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Bends<IR>Ok Computer<Pinkerton

Opens with quite nice guitar line, but when it all kicks in doesn't feel as heavy as it wants to be. Still a soft spot for this song, even if Yorke's self pitying starts off pretty annoying. I've seen very good live vids of this song where it sounded pretty fierce. About 2:20 mins in the nice guitar line comes in over the rougher one which is again rather nice.

Stumbing on a great melody, great guitar from Jonny, still find Thom's vocals pretty obnoxious and while never been much of a fan of this song taken on it's own it's not very surprising it caught on as it did.

?

The best thing about this song is that it's only 2:11 long. Just ends up sounding a mess more than anything.

oh ok maybe everyone does hate these :(

Sounds pretty annoying. Guitar sounds ordinary Yorke sounds punchable. Forgot how much I don't like Pablo Honey...

I've never greatly rated Yorke as a lyricist, but seemed to at least edit out his worse lyrics better as he went along

Was a better world when I didn't remember it

but in a good way.

No improvement here. That strummed guitar line could be imported in from just about any 'acoustic song on rock album' track ever.

not listened to Radiohead in ages. Good song to start back on.

A little more melody and tune, the guitar is pretty nice throughout. Oh dear Yorke though. Really what are you thinking. "If London burns I will be standing on the beach with my guitar" What? And no you don't want to be that tosser

Quite like trying to sing 'inevitable', it really never scans. More interesting drumming. Something to build on here perhaps.

kinda illustrates the problem with early radiohead songwriting on quite a few tracks. dont have too big of an issue with the verses but that chorus is just unforgivable.

Really forgettable pair of tracks that barely justify comment. Promise I'll write more about future tracks

Really flat music again, go Colin with the bass bit lol but they really forgot a melody here.

Something I think he took note of later, Yorke's lyrics are way better when they're oblique, basic and not really foregrounded. Just kinda repetitive here and they actually manage to be more effective than anything else on the album, albeit that's not saying much.

Equally the guitar actually builds to somewhat of pleasant climax. Better.

Again a bit improvement, some dynamism in the tune, Guitar goes for crazy interesting sounds more (love get taking off sound towards end, all songs should do that imo) and the whole speeding up thing, yeah gets my thumbs up. The album hasn't quite earned the climax mind. Feels like a victory lap for a race you never won

Pretty much a flop tbh, as I remember it, though I don't listen often was wondering if I'd missed out on anything. Often left sounding like a poor band trying to be the Pixies a bit but lacking the talent. Partially at least I guess they needed to improve as musicians in various ways.

Also it just sounds weedy mostly. Creep stands out for having clearly the best tune, and something to sing along to. Rest of album doesn't really sound much like it, there are reasonable bits on it but in a vacuum don't think I'd ever come back to this album.

that beef it up into a proper tune and maybe redeem it, but it's not all that imo on the album. Certainly got good ingredients mind.

there are no drums! Ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5If4HJjNgfQ

i can't remember which ones

Starting off the EP and already this track shits on the head of all that came before. The guitar is legitimately gorgeous. When Jonny's guitar kicks in works very well.

Looking up lyrics now don't think I'd ever actually worked out what he's singing at points. Brilliant song anyway.

Love this song too. Guitar riff is lovely, and is a really lovely tune, think Yorke is very strong throughout.

It's not a bad track in that the guitar is pleasant enough, but this doesn't come off for me. Just an uninspiring tune, and Yorke's vocals aren't up to much. Doesn't do much as a guitar workout either.

Moderately pretty track that seems a practice run for future pretty ballady songs. TY's vocals sound very nice.

limited perhaps by it not quite sounding like the finished article. Still a sucker for songs with cool effects going on in the background

easily the best song on Pablo Honey for me

Another lovely song, also a false ending, which is great, I love false endings. Then it slows down at the end! Lovely track. Heard a lovely bootleg of it live where it sounds quite fierce.

Nice enough, the spindly guitar work is pleasant and Thom Yorke trying to write some emotive stuff, but doesn't seem to pull it off yet for me. Good trying to realign his frankly awful effots from Pablo Hone mind.

It's a metaphor about that song in terms of something that kept the band alive (esp. in the US) but they came to hate.

Reasonably lovely but again see above. This EP tails off somewhat, the sparseness is alright. There's no meat to the bones and isn't isn't good enough to carry the quietness.

Trying to showcase Thom's singing chops, works in a way, in an other way pretty pointless.

just this bit "The headshrinkers, they want everything
My uncle Bill, my Belisha beacon" is quite hard to make out

Lovely EP imo, some dull tracks at end, but The Trickster and Permanent Daylight are both great tracks. You could tell it's produced a million times better than Pablo Honey.

There's at least one site that explains what a Belisha Beacon is for US fans.

(I assume it's just a reference to all the analysts he had to visit.)

I was really happy to see this live last year. Still holds up and sounds absolutely brilliant. I remember jumping up and down to most this album in my room when I was 15 and this brings back the memories more than most. Also the real beginning of adding loads of effects in the background to make it sound cooler style that Radiohead would keep going with forever. I'm not complaining.

Probably the oddest track on the record too, and almost seemed a partner song to Airbag in an odd sort of way, both seem to have great texture to the track.

I was about to write sum up of it when half way through Prove Yourself and couldn't remember a thing about it, kinda counted against it

Lyrics have dated quite a bit for me but still a pretty good track, has a great strut to it, opens with a bit of radio cackle which is always great. Very fond memories from it from teenage years (though had short attention span, after this would skip through)

Not sure this song has ever really survived the accusation of it inventing stadium indie like Travis. It does have all the ingredients and Radiohead are to blame as anybody.

Doesn't achieve enough emotional tug to really work but the actual vocal melody isn't unpleasant. Certainly doesn't quite fit in, worst song so far on record

if everyone did

OH GOD WHAT IS THIS, WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS TO ME :(

Their live version at Glasto from 2003 was great. Gets one in the gut better than any of their previous songs, has such a great chug into top gear half way through. Floaty sounds throughout, acoustic guitar sounds ace too.

Bit more by the numbers this. like the chorus though. "I used to fly like peter pan" is a good lyric mind, though "all the children flew when I touched their hand" is going in a worrying direction. Guitar is stomping again.

Lovely song this, the prettiest so far. Another happy to have seen live, get the feeling they're a bit torn between pretty songs and stomping ones. Love Jonny's guitar later as the songs get's a crescendo.

Sort of feels like a really beefed up Pablo Honey track thematically at least. But it's got brilliant guitar, then when it reaches it's full screech it's great. Lovely track

Same as before, excellent stuff

I suppose they just picked ones that went with that album more or something.

Motion Picture Soundtrack was demoed to John Leckie loads but they decided against putting it on The Bends.

Of Thom doing it on radio at the time with an extra verse.

Yeah certainly was probably all going at similar times, I suspect a lot of the difference is much better production, it just sounds better on the ear. The other might just be editing what they had much better.

Nice let off after the noise of Just and then My Iron Lung.

Wonder if a lot of the album was from them trying for these prettier textures, racked up enough of them and then stuck them on the record. A Lovely ethereal track

Some people love this song don't they? It's alright but it's not much special considering what's come before. A nice riff and decent song, in a way seems to sound archetypically radiohead at this point sound wise.

Doesn't work much this either, albeit worse than Black Star. Most whinging on album, built around a nice vocal melody but needs to soar but falls flat.

That descending vocal line in the background, that bass kicking in before the songs goes up a gear, and mainly that guitar line. Utterly glorious song. Friend hates it as a bit dreary but it's just lovely. One song I really want to catch live, but gets less likely...Yorke's vocals at the end are gorgeous.

Managed to lose my post about the album annoyingly.

