I’ll apologize in advance for this thread. I know it is usually impossible to list the ‘one best’ of any collection, let alone a group’s creative output. I’ll apologize also for being so narrow (discussing just one group) and possibly also for being hopelessly out-of-date in terms of knowing what’s still popular, or even topical.
I am no spring chicken. I cut my musical teeth listening to (and going to the concerts of) groups like Pinkfloyd, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Mothers of Invention, and Jimi Hendrix. So, I am thrilled, delighted, positively floating to have discovered now, at this fairly late time of my life: RADIOHEAD.
Wow!
If I were 35 years younger (ouch!), I’m certain they’d be my favourite group. I can just see myself listening to their stuff, hour after hour, in my bedroom … but I digress.
OK, my question is this. What do you consider Radiohead’s ONE best track to be? I’ve gotten pretty familiar with their music in the last while and am pretty confident in saying that their one best is The Tourist off OK Computer. And you?
Probably Fake Plastic Trees - it’s the one song of theirs that shows real, true, uncontrived emotion and executes it with such a classy and unpretentious arrangement wrapped around a truly gorgeous melody. It’s the song in their catalogue.
Fake Plastic Trees is 1a for me and I think this is a fine reason.
1b (If I may cheat) would be Polyethylene. Just a great example of what Radiohead can be when they act like a “regular” band. It’s on the Airbag/How am I Driving Single. Might be hard to find but well worth it.
I’m quite partial to Idioteque and Everything in it’s Right Place, both off of Kid A. But they’re one of those bands whose best song happens to be the one I’m listening to at the time I consider the question.
Wow, this would be changing daily for me. But right now, I’d have to go with Talk Show Host (Street Spirit [Fade Out] CD 1) or Like Spinning Plates (I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings EP)
I’m going with Paranoid Android. Probably not my favourite – like everyone else here I can’t choose a favourite – but I feel it’s Radiohead’s most “representative” song.
I’ve been staring at this thread for a VERY long time, trying to decide. I think about it occasionally, and I’ve decided that just making a Best of Radiohead mix CD would take me forever. I’ve never liked Idioteque (or Kid A - I just don’t get into their really electronic tracks), but other than that I’d have trouble arguing with any of these choices.
I’m leaning toward The Bends. It has this honest, yearning quality that makes it kind of unique among their songs and it’s got enormous guitar power.
Cheat picks: How to Disappear Completely, Life in a Glasshouse, Talk Show Host, Big Boots.
My Iron Lung. Remember that the album version of it is a live version, IIRC, with only the vocals re-done in the studio. Although Paranoid Android is perhaps as much a work of musicianship as Bohemian Rhapsody.
How do you answer a question like this? Well here’s what I did, I opened up my itunes and pulled up all of their albums and went through the tracks picking favorites from each album.
From Pablo Honey I picked: **Creep **and Anyone can play guitar
From The Bends I picked: The Bends and My Iron Lung (with Planet Telex, High and Dry and Fake Plastic Trees only just barely not making the list)
From Ok Computer I picked: Paranoid Android and Karma Police (and I really wanted to include Electioneering but just couldn’t get it to make the cut)
From Kid A: I had a clear favorite with National Anthem but a very large tie for second favorite consisting of the rest of the album
From Amnisiac: **Knives Out ** and **Life in a Glass House ** but no real strong contenders for second. (I sadly just haven’t spent enough time with this album)
From Hail to the Theif: 2+2=5, Backdrifts, and A Punch up at a Wedding (with Sit down, stand up and There there in second)
Then I started to cross eliminate. Sadly this method proved flawed. The tracks from the different albums are miles apart form one another. Is it really fair to compair The Bends with National Anthem? No. So I am picking one song from this list at random and deciding that** Paranoid Android** is the best Radiohead song of all time.
Pretty much the same thing I did. I don’t have Pablo, but I picked my favorites from each one and figured I could narrow it down from there. I ended up with The Bends, Fake Plastic Trees, Black Star, Electioneering, Karma Police, The National Anthem, Optimistic, I Might Be Wrong, Like Spinning Plates, Life in a Glasshouse, There There, plus a B-side in Talk Show Host and the it’s-killing-me-that-they’ll-never-release-it Man-O-War, the title of which I screwed up before. And that’s leaving off a few as it is. They’ve just done too many different things for a straightup comparison. As far as songcraft, I have to agree that if it’s not The Bends, it should probably be Fake Plastic Trees, which is pretty perfect.
It’s impossible for me to say what Radiohead’s best track is.
However, The National Anthem makes a strong case. When those horns start blaring and the whole song feels like it’s fighting with itself only to fall into uncomfortable unison? Wow. Just wow.
Man, this is harder than I thought it would be, and I’m one of those people who hates people who can’t give you a straight answer to questions like this.
Although I’m going to go along with the sensible choice of Paranoid Android, here are the others I strongly considered:
**Pyramid Song
Subterranean Homesick Alien
Exit Music (for a film)
Let Down
My Iron Lung
2+2 = 5
A Punch up at a Wedding
**
Huh. I definitely listen to those two more than any of their other songs, I have an odd attachment to them I can’t identify, but I wouldn’t classify them as their best work or anything.