Anyone else prefer Radioheads's post OK Computer albums?

Cropduster84

Just because Im sat listening to the Bends, and whilst I think it's a good guitar record, it pales in comparrison to their new album.

Maybe I'm just going off that mid nineties sound, I dunno...

Pandemic

They are better.

pj10alive42

No

Jeremy1012

yes yes yes.

let's look at pre-OK Computer.

Pablo Honey - boring. ok but nothing to write home about
The Bends - Has 3 fantastic songs, some good ones and some poor ones

then we have OK computer

then Kid A which is great all the way through. Even stuff like Treefingers has its role.
Amnesiac - some good, some mediocre
Hail to the thief - see Amnesiac
In rainbows - best since Kid A, better than the Bends.

Clearly, for me, post-OK Computer is better. The album itself is great too obviously.

ledvedderman

The Bends-OK Computer- Kid A may be the best three albums in a row I've seen in my lifetime.

I really enjoy everything post Pablo, but In Rainbows is really going to challenge OK and Kid A for my favorite RH album. I can't wait for my discbox w/ the IR b-sides.

Its Evolution Baby

I appreciate that everyone loves In Rainbows as much as I do but there is no way that its better then the Bends. It been barely a month people!

The Bends has My Iron Lung, Street Spirit, Fake Plastic Trees, Just, Planet Telex, Hight and Dry, Bones etc. which are some of there best songs.

For me it goes OK Commputer>The Bends>Kid A>In Rainbows>>>Amnesiac>Hail to the Theif>>>>>>>Pablo Honey.

There is a drop in quality from In Rainbows to Amnesiac imo.

Mike_Muse_Rage

I really don't like Pablo Honey and The Bends much. It's all about OK Computer and Kid A for me.

Evacuation Rules

It's kind of like saying Please Please Me and A Hard Day's Night are the best Beatles albums. Yes, they're good, but nowhere near as interesting or satisfying as their later material. I think it's funny when people pine for old Radiohead. I personally think The Bends is a load of shit.

LONGRD

i only have the Bends, OK Com, Kid A, Amnesia, Hail to the Thief.
Kid A & Hail/Thief are awesome. others are OK.

Anon

i always prefered the "bleep-bleep" Radiohead to the guitar Radiohead.

never cared for Pablo Honey. The Bends has it's moments but i haven't listened to it in years.

Pauk

I like how the two sides compliment each other. Can't have bleep bleep radiohead without guitar radiohead.

Ledbetterman10

I like Amnesiac a lot. Kid A? I LOVE National Anthem, Optimistic, and In Limbo. Idioteque is pretty good too. I can leave the rest. I don't care much for Hail to the Theif and I haven't heard the new one yet

Cropduster84

I guess when I listen to a song like 'Bones' next to something like Reckoner off the new album, Bends-era just seems so mediocre, just standard indie rock.

Thom's voice just gets better too.

facepollution

Cropduster84 wrote:

I guess when I listen to a song like 'Bones' next to something like Reckoner off the new album, Bends-era just seems so mediocre, just standard indie rock.

Thom's voice just gets better too.

Got better?! Are you kidding me! He used to sing, now all he does is whine, dude sounds like he's crying all the time.

I FAR preferred Radiohead when they had some energy about them. Of course there is a time and a place for their more experimental stuff, and I really don't mind some of it, but the about turn they did after OK Computer reeked of pretention. A band hell- bent on making 'unique' music for the sake of it. What ever happened to hooks and melody? The Bends was a timeless album built on solid melodies that will be remembered for far longer than the tedious, pseudo-electronic shite they pedal these days.

What irritates me even more (and I know I'm going to take an absolute battering for it), is the fact that America didn't even pick up on Radiohead when they were at their most accessible. They heard us Brits had a secret band we all loved, and upon the release of Kid A thought "well this MUST be the future of music. Never mind the fact that the new stuff threw away all those stunning crescendos and brilliant three pronged guitar interplay - the very features that made them stand out from all the other indie shit that was and still is around.

soulsinging

Its Evolution Baby wrote:

I appreciate that everyone loves In Rainbows as much as I do but there is no way that its better then the Bends. It been barely a month people!

The Bends has My Iron Lung, Street Spirit, Fake Plastic Trees, Just, Planet Telex, Hight and Dry, Bones etc. which are some of there best songs.

For me it goes OK Commputer>The Bends>Kid A>In Rainbows>>>Amnesiac>Hail to the Theif>>>>>>>Pablo Honey.

There is a drop in quality from In Rainbows to Amnesiac imo.

i mostly agree with you, though i prefer the new album to kid a and think pablo is a good, entertaining album. id' rate pablo above both httt and amnesiac.