Really like bits of the bends not all of it, and to me it isn't that cogent, it just mixes in pretty song then loud song throughout with not too much variety.

Having said that the quality is way up on PH and so many very very good songs it's a bit silly. What I always thought Radiohead did very well was making sure that every bit of every song sounded gorgeous on it's own merit quite often, and be it the prettiness of Bullet Proof or the stomp of Just it holds mostly true now.

Have to say Planet Telex is still the highlight for me.

Hats off to you. Radiohead are a band I know I like, but I don't sit down and listen to them enough. Except for In Rainbows.

Yeah I have that version. Got it years before Kid A came out so never really liked the Kid A version :(

one of those proper Radiohead nerds. In truth it was because obsessing over Kid A probably turned me from a computer game nerd who listened to a bit of The Killers in the background to someone who spent 24/7 listening to music.

In recent years my listening of Radiohead dropped off as other bands filled the gaps and started realising that there's plenty other interesting things. I'd still probably say they're my favourite band, but that's mainly affection for listening too much a while back, nowadays it's mainly kid a and in rainbows. The King of Limbs as well at times but still bit of a drop in quality there.

Nice to go back through, some of these tracks it's been a while.

:)

Yeah, often reckon TB is just a much better produced and played PH. There are live recs of PH tracks that sound better than PH vers do, FFS.

I want them to record the next album with Albini...for the lolz.

may influence my prefering that, friend has theory the secret track is what would have been the outro to full song, then they cut the last verse and just left dead space and the old outro still there

Some of the good live recordings of PB stuff does sound much better, has some kick and oomf in them so missing on the record. Must be so annoying for the band to get record back and have it sound like that...

Still think they're better worked out songs in general mind, never would have done Fake Plastic Trees in Pablo Honey era...

Again brilliant start, those drums, complete mass of sounds, that bassline...One of my favourite songs of course. I've seen them live 3 times, and they played it every time, last time heart sank when it started, wanted to hear other stuff. Having said that sounded glorious with second drummer.

Like Planet Telex, one of the stranger songs to kick it off, which they love doing.

And, like a lot of people, they were my favourite band at one point, but through discovering more music I found things that appealed to me even more (I've never really been able to connect with Thom Yorke). So they've gone back to being just a band I really like.

By rights should hate this, some kind of silly prog epic that everyone compares to that pile of shite Bohemian Rhapsody

Saved by sounding gorgeous and like the end of the world, and by Thom Yorke sounding contemptuous which is always a good sound for him

Another good thing about this record is somehow it keeps the same sustained atmosphere throughout. Thom Yorke has gone from singing it well as sounding pretty flayed at the edges throughout too. Good song to sing along too as well. Lyrics pretty great on this too.

Another great track, building to great crescendo and then disappearing again, tingles the spine.

Lovely track and all, all jangly, lovely, got a great chorus. Don't fully understand the love this track gets though. "don't get sentimental, it always ends up drivel" is fantastic though.

Rebuilds itself nicely though. Nice beepiness too.

Still an unbelievably gorgeous piano line, still great to sing along to, though embarrassing.

Would have loved this to be the lead singer. I actually quite enjoy listening to it, breather almost in middle. Also very catchy. I've been in the car speaking along to it in unison with 2 other people :|

Always seen as the odd one out on the album, and perhaps fairly so, it's the most out and out rocker on there (I remember someone saying the marketing people at the record were panicked about OK Computer nad wanted that as lead single as it's only 'traditional' song on there or something. It's alright, it's fierce, but it's not amazing. Still good though

but Prove Yourself is quite good.

Possibly my favourite song on the album. Just brilliant, the drums are immense, the way it builds, the slightly distorted vocals, everything comes together. Spooky, and it's the song I really really want to see live. Yorke's screaming at teh end is brilliant, really comes into his own as a vocalist here especially

My first memory of this song is the Thom Yorke drowing video. That's still a great vid. Track is very very lovely, it;s the last bit on vocals that are so pretty.

and this one joined up all the fissures, creating a cataclysmic structural instability in the Music board, causing the whole thing to crumble into a fucking abyss.

There's still hope.

Strangely laid back track at times, just noticing that background sound that's quite constant, then the guitar pulls into the chorus, then it all drops out...Lovely warm track and mate always argues (and seems to be popular I find) that album should end here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsUCNRcqi8Q

Are you planning to do all of the albums in one sitting?

if you collected all the radiothreads together and put all actual discussion of radiohead in it would probably be about 6 posts long. They always just pop up and then get jumped on, or they're started by someone with no interest in any discussion, or noone who answers in...I don't even mind cos there's barely much to discuss which hasn't already been done to death except when something new comes out. I'm not interested in the merits of Radiohead overall in this thread so tbh hopefully such fruitless discussion stays out.

Sorry if that seemed like a rant

my brain went wrong there

I like the Tourist, yeah bit plodding and slow but that's the point, very good track to drift out on, calms down and pretty positive. Also lovely ending with that triangle note.

Majestic album! Runs it's length with ease, seemingly a band at the top of their game. Hermetically sealed it's hard to pick faults. Moved on from the loud song, pretty one to making all the songs pretty pretty and the guitar heroics turns into adding texture throughout. It's also meaty stuff, plenty to sink ones teeth into. Possibly contains horse.

Second time through still a great track, not much ever really sounds like this, more bands should copy this song, be a while before it got boring

Lovely guitar to begin with, but this song seems a bit of a throwback to the Bends era. very pretty bit where the rythm section goes and comes back with Thom Yorke singing over the top, then a pretty melody comes in. Decent.

Pleasant experiment that was maybe a signifier for things to come a bit, but only a bit, it is very very gorgeous but doesn't go anywhere much

Opens with some train station in prague sample or something? A nice quiet song, and actually quite affecting. Lovely track.

Though they did Airbag the first 2 times we well

Pretty great rocker, nice acoustic intro, and I find is pretty catchy, stomping fun.

the gig before and after I see them :( arseheads

Bit of a forgettable track tbh, going for heavy organ love, but doesn't do much. Some nice military drums.

like, talk about Atoms For Peace or something, or maybe bands who have, like, no Radiohead connections, and don't get even a fraction of the discourse.

Originally called OK Computer, but then cut from album, deservedly imo. Again seems a bit of a hark back to the Bends in it's quiet loud quiet arrangement, builds to a good crescendo. Still seems not quite on par with the album. Good stomp again though.

but you really aren't saying anything particularly insightful about the songs.

them and that band wot rote tailspin

Pretty ace EP! Probably prefer My Iron Lung mind.

Bit hard in format I'd argue defending myself but partially I want to get better at it, and requires practise. Always in a rush this way which is good and bad, get into a habit mind. Will try harder.

As per why it's necessary, of course it's not necessary, I do not understand what changed on the internet for things to be required to be necessary now. I did this cos last time a few people seemed to enjoy it, got some conversations going.

I really don;t understand why you would bother clicking on the thread to be honest. I agree that every so often a thread pops up saying in rainbows is great and is pointless, this isn't that.

I will try and say more of interest on songs though, I think i need to pause and write more more often.

I feel like it's gotten kind of stagnant. maybe I should just fuck off permanently to I Love Music or something.

it's like...there are so many potentially interesting threads about rarely discussed stuff that get maybe a handful of replies and sink without a trace. people only respond in droves when it's something really obvious/familiar.

One of the prettier tracks they've done, that guitar is absolutely gorgeous. Sucker for that chiming guitar. Drums kicking in half way through, and I find Yorke's vocals pretty great in second, maybe a sucker for some xylophone action really. Love the track though.

