The 10 best Radiohead songs
Often considered one of the greatest living bands, Radiohead defied expectations so persistently that the new expectation is for them to withstand it completely. Their early experimental approach to alternative rock is credited with greatly advancing the genre into new frontiers.
The early generic sound of the band’s debut, Pablo Honey, was refined on its 1995 follow-up The Bends, which itself was perfected on the inimitable OK Computer. However, in 2000, Radiohead shocked critics and fans alike with Kid A, a project which largely abandoned the rock-orientated sound of the 1990s in favour of an electronica-sounding output inspired by the likes of Aphex Twin and Björk.
Since then, Radiohead have continued to experiment with their sound, leading to the understanding that they have no genre; they are just “Radiohead”. Thematically, Thom Yorke has confoundingly expressed the ennui and existential dread of modern living, whether through the onslaught of technology or the ever-quickening death of the planet on which the human race dwells.
We’ve taken on the difficult task of picking out the ten best songs from the Radiohead back catalogue and even managed to squeeze one in from each of their full-length studio albums (bar the oft-maligned Pablo Honey) in the process. So in ascending order, please enjoy the very best of Radiohead.
The 10 best Radiohead songs:
10. ‘Separator’
Radiohead’s catalogue from 1995’s The Bends to 2007’s In Rainbows often steals the limelight, partially understandable given its excellence; perhaps because of that, their 2011 album The King of Limbs goes under the radar somewhat. However, it features some of the band’s best songs, indeed its closing track, ‘Separator’.
The song sees Radiohead perhaps at their most chilled out, and there is undoubtedly a natural theme to the record. Selway’s beat is infectious, lending weight to Colin Greenwood’s high-register bassline, and Nigel Godrich’s production is in as good a form as ever, expertly delaying Yorke’s delicate vocals to wonderous effect.
9. ‘The Numbers’
Throughout the 21st Century, both Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood had provided scores for several highly-acclaimed films, and Greenwood, in particular, had essentially made the transition from rock band guitarist to classical music genius. This new sound for the Radiohead duo led to classical moments on their most recent album A Moon Shaped Pool.
Still, the Radiohead ways of old were present, although now combined with that high-art sensibility. ‘The Numbers’ is one of the album’s best efforts and opens with a wonderfully composed piano piece before two guitars reminiscent of the Yorke/Greenwood relationship of yore come into to marry the new sound as was previously expressed in Greenwood’s scores for The Master and There Will Be Blood.
8. ‘2 + 2 = 5’
In the 21st century, Radiohead eventually grew frustrated with their original major label EMI and fulfilled their contract with them with 2003’s aptly named Hail to the Thief. There was undoubtedly a more rock-oriented sound on the record, fused with Kid A’s and Amnesiac‘s electronica. However, there was a complete lack of any single for EMI to capitalise on.
The album opens with ‘2 + 2 =5’, which is one of the band’s best efforts. It references several Orwellian themes, particularly the sense that nothing seemed to add up to anything resembling logical understanding in a post-9/11 world. The song is rather patient for the first two minutes before the band lets loose in one of the most wonderfully chaotic moments in Radiohead’s history.
7. ‘Pyramid Song’
Up until 2000, the band had taken a break of a few years between albums, so when Amnesiac arrived just a year after Kid A, it became evident that Yorke had gotten himself out of his post-OK Computer slump and was brimming with new songs and ideas. Amnesiac essentially picked up where Kid A left off, and one of its best efforts is certainly ‘Pyramid Song’.
It opens with a haunting baby grand piano chord progression and vocal harmony before Yorke takes us on a journey through purgatory littered with “black-eyed angels”. Yorke had actually written the song in just five minutes, put drew influence for the lyrics from all over the shop, including the realms of physics and religion.
