Today is the 26th anniversary of an album that arguably changed the face of rock music for good. In 1997, Radiohead released their third record, ‘OK Computer’, to instant critical acclaim. It soared to the top of many lists – the best albums of the decade, the century, all time even – with its musical spectrum ranging from profound and grand to insular and afraid; the paranoia and sentimentality of Thom Yorke’s lyrics; and the sweeping commentary of the album, filled with foresight of the digital dystopia the world was heading into.
However, there is one list that hasn’t been written yet that this classic album awaits placement on. Of course, the people are crying out to know: “Where does it rank on the She’s So Vinyl ranking of Radiohead’s albums?”.
Well, I guess I must satisfy the people…
Fully biased, never impartial, always incorrect – this list presents the first in a series that may never see a second entry. Read on below for my ranking of Radiohead’s nine albums, completely based on my preferences and absolutely nothing more. Let me know how wrong I am in the comments, and enjoy!
9. ‘Pablo Honey’ (1993)
Favourite song: ‘Creep’
Let’s get the pleasantries out the way – if this album was made by any other band, especially as their debut – I’d most likely look more favourably on it. But it wasn’t, and I don’t.
To me, ‘Pablo Honey’ is very much an album made by a band whose time would’ve been better spent perfecting their craft a bit more before committing sound to wax. Radiohead here sound the most like almost every other rock band of the time, and the least like the Radiohead to come.
I’m perhaps being too unfair on it – like I said, it’d be a great album for literally anyone else – but its place in Radiohead’s discography is unequivocally stone last and the only ‘bad’ album they’ve ever produced. Thank God for ‘Creep’, eh?
8. ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ (2016)
Favourite song: ‘Burn The Witch’
We jump from the first to the last album for eighth place, and for much different reasons. 2016’s ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ is a striking record forged from sheer heartbreak, grief, and sadness.
This album is truly a beautiful collection of songs that span Radiohead’s entire career – for example, the emotionally crushing ‘True Love Waits’ was performed by the band since the 90s and was a favourite unreleased cut before finding its place as the closer.
Combining this with the surrounding circumstances – including but not limited tp the ending of Yorke’s 25-plus year marriage and the death of producer Nigel Godrich’s father during recording – and the relative radio silence since, ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ really does feel like an appropriate closing chapter of a stellar recording career should this turn out to be Radiohead’s last release.
It pains me to place this album so low, given how high I am on it. But the reason I love it is simultaneously the reason it’s here – ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ is simply that much of an emotional gauntlet throughout its duration that I really have to be in the mood to listen to it. And thankfully for my sake, that’s not often.
7. ‘The King Of Limbs’ (2011)
Favourite song: ‘Morning Mr Magpie’
By now, I’m sure everyone’s seen the video for ‘Lotus Flower’. Yorke’s skittish, meme-worthy dancing may attract more mirth than anything else, but it does quite neatly summarise Radiohead’s eighth album – a weird, yet fun, exploration of extended studio techniques and sampling that combines both their performance-based and electronic-based songwriting to this point.
‘The King Of Limbs’ for me is an often underrated album in the band’s discography. It’s so easy to lose yourself in the generative grooves of the record, playing out more like a growing, living thing rather than a static object of music. This organic vibe is perpetuated masterfully across different instrumentations, from the buzzing synths of ‘Lotus Flower’; to the stuttering guitar loops on ‘Morning Mr Magpie’, to the swirling pianos and stumbling drum machines on ‘Bloom’.
My only complaint is the length – being Radiohead’s shortest album clocking in at 37 minutes, I think it could’ve benefited from an extra 10-15 minutes to bring it in line with the rest of their records and give more time to drop out in the lush textures the band create.
6. ‘Hail To The Thief’ (2003)
Favourite song: ‘2+2=5 (The Lukewarm.)’
Radiohead have a reputation for being a somewhat… paranoid band, yet on ‘Hail To The Thief’ they take that stereotype to its maximum. Couched in the political hysteria and conspiracies that came with the 2000 US election, the record returns to a scathing rock soundworld following their electronic departures on the preceding albums.
‘Hail To The Thief’ contains probably Radiohead’s most vitriolic and wild cuts across their whole discography. Opener ‘2+2=5’ is a complete encapsulation of the album’s mindset – a four-minute-long crescendo that is full of tension bubbling under before spilling over into a cathartic climax.
Conversely to ‘The King Of Limbs’, I’d have rated this record a bit higher if it was a bit shorter – there are a few cuts on here that feel like filler just to tide you over to the next track. However, the sheer violence of the sound fuelled by the surrounding political climate is what takes ‘Hail To The Thief’ to the next level for me.
