What are your top 10 Radiohead tracks?
Posted by: Kiwi cat on 13 August 2015
My favourite track is 'Exit Music' from OK Computer but there work is quite diverse so it depends whether you want indie radiohead, art-pop radiohead, prog-pop radiohead, skittery-electro radiohead...
I agree with King Size's description on the diversity of Radiohead's catalogue and like all of it but my own three keepers are :-
Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK)
The Bends (The Bends)
Anyone Can Play Guitar (Pablo)
I seem to still play the earlier stuff more
Ron
..most song of the In Ranbows album I like, but I fear they are not part of that set. The earlier work I find more difficult to get access to while the potential is definitely audible....
I personally feel that Radiohead has been one of the better mainstream acts to make true albums in the last two decades, so I personally feel they are best absorbed on an album by album basis (excepting their debut, which I'm only a fan of a few songs). I don't feel there is a dud album in the rest of their discography and they really deserve a full play from beginning to end.
That said, many fans felt that when Parlophone/Capitol released a "Best of" compilation after the band started their own independent label that it was a money grab by the label (not surprisingly). However, if someone was dipping there toes in the Radiohead water and wanted to get a feel for the range of sounds and the songwriting the playlist really isn't half bad and it might be a good place for you to start. While nearly twice the amount of your request for 10 songs, I would recommend you start here and then move into the individual albums.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiohead:_The_Best_Of
Kiwi cat,
Radiohead is a band I acknowledge from my alternative radio listening in Seattle during the 90s. Googling their top 10 hits, the only songs I recognized were 'Creep' and 'Karma Police'. Great tunes!
I was a modest Nirvana fan before my son took a keen interest in them several years ago. Since then he's enlightened me and we share their music together in my listening room. From that, he's gained some appreciation of what 'hifi' has to offer and I'm now a huge Nirvana fan. I hope you'll find some similar common ground with Radiohead to share with your daughter. Cheers!
I'm a massive Radiohead fan and they would rank in my top 10 band/artists of all time alongside Tom Waits. Every album they have produced is like going on a new journey of discovery, and unlike a lot of bands who seem to have a great debut album, only to dine out on it for the next 10 years, whist producing watered down versions of the same thereafter, Radiohead seem to genuinely push the boundaries and actually get better. I guess you can tell i'm a fan 
I'm not a huge Radiohead fan but House of Cards is an amazing piece of music , hauntingly beautiful and a great system tester.
Among my faves are the aforementioned "House of Cards" but I also love "Everything In Its Right Place", "I Might Be Wrong", "Ideoteque", "Subterranean Homesick Alien" etc.
Personally I generally prefer their stuff with avant-garde pretentions as opposed to the more anthemic or straightahead songs.
In the box set, listen to 'The Bends' album first and then 'OK Computer'.
In Rainbows, is great too, but not in the box. The other albums are good ( I have all their albums - the 2 CD reissues with B sides, Live + DVD are worth it too), but if you are not familiar with them, I just you start with their early stuff as its more raw and pure of guitar rock. OK is more of a concept album of old too.
Diverse music for sure.... but for someone trying to get a feel...
Paranoid Android - OKC
Exit Music... - OKC
Fake Plastic Trees - The Bends
Street Spirit (Fade OUt) - The Bends
How to Disappear Completely - Kid A
Codex - King of Limbs
15 Steps - In Rainbows
House of Cards - In Rainbows
Weird Fishes - In Rainbows
Karma Police - OKC
Knives Out - Amnesiac
Anyone Can Play Guitar - Pablo Honey
Creep - Pablo Honey
Punch up at a Wedding - Hail to the Thief (this is their least accessible record and takes quite an effort - deserves to be listened to as an album, so hard to pick a track)
As someone already mentioned , I also find it very difficult to chose favourite tracks from one of their albums as each and every one is completely different and I tend to listen to the whole album from beginning to end. I do have a soft spot for Ok Computer and The bends. Kid A is a very complex album which demands several listens before fully engaging with the music. What a band!
Easy: "Lucky" is my favourite, from OK Computer.
There are so few weak tracks from Radiohead and almost too many vying for top spot, but just edging out 2+2=5 and Where I End And You Begin from the hugely under-rated Hail to The Thief album is the track Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2) which didn't make it onto an album but was B Side to one of the Paranoid Android singles and later found its way onto the EP Airbag.
The thing about Radiohead is that while some stuff grabs you from the off, much of it creeps up on you and takes you by surprise. You need to listen to the music not just as individual tracks but as albums and you should play them a few times. You must give them time and let the music seep in...
Thanks Richard. Wise advice, as since I have all my music on the Unitiserve, the great ease of operation it has trained me to cherry pick tracks and not listen to whole albums. A lot skill I need to get back into. Cheers.
There are so few weak tracks from Radiohead and almost too many vying for top spot, but just edging out 2+2=5 and Where I End And You Begin from the hugely under-rated Hail to The Thief album is the track Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2) which didn't make it onto an album but was B Side to one of the Paranoid Android singles and later found its way onto the EP Airbag.
The thing about Radiohead is that while some stuff grabs you from the off, much of it creeps up on you and takes you by surprise. You need to listen to the music not just as individual tracks but as albums and you should play them a few times. You must give them time and let the music seep in...
HTTT is an interesting album, for sure. I don't play it as much as the others, but when I do, and focus on the music it is truly sublime. As background music, it simply doesn't work at all (not that Radiohead could really be considered "background music" in any case). HTTT can sound too "noisy" somehow. But it is the equal of their other records. It just needs more effort from the listener.
I agree with above, Radiohead is really diverse, and most of the albums are really listenable and involving. These are probably my top 10 (ok 11) tracks that I usually stop what I'm doing when I hear them..
Hail To The Thief:
2+2=5
Sail to the Moon
Amnesiac:
Packt like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box
You and Whose Army?
I might be Wrong
kid A:
Everything in its Right Place
kid A
Morning Bell
Ok Computer:
Exit Music (for a film)
The Bends:
Bones
Black Star
For me The Bends is the odd one out having a somewhat more rocky feel on the whole than the rest..
If I may add that Street Spirit has to be one of the best videos of all time. Truly groundbreaking stuff.
I loved radio head with a passion. they really where the way I felt till about karma police. After that album they lost the plot IMO. Bit like U2 after rattle and hum. While radio head have done a number of great songs post karma police they just got too involved in electronica for my liking.
Oh Richard how could you put "where I end and you begin" over "There there" "punch up at a wedding" always fun too. Subjective I know.
Funny thing is i have a bunch of radio cd's that I just don't even know I have.. Says something don't it.
While off topic yes, just wanted point they are not the radio head of old by a long shot. My 7 cents.
I gave taken the time to listen to their first 3 albums and it is manifestly apparant that they be listened to from start to finish. So far I prefer "The Bends". Very strong songwriting and relatively straight forward rock instrumentation. Can't appreciate the more electronic stuff on "OK Computer". Will keep listening but I work too many hours to get the time in. They're a very complex band and deserve the time it takes to appreciate their songwriting.