Evacuation Rules

facepollution wrote:

Got better?! Are you kidding me! He used to sing, now all he does is whine, dude sounds like he's crying all the time.

I FAR preferred Radiohead when they had some energy about them. Of course there is a time and a place for their more experimental stuff, and I really don't mind some of it, but the about turn they did after OK Computer reeked of pretention. A band hell- bent on making 'unique' music for the sake of it. What ever happened to hooks and melody? The Bends was a timeless album built on solid melodies that will be remembered for far longer than the tedious, pseudo-electronic shite they pedal these days.

What irritates me even more (and I know I'm going to take an absolute battering for it), is the fact that America didn't even pick up on Radiohead when they were at their most accessible. They heard us Brits had a secret band we all loved, and upon the release of Kid A thought "well this MUST be the future of music. Never mind the fact that the new stuff threw away all those stunning crescendos and brilliant three pronged guitar interplay - the very features that made them stand out from all the other indie shit that was and still is around.

Radiohead started as indie darlings in America and their videos mostly appeared on Alternative Nation and 120 Minutes. The album that made them superstars here was "OK Computer" and it was because of the "Paranoid Android" and "Karma Police" videos that people went out and bought the album and the word spread far and wide that it was a fantastic album and their American cult swelled to massive, Grateful Dead-like proportions. "Kid A" was the most highly anticipated album of 1999, that's why it hit #1 when it was released. A lot of people, such as yourself, hated it and thought it was a pretentious load of shit. Americans hated it because it didn't sound like "OK Computer". They performed "National Anthem" on Saturday Night Live and it left people scratching their heads, and rightfully so.

And Thom's vocals don't sound like whining to me. You're obviously sour about Kid A and haven't gotten over it yet. I also don't buy into this shit about their songs not having melody. ALL of their songs have a melody, they just don't hit you over the head with an indie pop shit stick like The Bends does.

hguz73

Love them all and i would say yes..i like the post Ok Computer cds although i found The Bends being a great album. Pablo Honey has a couple good songs (Creep is one of those songs i just can't listen anymore). The Bends as i said before is great, Ok Computer is extraordinary..then came Kid A as an unexpected thing to come..i found it very interesting and yes i like most of the songs. Then came Amnesiac..as the "it will continue" of Kid A, kinda boring to be honest..i'd say it's the worst from the post era. I like Hail to the Thief despite all the criticism, i'd tag it as the balance between the post and pre OK Computer eras....great album...and finally In Rainbows another great delivery courtesy of Yorke and company.

glasshouse

Cropduster84 wrote:

Just because Im sat listening to the Bends, and whilst I think it's a good guitar record, it pales in comparrison to their new album.

Maybe I'm just going off that mid nineties sound, I dunno...

while their new album is definitely beautiful, it does not sound as vital as their previous 5 releases (excluding pablo honey)

Igottago

facepollution wrote:

A band hell- bent on making 'unique' music for the sake of it. What ever happened to hooks and melody?

I think you've missed it. This is the genius of Radiohead. The hooks and melodies are there on everything after the Bends. You just have to work for them a little. No other band has experimental music with such pop hooks. Albums like OK Computer, Kid A, and In Rainbows were all very difficult for me to understand right away. But once they clicked, I couldn't get the songs out of my head. The hooks and melodies are certainly there. There are a lot of pretentious bands who try to make "unique" music for the sake of it -- but Radiohead is not one of them.

glasshouse

Igottago wrote:

Albums like OK Computer, Kid A, and In Rainbows were all very difficult for me to understand right away.

there are nothing "difficult" about in rainbows. it's probably the least complicated album they've recorded.

Julien

I prefer the bends and ok computer.

facepollution

JWBusher wrote:

Radiohead started as indie darlings in America and their videos mostly appeared on Alternative Nation and 120 Minutes. The album that made them superstars here was "OK Computer" and it was because of the "Paranoid Android" and "Karma Police" videos that people went out and bought the album and the word spread far and wide that it was a fantastic album and their American cult swelled to massive, Grateful Dead-like proportions. "Kid A" was the most highly anticipated album of 1999, that's why it hit #1 when it was released. A lot of people, such as yourself, hated it and thought it was a pretentious load of shit. Americans hated it because it didn't sound like "OK Computer". They performed "National Anthem" on Saturday Night Live and it left people scratching their heads, and rightfully so.

And Thom's vocals don't sound like whining to me. You're obviously sour about Kid A and haven't gotten over it yet. I also don't buy into this shit about their songs not having melody. ALL of their songs have a melody, they just don't hit you over the head with an indie pop shit stick like The Bends does.