Found most threads either last 1 post or go on for ages and don't have anykind of music discussion. Music's a tough thing to argue about I suppose but don't think I've seen a thread for a while with too much great discussion, or one that's really gone on. New album threads can be alright. There's no meaty discussion, and I realise any on this thread isn't on anything new really which is a fair crit but I thought it was better than nothing.

think yr mistaken

Another absolutely gorgeous track, lovely lilting melody. Having said that doesn't probably go any further than sounding nice and can see why it was reduced to B-Side territory.

people don't seem to be all that interested in detailed, passionate music talk.

Another on the list of WHY WON'T THEY PLAY THIS LIVE WHEN I SEE THEM. Absolutely brilliant song, gorgeous guitar stabs, and then Yorke's lyrics are great, drums ace. Could listen to this if it went on for hours. Sounds their most badass.

Or leave it till tomorrow, seems an apt place to stop.

So this is a welcome change, I've enjoyed reading it. I think many of us despair about the music board, and you're right new album threads rarely get the attention they deserve (I'm currently getting to grips with the very interesting new record from The Flaming Lips, hopefully others will want to discuss it when the time comes). But as far as I can see, the problems have been there for a while now, so all we can do is try and club together to produce more interest rather than carping on in threads like this/the Social Board.

Plus, the Rolling Threads seem to please people, plus some other threads. It's not all bad.

fortunately it's their best song (except maybe Reckoner)

always loved it, but can see why they chopped it for the tourist in the end, not sure where it would have fitted in

They really have a knack for great closers.

I think back to when I saw There There live and Ed managed to break 4 drumsticks over the course of the song, making it even funnier.

Thanks for listening.

nor Kid A

starting to think it's a conspiracy, seen Myxomatosis twice now lol

Would have been bizarre closer if that's the case. Or maybe you;d get used to it.

It's like that Kinect was in place of Idioteque on Kid A till last minute apparently...which quite frankly would have been appalling. Imagine finding Idioteque as a b-side?

probably should have swapped out some HTTT stuff

freaking gorgeous song

went absolutely mental for both, my favourite songs by them. I really like the rockier live version of I Might Be Wrong, although the more ambient album version is pretty stunning.

Radiohead fans never give this track the respect it deserves.

the use of space is pretty amazing in this. That swirling lush from left to right is one of my favourite moments in music. Definitely one I hope to see live one day.

Starting again with Kid A. I love this album, but god is the bundle of hype / counter hype around it obnoxious. No it probably didn't change music forever, no it's not cutting edge. It's a collection of really really good songs with very good melodies, the problem seemed to stem from people thinking it difficult (I can see this from before I got obsessed by it I found it pretty obtuse but back then I thought The Killers were awesome. Nowadays it's really not weird, but it's about perspective you come at it from.

I remember listening to this album a lot in my last year of uni, especially walking back late at night from the centre of Newcastle, through Jesmond and to Gosforth where I lived (for people who know the toon). Was wonderful and detached, it's 'air-y' light music that left me feeling somewhat detached from the late night as students stumbled back to their dens and streets were murky and sometimes threatening. Anyway let's go.

The primer for the album and third great intro. That loop of Thom Yorke's voice that is all over the intro sounding like just nonsence is brilliant, it keeps coming in and out. Yorke's vocals are actually recorded in a very warm way, and the synths are pretty mellow.

I always loved the lyrics somehow too. "there are two colours in my heard" somehow struck a chord out of randomness.

I wonder if this was always going to open the album, or the live version might be a holdover from this being considered a closing track.

Always a difficult one to find what this song is built around. That small drumbeat, the nursery rhyme piano and those synth notes. The effect on Yorke's vocals always sound great. Then all the squiggly sounds. I dunno what other word for them I suppose.

Having said all that it's quite a pretty thing, but this is probably the most difficult song on the album and it's not all that. Wonder if people turned it off at this point.

Sounds like the week in which I wrote my dissertation. Claustrophobic and disorientating, and that bassline. The brass section is incredible and always wish they did more songs with brass sections, they always nail them.

The outro is nice too. Friend of mine hates the live version, I think what it loses in detail it always sounds pretty ferocious and is one of their better live songs.

Very much a continuation on from Bullet Proof I wish I was in a way but is absolutely gorgeous from start to finish, and that weird instrument Jonny's using is lovely.

But I've always just seen at as nice, analogue-feeling record but not especially groundbreaking. Perhaps that's just because I've been conditioned by how it changed music afterwards. Still a favourite though.

I love a bit of pretty ambient noise and this sort of lets you drift after How to Disappear. Gorgeous, though rarely going to listen out of context. I kind of wish that at times rather than indulging Yorke's glitchy obsessions they'd do more unapologetically pretty music more often.

(if they play it that is, it doesn't seem to be quite the set staple it used to be)

Love the drum beat (especially live) and the relatively unadorned guitar on this track. There's a bounciness to it, keeps it relatively weightless, even with the guitar being more scratchy than at any other point on the record.

You can definitely see this as most 'traditional' track here but it would be desperately out of place on OK Computer. It's lacking all the background noises and denseness of the music there. It would perhaps fit ok on In Rainbows I suppose.

I am a huge fan of Yorke's pretty random lyrics here. All songs should mention dinosaurs

I'm a sucker for the radio thing they do with it too

but it didn't blow me away live until my 3rd time (possibly because they didn't play The National Anthem that time, though I think it also benefited from being saved for the encore. The Glasto 03 version as a set opener is great too)

but seen it 3 times now, kinda hope they drop it.

Sometimes my favourite RH track. Just gorgeous guitars coming in and out from all angles, Yorke's vocals are absolutely brilliant, and a lovely drum line. Oddly catchy too.

Just a swirl of a ton of ideas in 3 minutes, the final segment Yorke's COOOOOOOOOOOOME BACK is amazing. Wish they did it live again.

such a beautiful machine, I think How to Disappear Completely could possibly be Radiohead's crowning achievement.

Nearly had Kinetic here in this place till they swapped it. Strange fact as this is clearly the better song. I really want to see it live in a small closed environment but probably never will. Also victim of my worse attempts at singing along at times.

That wobbly bit about 2/3s through. The actual background sounds are lovely too, there's the ones that come through in that last segment with just the drum beats, there's loads going on.

In a way I like the no singles thing they did with it, in another this and the national anthem seem like they could be great singles as well.

Anyone else feel this is the forgotten song of Kid A? It probably is the one I forget the most but is a nice come down from Idioteque. It all is quite nicely put together and the discordant guitar in the middle segment is lovely, then it all comes in at once and sounds pretty gorgeous. The drumming is very nice too.

The final segment have that bubbling bass line, Thom Yorke mumbling then the guitar comes in lovely. The live versions it's gorgeous too with more emphasis on sort of joy division scratchy guitar stabs over the last bit.

Had some discussion over this earlier, I think this version is lovely and hits me properly. Disney sound effects over the top seems like, could almost be cheesy in a way, but is just an excellent closer imo, albeit one that maybe works a lot better in album context than on it's own (perhaps the acoustic version is better for that)

Well don't need to say it's a very good album, and I probably know it so well off by heart I could narrate it accurately in my head

ok that's a lie I'd get the timing well off.

It probably doesn't feel as meaty, as chunky as OK Computer which just feels so preposterously full of proper strong tunes you could happily take away and dismantle listen to on their own. That's not to say OKC doesn't work as an album, it does completely, but Kid A feels like it's own odd thing, a bit less there and so pretty. Does not sound like a band almost falling apart, but it does kinda sound like a band with one guy doing most things I guess.

Going to play i might be wrong live recordings too which I forgot about when I put the order up yesterday

Of the album songs from these sessions this sounds most like a Yorke solo song. I like the clattery drum beat, and I do actually like the live version a fair bit, but also can't shake the feeling that's it's not all that great. To Illustrate, Planet Telex, Airbag and EIIRP are the openers up to now, this seems more to annoy people expecting a return to guitars...

