Radiohead album by album

Never thought they were Maiden fans!

 

Radiohead's third demo was recorded in the summer of 1990
It's called 'Shindig', because the band changed briefly the name from 'On a Friday' to 'Shindig'

1. Climbing Up A Bloody Great Hill (3.53)
2. Somebody (2.43)
3. Mr B. (5.05)
4. What's That You See? (4.01)
5. Everyone Needs Someone To Hate (1.12)
6. Upside Down (2.36)
7. The Greatest Shindig (Of The World) (3.33)
8. Give It Up (3.03)
9. How Can You Be Sure? (3.39)
10. Life With The Big F (1.21)
11. Keep Strong (3.20)
12. Rattlesnake (6.31)
13. Burning Bush (4.19)
14. Tell Me Bitch (3.20)
15. New Generation (3.57)

 

You can hear Thom finding his voice. Really strong voice. Love Keep Strong and Burning Bush. These demos are fascinating.

 

Top three band for me and the wife, couldn’t live without them. To me there are three Radioheads:

1. Pablo through OK
2. Kid A through Hail
3. King of Limbs to current

The transition to what/how they play now is very natural in my view. That being said, watching some of the modern shows from 2016 on, it’s absolutely astounding how damn good they are, and really light years away from the 90s and even early 2000s. I saw them on the last night of the summer 2018 tour in Philly and it was mind altering good.

 

This is a band that I should love and have tried to get into and it just hasn’t clicked. I am going to follow this Thread and hopefully it will help

 

I was also at that show. It was beautiful. Such a great set

 

Phenomenal set. We sat in awe afterwards and only left when security kicked us out. Absolutely incredible.

 

Also at the last Philly show from 2018 . One of my absolute favorite bands that just continues to impress. I've watched so many 'favorite' bands of mine over the years change directions and become mediocre for one reason or another. Radiohead has remained top of top and for good reasons.

 

“Tell Me Bitch” lyrics:

“Tell me bitch
Are you screwing that small grey spanish old man
Kind of vicious little mouth
If you are then he just might meet with an accident
'cause I know I don't wanna see his face again
Tell me bitch
Are you screwing that little spanish man
Ever since you left me I've been so dull I mean so ill
I don't know what to do with myself
Tell me bitch
Is he good in bed
Is he better than me
Well that's not difficult really
'cause I haven't got a willy”

Yeah, I think they should consider redoing that one for LP10.

 

Where do you include "In Rainbows" of the three?

 

Rainbows belongs with Kid A — Thief, IMO. The 2006 shows with more eclectic setlists in smaller venues where they woodshedded unreleased tracks reminded me of the short 2002 run in Iberia prior to recording Thief

 

We’ll get there later but I’d say In Rainbows belongs with your last grouping. I think it’s the album where they really locked it all in, fully bridging the electronic and rock elements so that now they can really go anywhere. But rule number one of album-by-albums is don’t jump ahead, so I’ll stop there and wait to discuss it later!

 

Good call. Rainbows belongs with the King of Limbs and on grouping. That was the start of the modern day Radiohead that I prefer. Kid A and OK still huge favorites of mine, but from Rainbows on...man, just another world.

 

well, it's high time I joined the forum anyway. excited for this

 

My favorite band. I’m down for this thread!

 

Welcome to the forum, enjoy!

 

Have to admit, I’ve never actually listened to Pablo Honey. I mean sat down and listened. My boss loves it, says it was all over his college campus when it came out. Which is kind of funny because Kid A was all over my college campus when it came out. He prefers 90s Radiohead and more or less checks out with Kid A. Ah well.

I did give a listen to that 94 Astoria show they released a little while back on YouTube. Was cool to hear a bunch of the early stuff for sure, but not really something I’ll revisit.

 

Gets a bad rap. Better than King of Limbs.

 

There's a lot of krautrock influences as well.

 

I'm quite ashamed to say I've only seen Radiohead once live and it was the OK Computer tour,I'd just turned thirteen and was on a massive Radiohead binge, it was an absolutely amazing gig with DJ Shadow supporting which is something I'd appreciate a few more years later when I really got into Endtroducing.

Here's the setlist
Radiohead Setlist at NEC Arena, Birmingham

 

Count me in the “In Rainbows belongs in Era III” group myself. Kid A through Hail to the Thief was one long narrative arc of “when will they go back to their guitars” and by the time In Rainbows came out nearly five years after HTTT, they had struck a synergy that felt organic and didn’t fit neatly into “rock” or “electronics.” HTTT definitely had guitar tracks but it felt a lot like they existed separately from the electronic tracks on the record.

But back on (chronological) topic, I do get a kick out of this early, puerile version of Radiohead considering what a sheen of high-brow sophistication they’d end up taking on in later years.

Agree that Pablo Honey is underrated, but I don’t think it’s as good or as interesting as King of Limbs. But then, I’m partial to later Radiohead regardless.

 

You got “Creep”! Was it a weird, dismissive kind of version? I saw them in philly on that tour and they played it there as well, and it felt like a huge surprise. Thom seemed very disinterested lol

 

High points are higher on KoL but a few clunkers on such a short album is the deciding factor and at the respective points in their career, I don’t find KoL much more interesting or adventurous than PH.

 

From what I can remember it was pretty straight version but they only had three albums of material to choose so I think there would have been a few upset fans if they hadn't played it.

 

I do remember being very defensive of King of Limbs when it came out and I still think parts of it are stunning (and other parts...less so), but I remember when A Moon Shaped Pool came out, the first time I listened to it I was like, “oh yeah, this is what a great Radiohead album is supposed to sound like” and since then I’ve been a lot more level-headed in my assessment of KoL.