emotionally. It flip flops between downright hopelessness to "angry guitar riff now let me vent". Such a strange balance but I love it. No complaints here. Really good simple bassline as well.
11. "Sulk"
So this was my other skip along with "Bullet Proof..." and again, I'm so stupid for skipping this. I hear a lot of Bowie influence song, specifically on Thom's vibrato. It's super reminiscent of Bowie's 80's period. This song is in the same vein as "Black Star" but there's more acoustic-ness to it. I'm not a super big fan of it, but it's still a solid track.
12. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)
This is it. The end. If you haven't been depressed on "Fake Plastic Trees" or "My Iron Lung" oh boy this is where you will be. The guitar melody is just a descending fingerstyle that always pops into my head at some point. This is another song that is a precursor to "In Rainbows". The buildup in this song is crazy good. So soft and mellow and then boom: sadness. I've used the words "sad" and "depressed" a lot during this track by track review, but if you've listened to the album you know exactly what I'm talking about. This impending dread just leads to more and more sadness. But then it's over. And you are grateful that the album is over, but still feel some sort of emptiness. Such conflicting feelings for an album that's supposed to be "art rock mixed with arena rock grandeur"
"In Rainbows"
1. "15 Step"
Alright lads here we go. Another opener, another banger. But this time, there's a drum machine in the intro??? Yes folks that's right: drum machine on top of drums. But wait there's that amazing guitar melody but why is it only in my left ear??? You might be asking yourself these questions. The answer is: they're experimenting. But you can just listen and tell that it's not bad at all. It's this weird, comforting experimenting. Nothing at all like the guitar driven experimental of "The Bends" This is the perfect opener for this album, I can't think of another song on the album that can replace what "15 Step" does for the album itself.
2. "Bodysnatchers"
I have a personal history with this song so that's why I love it so much. It's all because of one thing: the opening riff. It's so good. I could talk all day about it. But the gist is: it's simple, it's not noisy, it's the perfect length so you don't get tired of it, there's way too many possibilities of what to do with it or how to layer it, and it's catchy. So many riffs nowadays forget that they're supposed to be catchy and not just to add some "rock" to your song. As soon as I listened to this whole album for the first time, this song blew my little 13 year old mind. I asked myself "How can one song be so catchy that you can listen to it for literal days?" So I did. Whenever I went in the car, I listened to this song. I learned it on guitar shortly after and now I play it as a warm-up for my finger right before I try to learn a solo. Moral of the story: This is a damn fine song.
3. "Nude"
"oh man after that bodysnatchers song can't wait for another infinitely catchy song!!" No. Sorry. Again. Radiohead likes to throw these left-field songs. It's why they're so unpredictable and why they're so endearing. But man this song is an emotional rollercoaster. I do not use that term lightly. It starts out stripped down, bass and drum with Thom singing over it and then evolves into this sort of personal monster. The climax is of course near the 2 and a half minute mark where Thom sings "You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking." But he prolongs the "thinking" lyric and stops all the instruments. So for two blessed seconds, it's just Thom and his lyrics. The outro also gives me chills. Such a good song.
4. "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi"
I know I throw around the term "buildup" a lot when talking about Radiohead, but they're so good at it. This is the best example of buildup I've ever heard. From the drums at the start, t the layered guitars, to Thom's echoed voice, to Thom screaming "EEEEEEEEEDDDD" softly in the background, to the 2 other guitars added ONTO the already layered guitars, and finally to 3:02, where everything except the synth beat stops and Thom says "I get eaten by the worms/ and weird fishes/ picked over by the worms/ and weird fishes". Cannot think of a better buildup for the life of me. And we're not even halfway through the album yet.
5. "All I Need"
Such an eerie and astounding instrumental. The synth at the intro is so menacing and overpowers the atmospheric ambiance. But it becomes more crucial to the song than the ambiance ever will. And I just want to give a special shoutout to whoever decided to add bells to this song. The piano along with the bells then overpower the synth and transform the song into a song of wanting. Of needing.
