The Twenty Best Radiohead Songs

June 8th, 2007

After listening to all the Radiohead albums repeatedly over the past few months, these are the songs I marked with a five star rating in iTunes. The order below is chronological, not from best to worst — Creep is not my favorite Radiohead song.

Update: The list doesn’t yet include In Rainbows or King of Limbs, Radiohead’s most recent albums…

If forced to pick a Top Five, it would be Paranoid Android, Karma Police, Pyramid Song, High And Dry, and Everything In Its Right Place.

To read my full album reviews, check out these links: Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail To The Thief.

1. Creep

What’s good? Here’s my short list:

• One chord progression repeats throughout. It takes some talent to provide enough variety that this isn’t that noticeable.
• The verse melody, with the slight downward arpeggio reminds me of Erasure.
• The middle section where Thom serves up with a unique countermelody in falesetto, foreshadows the unusual melodies found on OK Computer.
• One killer drum fill as Thom opens out into full yell.
• The crunchy guitar noise foreshadows the guitar experimentation shown on future albums.
• The whole thing evokes a mood of alienation and loneliness, soon to be synonymous with Radiohead.

iTunes Store Link: Creep — The Best of Radiohead

2. High And Dry

From the gently syncopated drums of the verse to the comfortable vocal melody, this song is perfection. I can’t think of a single thing amiss here, except the falsetto may not be to everyone’s taste, and this song and the next have basically provided a sound for Coldplay to spend their entire career exploring.

iTunes Store Link: High and Dry — The Bends

3. Fake Plastic Trees

Another perfect song that builds decently — I appreciate its sincerity. There’s a simple organ lick also reminds me of Elvis Costello’s King of America.

iTunes Store Link: Fake Plastic Trees — The Bends

4. Just

This song is incredible. It’s equally varied and exciting as the crazy parts of Paranoid Android. Things are taken to a high level with a guitar lick that rises up to a shivering high note (capable of bursting through eardrums), followed by a second coda broadcast like a telegraph bursting into a phone-booth.

iTunes Store Link: Just — The Bends

5. My Iron Lung

I think this song was written in response to the unexpected chart success of Creep, which pushed the band into the spotlight, but led to the unflattering description of Radiohead as the “British Nirvana”. The “iron lung” of this song refers to a career-sustaining one hit wonder, while also fitting in nicely with Radiohead’s subject matter of life sustaining, dehumanizing technology. But I mention Nirvana as I assume it’s the reason for the brain-crushing middle section that I believe is meant as parody and homage simultaneously. That said, it still sounds cool, with some good contrast between sections.

iTunes Store Link: My Iron Lung — The Bends

6. Airbag

We start with a meandering, epic guitar lick, supported by some extremely compressed drums. During the verse there’s a droning guitar, an off-beat bass, and a persistent drum beat. Every part is unique, and progressively more interesting sonic jewels are ladled on. During the second verse, an effected guitar moans in the background, adding some exquisite bends at the end of vocal phrases. Following that is a strange instrumental section where this background guitar gains the focus. Next, the drums get some attention with some out of control effects sprouting off of it like fractal ferns. Finally, the meandering, epic guitar lick returns, cutting through the haze like a spotlight, and crashing onto a major sixth chord. The song establishes a sense of experimentation in a wide open space.

iTunes Store Link: Airbag — OK Computer

7. Paranoid Android

I could devote a whole post to this one song. If Airbag wasn’t enough, this song seals Radiohead’s place in history. The first section highlights my favorite thing about Radiohead: an unusual chord progression that makes you think, how can there be a vocal melody for that? And Thom delivers, finding a hook laden melody that arcs, and finding unusual high notes to highlight. As he sings, “What’s this?” a spooky android voice and spooky, chiming guitars join in.

During the instrumental the song gains some energy, with a simply stunning bass guitar run. Full guitars join in, a cool drum fill, as Thom’s voice soars to a hight note over the same spinning chords. Then the lead guitar jumps all over everything like a happy gopher.

The song then separates out into another section, that introduces a new, complicated chord progression, mostly sinking into a deep hole as it transverses several keys. The magic is that Thom again finds a hook-laden melody in all of this “rain, rain down on me, from a great height”. It’s a hymn to heaven while sinking into hell. But it doesn’t stop there. A counter-melody appears behind the lead vocal, ending with God’s children.

