C'mon, they're a great band.

I own all of their records from Pablo Honey through Amnesiac (though I haven't ever listened to Pablo Honey...I bought it from a kid who was selling his record collection to finance a move), so I couldn't get away with saying that I don't like them. I would have to agree with the sentiment that when they're off they're way off, but when they're on, they're way on. Some of their stuff is droll or even just downright bland. Then they have songs like 'Let Down", "Sulk", "Street Spirit", "Knives Out", Pyramid Song", pretty much all of Kid A, etc, that I really really like. I think for me they're one of those bands where I don't listen to them a whole lot, but when I do its for extended stretches of time. I wouldn't rabidly seek out their singles and B-sides, or follow them around the country.

Overall I'd give them a NC with a waffle since I haven't heard the last two records.

MrFood wrote:Surely the most breath-takingly overrated band of all time.

I don't really care either way about Radiohead, but I have to share a friend's observation:

"...shooting for Pink Floyd, but landed on the Eagles."

I think they're a fine rock band, though I have no use for Pablo Honey. They're overrated, and the fan reverence is really off-putting. I try not to let that affect my opinion of their music, which, by and large, is great.

I've been thinking about Radiohead quite a bit lately. A friend of mine adores them but everything else he likes is like Lightening Bolt, Melt Banana or the electronic equivalent of those bands (gabba or breakcore or something, that stuff thats mental and doesn't seem to repeat itself).

He's usually pretty steadfast in his hatred of all things mainstream and his friends are the same. Yet they think this band is the second coming of Christ. I don't understand. The reason I refuse to pay any attention to Radiohead is because for a while they were everywhere. Adverts on TV, billboards, magazine covers, constant radio and MTV play, everything. When a band is rammed down my throat like that I feel compelled to ignore them.

In my mind they are on a par with Coldplay and Travis. Yet they attract fans that would usually abhor that kind of whoring.

Perhaps there's something I'm missing having never heard an album. It's a shame that I never will because more than five minutes of listening to that twat's pathetic, whiny voice and I would have to hunt him down and immolate him.


That street spirit had a cute little melody though.

My mum bought me a couple of tickets for Christmas to see them the other day.

They are pretty good, but their fan-base seem to mainly be a bunch of cunts, at least at the gig in London I was at. There were people smoking cigars in the crowd. C'mon, fuck off.

The earlier stuff I don't particularly like so much now. I thought Pablo Honey and The Bends were good when I was 16, but it seems to sound quite standard now.

Rodabod wrote:There were people smoking cigars in the crowd.

It may have been the new EMI management team down there doing some secret market research.

"Okay team - just act natural and merge into the crowd. We got to find out what these kids like about the Radio Heads."

I liked the Bends when it came out. I haven't heard their other albums really.

I love Radiohead.

Rotten Tanx wrote:In my mind they are on a par with Coldplay and Travis.

Coldplay and Travis are essentially ripoffs of Radiohead's earliest work, which the band has long since transcended. They're not quite as "rock"-ish as anything from Pablo Honey (shitty though that album is), but certainly some of the whinier, pussier tracks off The Bends, for example, "Sulk". That's what those bands are.

I loved radiohead when I thought that there was a huge gap in rock history between the years 1977 and 1991. When you discover just how much varied stuff was going on in the 80s, I don't know, it's hard to think radiohead are "important" in any way, shape, or form.

With all the brilliant, ignored music that is out there, I just wonder how people can keep praising these guys, who, as far as I can tell, are just the smiths + pink floyd (with a dose of techno)