Sonic Youth Gossip - Radiohead album knockout!

No fair! Why was this poll only on for so short a time? Two days? Bullshit...

Anyway, Radiohead are pretty much my 3rd or 4th fave band of all time, so I don't think I could pick any one album as my favorite, so I'll just name the good and bad points of each one...

Pablo Honey: I don't understand why people rag on this one so much...maybe it's becuz there are some songs on here that wouldn't sound out of place alongside Gin Blossoms and Counting Crows ("Ripcord" and "I Can't" come easiest to mind), but "You", "Stop Whispering", "Anyone Can Play Guitar", "Blow Out", and yes, of course, "Creep" stand alongside their best.

The Bends: The first of three masterpieces, easily mixing pop/rock with more unusual fare. Although in hindsight this isn't all that far removed from Britpop (I personally have no problem with 90s Britpop), there are some twists and turns that make the songs unique, like how "My Iron Lung" switches from soaring melody to screaming discordance, and the choppy guitar part in "Bones".

OK Computer: It would be easy to be an indie snob and dis this one as overrated and the choice for fairweather music fans; after all it was their most popular album (unusual nowadays to think of "Karma Police" appearing on a record with Hanson's "MmmBop" and Lenny Kravitz' "Fly Away", as was the case with NOW That's What I Call Music! Vol. 1). But to me, like the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, this is one of the few times in history where an album actually deserved its popularity, critical praise, and subsequent status with music historians. Every song on here is great (though I'll admit I didn't like "No Surprises", Lucky", and "The Tourist" very much at first), with "Paranoid Android" making my list of favorite songs that I can never tire of. "Climbing Up The Walls" actually made me feel a little uncomfortable the first time I heard it...

Kid A: This was actually the first Radiohead album I bought, so I guess it wasn't as much of a culture shock to me as it might have been to those who'd gotten used to the idea of Radiohead as a guitar rock band, since there are no audible guitars on here until "Optimistic" (unless you count the bass on "The National Anthem" or the buried acoustic on "How To Disappear Completely"), six songs in. I like how the somewhat minimalist arrangements allows for the songs' melodies to take the forefront, and how they take elements of non-mainstream musical styles like IDM and free jazz and use them in songs completely apart from them-you wouldn't call "Idioteque" IDM or "The National Anthem" free jazz, would you? If fact, what kind of album would you call this general? It's not really rock, it's certainly not pop, and it's not wholely electronic either. It's just...music.

Amnesiac: To be quite honest, though I do like this album, I really don't listen to it very often. That said, there are some great songs on here, like "Pyramid Song", "Crushed Like Sardines In A Tin Box", "I Might Be Wrong", and "Knives Out". "Push/Pulk Revolving Doors" makes for an interesting change of pace, and "Like Spinning Plates" had me scratching my head to figure out how they got the drums to sound like that (until I learned the song was being played back in reverse; maybe someday with the time and equipment I'll "unreverse" the track to see I can figure out what Thom's singing and somehow get an idea what it's about). Overall, though, for me the most amazing thing about this record is that it was done by the same band who played "Creep" only eight years earlier.

Hail To The Thief: This album is actually really underrated in my opinion. At first, I labelled it in my head as weak and a disappointment, but over time it has grown on me a lot. The band seems to have found a middle ground between experimentation and more straightforward fare, and I hope the next Radiohead disc continues in this vein-although I certainly wouldn't want it to sound exactly the same. "2+2=5", "Go To Sleep", "Where I End And You Begin", "Backdrifts"...the only track I really don't like all that much is "We Suck Young Blood", and even then, sometimes when I'm in the mood to hear this one I like it anyways. Also thought the "2 title" thing ("The Boney King Of Nowhere.", "No no no no no no no no.") was cool.