Let me begin by saying this is no easy task. I have obsessed over each and every song on this list at some point in my life (as well as songs not on this list), and narrowing this list down to ten songs was a real challenge. Not only that, I also have put them in order from my all time favorite, Number 1 on this list (duh), to number 10.
I was initially going to post these as a comment to Dave’s Top 10, but I had too much to say about each song. So here they are. From 10 to 1. It’s a countdown. It’s the final countdown.
10. The Bends (from the album The Bends) - Great song. Flat out. It starts off with some weird sounds that apparently Thom recorded outside a hotel. Then all of a sudden you get hit with that really bright and crunchy guitar riff. The lyrics are some of the best in the Radiohead catalogue in my opinion, including some personal favorites like “the planet is a gunboat in a sea of fear,” and “alone on an aeroplane, fall asleep on against the window pane, my blood will thicken,” among others.
9. Optimistic (from the album Kid A) - Yeah, it was a single. But nonetheless an amazing song. Great lyrically as well, painting some dark and twisted images on the human condition such as ”nervous messed up marionettes, floating around on a prison ship.” Plus that lead into In Limbo…
8. Let Down (from the album OK Computer) - A song of sheer desperation. Or maybe not. Maybe just a casual observation on every day life while being completely removed from it, just watching the people coming and going. Either way it’s incredible lyrically, and musically it’s beautiful.
7. Everything in Its Right Place (from the album Kid A) - One of the best album openers ever. Of any album I have ever listened to. I remember when I heard it for the first time, and I knew I was about to hear something that I had never heard anything even remotely close to before. And I was right.
6. Lucky (from the album OK Computer) - Starting out with the sounds of what is apparently Ed’s guitar being played on the strings above the nut, on the head stock through a delay pedal, this song transforms into a beautiful epic, with the guitars hinting at dark undertones, until the 3:12 mark where they surface completely, only to resolve beautifully into a guitar solo at 3:46. A masterpiece both lyrically and musically.
5. I Might Be Wrong (from the album Amnesiac) - A powerful guitar driven track on a very dark and electronic sound based album. It is an incredible combination of styles and sounds. The highlight for me is the buildup, and then when it completely breaks down around the 3:50 mark.
4. Kid A (from the album Kid A) - A song unlike any other. Thom’s voice is distorted and twisted (to distance himself from the heavy lyrical content according to some sources), which kind of reinvents vocals, and the role of a vocalist, and makes them into more of an instrument.
3. Knives Out (from the album Amnesiac) - Creating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia, this song is one of Radiohead’s best in my opinion, with the repetitive guitar riffs, Thom’s haunting vocals, and lyrics to match. “If you’d been a dog, they would have drowned you at birth.”
2. Motion Picture Soundtrack (from the album Kid A) - Everything in Its Right Place is a great opener. Motion Picture Soundtrack is an incredible closer. One of the best I can think of. It has always sounded like the end to me. It’s what I expect to hear at the end if that makes any sense. If there is a heaven, this is what it sounds like going in. Simply beautiful.
1. Street Spirit (Fade Out) (from the album The Bends) - This is the greatest closer of any album I have ever heard. It stands on its own. It is unlike every other song on The Bends, but doesn’t fit on any Radiohead album really. But it is “THE” Radiohead song to me. According to the band, they didn’t write the song. It wrote itself. They were simply its “biological catalysts.” A hopeless song about living in a world filled with identical mass produced homes, cold detached machines that we created and depend on to run our lives, and finally, about staring death straight in the face. Despite all the things described in the song, there is still a glimmer of hope at the end with the closing line “immerse your soul in love.”
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Tags: Music, Radiohead, Top 10, Top Ten
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Optimistic? Really? With only 10 choices, that’s a bold move. I do really like the break down at the end where they all rock out, but other than that, it’s always felt like an under-developed song, as far as Radiohead goes.
Although I am jealous that I didn’t think to put Motion Picture Soundtrack in there.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Some people say “Idioteque” is the “Electioneering” on Kid A, but I have always thought “Optimistic” was that song. It’s right in the middle of the album and completely different from every track on the rest of the album. It takes you a second to catch on to the guitar driven track, but lyrically it’s a powerhouse, and not only that there are layers and layers of sounds that come in as the song progresses. I don’t think it’s underdeveloped, plus that sweet scale sounding thing at the chorus. Like I said, clearly a standout track, and it really needs that jam at the end so that it fades in perfectly to In Limbo. It’s weird, creative, dark, and original. I’m standing by it.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
KARMA POLICE!!!