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In January 1998, Radiohead released a B-side called How I Made My Millions.
Its a rough recording, essentially a demo, and yet the title is apt.
Yorkes words are almost beyond comprehension, but the feeling behind them is palpable.
If the title is a prompt, the song is a demonstration.
Radioheads still doing it.
Its hard to argue that that even the slinky, in-the-moment grooves ofThe King of Limbshave been underpraised.
Radioheads dependably strong material makes for an exceptionally tough discography to rank.
(If Treefingers plays andKid Aisnt around, does it make a sound?)
So as Radiohead themselves once put it: I might be wrong.
As they also put it: How can you be sure?
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Thats probably a fine place to leave it.
Instead, its this swelling rock number.
But the song is about isolating yourself so much that one day you realize you havent got any friends.
Whatever the inspiration, the song falls below the bands later standards.
How Do You?,Pablo HoneyPablo Honeyhas a deserved reputation for being of its time.
Points for the cacophonic ending, though.
They werent great songs.
Million Dollar Question,Pablo Honey(Collectors Edition)The other one.
Kolderie: It didnt have much of a tune.
Vegetable,Pablo HoneyI never wanted anything but this, Yorke begins.
Plus, the lyric Im not a vegetable?
Hadnt he heard Michael Jacksons Wanna Be Startin Somethin?
This rank is generous.
The neo-psychedelic textures give this one a longer shelf life than some of its contemporaries.
Then we break out into this freeform jazz nightmare.
Its like Come on lads!
Well, it makes me laugh…
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Hunting Bears,AmnesiacTwo-minute instrumental comprising halting guitar tones, string scrapes, and airy sibilance.
Feral,The King of LimbsAre instrumentals getting short shrift, after all, you ask?
Well, Yorke actually sings on this intriguing percussion workout, though his vocals are processed beyond discernibility.
You,Pablo HoneyOBrien once describedPablo Honeyas a collection of our greatest hits as an unsigned band.
This guitar-strewn rock anthem captures both the positive and negative connotations of that billing.
Fast-Track,Amnesiac(Deluxe Version)This B-side to 2001s Pyramid Song is heavy on trip-hop atmosphere.
Backdrifts,Hail to the ThiefSee, the synths are Tokyo-drifting backwards.
We tried but there was nothing we could do.
Sounds cheerful, doesnt it?
I cant change gear / I cannot see the road.
It was nice when I left it, but now its gone.
I Want None of This,Help!
While this study of krautrock propulsion is gloomily mesmerizing (arent most Radiohead songs?
), it remains less provocative than the songs origins.
artistic decision might mean.
Its one of the more effective songs onPablo Honey, if only a glimmer of what was to come.
I Will,Hail to the ThiefA theme in Radioheads discography is their willingness to rework their own material.
The source instrumental onAmnesiacs backward-guitar-based Like Spinning Plates appears here turned forward again.
We better dig it up somehow, yeah, yeah.
Its easy to hear why Chris Martin mightve known this was a blockbuster idea.
But the band had ended up doing better with a similarly gnarled riff onAmnesiacs I Might Be Wrong.
Its place onKid Aalone would deserve recognition.
It was an inspired tribute.
A decade and a half later,fighting continues in Iraq.
Then the song, with its admonitions against polluters, gets notably frantic.
Theres a way out, the ghostly wail repeats, but were never quite shown it.
that may warrant reconsideration for live sets.
A lovelorn theme emerges: Honey, come to me before its too late.
Bloom,The King of LimbsBustling electronics and aching gloom thrown together with Afro-pop?
Dont blow your mind with why.
Also worth seeking out are Jamie xxs Bloom remixes, particularly the dance-focused Rework Part 3.
Its not the new anything, but itll do.
Especially when Yorke hits a funkier-than-his-usual falsetto at the end.
Fitter Happier,OK ComputerHow do you assess Fitter Happier?
Sbaitso-era computerized voice reading lyrics of quotidian bourgeois meaninglessness atop rickety piano and a looped sample.