6. ‘Subterranean Homesick Alien’
Jonny Greenwood’s guitar tones on OK Computer are utterly exemplary, and nowhere else on the record are they more glorious than on ‘Subterranean Homesick Alien’. The song sees Thom Yorke longing to be taken from the horrors of his home planet, wanting to be abducted by aliens who understand out “uptight” the human race has become.
The beautiful thing about Radiohead is that they understand the necessity of sonic space; there is no need to drown out every part of every track with instrumentation, and here the effortless playing of Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway is given the right about of room to breathe, perhaps echoing the sense of relief Yorke feels at finally being whisked away into the stars.
5. ‘Bullet Proof … I Wish I Was’
While ‘Creep’ from Pablo Honey set Radiohead on their way to global stardom (and even today, arguably remains their most popular song), it was The Bends that saw the band shape the alternative rock sound they employed throughout the 1990s. There are several wonderful efforts on the 1995 album, one that stands out is the tragic ‘Bullet Proof … I Wish I Was’.
The track opens with the eerie instrumentals that dominate much of the Radiohead catalogue before a delicately strummed acoustic guitar marries Phil Selway’s patiently sparse percussion. Thom Yorke’s vocals are arguably as beautiful as ever here, influenced, no doubt, by the timeless Jeff Buckley. Simply stunning.
4. ‘Kid A’
By the end of the 1990s, Radiohead were unequivocally an alternative rock band and seemed (mostly) happy being so. However, it came to light that Yorke and the rest of the band had become alienated from their craft by the end of the OK Computer tour. To remedy themselves of this, they set about making a very different record for its follow-up.
The result was the electronica-heavy Kid A, which at first confounded the public, then amazed them that Radiohead always seemed to have it in the locker. They were far, far more than just a British alt-rock outfit. The title track is truly stunning; the constantly shifting keyboard chord progression, that Aphex Twin/Bjork-influenced syncopated drumbeat, and the utterly strange vocals. Admittedly, words cannot express half of the song’s beauty.
3. ‘All I Need’
While Radiohead have always had that loud, sometimes chaotic sonic output in their catalogue, it has always appeared that they were at their best at their most sombre. In that light, ‘All I Need’, taken from 2007’s “pay what you want” record In Rainbows, is certainly one of their best. The track begins with one of Phil Selway’s simplest drumbeats and a glorious sub-bassline from Colin Greenwood.
Jonny Greenwood’s spacial eeriness is present all throughout the track, giving weight to Thom Yorke’s lyrics that are at their most reflective, melancholic and yearning best. Towards the three-minute mark, the song shifts, Selway comes in on hard on the symbols, Greenwood on the xylophone and we are treated to one of the best crescendos the Oxford five-piece have ever committed to record.
2. ‘How To Disappear Completely’
While much of Kid A was indeed electronica-based, there was still room for the Radiohead songs of yore with Yorke’s strummed acoustic and a walking bassline by Colin Greenwood. ‘How To Disappear Completely’ is certainly in that category, as well as not only being one of Radiohead’s saddest songs but arguably one of the saddest songs of all time, period.
There are shades of the future classical tones that the band would later employ on the likes of A Moon Shaped Pool, take, for instance, the gorgeous string section. If there were any cues that Yorke had fallen into a deep depression, it was this song. “I’m not here; this isn’t happening,” he desperately sings with all the passion and subtlety that we came to expect from him over the years.
1. ‘Paranoid Android’
When Radiohead followed up on The Bends with the world-conquering OK Computer, their sound had become more refined, yet more technologically distinctive, perhaps fitting for the record’s themes of social alienation and technology worry. It featured the Radiohead song ‘Paranoid Android’.
It’s a six-and-a-half minute rollercoaster ride through the ennui and desperation of modern living, still apt even 25 years after its release. All members of the band are on absolute fire here, from that iconic Yorke acoustic guitar, Jonny Greenwood’s swelling guitar lines and Colin Greenwood’s melodic bassline. When it comes to Radiohead, it just doesn’t get any better than this.
