Radioheadâ„¢

Music:

Produced by Paul Q. Kolderie, Chris Hufford, Sean Slade. Recorded at Chipping Norton Studio and Courtyard Studio, Oxon, England. Notes: Ranked &035;35 in New Musical Express' list of ..The Top 50 LPs Of 1993' - "...is a throwback to a homegrown tradition of great guitar-band albums...." New Musical Express 12/25/93, p.673 Stars - Good - "...British teenagerhood has never been grumpier....the best bits rival Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and even the mighty Sugar..." Q Magazine 4/93, p.86"...one of those flawed but satisfying debuts that suggests Radiohead's talents will really blossom later on..." New Musical Express 3/13/93, p.33"...mates Smiths-type self-consciousness with dramatic U2-like vocals and guitar, with Cure-style heavy but crunchy pop..." - Rating: B Entertainment Weekly 5/28/93, p.56 Rolling Stone review Flashing a song called "Creep" as a musical ID takes cheek, but then, everything about these Brits is unabashed. On their debut, the swagger affected by every arch-Anglo since the Kinks is already in full effect. Three guitars (and bass) and a singer whose narcissistic angst rivals Morrissey's ("I will not control myself!" Thom e. Yorke screams on "Vegetable," and on "Prove Yourself" he mourns, "I'm better off dead"), these five Oxford lads come on extreme. What elevates them to fab charm is not only the feedback and strumming fury of their guitarwork Ð and the dynamism of their whisper-to-a-scream song structures Ð which recall the Who by way of the early Jam, but the way their solid melodies and sing-along choruses resonate pop appeal. On "Blow Out" they savage a bossa-nova intro with sheer noise; "Thinking About You" is bitter folk with acoustic guitars soundly pummeled; and the rest of "Pablo Honey" is equally surprising. If they don't implode from attitude overload, Radiohead warrant watching.(RS 672/73)Produced by John Leckie, Radiohead, Jim Warren, Nigel Godrich. Recorded at Rak, The Manor and Abbey Road, London, England. Notes: Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone 5/13/99, pp.58-59Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995 - "...THE BENDS' lasting mightiness is confirmed--as is the scary impression that they'll only get better..." Q Magazine 2/96, p.63Ranked &035;6 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's ..Albums Of The Year' - "Rock as self-evisceration....consistently, savagely brilliant..." Melody Maker 12/23-30/95, pp.66-67Ranked &035;4 in NME's ..Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995. New Musical Express 12/23-30/95, pp.22-233.5 Stars - Very Good - "...THE BENDS [is] a sonically ambitious album that offers no easy hits. It's a guitar field day, blending acoustic strumming with twitches of fuzzy tremolo and eruptions of amplified paranoia..." Rolling Stone 5/18/95, p.88"...Sometimes folky, sometimes rocky, the sophomore album from this English band offers a smorgasbord of guitar flavors, most of them tasty, The stylistic leaps make for schizoid listening....but give these boys credit for not standing still..." - Rating: B+ Entertainment Weekly 4/7/95, p.92"...THE BENDS' greatest asset is its approximation of London Suede, all the parody and none of the pomp....THE BENDS proves that Radiohead didn't shoot their bolt with ..Creep.' That there's a lot more stirring down there than their recent past might admit..." Alternative Press 4/95, p.71 CMJ review Three guitars, a driving rhythm section and keyboards, all fronted by a whiny English bloke on vocals. That's the Radiohead setup, and believe it or not, it works spectacularly well. Following up on its hit "Creep" from a few years ago, Radiohead's sophomore effort ups the ante, delivering renewed vigor in the form of a happiersounding guitar assault. Shimmering piano notes and echoing drums immediately pull you into the lead-off track "Planet Telex," as the guitars unleash a wall of fuzzenhanced bliss. Vocalist Thom Yorke's delivery is less deadpan and more passionate than before, giving the tracks a sense of smoldering urgency. The title track is a brilliant piece of raging guitar-driven pop, while "Fake Plastic Trees" opts for a subdued acoustic entrance, beginning with subtle nods to John Denver before cascading into an intense swirl of guitar, keyboards and drums. The band specializes in sonic juxtaposition, creating safe, lilting melodies awash in warmness, before drowining them in a wall of blistercrunch guitar and chaotic rhythmic interplay right before your ears. "You Do It To Me" is the group's guitar-infested magnum opus, releasing a barrage of wail, grind and blitz. The Bends, with its intoxicating metallic edginess, bits of slashing psychedelia and calming interludes of acoustic ambience, unveils the perfect power-pop aestheticReleased 06/16/97 UK, 06/17/97 Canada, 07/01/97 US Produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich.OK COMPUTER was nominated for the 1998 Grammy Award for Album Of The Year and won the 1998 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance. OK COMPUTER, Radiohead's third album, is the bombastic follow-up to 1995's sleeper hit THE BENDS, which left critics and listeners as impressed with the band's ability as they were curious about their potential. In spite of its technological-sounding title and apocalyptic sci-fi themes, OK