Its hard to imagine reaching for it often by itself, but its even harder to imagineOK Computerwithout it.
Im doing no harm / As my world comes crashing down / Ill be dancing, freaking out.
Its a stylish bummer, and like many Radiohead songs, it was years in the making.
The Bends,The BendsWhere do we go from here?
Yorke begins the title track of Radioheads sophomore album.
Bishops Robes,The Bends(Collectors Edition)ThoseBends-era B-sides!
4 Minute Warning,In Rainbows[CD2]Islands Nick Thorburn once called this hisfavorite Radiohead song.
Impending apocalypse has rarely sounded so peaceful.
The droning ambient intro is worth noting, too.
Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong,The Bends(Collectors Edition)The Bendsnon-album tracks again.
But those ethereal guitars, and the crushworthy chorus, live up to that colorfully sing-song title.
In the seaside town that theyforgot to bomb…
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Bangers + Mash,In Rainbows[CD2]The lone uptempo freakout fromIn Rainbows bonus disc.
More banger than mash.
Start to talk shit, you have Yorkes approval.
In Limbo,Kid AOn a seriously stacked album, In Limbo is filled with musical trapdoors that open.
An old theme recurs: Youre living in a fantasy.
is stunning enough that you may almost believe him.
Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2),OK Computer(Collectors Edition)Forget theBendsB-sides.
What about the greatness of thoseOK Computernon-album tracks?
This two-part song encapsulates much of the bands aesthetic to this point.
Let Down,OK ComputerHeres where lambent acoustic strums pierceOK Computers pervasive dread.
Hysterical and useless, perhaps, and definitely bleaker than it might seem, but still a keeper.
Into the wilderness, then.
Life in a Glasshouse,Hail to the ThiefSay, what could cheer Radiohead up?
How about a New Orleans jazz funeral?
Well, of course Id like to sit and chew the fat.
Just,The BendsBusy chords guitars blaze behind Yorkes bitter unease (You do it to yourself!)
clip forA Moon Shaped Pools Daydreaming.
The original title was reputedly Planet Xerox, but that wouldve risked a trademark-infringement fight.
Its cannibalistic menace, though, is all its own.
Lotus Flower,The King of LimbsSay what you will aboutdancing Thom Yorke.
When the cats away, Radiohead slip into intoxicating polyrhythms and airy falsetto.
As for that fast-ballooning head, well, might want to see a doctor about that.
Dont shoot the messenger.
No matter what happens now, Yorke promises, You shouldnt be afraid.
Then again: You want me?
Fucking well, come and find me.
Radioheads habit for extensively reworking their songs also yielded a makeover an album later.
But Morning Bell/Amnesiacactually recorded before itsKid Aequivalentis even better, chiming and heart-tugging.
Thats what cloaks Yorkes croon as he intones lyrics he has said were dedicated to the first human clone.
Worth taking your hat off for at the next human-clone hunger games.
Dont haunt me, Yorke softly pleads.
Then the orchestra and true to decodable-Radiohead form backmaskedmessages about love take over.
Why, it could almost touch the heart ofFrancis Underwood.
The Radiohead front man gifts this mantra to the masses onKid As deepest dive into soothingly immersive melancholy.
Then it tears itself apart in a distortion-swallowing maelstrom.
Airbag,OK ComputerThe first track onOK Computeris a welcome into the albums universe.
An early indication that Radiohead werent as depressing as they wanted you to think they were.
May it open doors still.
be part of why we listen to Radiohead anyway.
When Yorke lilts about if I could be who you wanted, the ache is our own.
Later covered by the Bad Plus and John Vanderslice, Panic!
Its okay not to know what youre dancing to; Yorkes appeal has rarely depended on being literally understood.
Creep,Pablo HoneyRadioheadreportedlyhavent played their biggest hit live since 2009.
Better yet, try todeny Princes.
Receive it, then, as testament not to Radioheads grandiosity but rather to their generosity.
God loves his children, yeah, the way all creators admire their best work.
1 track in spirit, but it would have been hard to argue for in practice.