I am fond of it mind. Just has that air of 'great b-side' about it.

I love that when I saw them in Manchester last year it was 45 mins till they played a single, and it was Pyramid Song. Slightly ruined that night by the complete thundercunts behind me who chatted happily through it loudly.

First time I saw it was also in manchester in 2008. The sun was just going down and it sounded so profound and beautiful then. It still rather does, even if it's a cliche now. That voice, that piano, those drums.

I think Lucky would have ended it, Polyethylene in the middle somewhere.
Thom posted a revised HTTT tracklist that they should have put out a while back, have it as a playlist on my spotify. It went:
There, There, The Gloaming, Sail to the Moon, Sit Down. Stand Up. Go To Sleep, Where I End And You Begin, Scatterbrain, 2+2=5, Myxomatosis, A Wolf At The Door.
Slightly surprised Sail to the moon made it considering they haven't played it since the original tour. And it being total shit

They should totally do this live. Never been wholly convinced by this track, almost never hear seek it out individually. I quite like how silly it is, but doesn't do enough.

I lose track of the years

they've started playing it reasonably regularly since the second drummer has joined and it sounds brilliant

the drums are brilliant. Not sure why they bothered doing away with all that was good about it for the Amnesiac version though

Love this track so much, just sounds immense when it builds up, and sounds pretty great live too, seen then do it twice.

Yorke's vocals are ace too.

pretty lucky if you caught one of them

One of my favourite RH tracks this. Just that groove, Yorke's vocals are immense, the bass and drums. Like the live version two, but they're both great beasts, and album version probably pips it for me. Always love a track to drop out and reassemble before finishing. Immense track.

Threatens being a bit dreary this track arguably, sort of plods but is glorious by pretty lovely strumming and absolutely stunning work from Yorke.

Still a bit of a meat and potatoes RH song that I will always like but never quite love. Great music video though, I thought they'd dropped the ball for great music vids till the Lotus Flower one came along.

and as such is readily available on youtube

I remember Natasha Khan referring to "your beloved Radiohead" in her set, and always thought it was a sly dig at the people constantly talking who were very dismissive of BfL. Good on her.

I'm not sure I buy the 'we forgot it was on kid a' reason for this being here, but it's still bizarre as it's not an improvement. I think they just wanted some kind of link between the two albums.

It doesn't sound bad mind, it sounds more strung out, and when it pulls down to the guitar sound it's pretty lovely. Still seems odd though.

and remember struggling to really hear BfLs very well. I was beginning to panic i'd struggling to hear Radiohead too, which thankfull wasn't the case.

Love this track, the orchestration, the bassline, the chiming guitars. A lovely cacophony with sudden violent crashes of sound. A very pleasing track that doesn't get too much love. Perhaps is little too long.

and they didn't play it on the one date I saw them or something ffs :( Probably the one song I want to see live more than any other.

My favourite instrumental of theirs, just dig the guitar sound, all wild west etc. Not too much to say about other than always feels strangely placed on album.

They did it as outro to the National Anthem last year. Was cool.

Ed doing his thang towards the end of this was a highlight.

You're almost at Hunting Bears, that's my favourite of this album.

I love backwards songs to this is always going to be a winner with me. In the live versions always slightly disappointing TY doesn't do his backwards singing voice, which is ace. (he recorded it by singing it backwards then reversing it for the effect, then mimiced how that sounded when singing it rather than using the backwards recording...iirc.

Sometimes my favourite song on the album.

Just found it on youtube, I think it would work better as an intro instead. Still good though.

The last four songs on this album make a good soundtrack for a drunken walk home.

Can't get enough of this track, that funereal lurch, the trumpets. Genuinely might be my favourite Thom Yorke vocal performance, just for the sneer in his voice. Some people I know don't like it much so I dunno, just seems so claustrophobic, and brilliantly of it's time what with 9/11 and all.

Just had a few spirits at a skuzzy pub

Definately a poorer album than Kid A and even the others just out of having a few definite misses. Having said that has a sourer atmosphere, a certain sticky squalor that other Radiohead albums don't have.

I am very very fond of it at times but certainly one I do skip tracks more often. Some of the tracks are pure genius mind. Pyramid Song, You And Whose Army, I Might Be Wrong, Like Spinning Plates and Life In A Glass House are all top notch. Onwards now to IMBW: Live Recordings!

The bass is more abraisive than on Record, Radio noise, and then that souring Ondes Mardenot sound. Thom Yorke grunting into the microphone. Love this version.

Was hoping on last tour they'd bring a brass section with them to do this and some of the TKOL stuff that used brass instruments, and stuff like Life in a Glass house but alas no.

The guitar is pretty lovely here as well second half. Another I'd like to hear in a small venue but never will.

Again more abraisive than on record, Yorke sounds lost in the mass of guitars. Especially at the end, all sounds fantastic, could listen if it went on for hours.

thought you meant you'd seen it in person

Sounds less muffled than album version oddly. Drums seem quite urgent and has a real build.

the played this in their festival crowd baiting set when I saw them at Leedsfest. It was rather lovely, and it is here too.

Decent lovely piano for this take on the song, not overly special though. Yorke sounds lovely.

Almost love this version as much as the album version oddly, it's all the drumming in the middle section with Yorke absolutely belting it out. Just sounds incredible.

the live verson of this song is possibly the closest Radiohead get to a 'jazz odyseey' and yet it's still pretty great set closer.

Bass is pretty lovely too towards the end especially. Love the distorited voices going around different places on my earphones.

Drums sound incredible at times on this and the orchestration stripped away from the record version but not an especial highlight of the EP.

Nice ending too it though.

Really rather lovely understated song this. Not a million things to say about it but I'm a sucker for heavily strummed guitars and this does have an energy to it and TY is in fine form singing. Still not too much to say about it.

Decent enough live record, a lot sounds pretty good, still one for the nerds really.

Recently been playing this live rather oddly. It's got a good rhythm with a clattering drumbeat and cool atmosphere, probably could have made Amnesiac tbh. One of their better B-sides.

Seems like a bit of a Thom Yorke complaint against the media which is nothing unusual. Starts out as a bit of a rocker with really quite discordant guitar screaching. Second half goes sort of Treefingers-lite. I really don't like it though I know people who do.

It doesn't really have enough of any element to work, it doesn't stomp that much first half, second half isn't really that pretty.

Don't like this too much. Appreciate the experimenting but doesn't come off, just a bit boring. Deserved B-side, just not nice on the ear enough to get away with it.

An improvement in that there's a promising tune here and Yorke's vocals are lovely, the clattery percussion of Amazing sounds of orgy returns but doesn't do too much. Glad they switched it with Idioteque on record. Just doesn't quite have the energy behind it.

A seductive track, love that the drumbeat on careful listening is Thom Yorke sampling himself. The keyboard line is just too gorgeous. Really love this track, one of my favourite B-sides by any band, along with Talk Show Host.

Sounds like about 3 songs thrown together rather at random. There is something there, something potentially great but it sounds little bit ramshackle and fails to cohere. Like the drums. Wonder if they didn't need those guitars later.

Very good song, not 100% sure but heard this was very close to being included on Amnesiac with a never heard Intro that was cut out, hence the fade in.

Held back slightly by going on a while not sure if goes anywhere with it either. Seems slightly by the numbers at this point even if it's pretty pleasant

May do HTTT and Com Lag tonight as then think I can manage to finish it tomorrow, but need some different music now...or some tv or something.

I assume he dropped the final verse because it changes the song to a more 'early RH' song. I can see how, coming back to it, he'd find that verse sort of embarrassing and ditch it.

Too mushy (soundwise, I mean), too long.

I actually love a lot of the remixes.

There's a fantastic live version on the Just single. "Let's have some fun, now..."

It's annoying the band can't play it live how they want or something.