COMPUTER is firmly grounded in the rock verities. Waves of guitars rage beneath the haunting melodies and near-hysterical fits of singer Thom Yorke. This complex, intense swarm of guitars is held aloft by a solid, inventive rhythm section and an impressive array of piano and keyboard textures."Paranoid Android" is a six-minute-plus epic with alternating time signatures, wild dynamic shifts, drama and adrenaline to spare. "Let Down," with its double-tracked vocals and rhythmic throb, may give a brief glimpse back at Radiohead's past, but at no point is OK COMPUTER anything but a hurtle forward. Notes: Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone 5/13/99, p.65Ranked &035;2 on Spin's list of the "Top 20 Albums Of The Year." Spin 1/98, p.86Ranked &035;2 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll. Village Voice 2/24/98Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1997." Q Magazine 1/98, p.114 Ranked &035;2 in NME's 1997 Critics' Poll. New Musical Express 12/20-27/97, pp.78-79Ranked #2 on Melody Maker's list of 1997's "Albums Of The Year." Melody Maker 12/20-27/97, pp.66-674 Stars (out of 5) - "...OK COMPUTER - a stunning art-rock tour de force - will have you reeling back to their debut, PABLO HONEY, for insight into the group's dramatic evolution..." Rolling Stone 7/10-24/97, pp. 117-1188 (out of 10) - "...Unlike their majestic models U2, Radiohead take on techno without switching instruments or employing trendy producers....As with post-rockers Tortoise, Laika, and Seefeel, Radiohead have a fuzzbox or two and obviously know how to use 'em..." Spin 8/97, pp.112-113"...unlike anything I've ever heard....I definitley know it isn't good for me, and I'm certain it says more about my life than I'd like....in terms of composition and performance, it's very impressive. Radiohead have excelled themselves. They've seen the future." Melody Maker 6/14/97, p.49"...Shrouded in wafting guitars, swoony rhythms, and moody-blue strings, it shrugs off mosh-pit conventions for a poignant delicacy and breadth, with Yorke's cracked-throat voice the album's melancholy center....For all of Radiohead's growing pains...their aim--to take British pop to a heavenly new level--is true..." - Rating: B+ Entertainment Weekly 7/11/97, pp.65-66 Rolling Stone review Radiohead's third album is one of the best rock records of the year in large part because it is the most inscrutable. "OK Computer" vigorously defies fast analysis, flip judgment and easy interpretation. Singer Thom Yorke doesn't pretend to be likable about it, either. "Ambition makes you look very ugly," he sneers amid the "Bohemian Rhapsody"-style seizures of "Paranoid Android," a slur that works both ways if you have major objections to arty sonic clutter and prog-rock pretensions. But there is nothing linear about cracking up. "OK Computer," ostensibly a concept LP about a zombie world of hard law and infernal software, is a song cycle about serial fear and suffocating routine, laid out in mad leaps of melody, tempo and pathos that slowly accrue their queer beauty: the bleak, R.E.M.-ish clatter of "Electioneering," the languid dive of Yorke's croon in the melted-Beatles carol "Lucky." Radiohead try too hard to be nonconformist -- as if they're embarrassed to just be *pop* -- but ambition hardly makes them ogres. It makes them special. (RS 776/777)Released 10/02/2000 UK, 10/03/2000 US & Canada Produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich.The band started work on the follow-up to 1997's critically acclaimed OK Computer in late 1998 and recently finished up recording this Spring. They started work at Medly Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark, and have since spent time in Studio Guillaume Tell, near Pairs, and then to Gloucestershire, England. Notes: Kid A entered the US album charts at &035;1. CDNow review With Kid A, Radiohead has made the ultimate 3 a.m. stoner-headphone album, one that marks an entirely logical progression from -- if not necessarily an improvement upon -- the techno-but-not-really O.K. Computer.Kid A is an airy, concept-heavy work that is at times breathtakingly lovely, and at times maddeningly obtuse. Occasionally, it feels less like a rock record and more like a museum piece, and as a work of art, it's laudable. As an actual, listener-friendly offering, it leaves something to be desired: It's precisely the sort of record a band makes when it has endless amounts of time and money, and has spent long periods of time being told what geniuses its members are.That Radiohead is the best band of its generation is hardly worth questioning, and even considering the frequent grandiloquence of Kid A, the band's reach never exceeds its grasp. But despite the longing made real by Thom Yorke's aching vocals, there's a coldness at the record's bleak, brittle heart. Kid A is sweeping and gorgeous, and ultimately more admirable than likeable. Much more dependent on organs and keyboards than its predecessors, it's filled with long, bleep-and-loop-heavy instrumental suites, tracks that build to horn- or string-filled crescendos, atmospheric songs that go nowhere, and others (such as "Ideoteque") that border on straight electronica, with the occasional rocker (the chugging, marvelous "Optimistic") mixed in.In many ways, the masterful Kid A is one of the year's