Sour and bitter? Fuck yes I am, a guitar player as good as Jonny Greenwood NEEDS to be playing guitar, not wanking over a pc. Like I said, some songs in that vein are fine, a whole album sucks. I'm not going to feel bad or like I don't 'get' it just because I miss the anthemics of songs like The Bends, Street Spirit, Lucky etc.

Radiohead were nowhere near as big in America as they were in the UK when OK Computer came out, like you said, they were a cult band, and when an album like Kid A sells to the masses you can bet the vast majority of people buying it are buying into the hype. It's what I call the Tool effect, look how many copies of 10,000 days they sold. 10,000 days in my opinion is a pretty good album, but most probably Tool's least accessible record to date. Yet Tool are hyped as being this really intellectual band, and if you 'get' it, well that makes you cool too! Can you imagine mainstream America sitting there getting into Rosetta Stoned?! That's the problem with the mainstream audience, they latch on to whatever's cool and hip; I wonder how many copies of Kid A are sitting on a shelf gathering dust right now in America?

Oh and Re: Thom's voice, his vocals are nowhere near as clear as they used to be, at times you can barely understand what he's singing at all. I don't think the ghostly moaning he does on half the songs is in any way comparable to something as beautiful as Street Spirit.

glasshouse

facepollution wrote:

That's the problem with the mainstream audience, they latch on to whatever's cool and hip

that my friend is the truth. the same goes for most music critics as well - most of them don't have their own opinions, they just play it safe. Radiohead will always be a safe bet - because of their (existing) universal critical acclaim.

for instance: http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/radiohead/inrainbows?q=in%20rainbows

88% ???~ for fuck sakes! this album may have some moments, but in no way whatsoever will i rate this release as one of the best of the year.

facepollution

glasshouse wrote:

that my friend is the truth. the same goes for most music critics as well - most of them don't have their own opinions, they just play it safe. Radiohead will always be a safe bet - because of their (existing) universal critical acclaim.

for instance: http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/radiohead/inrainbows?q=in%20rainbows

88% ???~ for fuck sakes! this album may have some moments, but in no way whatsoever will i rate this release as one of the best of the year.

Amen!

Jeremy1012

facepollution wrote:

Sour and bitter? Fuck yes I am, a guitar player as good as Jonny Greenwood NEEDS to be playing guitar, not wanking over a pc.

Johnny Greenwood sees himself as a musician, not just a guitarist, and he is one. A Consummate musician. who the hell are you to tell him what to play? It's his choice. I'm much more interested in the fact that someone better known for churning out mediocre riffs like Creep has gone on to experiment with a variety of instruments and sounds as obscure as the Ondes Martenot. Have you ever thought that the creativity-stifling attitude of 'fans' like you is what perpetuates this kind of experimentation?

facepollution

Jeremy1012 wrote:

Johnny Greenwood sees himself as a musician, not just a guitarist, and he is one. A Consummate musician. who the hell are you to tell him what to play? It's his choice. I'm much more interested in the fact that someone better known for churning out mediocre riffs like Creep has gone on to experiment with a variety of instruments and sounds as obscure as the Ondes Martenot. Have you ever thought that the creativity-stifling attitude of 'fans' like you is what perpetuates this kind of experimentation?

Wow I'm glad you judge his guitar skills on a song like Creep - how very open minded. There was no end to the sounds that guy could create from a guitar, I'm not TELLING him to do anything, but to me it's not far short of Jimi Hendrix jacking in the guitar to learn the recorder - just because he could.

The thing Radiohead proved with OK Computer, was that a guitar record could be exciting, surprising and wildly original, there's no reason why they couldn't have carried on in that mould and still made unique music. What they did after that record, was essentially to start over as an electronic based band. Like people have said in other threads, there are plenty of other artists who make music like Radiohead, what they're doing is not that original. But because it's THE ALMIGHTY RADIOHEAD, who can do no wrong, and who are so enigmatic and on such another level to everyone else, people lap it up as if it's the second coming.

harmless_little_f***

Yes, I do

glasshouse

facepollution wrote:

Like people have said in other threads, there are plenty of other artists who make music like Radiohead, what they're doing is not that original. But because it's THE ALMIGHTY RADIOHEAD, who can do no wrong, and who are so enigmatic and on such another level to everyone else, people lap it up as if it's the second coming.

once again i agree 100%

if you think about it, similar bands to radiohead ~ the flaming lips and mercury rev have created much more challenging and experimental albums imo. the 2 bands mentioned aren't as commercialy inclined as Radiohead though and therefore struggle to achieve the same universal appreciation.