Suddenly, we’re back in an earlier section with climactic guitar jumping all over everything, but with an added effect designed to slash through an ear drum, plus a shaker for good measure. Better and better, it finally crashes into silence.

iTunes Store Link: Paranoid Android — OK Computer

8. Exit Music (For A Film)

This music stars out with just acoustic guitar and voice, but then opens up to a fuzzy bass guitar and some scary noises. When the lead vocal hits its heights, the music goes sweetly nuts. I love the contrast and build from the song’s beginning to that point. There’s also a sweet suspended note in the keyboards.

iTunes Store Link: Exit Music (For a Film) — OK Computer

9. Karma Police

A perfect song. The initial acoustic guitar chords reminds me of XTC’s Dear God. The chord progression is quite long and intricate. What’s stunning is the melody Thom develops over it, upon first hearing is surprising yet fits perfectly. The middle part (this is what you get) with the piano reminds me of The Beatles’ Sexy Sadie. After two go-rounds with this cool progression, we enter a coda section, inspired by the chords but containing yet another melody that fits perfectly. Variations on “I lost myself” waft over the chords, repeated like a mantra. The active ascending bass line provides an interesting contrast and support. A distorted, delayed echo spins over everything and destroys the song, bit-reducing it into nothing. It’s stunning stuff, and I’d dare say only a step removed from The Beatles’ A Day In The Life.

iTunes Store Link: Karma Police — OK Computer

10. No Surprises

This song is about being asleep, and the open guitar tone matches well with xylophone chimes, evoking a child’s lullaby. The major chord progression and pleasant melody are not unlike what one might hear on The Bends but there’s a sickly sarcastic tone, of a pleasant suburban place where nothing goes on — an advancement of that album’s sound. In this hermetically sealed, man made paradise where nothing ever changes — you may as well be dead, or totally zoned out on sedatives.

iTunes Store Link: No Surprises — OK Computer

11. Lucky

This song is rather “cowboy,” with a similar dynamic variety as Exit Music. What I enjoy is the synergy between Thom’s voice singing “pull me out of the air crash” and the lead guitar bends whining out a counter melody. After two goes around, there’s a syncopated guitar-based bridge that builds to a final chorus, leaving us literally, “standing on the edge,” unresolved.

12. Everything In Its Right Place

This is an awesome, expansive song, with some tasteful computer effects, morphing the lead vocal into loops. Over a keyboard drone, I essentially see it as a distillation, and a direct descendant of Planet Telex and Airbag. The vocal melody is essentially centered on two notes: one the high elation of “everything” and the other on the “right place” and the “lemon” lines. The second section starting at 2:16 is stuck on the lower note, and repeats incessantly until a final release at 2:51, where the voice quickly fades away, leaving the keyboard to drone on alone. That this tension and release occurs around what I consider to be essentially two notes is pretty darned cool.

iTunes Store Link: Everything In Its Right Place — Kid A

13. Optimistic

This is one of my favorite songs from the last three albums. The first section has a haunting falsetto melody. The verse vocals mimic the rhythm of the guitar. But on “try the best you can” the guitars move into an ascending melodic line that’s quite stunning. But my favorite part comes at 1:31 where the guitar and a hollow keyboard double up on a lick which continues on through the second verse. At 2:37 the song opens up with an additional rhythm. Then on 4:24 we get those choice drum fills I love, beneath the opening falsetto melody. As an added bonus, there’s a different version of the tune that takes us out.

iTunes Store Link: Optimistic — Kid A

14. In Limbo

This song has a circling, pulsing rhythm that is instantly memorable. In this pea soup, melodies have been miraculously located. There’s also a neat hook on the phrase “living in a fantasy.”

iTunes Store Link: In Limbo — Kid A

15. Morning Bell

These electronic drums are less eardrum damaging, and of course the major chords on “release me” are perfection, especially with the ascending bass line. It’s a kinder version of the tension and resolution of Everything In Its Right Place. There’s another version of this song on Amnesiac and I prefer this one.

iTunes Store Link: Morning Bell — Kid A

16. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box

There’s some delicious phasing as the clanking loop doesn’t always line up with the timing of the keyboard part or the drum machine. The vocal melody mimics the keyboard part, speaking of disillusionment and years of boredom. I’m guessing the sardines are commuters riding a cramped MUNI bus to work.

iTunes Store Link: Packt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box — Amnesiac

17. Pyramid Song

I had a strange out-of-sorts feeling once, while listening to this masterpiece. The ascending piano chords are in an odd meter that only finds a regular rhythm when drums arrive. As on OK Computer, the vocal part finds an envious melody perfectly suited to the odd chord progression. At 1:54 strings mimic the vocal melody as some fascinating slow motion drums enter. I also enjoy moments at 2:52 and 3:25 where the strings repeat the high vocal part and then settle into the pulsing rhythm of the piano.

iTunes Store Link: Pyramid Song — Amnesiac

18. 2+2=5 (The Lukewarm)

A good opener, with an energy recalling the last three albums, specifically Paranoid Android.

iTunes Store Link: 2 + 2 = 5 — Hail to the Thief

19. Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury & Executioner)

One of my favorites on the album. I love the strange, staggered fuzzy lick, the odd drop out of the music, and spooky droning noises sprinkled over everything. The drum part alternates between two patterns as the lick repeats. It seems concern a cat spreading a disease of fame-induced claustrophobia.

iTunes Store Link: Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury & Executioner) — Hail to the Thief

20. Scatterbrain (As Dead As Leaves)

I love this song. It has a slightly askew, oddly timed chord progression, in which a beautiful vocal melody is somehow found.

iTunes Store Link: Scatterbrain (As Dead As Leaves) — Hail to the Thief