There are huge drums on Climbing Up The Walls.

You must be thinking of some other (non-radiohead) song

As with most of the Kid A / Amnesiac stuff, the live version was completely different and also amazing. In this case, a big fat dirty bass sound.

I kind of wish Radiohead would just record a live session of both these albums, so you could hear a perfect 'Albini' take, no crowd.

Well, rubbish is harsh. It's just dull.

Radiohead have consistently bored me with their choices for support.

Sad they don't seem to play it much anymore.

In fact if you slightly overlap the end of this and the beginning of I Might Be Wrong they flow perfectly and create a great single track.

I think they played it once or twice last year, I watched a video on youtube and it was closer to the album version. Really good.

I mean, some of the tracks are far far better than Kid A but there's no time taken to make it AN ALBUM so it hasn't that sense of thought.

There are tonnes you've missed so I wasn't sure why you spent time on the ones from Amnesiac, that's all.

I've been quite pleased their supports. Deerhoof played before Beck in 2006 as well but I missed almost the whole set.

No human sounds like that. There's just some non-backwards overdubs near the end.

Bat for Lashes (meh)
Clinic (always dull live)
Sigur Ros (okay, not so bad, but kind of dull - not a support band, really.)
Some random Oxford band who were bad
The Rock of Travolta (okay, these guys are great)
Humph's band, which were good but obviously something totally different.

I don't recall who supported them at Earl's Court in 2005. It was a fucking dreadful venue, though.

I don't think it worked :D

I prefer the live version as the piano is really nice.

but supporting them was just Willy Mason. Jfc

I arbitrarily picked some to do. I meant to do a fair stab at ones from each album, I probably could have done some earlier ones tbh but raced through bit quickly.

Realise then it's not a complete one I suppose but thought I'd got most. I apologise if you think I haven't been thorough enough, the origional plan was just albums, then I thought I'll add EPs, then thought ok let's stick on fair number of the B-sides.

I also was wondering if I had enough time to do it all anyway so some shaving may have been necessary. If there have been any really really glaring ones you think I've missed I'll happily go back at end if I have time.

It doesn't quite cohere sadly, but having said that never seen a coherent alternative order (unlike HTTT)

I bet they keep on promising "yes Ed next tour we play Electioneering"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fibjMwrYnA8

This is ace. Would take me so by surprise live too, like Planet Telex did

till I was convinced it was totally true, now you've made me doubt it...hmmmm

This album is a mess, but in truth I always liked it quite a bit, loosened up and less perfectionist it has plenty of pleasures to it. Looking forward to it, they seemed in a pretty miserable place throughout Kid A and Amnesiac

No i'm not bothering with the alterna titles.

Brilliant track, 3 parts, angry snarling, think this is back to the great openers. I wonder if they'd kept the whole album as taught as this and focused and done some 30 min album it would be incredible (maybe get Albini in to produce that one haha)

The rain drops the rain drops the rain drops the rain drops the rain drops the rain drops the rain drops the rain drops the rain drops the rain drops the rain drops

On a serious note got a softspot for this, it does sound particularly gorgeous, has laser pew pew sounds in it, even if it is one of the more 'nonsensical' songs in the canon.

Has that nagging problem of kinda sounding like they want to rerun Pyramid Song. Not as good. I think it's a decently pretty song from them with a pretty good vocal turn on it. Reminds me of a particular time and place too.

Doesn't really ever take off enough though. Album momentum issues already too arguably after 2+2=5 rockets off the pace is let off so quickly but oh well. Saw someone call this crap earlier which seems tad harsh on it, it's still very good at being pretty

Now here is where the problems really kick in. Sail to the Moon takes ages to end anyway and then this plodding track kicks in. Should have been left as a b-side.

I imagine people first listening heard 2+2=5 and thought alright here we go! and then by now are wanting to hang themselves. It's not totally without it's charms but to me just doesn't hold together much. Reasonably catchy lines from Yorke then the piano about 2/3s way through are alright. First song on an album for a while i'd definately had cut

THIS IS MORE LIKE IT

Kickass song. Love this one, love the jools holland performance with Jonny's crazy guitar kicking in and don't understand why it isn't played live anymore much (think they did once or twice last tour). In fact possibly ends too soon, could have kept this going longer.

One of the ones where I sing along with the guitar too :P

just unending, how it's so long is beyond me

I think I'll be unpopular here and say I love this song, always have. Know it's one of the ones a lot of people say are disappointing on the record but it always touched a chord with me.

Lovely bass, and Yorke just sounds gorgeous on it. Understand it not quite being one of their top notch melodies or anything I suppose but good track

If they do they are wrong.

Another should have been cut one to be honest. Does have a nice atmosphere to it, I always love a good clapping sound in a song. But does veer into drearyness and this one definately is plodding.

The bit when it goes all fast is nice and how it pulls me back. Still a misstep.

Wonder if on it's own could be a lovely song, all stark, sounds all strung out, can see what going for. But should have been cut.

It is a lovely tune

Yeah better live than on record. When they played it last year i clearly saw ed, silhouetted against the lighting at start, put down his guitar, crack open a beer, and start really bad bez dancing. later on he actually had some stuff to do. Sad inditement of his position in the band maybe, but I laughed my head off watching it.

Rather catchy tune, slightly undercooked is the problem, always works well live though. Much better with the loud jarring sounds they stick on it at end too.

Love this song loads (who doesn't) guitar is gorgeous, Yorke is gorgeous, arguably better live perhaps. Great to sing along to. Should possibly have opened the album. WE AAAAARE AAAAACCIDEEENTS.

I like I Will quite a lot. I have an odd opinion that rather than in the alternate tracklisting, lemme find it from earlier,

'There, There, The Gloaming, Sail to the Moon, Sit Down. Stand Up. Go To Sleep, Where I End And You Begin, Scatterbrain, 2+2=5, Myxomatosis, A Wolf At The Door'

Rather than cutting I Will, should be the closing track. Quiet, delicate and lovely. There's a live version from an acoustic gig Thom Yorke did where he sings it absolutely beautifully

I love this track a lot, as much as there are problems in early HTTT the second half always rocked for me. That piano line and bass and drums. Definitely underrated cracking track.

so he does get to do something.

Again love this track, seen it live twice now actually both times pretty cool. Maybe not got the most to recommend it except like the slightly more letting hair down stuff.

Kinda wish there was a bit more to this, cos at times it's a gorgeous thing with a lovely tune and Yorke doing a very good vocal turn to it. Doesn't quite fulfil it's potential somehow. Still pretty lovely

FLAN IN THE FACE FLAN IN THE FACE

Love this track, just a little bit silly but imo in a good way. Singalong way too much

Very good at times, main highlight this time through probably Go to Sleep. Brilliant track, and quite a few others, and others that jar and slow it down way too much. Could have done with some more songs like 2+2 tbh.

Sorry for the shorter descriptions on HTTT, think I lost some of my...zing. Or something.

the two seemed to suit each other. Come to think of it, a lot of the songs on HTTT would work in a horror film. At least in the trailer for one anyway.

Fair,

I guess comparisons of both versions of Banana Co. and all three of Killer Cars, as well as Maquiladora, since it has probably the best guitar solo ever.

Then there's Talk Show Host and possibly the others from the Street Spirit singles...

Banana Co, Maquiladora and Killer cars stuff will try to do tomorrow, actually forgot about them apart from Killer Cars

The National Anthem into Hunting Bears into I Might Be Wrong. Crazy Saturday night.

he's freaking brilliant

As you said, I always feel it's pretty Radiohead-by-the-numbers

then again once last year. Still, if you've seen it you are lucky still stands

dull. How was it a single?

