All Radiohead albums from worst to best (2023)

Radiohead may be the most critically revered rock band on the planet, if they can still be considered a 'rock' group at this point, 37 years into a singular and superlative career during which the quintet has repeatedly rewritten and fearlessly their collective DNA. and reshaped the modern music landscape in the process.

It's fair to say that such considerations were not on the minds of Thom Yorke, brothers Jonny and Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien and Philip Selway when they got together one Friday in 1985 in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, to imitate the sound of the nascent shoegaze scene. that was beginning to take shape nearby. But the journey they have shared since those early days has been spectacular. Here, in order from worst to best, are the studio albums that helped transform a casual school band into one of the most acclaimed, influential, and commercially successful guitar groups of the century.

The irony of Radiohead's best-known song, The Albatrosscrawl, which appears on their debut album, and less noticeably, is not lost on hardcore fans.paulo melit's a decent attempt by a still-developing group to meld their shared passions for British indie and American alternative rock, but it never becomes much more than the sum of their influences.

NMEvotedpaulo melthe 35th best album of 1993, behind the scenes of Gallon Drunk, Dodgy, The Boo Radleys and other newcomersAnte, and had Radiohead been content to stick to that stylistic path, their often charming debut would no doubt be fondly remembered by nostalgic indie guitar fans in their mid-forties. What we have, though much, much dwarfs that.

With a duration of 37 minutes and 34 seconds,tkolit's Radiohead's shortest album, and one might reasonably suggest that its brevity is evidence of Radiohead striving to find a touch of inspiration.the king of limbsit's far from bad, but it lacks the groundbreaking uniqueness or emotional weight of most of the band's output.

It is a very beautiful album, very light, dotted with really excellent moments: the broken rhythms that openbloom,to funeral march ofCodex- but one that falls a bit short of the very high standards that Radiohead have set for themselves.

We are already at a point where we have to start dividing the hairs, likeA pool in the shape of the moonit's a fantastic record, indicating a clear return to form for the band. The signs were good when the glorious dark and sinisterburn the witchit was released as their first single, but that only hinted at the treasures present on this album.

The Rise of the Revamped Fan FavoriteTrue love Waits, first played live in 1995, is a testament to the group's refusal to sell: "This is something like approach number 561, but it's a great song," guitarist Ed O'Brien wrote in his journal in line, and for a band of almost 30 years. years into his career to create the transcendent sci-fi pulse ofFinal pointit is powerfully impressive.

the politicizedgreetings to the thiefit may be the most underrated set of songs of Radiohead's career. Written against the backdrop of the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq, the band crafted an often angry, often desperate set of tunes that drew on the frustration and paranoia of the situation in typically masterful fashion.

The guitars returned to focus, and the art with which the group unites rock with their electronic fantasies in a song likeGo to sleepit is often overlooked. At 14 tracks, not everything hits as hard as the opening.2 + 2 = 5 -the band itself acknowledged that it would benefit from more precise editing, but it's loaded with ideas that make up for the repeat views.

the companion sister ofboy a,amnesicit suffers a bit in comparison, due to fan awareness and newfound familiarity with the change in style the band has made. Which doesn't stop it from being a phenomenal set of songs.

Introducing the now iconicpyramid songWith its heavy piano chords that can still chill your blood and make your hair stand on end, the group's fifth album is packed with broken rhythms, throbbing electronic bass, haunted keys and Yorke's hypnotic vocals. Recorded in the same studio sessions as its most acclaimed predecessor, it is evidence of the flood of ideas the band emanated in this liberating, richly creative and uninhibited phase of their career.

A record that divided opinion as soon as it arrived due to the way it was released, the controversy overin rainbowsThe "Pay What You Want" marketing strategy seems rather strange today, but it caused quite a stir back in 2007.

Ultimately though, nothing was going to outshine the music, and the further we got from the release ofin rainbowsit seems to sound better. fuzz garage rockbody snatchersfor the delicately chosen yet rhythmically propulsiveStrange Fish/Arpeggiosto the spooky and electro dub-clash ofAll I need, there is not a second wasted here.

An album that shocked, confused and genuinely angered many fans when it was released today.boy ait is rightly praised as one of the most important and essential records of our time. It's easy to see why this caused so much anger at the time, with a great rock band turning its back on the conventions of the genre to fully embrace and immerse itself in the sound of ambient electronic music.

Time validated Radiohead's audacity, with many of their most beloved and popular songs,the National anthemmiIdiotamong them, which appears here. Some have called it the best album of the millennium - the fact that it's not even considered the second best album of the band's career shows just how bulletproof Radiohead's back catalog is.

silver medal forthe curves? Controversial? Well, a distinction between 'best' and 'favourite' might be necessary here. Because although we can't deny itboy amiin rainbowsPush, pull and manipulate the fundamentals of the genre much more than Radiohead's second album, when it comes to the sheer number of impressive and impactful songs that really move you, can any album, by anyone, match that?

From the simple beauty offake plastic trees, by the caustic surge ofmy iron lung, from the anthem of the title track to the haunting fragility ofstreet spirit, every song here is practically perfect.

Sethe curvesis "pretty perfect" thenok computeris, in this writer's considered opinion, utterly perfect in a way that almost no other album in music history, regardless of genre, is.

In 1997, British music was dominated by the youthful, nostalgic sound of Brit-Pop, untilok computercame and killed him like a stone. The album's impact led to it being hailed by music critics as the best ever made within a year of its release, and its creators being hailed as the most important band since.los beatles. He seemed like a heady compliment at the time, but for once, the hype was justified: Today, these 12 songs are firmly established in the lexicon of truly classic pop culture.

The aching sadness, the immense cinematic glory, the freezing surroundings and rumbling Krautrock, the brittle whispers that make you lean in and the wild, delirious bursts of noise that make you recoil...ok computerit is simply a once-in-a-generation masterpiece.

Since paving the way for the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless articles and reviews for the magazine, which usually specializes in 90s punk, hardcore and metal, and still harbors a vague hope of one day putting his beloved U2 on the pages. . He also regularly voices his views on the Metal Hammer podcast.