Megadead2

In no order

EDIT: WHOOPS I MEANT "Packt Like Sardines In a Crushed Tin Box" - a brilliantly subtle use of noise and dissonance as building blocks for pop songwriting, as if they are no different from chords or rhythms. You never get the feeling that the dissonance is being used for "effect", like the breakdown in "The National Anthem" (which I do like but for different reasons). A convincing argument that glitch can be pop, too.


"Kid A" - yes, I'm serious! This song evokes naive wonder in me like few others do. The music box (?) repeats a beautiful yet inconclusive and odd figure that, along with the light keyboards and obscured vocals, evokes early childhood in a really compelling way. I once read that young children experience something like a psychedelic juxtaposition of the senses, "hearing colors" and such; this song captures that sensation for me.


"Subterranean Homesick Alien" - far more than just a comedown after the intense "Paranoid Android", this is actually an underappreciated gem in Radiohead's catalogue. With its lush, reverbed, yet crystal-clear clean guitar stylings and keyboards, it captures the feeling of driving in the wide-open country. Yorke's lyrics might seem a bit silly, but they capture a desire for magical and otherworldly experience that is fundamental to Radiohead's spirit.


"Idioteque" - the repeated harmonic riff in this song (sampled from an early avant-garde electronic piece by Paul Lansky) is very simple (it's the same chord just rearranged in four different voicings), yet all the more mysterious for it. Around it, the band builds one of their most emotional songs ever--one wouldn't think that an experimental music sample, dance drum machines, and Yorke's out-of-tune warble would coalesce into anything worth listening to, but they do, and it is fascinating.


"Everything In Its Right Place" - an alternate-universe version of the piano ballad, the combination of Yorke's voice (processed and otherwise) and the electronic keyboard does something very unusual with what might have been a familiar format. The lyrics are almost nonsense, but sung with such weight that they seem like abstracted placeholders, pointing towards a more disturbed mental state in their deliverer. The live version adds momentum with a steady hi-hat beat, building towards a crescendo that really only barely comes, but is intense enough to satisfy nonetheless.


"Morning Bell" - with a light electronic organ and odd-time drum pattern, and building towards a colorful climactic moment with a rush of reverb and guitar before tapering off, "Morning Bell"'s music is very friendly. Of course, this only makes Yorke's terrifying lyrics like "Cut the kids in half" all the more frightening. Reversing the juxtaposition of music and lyrics heard on "Lucky", "Morning Bell"'s duality creates an equally dark impression with a more creative style of music.


"Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" - this piece actually began as one of Greenwood's classical compositions and was debuted by the Nazareth Orchestra in 2005. You can definitely hear the influence of classical composers like Steve Reich, a pioneer of the use of repetitive phrases arranged in complex rhythmic ways, in this song's construction, but that doesn't mean it loses its impact as a pop song either; the subtle crescendo at the end is a perfect example of how a song can achieve climax without resorting to bombast. Above all, this song just *sounds* incredibly beautiful, with its airy reverbed guitar arpeggios and underwater keyboards. Yorke's imagery (which does play around with a bit of "Morning Bell" ugliness in lines like "I get eaten by the worms", but in a more lighthearted way) fits perfectly.


"Airbag" - from the moment cello and distorted guitar enter at the beginning of this track, you know you are in the presence of something unusual and artistic, yet familiar as well. The song itself captures that balance perfectly; it has a pop melody and a pretty guitar solo, but also introduces unusual effects and guitar textures as well. This was the moment that Radiohead left power chords behind for stranger vistas, and if you ask me they made the change for the better.


"2+2=5" - I acquired Hail to the Thief around the same time I was reading the novel 1984 for school, and the way they complemented each other was almost scary--enhanced by the overcast Chicago weather, it was one of the most powerful aesthetic experiences I've ever had. "2+2=5" captures that whole atmosphere in one song--it's bleak, ugly, dystopian, yet emotional as well. The gradual build into all-out schizoid-grunge is nothing short of amazing.


"No Surprises" - is there any famous musical figure more simple than this one? A simple D major chord arpeggiated on a clean electric guitar, it's very safe, very pretty, very unthreatening. Yet in the context of the lyrics--a bleak, weary statement of surrender to routine--they become abstracted, a symbol of life devoid of adventure, a numbing experience of shallow beauty and emptiness. The incredible simplicity of this music is, for me, far darker and more deeply frightening and powerful than anything in "Paranoid Android".


I hope that didn't come across as too pretentious, I just like to give my reasons rather than just state my opinions. By now I'm sure you can tell which period of Radiohead I prefer :P I do like their early guitar style and more recent art-pop work too though, just not quite as much.