Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Radio & Music >

Radiohead=Best Band Ever???

06:55 / 28.09.03

i think Radiohead is the single best band ever to exist. anybody agree/disagree? if so why?

08:55 / 28.09.03

Nah, you're simply acting a bit the fanboy, but that's OK. I used to feel that way about several bands that I now still respect but don't think are so wizard.

But radiohead are OK. Some of their songs are really good. But not best band ever.

09:07 / 28.09.03

Radiohead = the new Pink Floyd, basically.

Kid A was pretty good, and there are a few numbers I like on.. what was it called? the album that followed that..

But otherwise = *shrug*.

Although in a strange way it does warm my heart to see stadiums full of people overcome with near-religious awe as Johnny Greenwood makes some noise on a transistor radio and Thom York spazzes out in a cardigan.

12:24 / 28.09.03

One of the best mainsteream bands in history, maybe.

The millenium will be remembered by Radiohead, Tool, The Strokes etc., underground hiphop, and all kinds of experimental electronica.

Professor Silly

17:06 / 28.09.03

I certainly consider them one of the best bands recording albums these days, and perhaps the best touring act right now.

I think with each album they get better and better. I like some of the stuff on Pablo Honey...I like most of The Bends.
OK Computer I consider absolutely brilliant, and yet I think Kid A topped it. Amnesiac has some of my all time favorite songs on it, and Hail To The Thief seems like the best album I've ever bought...ever...ever....

Yes, I think that means they've topped both The Beatles and Pink Floyd.

Lately I've taken to listening to all their albums mixed up on my X-Box, and dammit it works. It's like going to a concert and not ever knowing what they will play next (unless I look at the screen).

18:03 / 28.09.03

I think I could name 100 better musical acts than Radiohead.

18:06 / 28.09.03

then name them you lazy limp squid.

20:07 / 28.09.03

Ten years on I still don't like Pablo Honey that much.

I love The Bends and OK Computer. Kid A is also pretty good, but that's where it gets fuzzy for me. I acknowledge that good musicians want to experiment, to explore new musical vistas and landscapes blah blah. But after awhile you're in serious danger of disappearing (completely) up your own ass.

When I read Yorke say something about Hail To The Thief consisting of "three minute pop songs" I was kind of happy. After buying it, not so much.

I feel somewhat the same way about Tool. Lateralus just kind of laid there, screaming at me "I'm conceptual, dammit!" without getting up and doing something.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

20:55 / 28.09.03

They're okay - they do kind of rip off Coldplay though.

21:09 / 28.09.03

I've never understood the obsession with Radiohead even when I considered them to be one of my favourite bands.
They're ok. They make some interesting, sometimes too clever for its own good, music.
For pure songwriting The Bends beats anything they've ever done since hands down. Its a glorious pop record before pop became like that. There are solid songs with memorable chorus' and plenty of bits to pique some interest.
Their albums since have been a little... dense. Its harder to relax into the music. Sure once you get there its good but it shouldn't be an effort to enjoy an album.
REM are still leagues ahead of Radiohead even on a bad day. And I don't even like REM that much.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:59 / 29.09.03

I feel kind of conflicted.

I've always really loved them but a while ago now their public persona became sort of unbearable even though their music still gave me chills. It was around the time of 'Meeting People Is Easy' (a film about how hard it is to be Thom Yorke, ye gods, with a very stupid title - no, meeting people IS easy, you whinging fucks, especially if you're a critically acclaimed and commercially massive rock band!), and dreadful beyond parody things like the Yorke/UNKLE track. Mind you, I spend what seemed like solid months defending Kid A & Amnesiac, and I think I still would. But, argh.

They piss me off no end. But I really like the music.

Apart from two thirds of the last album. That was the record where a lot of the criticisms started to ring true, for me.

Murray Hamhandler

21:39 / 29.09.03

Yeah, I still haven't really gotten into their new disc. Mind you, I haven't listened to it much, but it just isn't catching my attention.

Pablo Honey...eh. I've maybe listened to it five times since I bought it. Usually in the background.

The Bends took a while to catch on, but I liked it more over time. It's a good album, but it's just a bit too RAWK for where I am now music-taste-wise.

I loved OK Computer when it first came out, but it severely fell in my esteem upon repeated listens. They're trying, those tenacious lads, but they just can't quite work themselves out of that rock bind.

But Kid A and Amnesiac were revelations. I have a soft spot for avant pop that works and those two albums most definitely work. Among the top of my list, for sure.

Never seen 'em live. Don't have cable TV or read much mainstream music journalism, so I don't know much about their public persona outside of Meeting People Is Easy, which I did see and which, I agree, was pretty grating. Judging solely by their music, it seems like they've grown as people since that film. But that's wholly speculative.

Matthew Fluxington

22:07 / 29.09.03

See, the thing with Meeting People Is Easy is that while I agree that they get painfully smug and whiney (Thom and Jonny in particular), it's just the flipside of being, say, Motley Crue/GNR/Led Zeppelin/Rolling Stones, which is generally glorified by people but I usually find totally repugnant. They are all acting like adolescents because of their privelege. I think the problem is that Radiohead may remind more people of what they were actually like during their adolescence - it's all angst and bellyaching and fearing other people - whereas the Crue et al are living out the id that Radiohead-types generally repress.