Jeremy1012

facepollution wrote:

Wow I'm glad you judge his guitar skills on a song like Creep - how very open minded. There was no end to the sounds that guy could create from a guitar, I'm not TELLING him to do anything, but to me it's not far short of Jimi Hendrix jacking in the guitar to learn the recorder - just because he could.

The thing Radiohead proved with OK Computer, was that a guitar record could be exciting, surprising and wildly original, there's no reason why they couldn't have carried on in that mould and still made unique music. What they did after that record, was essentially to start over as an electronic based band. Like people have said in other threads, there are plenty of other artists who make music like Radiohead, what they're doing is not that original. But because it's THE ALMIGHTY RADIOHEAD, who can do no wrong, and who are so enigmatic and on such another level to everyone else, people lap it up as if it's the second coming.

I said he's more well known for riffs like Creep, which is true. You seem to miss my point completely about the guitar thing. whether or not it is a waste of Johnny's talent for him not to play guitar more, I wouldn't wish for a second for him to keep churning out stuff that he doesn't want to play. I'd much rather see him challenge himself and do what he wants to do because an artist's music is far more likely to be passionate if their heart is in it. If he goes back to more guitar playing, good on him. I just don't like yearning for the past when the present is, to my ears, infinitely more interesting.

You say you aren't trying to tell them to do anything and yet you openly admit your resistance to change. you say you think they should have continued to make guitar albums. It's not really for you to say is it? bands evolve, you don't own them. move with it or move to something else. for as many fans like you who feel cheated by a band you like changing their sound until you don't recognise or even like them anymore, there are just as many fans who would have felt cheated if Radiohead kept making The Bends for 12 years.

facepollution

Jeremy1012 wrote:

I said he's more well known for riffs like Creep, which is true. You seem to miss my point completely about the guitar thing. whether or not it is a waste of Johnny's talent for him not to play guitar more, I wouldn't wish for a second for him to keep churning out stuff that he doesn't want to play. I'd much rather see him challenge himself and do what he wants to do because an artist's music is far more likely to be passionate if their heart is in it. If he goes back to more guitar playing, good on him. I just don't like yearning for the past when the present is, to my ears, infinitely more interesting.

You say you aren't trying to tell them to do anything and yet you openly admit your resistance to change. you say you think they should have continued to make guitar albums. It's not really for you to say is it? bands evolve, you don't own them. move with it or move to something else. for as many fans like you who feel cheated by a band you like changing their sound until you don't recognise or even like them anymore, there are just as many fans who would have felt cheated if Radiohead kept making The Bends for 12 years.

Yeah and you're missing my point, I believe that as a band Radiohead had it in them to evolve as a guitar band, you only have to look at the progression from The Bends to OK Computer to see that. How would you have felt if after VS Pearl Jam reinvented as a syth pop band? I don't yearn for the past, I yearn for hooks and strong melodies, I don't care how they're packaged, hell if they could make a truly memorable album in their new form I'd be happy.

Every Radiohead fan I know that loves the new stuff became a fan after Kid A, it's no surprise really - most people's favourite album by an artist tends to be the album that they first got into. Considering your general lack of regard for their guitar days, can I presume you are one of them?

Jeremy1012

facepollution wrote:

Yeah and you're missing my point, I believe that as a band Radiohead had it in them to evolve as a guitar band, you only have to look at the progression from The Bends to OK Computer to see that. How would you have felt if after VS Pearl Jam reinvented as a syth pop band? I don't yearn for the past, I yearn for hooks and strong melodies, I don't care how they're packaged, hell if they could make a truly memorable album in their new form I'd be happy.

Every Radiohead fan I know that loves the new stuff became a fan after Kid A, it's no surprise really - most people's favourite album by an artist tends to be the album that they first got into. Considering your general lack of regard for their guitar days, can I presume you are one of them?

No, you can't presume that. Such an assumption would be arrogance. I first listened to, and for some reason enjoyed, in spite of my age, OK Computer when it came out so I would have been 9 or so. I thought it was the most sophisticated music I'd ever heard. It's still a fantastic album.

I don't understand you point at all about the ability for them to progress as a guitar band. sure they had the potential but what the hell does that mean? it's their choice. Music is music. I judge it on its own merits, not whether or not it fits into what I previously liked from the band. If PJ came out with a synth album and I hated it then I'd be disappointed but I'd still enjoy the music I do like from them and wouldn't go about moaning about where they went wrong on messageboards. It's their choice. As for hooks and strong melodies, In Rainbows is their most accessible album since The Bends and has better hooks and melodies. I hardly see what the fuss is about. You want a return to hooks and melodies? you got it. if it's really all about the guitar issue now, maybe you should branch out with your listening a bit.