Radiohead's drastic change in 1999-2000?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by manco, Apr 10, 2019.

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  1. Graham 12" Remix

    Graham 12" Remix Graham Sylvian, Graham Gedge or Graham from Felt

    I sometime wonder if the willfullness of Radiohead's slide into unpopularity is overplayed. The Bends and OK Computer were great because somebody in the songwriting team came up with some fantastic melodies: I remember both albums had these amazing adverts, with three or four clips of the loveliest tunes. Could it just be that for Kid A onwards, they didn't come up with any tunes and had to do the best they could?

    Nobody imagines that the National made some secret decision to stop trying so hard after Boxer and Alligator - they just stopped writing (so m)any good songs.
     
    Lewisboogie likes this.
  2. robcar

    robcar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Radiohead have now been making "non-Radiohead" music for a whole lot longer than they ever made "Radiohead" music.

    And with diminishing returns, it must be said.

    I'd like to see them do a more basic guitars/bass/drums/keyboards-with-melodic-hooks album just to hear what that might sound like in their older, wiser hands. It would certainly be a braver and more radical move for them at this point than yet another album like the last several.
     
    fmfxray373 and schnitzerphilip like this.
  3. Harry Flashman

    Harry Flashman Forum Resident

    Always amused me that Coldplay had their Kid A moment with ‘Midnight’ and then promptly said ‘that’s enough of that’ and sent for Beyoncé to re-establish their teenage girl credentials.
     
    Teufelzkerl, andrewskyDE and Jmac1979 like this.
  4. Alexlotl

    Alexlotl Forum Resident

    Location:
    York, UK
    Not financially - by selling King of Limbs download only exclusively from their website for a period, they apparently made more money than all their previous albums put together.

    AMSP also went to #1 in the UK Album Charts, although there’s obviously less money in shifting physical product these days.

    Talk of a “slide into unpopularity” seem bizarre to me. They’re not in the mainstream anymore, as both they and the mainstream have changed beyond recognition (and in different directions), but they’re still a highly successful band with a big cultural footprint, at least here in the UK.
     
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  5. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    It’s similar to the role that the Monkees played for early Beatles fans who felt lost with Revolver and Pepper. The Monkees and More of the Monkees were wonderful pop albums for fans who preferred Beatles 65 to later efforts.
     
    schnitzerphilip likes this.
  6. Jmac1979

    Jmac1979 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Well it was the beginning of their descent into trying to be a poor man's U2 (a group that barring one album from 2009 I find underrated, don't care much for anything else since 1997(, it was one of those albums I heard at the right time in my life that I always loved it.
     
  7. markreed

    markreed Forum Resident

    Location:
    Imber
    Er, no. Lots of later period National and Radiohead songs are very very good. They just don't work for you.
     
    akmonday, lordfalconer, IFP and 3 others like this.
  8. drumandguitar

    drumandguitar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birkenhead UK
    Words I thought I would never read...ever.
     
  9. octophone

    octophone immaterial girl

    Location:
    Scotland
    This thread is bewildering. I remember being utterly thrilled with "Kid A" from that Radio 1 interview where they played 6 of the albums tracks alongside and extended interview with the group to the day it came out and scanning over that bizarre artwork, trying to make sense of it. The following day, I found the hidden extra booklet and my mind was pretty much blown. It wasn't just an act of artistic bravery, it showed that Radiohead could strip out what was seen as their core sound (guitars), reduce the vocals - in places, at least - to a processed sonic element and yet still make an album that was unmistakably theirs. The negative reviews at the time tried to cast it as wilfully perverse but I never felt that - they were just pushing forward, using some of the more extreme parts of "OKC" as their template, something that became more obvious when "Amnesiac" arrived and included many of the more obviously Radioheadish songs from the sessions.

    Since then they have always followed their own star. They exist as a satellite to the music "scene", picking up its signals but never really functioning as part of it. Yes, we could all envy the financial security to do what we want, safe in the knowledge that any tour will keep the wheels turning even if an album doesn't ignite with a wider public.

    Like all of their albums (expect the debut), AMSP contained some incredibly beautiful songs, rendered in powerful and original ways. Gimme some of that "failure".
     