Try it again! :)

the breakdown has changed on each tour, each time it sounds better

bit harsh on it there actually

from great tracks like 'Fog' and 'Cuttooth', I feel like it would really tip the album to being truly great. Not really a fan of Dollars & Cents, it slows the album down too much I think, so I'd take that out and replace it with 'Fog' then throw in 'Cuttooth' after 'Like Spinning Plates'.

simple, but fucking beautiful

Record Idioteque is one of my favourite things ever, but the live versions are always fantastic and no worse for the differences

kills the album stone dead. Listen to HTTT without this and the filler 2/3 through and you have an incredible record

it's just bloody lovely

just not as crazy I guess. The rest of the song is pretty much them same, so yeah it's just that bit

They should have at least spent more time with it, but I think Thom got frustrated with it because he couldn't fulfill his vision of it iirc

I keep seeing your posts thinking I wrote them earlier.

He was having a ball, smiling away, really enjoying himself, it was great to see. I suspect he may have smoked some things at his NZ home before arriving.

I wrote these after a few shandies last night so maybe you are drunk me

Oh, so you did, sorry.

I have the opening notes from No Surprises tattooed on my arm, along with "No alarms and no surprises please."

Whenever I think about it, I'm sure that No Surprises is the best Radiohead song. I love it so, so, so much.

not really a 'track'

but really don't think this versions works tbh.

FUCKIN' THEN COME AND FIIIIIIIIIIND ME

I'll be waaaaaaaitin'

WITH A GUN AND A PACK OF SANDWICHES

^Possibly the least Radiohead-y lyrics ever

Never been very fond of this EP have to say. Oh well, on we go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmfZXZronW8

Some of the HTTT stuff is so solid live it would have been nice to have some more great live versions. This is lovely like the album version and arguably a bit more kickass.

Not sure they need the [remix] thing there cos it's in the pretty awful punned name.

Thom Yorke remix all over, can't say I like it especially. He loves those clattery drums, but there's not much tune left and his vocals just sound odd stripped bare. Interesting as it has the extra verse in it the live version has always had but isn't on record

Pleasant expanded version but ultimately they made the right choice in stripping it down for the record, nothing exceptional about it and another with the 'radiohead by the numbers' feel.

Has a nice groove going, catchy lyrics even if pretty nonsense. Have a soft spot for it but it's more start of Thom Yorke's solo electronica stuff really.

Has a nice quiet intensity, is that harmonica in background? S'alright but the b-sides here aren't up to the quality of the Amnesiac era ones.

I assume it's about somebody who has had a serious mental breakdown, of which I know a few, but Yorke puts so much into it...

I spent a week on Soulseek trying to find it way back when I first got into Radiohead. Instead of the electro bit at the beginning, you get like a full minute extra of funeral dirge. It's probably my favorite Radiohead b-side, ever, besides Talk Show Host.

Has a sort of trip-hopy feel. Doesn't really do anything with it mind, pleasant enough experiment not quite it's own song mind.

Always a bit of a sucker for Four Tet and this remix works a lot better than the Myxomatosis one Yorke did. Not wholly convinced by the honking noises at the end. Kinda sounds a bit like a clown car has driven up and is trying to annoy everyone.

One of my favourite quiet acoustic songs so far, albeit again a sketch of a song perhaps.

I prefer this version of fog, lovely piano, almost perhaps pretty much by the numbers Thom and a piano song but none-the-less lovely. Perhaps with some more ornamentation would be very good

is Fingerbib.

Perfectly pleasant instrumental but not all that great. Used as walk-on music a lot to my bemusement. Always think they should have stuck with Fitter Happier for that.

Not a great EP tbh, has interesting bits, some nice song but nothing totally exceptional. Genuinely think all the good stuff probably did end up on the album.

Maybe this will be like revisiting that morning we all heard it.

After that toon are playing so will have a break while the footy is on.

Great album opener, the guitar that slides in was a surprise when I heard it, pulls it back from being this glitchy thing. Yorke being direct (for him) with lyrics. Lovely lovely track.

The second half is gorgeous too. Warm, and ace drumming, the bass is lovely too, and childrens choir. Up there with the other great openers.

makes me feel stupid.

Very lovely dirty track, and another surprise, and really a bit distinct on the album. Has a few gorgeous parts to it, and Yorke sounds mental at times on it.

Just love the last bit when it kinda quietens down. I'VE SEEN IT COMING. Ace

I quite like based on youtube the pretty outro they added on last tour

Completely gorgeous track, at times my favourite on album. Sort of them at their most ethereal but without the usual long build up, floats by.

Lyrics always get me too. Really sounds quite fresh and new as well, doesn't really recall too much of their previous stuff, even thought the song itself is quite old.

Those backing vocals are so so gorgeous. Just builds well on that simple drumbeats and lovely guitars.

The the breakdown is ace. I'm not sure any other RH album breezes past so pleasantly. Could be a disaster I suppose. Gorgeous track and lovely live too.

to my SLIIIIIINNNNNKKKKKYYY.

Absolutely gorgeous. I think this listen through is helped that it's a lovely sunday record, quite relaxed. The piano that comes in is great. IT'S ALL WRONG IT'S ALL RIGHT IT'S ALL WRONG IT'S ALL RIGHT IT'S ALL WRONG

It is the perfect Sunday record.

Another perfect sunday song. Very very pretty, gorgeous orchestration and acoustic guitar, almost Beatlesy. Wonderful track again, all very easy going.

Does not sound like an album that had the long and difficult gestation they say it did. They regreat going on tour before releasing it, suggesting didn't do the songs any good, not sure what they could have got better mind.

Hard to think what could make this one sound any nicer especially. When the drums gives way sounds delicate, then the orchestra kicks in. The guitar is gorgeous.

Absolutely stunning live as well. Masterpiece of a track.

Radioheady sounds going behind a lovely simple guitar, and a reverb heavy Yorke singing about sex. Another certain favourite, and it is also quite long for Radiohead, who apart from a few exceptions rarely hit 5 minutes.

Leaves plenty of track for space, giving it a hollow feeling, with then 'radioheady' sounds splash into. Brilliant brilliant track. Among their best along with Reckoner.

My friend who I first heard IR with at about 6 a.m on the morning of its release was a big Radiohead nerd, so beforehand he had made a CD of the live recordings of all the proposed IR songs he could find. For those who recall, they had played a song called Reckoner which was quite a grungey rocker, so when we first heard this we were blown away.

Sadly the weak link on the album, not all that brilliant. Does have a nice strum to it, and Yorke again playing around with his vocals more than he usually does. Does have a nice manic edge to it, and a passable track but not brilliantly memorable. Does have a bit more of an edge to it live.

It's not Thom Yorke.

from what seen on youtube footage, sometimes wonder if they called this Reckoner for that reaction

I thought it was, dunno where I heard that.

I still maintain this is better than the admirably gorgeous live version just out of the restraint working better. I do wish perhaps they'd made a good quality bootleg or something of the first version available.

Anyway regardless a lovely ending song that always get's me. Beautiful, one of my favourite closers definitely.

but then it was turned into Yorke's Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses and the chorus dispensed with altogether.

Stands up very very well comparatively and indeed could easily be my favourite album. Only track that really lets it down at all is Jigsaw which isn't bad, but it's top grade.

Also their warmest album by far, guess they really have to sweat out albums like this that don't feel overwrought or anything.

Anyway I'm a nervous wreck atm waiting for football to start, so back later to finish off.

the piano version is better I reckon. If they'd have stripped it back from the live version like they did with Videotape it probably would have made the record

was born out of an attempt to write a new outro or something for the old one. Then it just turned into a whole new song entirely.

I'm Saints, good game this. WRONG BOARD and all that

you guys played great at times, hope you don't go down.

Think I read that they wrote a second and third part to the original Reckoner, then decided to shelve the first part, leaving whats left. Good decision.

