Anyone else prefer Radioheads's post OK Computer albums?

They are better.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.