finest records, but anyone who misses the "Fake Plastic Trees"-era Radiohead -- back when the band was just an inspired alternative rock band and not a breathing homage to artistic abstraction -- won't find much comfort hereReleased 06/04/2001 UK, 06/05/2001 US & Canada Produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich.Most of the tracks on Amnesiac were written and recorded during the Kid A sessions. The band has always viewed their work from these sessions as two separate albums, but steered away from releasing a double album. Colin Greenwood said in a recent interview, "We had that group of songs to make one record, and the other ones are left over. It's that we had, say, 23 songs and we wanted to have around 47 minutes of music, so we chose the best combination out of that number (for 'Kid A'), and the rest are waiting on the bench, waiting to be picked for the next team line-up. It is a combination of like, more conventional, perhaps, but also more dissonant stuff. But it continues on from 'Kid A'. It was all done in the same recording period. It is all a whole." Notes: When asked what Amnesiac will sound like in an interview before the album's release, Thom replied, "If you look at the artwork for Kid A...well, that's like looking at the fire from afar. Amnesiac is the sound of what it feels like to be standing IN the fire." Amazon review More song-driven and acoustic than Kid A, Radiohead's Amnesiac isn't quite "Kid B," but it is unquestionably cut from the same far-out cloth, as the band revels in fascinating quirks and abject nihilism. It's also the first time in Radiohead's career that a new record hasn't meant a complete shift in artistic priorities. Surely, however, regardless of which was released first, they both deserve recognition; after all, Amnesiac, like Kid A, is an amazing piece of work.Only lightly augmented with electronics, songs like "You and Whose Army?" and "I Might Be Wrong" almost sound like they came from a typical five-piece rock band. You may even believe the band still employs a guitarist after hearing Jonny Greenwood's wistful surf-guitar lead on "Knives Out" or his subtle but noticeable contributions to the anticapitalist rant "Dollars and Cents." But inevitably, the band continually shifts gears, moving into Boards of Canada territory on "Like Spinning Plates" and delivering dark, bass-laden oddities like "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors," a fuzzed-out piece of avant-garde techno that could just as easily be on an Autechre or Aphex Twin record. The song's half-sung, half-spoken vocal was laid down by either a heavily distorted Thom Yorke or, just perhaps, a loquacious microwave oven. Either way, the music always has momentum, regardless of whether propelled by man or appliance. Radiohead as a band understand how to make rock interesting again, and in the end, that's all they set out to do when they recorded Amnesiac, as well as Kid A. It's more than can be said for the bad frat-punk, teen-pop and soulless techno that currently rules the charts, and for that alone, Radiohead's astonishing exploration of 21st-century anguish deserves creditReleased 06/09/2003 UK, 06/10/2003 US & Canada Produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich. Notes: Coming soon... From Rolling Stone: "We wanted to relearn the art of putting out shorter songs," says Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien. "Keeping it succinct instead of taking the listener on a journey."On their sixth album, Hail to the Thief (due June 10th), Radiohead return to the masterful songwriting of their early work but flavor it with the experimentation of their last two CDs, 2000's Kid A and 2001's Amnesiac . Songs pulsate, skitter electronically and turn into distorted gospel numbers -- but they also rock. "On tour in 2001 in America, I think we learned to swagger as a band," O'Brien explains. "We wanted to capture that on record. We also didn't want to spend too long in the studio."The group recorded Thief primarily over a marathon two-week session in Los Angeles with their customary producer, Nigel Godrich. The results are stunning, such as on the opener, "2 + 2 = 5," which builds from droning blips into passionate rock. Its lyrics include the title phrase "Hail to the thief," which O'Brien says is not intended simply as a reference to George W. Bush.Other highlights include the fuzzed-out "Myxomatosis," which takes its name from a disease that killed British rabbits, and the yearning ballad "I Will," on which singer Thom Yorke is accompanied by just a keyboard.While Thief is gloomy, the recording had one bright spot, according to O'Brien: "This is the first album where, at the end of making it, we haven't wanted to kill each other Elvis Costello, Scott Walker, Japan, R.E.M, Throwing Muses, Joy Division. P.J Harvey, Faust, Can, Prince Buster, DJ Shadow, Laika, The Verve, Penderecki Queen, The Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Can, the Pixies, Jimi Hendrix. Jazz, Miles Davis, Elvis Costello. Mo'Wax, Can, Pink Floyd's Meddle, Beatles, Dinosaur Jr, Joy Division, Happy Mondays, Smiths, Mansun, ROC, The Verve, Moloko Talking heads, The Fall, R.E.M, Tom Waits. Ennio morricone, Prince Buster, Lee Scratch Perry The Beat, Joy Division, The Ruts. Teenage Fanclub, Tricky, Supergrass, Captain Beefheart