6. "Faust Arp"
This song is such an anomaly to me. Not in a bad way, it's just the stylistic choices to put it right near the end and there's not really a buildup here. The violins can sweep me off my feet though. No idea what Faust Arp means but I'm going to keep it that way, it makes it feel more personal and special. I think it's also interesting how they toned down Thom during this song. The instrumental is lush, so I get that Thom singing over it constantly would subtract from that effect.
7. "Reckoner"
"Are those maracas???" Yes. "Is that a Tambourine???" Also yes. "Is that Thom's beautiful and haunting falsetto???" Of course. One very noticeable and commendable thing about this album is the use of Thom's voice. It doesn't overcrowd your headphones and it isn't underused either. You can hear his background vocals near the 3 minute mark saying "In rainbows" and it's just UGH; so good. Such a good showcase of how far the band has come.
8. "House of Cards" This song is good solely on the fact that it is so relatable. Thom whines on the opening line "I don't wanna be your friend/ I just wanna be your lover/ No matter how it starts/ No matter how it ends/ Forget about your house of cards/ And I'll do mine." Such a relatable string of lyrics. However, the most repeated word is "denial", indicating there is something bigger here. And I still don't know what it is. It's a mystery I keep coming back to and keep trying to figure out for myself.
9. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
God I was such an idiot for skipping this song a while back. I would skip it because I heard the descending intro and I was like "oh no this is another sad song" so I skipped it. GOD I was so stupid. Anyway, this is one of my favorite tracks off the album because I've tried to add to to many of my playlists before, but I could never fully listen to it. I figured out listening to this whole album gets me into such a mood so that I can listen to this song while it having such a profound effect on me. Thom mumbles his way around the song until 2:17, where he says "The beat goes round and round/ I never really got there/ I just pretended that I had/ Words are blunt instruments/ Words are sawn-off shotguns/ Come on and let it out." These lyrics are probably one of my favorite lyrics in Radiohead's discography, for the sole reason of how Thom sings it. The sudden shift from mumbling to this newfound passion signals a much bigger change and it completely changes the mood and tone of the song. He gasps right after "I never really got there", and you can hear the emotion in his voice. I could never pinpoint an exact emotion I feel, but I always just call it "The In Rainbows Emotion".
10. "Videotape"
This is my least favorite song on the record. I'm going to get a lot of hate for it, but lemme explain. I'm not a sucker for somebody just singing over piano. I crave intricate instrumentals that help describe what the singer is saying with sound. And although the drums kick in, I just don't "see" what Thom is saying. I can see why people love it so much; that piano is reliant on Thom's melancholy voice. Thom's voice in this song is amazing, I just really don't like that drum machine in my left ear for most of the song. If you ask me, "All I Need" would be an even better closer, but I can see why they chose this song. It's not the worst closer in the world (far from it actually), but it's not my favorite.
So at the time of writing this, I have been sitting here writing about Radiohead songs fro about 2 hours. I feel like I've said what I've needed to say and I am now searching for a way to summarize my thoughts on these two amazing albums. And the answer eludes me. It's hard to put into words how much these two albums mean to me and other people. They're different for everybody. So I implore you: PLEASE listen to these albums for yourself. If you are new to Radiohead I would start with "In Rainbows" before listening to "The Bends", but it's really up to you. Usually I try to relate what I've said to other people's reviews and thoughts. This is impossible for Radiohead. Radiohead means a lot to so many people, and I can't screw with that. So please: LISTEN to these albums, you won't regret it I promise.
I'm putting this little addendum on this post here if you've already listened to these albums. I would love to hear your thoughts about them. It's been hard for me to explain these albums exactly and I'm putting this here to start a sort of conversation about them as well. Would love to see some DMs or texts about these albums, or even just start a conversation about them again. I'd also like to plug another excellent video from YouTube I found that explains these albums and all the rest of their discography way better than I have:
This amazing channel has also made some other guides to bands that I also wholeheartedly recommend.
Thanks for reading this double post, I've spent around 4 hours writing it but I think it's been well worth it. <3
P.S. If you're interested in more "hygge" songs, I've been maintaining a playlist for a year filled with songs that have that hygge feel. Here's the spotify link for it if you wanna listen to it or take some songs from it that you like:
Hygge Playlist:
Also, here's the spotify link for "The Bends"
And then here's the link for "In Rainbows"
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