With Exam season around the corner, many students are feeling stressed, anxious, or generally unhappy. There are perhaps no three terms in the English language that better describe the music of English alternative and experimental rock band Radiohead. With that being said, here are all of Radiohead’s albums ranked.
- The King of Limbs
Radiohead’s 2011 record takes a fairly minimalistic approach, marking a departure from the traditional arrangement of their previous release, “In Rainbows.” The instrumentation of TKOL, however, is often generic and uninspiring, leaving Thom Yorke’s vocals as the only distinctive quality on much of the album. Yorke is able to carry songs like “Lotus Flower,” one of the high points of the record, but overall the album is slow-paced and largely uninteresting.
- Pablo Honey
Radiohead’s earliest album is clearly reflective of a group still trying to find their footing. Best known for containing the band’s most famous song, “Creep” (a track that the band has repeatedly voiced their disdain for), the album’s material is certainly reflective of the kind of alternative music popular in the early ‘90s. While Pablo Honey isn’t a bad album, it’s not on the same level as later releases that further defined and distinguished Radiohead’s sound.
- Amnesiac
“Amensaic” suffers from being a compilation of leftover material from the band’s recording of “Kid A.” Some of the tracks on this album feel unfinished, and others sound like the band was experimenting on a song they never intended to release. However, “Amnesiac” also gives us some fantastic songs, like the haunting “Pyramid Song” and the groovy “I Might Be Wrong” (also the name of one of the band’s great live albums). “Amnesiac” isn’t one of Radiohead’s best releases, but it’s an impressive insight on their recording process and gives us some great material.
- A Moon Shaped Pool
“A Moon Shaped Pool,” still Radiohead’s most recent release, is their most reflective and gloomy album. The record deals with themes such as political disillusionment, seen on the track “Burn The Witch,” while also being recorded during a time when Thom Yorke was going through a divorce with his first wife. “True Love Waits,” a song that is considered Radiohead’s saddest track, is representative of the pessimistic outlook the record offers, telling the story of a narrator who knows a relationship won’t work out but chooses to stay in it anyway. “A Moon Shaped Pool” won’t be everybody’s favorite album, but it’s a worthy addition to Radiohead’s discography.
- The Bends
Radiohead begins to find their footing on their sophomore album. While “The Bends” isn’t as complex as later releases, the record still contains some of the group’s classic tracks, like “Just,” “High and Dry,” and “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” Additionally, the band’s songwriting on this album is much more mature, seen on tracks like “Fake Plastic Trees.”
- Hail to the Thief
Radiohead’s first album released following the “Kid A”/”Amnesiac” sessions, the lyrics of “Hail to the Thief” cover the political atmosphere of the early 2000s. The record features the distant and cold songwriting on offer in “Kid A” with songs like “I Will” and “Sail to the Moon,” while also containing some of Radiohead’s most electric songs, namely “2 + 2 = 5” and “There, There.” As one of the band’s longest albums, coming in at 14 songs, the record has some comparatively lower points, but “Hail to The Thief” remains one of Radiohead’s best and most overlooked albums.
- Kid A
Radiohead’s most experimental album is also perhaps their most beloved among hardcore fans. On “Kid A,” Radiohead firmly dive into the world of electronic music and unconventional recording techniques. This strategy makes certain songs, like “Everything in Its Right Place” a potential turn-off for first-time listeners (Senior Jake Iskandar, for example, says the song “geeks [him] out”), however it also leads to some of the band’s best work. Tracks like “How to disappear completely” and “Optimistic” offer some of Radiohead’s best songwriting, and “The National Anthem” is one of the group’s signature songs.
- OK Computer
“OK Computer” is often hailed as one of the best albums of all time. This is the group’s first album to do things musically that no other band was doing at the time or has really done since. I would confidently say that Radiohead’s best work is found on this record, seen with tracks like “No Surprises,” “Let Down,” “Exit Music (For a Film),” and “Karma Police.” The multi-part saga “Paranoid Android,” widely considered the band’s best song, also features on this album, and “Climbing Up the Walls” is among the band’s most underrated tracks. “OK Computer”’s songs are distant, driven by lyrics that convey disillusionment and dissatisfaction with society. “OK Computer” is worthy of all of the praise it receives, but it doesn’t quite top this list.
- In Rainbows
“In Rainbows” doesn’t have as much to say about society as “OK Computer” or “Kid A,” but it’s my favorite Radiohead album nevertheless. The record isn’t as experimental as its predecessors either, making less use of drum machines and exotic instrumentation, but it features the band’s most beautiful and poignant songwriting yet. Thom Yorke’s vocals on “Reckoner,” the intensity of “Jigsaw Falling into Place,” or the ominous lyrics of “Nude,” a song that originally emerged during the recording of OK Computer only to be finally released after bassist Colin Greenwood reworked the track, are just a few of the albums highpoints. “In Rainbows” is Radiohead at their best–slow and reflective while offering the occasional moment of catharsis. “In Rainbows” is a perfect listen for almost any situation, and it has a pretty fantastic live version, too.