5. ‘Amnesiac’ (2001)
Favourite song: ‘I Might Be Wrong’
Despite only comprising of offcuts from sister album ‘Kid A’, ‘Amnesiac’ is more than capable of standing on its own two feet. The record definitely invokes a darker side to their electronic experimentations, with tracks like ‘Pyramid Song’ and ‘I Might Be Wrong’ lumbering along ominously.
We’re getting to the point in the list where the records generally have no faults to me – in the case of ‘Amnesiac’, my thoughts can essentially be boiled down to: “it’s not ‘Kid A’”. Remove all thoughts of its big brother, however, and ‘Amnesiac’ is an infinitely rewarding listen. Somehow inhabiting space in rock, electronic, and even ambient genres, for me the record deserves every bit as much praise as the four to come in this list.
4. ‘The Bends’ (1995)
Favourite song: ‘High And Dry’ / ‘Fake Plastic Trees’
Here we have the big four then. ‘The Bends’ for me is everything ‘Pablo Honey’ could’ve been if, you know, it was good. This record is most definitely the result of a band truly finding their own unique sound, and for me is the true beginning of their discography.
There are still a few tracks on here that sound a bit ‘Pablo’, but even these are more refined and sound more ‘Radiohead’ compared to their predecessors. What’s new here is the emotional touch of Yorke’s songwriting – on ‘The Bends’, the frontman really does find his voice on tracks like ‘High And Dry’, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, and ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’.
While just missing out on the podium albums-wise, I’d argue that these tracks above could lay claim to the band’s best songs overall. The next three records most certainly would not have been possible without the release of this coming-of-age collection of tracks.
3. ‘OK Computer’ (1997)
Favourite song: ‘Let Down’
The big fish sinks to number three! This may seem like a lowly position for an album often cited in greatest-of-all-time discussions – but I did say I was very biased, didn’t I?
It cannot be overstated the importance of this album. From the topics it covers to its novel alternative rock sound, there is nary a guitar band that hasn’t once had even just a flash of an ‘OK Computer’ moment in their own work.
There’s not much to say about this album that hasn’t already been said. So I’m not going to. It’s a perfect album – the only reason it’s third is that Radiohead have just happened to have produced two more perfect albums. What a conundrum!
2. ‘Kid A’ (2000)
Favourite song: ‘Everything In Its Right Place’
If ‘The Bends’ saw Radiohead find their voice, and ‘OK Computer’ saw them perfect it, what would be the next logical step for a band at the very top? That’s right – completely nix everything that’s gone before and jump into a completely new sound!
‘Kid A’ is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word. It’s impossible to hear the opening chords of ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ and not dive into the rest of the album to follow – it is a record that demands to be listened to in its entirety.
From its more ‘conventional’ cuts like ‘Optimistic’ and ‘Morning Bell’ to the ambient electronica of the title track and ‘Treefingers’, ‘Kid A’ was ahead of its time then and still feels like that to this day. How you can produce an album like this and still not have it be your best is beyond me, but I guess that’s Radiohead for you!
1. ‘In Rainbows’ (2007)
Favourite song: ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’ / ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’
And that leaves us with one album for the number one spot. Following the early rock trilogy, the electronic twins, and the rampant ‘Hail To The Thief’, the band began to look inward rather than outward for inspiration. This resulted in ‘In Rainbows’ – an album that combines all the sounds that have went before into a perfectly crafted collection of tracks that is equally enjoyable as one work or in its constituent parts.
Even the way this album was released was revolutionary. Offered on a ‘pay-what-you-want’ service, Radiohead effectively bypassed the mediation of the recording industry and formed a direct connection with their listeners, extremely appropriate for this extremely personal set of songs.
I’ll save more talk of the music for an upcoming full review of the record, but for now – there is not a single song that can be skipped on ‘In Rainbows’, whether listening to it front to back or shuffled with the rest of your library. The full package is boundary-pushing as always for Radiohead, and encapsulates everything they mean to me and more.
Nine albums, eight of which are great, three of which are perfect – if this is all we’re going to get from Radiohead, I’m sure no-one could complain. With whispers of new recordings on the horizon, however, we could be discussing where a tenth fits into this ranking sooner rather than later. We can only hope!
Thanks for reading this first instalment of the Ranked series – hopefully I can make this a more regular thing than literally anything else I’ve done on this blog! I’d really like to make this a more fun and lighthearted way for me to write about music compared to my reviews of records and for publications, so please let me know if you enjoyed the read (despite my rankings!).
Comment below your thoughts on this list and have a great rest of your Sunday!
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