For me forms part of a brilliant run of songs in the second half of the album. Essential track.

Lots of extra Pablo Honey and Bends b-sides on offer here too. GET ON THEM.

Finishing line in sight

Nice little atmospheric things these, with Videotape's piano coming in. Still just a minute long thing.

Has a great energy to it, with the orchestration coming in and out, love this track. Great rumble to it in second half. Pretty groovy track

When the prettiness breaks down the heavier strummed guitar is just gorgeous, running in a strong tradition of Radiohead songs with that plinky piano on it but it's an absolutely gorgeous song.

Yorke's voice is heavenly on it. The tune is just great. Really love this track.

Fairly pointless, nice enough but yeah wonder if these were planned to be on the album?

Definitely one of their lovelier piano ballardy songs. Yorke's lyric writing has got way more direct at this point and is quite a lot less oblique than usual. I think he pulls it off well, and I find this a pretty affecting and sad song.

Builds great and the piano line is one of his best.

Decent track but definately wouldn't have fit on the album imo.

Also bit cringeworthy lyrics in a way. Doesn't quite pull off the anger. It also sort of fizzles out. Better than anything on Com Lag mind.

Kickass track. Saw it live first time, and I hadn't actually heard it previously then.

Driven by the drums, real ear-worm. One for their album of short quick cuts produced by Steve Albini.

Another stunnying lovely track, starts with noise, then goes into a nice understated track. Classic radiohead not sure if it's about the end of the world or just being really sad about something. I love it.

As you may have noticed I'm a huge fan of the IR B-sides, don't think there's a dud among them. Really great recording session for the band.

For a track of orchestra + Yorke think this is a stunningly lovely track. Wonder if Thom over does it a bit, but I think it sounds lovely, and kinda works despite pretty clunky lyrics. Dunno if this is one of their marmite songs, bit of an odd one about WW1

Motorik drums and Weird Fishes style guitars over the top? Big fan of this, when the bass comes through is great too. It sort of spirals away.

Seen this live twice too, and both times a highlight, huge fan.

Personally bit of a miss for me but with some fantastic songs, and it worked a million times better live than on record. Anyway on with it

Opens with a nice guitar figure into Liars drums and then Yorke's voice which is at least glorious.

I do quite like this, for it is an absolute clatter of different ideas at once, a lovely bass for one. Live, it works a load better, live versions on youtube are decent but seeing it live stunned me, it was completely superb, all teh layers of percussion that sound quite flat on record came alive and I felt like i was being punched in the face by it in a good way.

Really beautiful then, and this is in second half, but still bit of a case of failing to get it to sound right in translation to record. Some lovely details in the background. Quite enjoyed this listen through compared to some times when it's fallen flat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksdT0WXzz8

been assured by many it's a grower but to me after an interesting start fails to go anywhere. Again it really comes alive live, where it decends into loud buzzsaw guitars, sort of morphing from digital to analogue to excellent effect.

Has some nice elements but seems too sterile to do enough. TY's vocal performance is pretty strong.

I struggle to get my bearings on this track, doesn't do enough and falls pretty flat for me. Does have a nice chorus. Not as nice on the ears as their usual stuff here. My low point of the album, and I've only seen live versions on youtube and they don't seem to improve much. Aimless.

Another case of go for the live version, that actually sounds a bit feral. Still I do like this, lovely restless odd song. Possibly the strangest song in their catalogue.

Feels like some song where someone has randomly deleted other bits and works pretty well for me, but becomes a curiosity. Wish it was as loud and impolite as the live version.

Love this song so much. the drums are ace, the delicate sound effects, tune is glorious, and Yorke's voice is fantastic. Horribly catchy, and their greatest music video to match. Brilliant, fantastic live too.

...but dude, get some sleep!

Another run at pyramid song but more successful than Sail to the Moon, quiet but intensely beautiful. Feels lovely, the brass is lovely. Brilliant track, but I'm always a sucker for Thom Yorke plus slow piano.

Of all their acousticy tracks this is by some distance the loveliest. Love it a load, was good live too. The guitar line in the background from Jonny is fab.

Another track which is absolutely gorgeous, nice drum beats seem to float over quite sparse track. The really clean guitar that comes in in second half is stunning too. My highlight of the album by some distance.

An understated album the first half of which quite badly flops for me. Bloom certainly has plenty going for it but is eclipsed by what it sounds like live, the recording seems a failed attempt to capture that. Morning mr Magpie and Little by Little just don't do enough to earn interest, they aren't nice enough on the ear. Feral is strange and great live. Second half is as good as anything they've done though.

hadn't heard that, fantastic stuff

Big fan of this. Having said that this now faces stiff competition from Nick Cave's Higgs Boson Blues for best supercollider related song.

Somehow has an urgency that works with really warm synths. Maybe is a bit long I guess

Pleasant but not great track tbh, classic Yorke drum beat, and quite pretty but doesn't really do all that much. Can take or leave it

Absolutely one of the best songs they've ever done. Maybe didn't make the album cos didn't fit in but an absolutely stunning effort imo. Like a cross between You and Whose Army and Punchup at a wedding. Great stuff! Just has such a big explosion of sound.

Pretty nice track with a lovely groove. Sounds pretty gorgeous throughout, and ends on quite a pretty note. Decent. Not much more mind, nonsense from Yorke throughout

Having a little break, woooo though pretty much there, that's a lot of Radiohead, and enjoyed it too. They have a hell of a lot of brilliant tunes, and mostly unapologetically beautiful. Anyway back for Drill EP later + bsides

Asian Dub Foundation at Earls Court

...something devastatingly beautiful about it.

Can see what going for but still an unimpressive song in this incarnation. The guitar just sounds dull to my ear, tinny and flat. Drums sound weedy too.

Doesn't work either. His car obsession only really comes off with Airbag. Bleh.

Actually kinda prefer this version to the live one, but still lyrics are dreadful and whole thing is a bit of a waste of time.

They should use more backing tracks with that, because on the basement video that they did to promote KoL, unless the track name came up before, I wouldn't have even known it was Bloom; it sounded that different.

I reckon Bloom is one of my favourite Radiohead songs.

He played Oxygen which had a certain something about it... and then what? Bizarre choice of support.

Another waste of a track, a lot of white noise with no tune. Boring with no weight to it, in a bad way. Sorry really hate this.

I think it sounds much better Live than on record, the live versions are nice but wasn't a substitute for being there. The percussion gets lost in the mix.

Pretty embarrassing. Oh dear. Just can't pull off these vocals at all. Seems so silly...

It's one of their most criticised non-PH tracks!

Has a bit more stomp to it than earlier. Still bereft of a tune. That said the change up half way through seems pretty Radioheady even if doesn't sound that nice.

Can see some of the stuff they'd go onto doing, and tough to know how much is just the poor production, but none of it is pleasant to the ear and as such is tough to like. This is pretty boring.

Probably wins the prize for stupidest titled Radiohead song. God Thom Yorke sounds like an insufferable twat.

Do quite like the sudden loud guitar and actually has some idea of a tune. Then runs out of steam but somehow keeps going.

Glad they had chance to regroup but even considering the Bends was a huge step up in quality all round.

The lost masterpiece of Radiohead.

Ok I kid. I can hear bits and bobs of what they;d put together later. Maybe it was all good live. Nothing much of interest

Step up in production quality for sure. Probably better, has some tune, doesn;t sound so weedy. Yorke's lyrics are so awful, it's hilarious. The acoustic guitar bit sounds nice though.

Maybe pick of the bunch so far of these offcuts. Sounds more like later radiohead, not great but promising textures. Decent song this. Not a great fan of the guitary bit.