  10. spintheblack72

    spintheblack72 Forum Resident

    The temptation to write something rather arrogant and deriding Cold Play is almost too much, although I feel others have already said it.

    Radiohead's failure, like some have already said, if their output is failure I wonder to see what they'd done if they were a so called success in some others eyes.

    It's Game of Thrones syndrome, Radiohead didn't release the album I had in my head after OKC , therefore they are irrelevant and ****, whereas Cold Play were around to save us all.
     
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  11. BSC

    BSC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland
    I like experimental music I like the fact Radiohead went and experimented.

    I also paradoxically think The Bends is their greatest album-why? It's the most cohesive and most solid collection of songs with a very good flow-OKC stumbles a bit at times. Live when Radiohead get the three guitars out they are unbelievably powerful.

    The Radiohead song catalogue is greatly enhanced by Kid A onwards in terms of songs however trying to make that work as an album? For me it is too disjointed-too jarring as a complete listen. They have a marriage and variety of styles that in short are difficult to gel-their last record was their most cohesive for a while and sounded like...well an album.

    Coldplay were and remain Diet Radiohead....the worst lyrics ever...seriously.
     
    Jmac1979 likes this.
  12. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Radiohead is John Lennon recording Glass Onion on Tuesday and Revolution 9 on Thursday and deciding that Revolution 9 is what he should model the rest of the Beatles career on.

    Thank god they never did, but that’s the type of frightened and indulgent move Radiohead pulled. And like those who worship the garbage that is Revolution 9, so too are those naive Radiohead fans who pretend to tolerate the beeps and squeals of the post-OK Computer period.
     
  13. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Between the excellent Parachutes and outstanding Rush Of Blood To The Head we got our OK Computer II and that was all we needed.

    What Coldplay did after that is irrelevant. Just like post-OKC Radiohead.
     
  14. lucan_g

    lucan_g Forum Resident

    Aside from the fact that In Rainbows is one of the finest albums of their career.

    I never thought I’d open a Radiohead thread where Coldplay gets trumpeted as a temporary saviour. This must be the equivalent of the Hoffman Twilight Zone...
     
  15. Pop_Zeus

    Pop_Zeus Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southport, UK
    Can anyone who wishes to talk about Coldplay please do so in another thread
     
  16. waaguirr

    waaguirr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baton Rouge, LA

    I usually can’t decide between In Rainbows and OK Computer as my favorite album.
     
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  17. waaguirr

    waaguirr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baton Rouge, LA
    I think there are just a bunch of people in this thread who just don’t really like Radiohead. They might dig some of the songs from The Bends, but that doesn’t make them fans of the band.
     
  18. veloso2

    veloso2 Forum Resident

    it was one of the greatest move ever! blur has done the same for the best! the kind of music they used to play don't fit with the 21rst century! they are very clever to have understand that fact! that's why i have a great admiration for them! thank you!
     
  19. frozen-beach

    frozen-beach Forum Resident

    The King Of Limbs live from the the basement is great, better than the studio album. The studio album lacks something.
     
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  20. veloso2

    veloso2 Forum Resident

    not in the same league !!! no way!
     
  21. veloso2

    veloso2 Forum Resident

    i agree!
     
  22. veloso2

    veloso2 Forum Resident

    amsp is a masterpiece and a complete work of art! it works as a whole like if you were yourself in a pool!! fantastic
     
    spintheblack72 likes this.
  23. blair207

    blair207 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fife, Scotland
    Bands who decide that they aren't going to just keep making the same album for their whole career are what makes music great. Radiohead are one of the best at this. The fans who just gave up when they decided they were more than a guitar band have missed something special.
     
  24. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    I'm spinning TKOL Live from the Basement right now. This and the companion one for Kid A are highly recommended listens for those fans who may have not connected with the parent albums.
     
    graveyardboots likes this.
  25. Danderpet

    Danderpet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    At the time, I didn't feel like they took such a drastic turn. It took a week on Napster (!) but when I downloaded Morning Bell, it could easily have fit on OKC. The DNA was the same, maybe less structured into a guitar rock format.
    Not like Bowie's shift from Diamond Dogs to Young Americans, then "Station" to Low.

    And side two of KOL is sublime:)
     
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