Has nice bass and drums, another improvement on some of the other tracks from this era. the laughing this is awful though, sounds really forced. What;s going on lol

2+2=5 - 9
Sit Down. Stand Up - 8
Sail to the Moon - 6
Go To Sleep - 6
Backdrifts - 9
Where I End and You Begin - 9
We Suck Young Blood - 9
The Gloaming - 8
There, There - 8
I Will - 9
A Punch Up At A Wedding - 4
Myxomatosis - 9
Scatterbrain - 7
A Wolf At The Door - 9

Has a good swagger to it, meaty. Has a nice guitar sound too it, and sounds ace towards end, definate improvement. Like the silly outro too

Again more like later Radiohead, ideas here works ok. Some of the rhyming scheme is horrid though. Hmmmmm. Still interesting at least I suppose.

I kind of know what you mean, it is more conventional than the rest of the record, but I think that sort of nervy, noir-ish feel works really well late on in the record. It might have been shit elsewhere, but it feels really well sequenced...

I shan't be around much tomorrow, probably missed a few ones. Not done remix album but can't be arsed.

Enjoyed it though. Next time I will do the Manics.

Slays me every time.

Apparently Thom isn't a fan of their Bends-era b-sides, which is a shame because i'd love to hear them live one day.

Probably the first decent Radiohead thread in the history of DiS that didn't descend into bedwetters whinging themselves into a coma, good stuff! Look forward to the Manics one, I've neglected a lot of their stuff and hopefully this thread pushes me into catching up

Really beautiful.

Brilliant, dark, nervous wreck of a classic that it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7rHXAEa88

'I'm not living, I'm just killing time...'

</3

But yeah it was incredible, so funky. Thom practically rapped it.

Horses/courses

It was brilliant. I don't know what they're on about.

They did play it live in Italy around the time of OKC but quickly dropped it, it seems.

Obviously I'm remembering back to 1997 here really. I had a feeling they never played Let Down either until recently but by then I thought all the idiots who thought Electioneering wasn't amazing had 'won' and convinced them not to bother?

but what do you expect when you ask the band to do four b-sides.

Currently working my way through the back catalogue, mainly b-sides at the moment that I dismissed at the time but am really enjoying now

The good stuff is incredible. But Pulk/Pull is just not a great track, nor is Hunting Bears. I'm in two minds about the re-working of Morning Bell (although I'm not much of a fan of the Kid A version) and of Like Spinning Plates.

The thing is both pulk/pull and Hunting Bears could be great tracks if the thing had been made into a full album, and by that I mean if it had a sense of 11 tracks being put together as a whole, rather than just collected. Treefingers and Fitter Happier both work fine because they're carefully worked into their respective albums; pulk/pull and Hunting Bears just sound completely alone.

Some of RH's best songs are on this album. It's annoying.

all of the songs you've listed are the best ones on the album.

It blackens this album far worse than 'Sulk' on The Bends and 'Electioneering' on OKComputer

after OK Computer they could have released Treefingers as a single and it'd have been close to going in at number 1. Had they released any of this album's four standout songs as a single - National Anthem or Idioteque or Everything or How To Disappear - they could have earned one of the great maverick number one singles.

It still rankles with me that Pyramid Song came close to doing this but didn't quite.

I think there's a live version that's easily findable on the internet from a Jool's Holland special. The fuzz bass version is much better, and whenever I hear it on record now I wish the fuzz-bass version was there.

Pyramid Song only got to number 5. They'd possibly have got a number 1 if they'd released a new single not from The Bends in 1996 or (possibly) if the first track off OKC had been Electioneering but they weren't exactly a singles band.

Clearly the time of year helps a lot. Blur secured their Beetlebum slot thanks in part to a post-Christmas release at a time when you get few big releases and fewer sales are needed for number one (or so I remember hearing at the time).

Radiohead have never been particularly popular with the single-buying masses. I'm not being snobbish here: look at the stats surrounding the number of singles that have got to number 1 without their title matching the chorus and that tells you that a lot of what makes (or certainly made) a single popular in those days wasn't down to the average music fan.

Pyramid Song is the moment when I thought: ok they've gone and done it now. I remember sitting in my mum's car and Steve Lamacq introducing it on the radio and ..

It could be nobody but Radiohead, and yet it's like some higher plain of pop sorcery.

I guess Thom probably played most of the stuff you hear. Didn't Colin admit that he had to learn all the basslines for the live stuff? I feel like both of them lacked for band input. I definitely enjoyed Kid A so much more live.

But, yeah, was never going to hit the number 1 spot. After OKC it was clear that EMI were never going to bother to strongarm them with the normal label bullshit again. I mean it sounds like they almost didn't in advance of OKC, apart from listening to the album and saying, "Oh, right. Change that projected 1.5M sales to 750K".

- there was no scoring system for the tracks.
- some of theos answers.
- that i actually sat here and read nearly this whole fucking thread.

Pyramid Song wouldn't have worked on Kid A, I think.

By doing what they did, one of the two albums was always going to seem more patchy, and that's what Amnesiac is. What I love about it is that its highs are really different - Pyramid (ethereal), Dollars (groovey), Glasshouse (jazzy)

Going on about how it's very "Johnny Marr"

he seems pretty clued up on the Bad Boys From Oxford

You know it was pwopah haircuts stadium rock like all those Q Mag critics had been secretly hoping RH would do again since they bought The Bends.

(Or what you're on about.)

you write Pyramid Song, and then writing this must make you feel sad, because you must know you've achieved something you can't possibly achieve again.

somehow failed to see the second "can't" there

Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box 8/10
Pyramid Song 10/10
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors 7/10
You And Whose Army? 9.5/10
I Might Be Wrong 7/10
Knives Out 8/10
Amnesiac/Morning Bell 7/10
Dollars & Cents 9/10
Hunting Bears 9.5/10
Like Spinning Plates 9.5/10
Life In A Glass House 9/10

I know the subject matter is dark, but this is where the Father Ted episode with the depressed priest hearing Radiohead and feeling suicidal comes true.

Too bleak, too dirgey. And in the middle of an album.
No.

I can't believe you rate Dollars & Cents higher than I Might Be Wrong, it's a 10/10, surely? Incredible atmosphere, best song on the album after Pyramid Song.

there's a restraint at play with this that stops it being too poppy but makes it all the more beautiful.

is it sounds like what you might hear just after you die. not in a morbid way, just...a way.

why the silence at the end of Kid A (the album). why is it there? whats the point?

That's the sound of all those biscuits.

Okay, sorry, that was harsh.

It's actually the isolated drum track from Creep.

because the version on the tape was dreadful.

The lovely echoing synth bit at the beginning had been cobbled together using guitar and delay pedal. And the drums could never be re-created live. They're way too complex and off kilter.

Still, not a patch off the recorded version though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2084nQbmvk

than masses against the classes being the first no1 of the new millenium

almost put it in run through but then thought not sure worth it. Is lovely, came on earphones while phone was playing everything on shuffle the other day.

and i have been known to declare it their best album before, looking at quality of songs, few fell flat on this playthrough. It's a bit splitting hairs though. Very good album with it's own sound and I find myself reaching for it more than OKC.

The National Anthem.

Would love a national album described as above mind

but agree doesn't come off recorded, still sounds gorgeous in second half.

Actually heard live genuinely thought it was one of the best songs by anyone seen live, think it escaped from them in the studio, which is a shame.

and decided it would be crass and pointless adn i'd spend time thinking on scores and regret them later and not be just writing.

I'd either score something too high early on and then go on thinking, this is much better than that song i gave 8/10, or be nervous to give out high scores and end up giving street spirit 7/10

I had considered doing RH when doing REM one but thought i'd be too fanboy-y

Manics will be more fun, parts of that discography that a) I'm not all that familiar with, and b) don't like at all, so will be more of a rollercoaster.