Top 9 Radiohead Songs
When you think about Radiohead, what comes to mind? It could be the distinct poetry of their songs’ lyrics, or Thom Yorke’s high falsetto, or the versatility of Jonny Greenwood, Phil Selway, Ed O’Brien and Colin Greenwood in incorporating various kinds of instruments, not limiting themselves to the typical drums and guitars, into the band’s music.
Whatever image comes to your mind about Radiohead, one thing is clear. Despite the obscure beginning of the band, Radiohead rose up the charts to become one of Britain’s most influential alternative rock bands. They set trends that became standards for other bands to follow.
Which are Radiohead’s best songs of all time? Here is our list of nine.
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9. “Optimistic” (Kid A, 2000)
“Optimistic” is one of Radiohead’s commercial successes, as it is one of its three songs that reached the Top 10 on Billboard. It is also very eclectic in the way the band sampled many musical genres and combined it in one track. There is the grunge and electronic feel that you would expect from any Radiohead song, but it ends with bluesy-jazzy notes. The song is slow, though a bit more upbeat than most of Radiohead’s early work.
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8. “2+2=5” (Hail to the Thief, 2003)
“2+2=5” is a very odd song. It begins with a slow and steady melody, with vocals on how one tries to change the world. Then it suddenly changes tempo and jerks you around and around and around until you are dizzy with it. And then the song drops into silence and leaves you hanging.
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7. “Pyramid Song” (Amnesiac, 2001)
The “Pyramid Song” is another departure from Radiohead’s original sound – this one is more driven by piano and drums rather than guitars, and also includes an orchestral symphony. The song sounds very light and very surreal. The lyrics to the song are also very enigmatic. According to reports, Radiohead took references from the Divine Comedy written by Dante.
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6. “Scatterbrain (As Dead as Leaves)”
(Hail to the Thief, 2003). “Scatterbrain” sounds different from most Radiohead songs in that it makes less use of guitars and the focus is more on the experimental weavings they made with electronic. It is also reminiscent of John Lennon’s sound post-Beatles.
Though lighter in beat and melody than many of Radiohead’s songs, “Scatterbrain” is probably one of their sadder and more sonorous tracks. The song is an elegy, a song about the death of society in general.
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5. “Karma Police” (OK Computer, 1997)
The song sounds reminiscently like The Beatles. This is not surprising, given that Radiohead was inspired to make the song by The Beatles’ “Sexy Sadie,” and the song even carries similar riffs.
“Karma Police” is almost akin to classical rock but with a modern twist. It is somewhat easier to listen to compared to “Paranoid Android” or “My Iron Lung,” although it still retains the heavy beats that is signature to all Radiohead tracks. The slowness, though reminiscent of “Creep,” is not at all that mournful.
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4. “Paranoid Android” (OK Computer, 1997)
“Paranoid Android” is Radiohead’s highest charting track. Many music critics also believe that it is the most ambitious song that the band ever came up with. To say that it is complex is a huge understatement because the song combines four different sections in totally different tempos, the melodies rising and falling as they run along and then leaving the listener high and dry and wanting more.
Despite the depressing lyrics and tone of the song, “Paranoid Android” is reputed to be a joke on the part of the band, probably to poke fun at the way their sound is somewhat perceived by the general public. It takes its name from Marvin the Paranoid Android in Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
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3. “My Iron Lung” (The Bends, 1995)
“My Iron Lung” is everything that “Creep” was not. It is abrupt, syncopated and rough compared to the slow and monotonic melody of Radiohead’s greatest hit. But this does not mean that “My Iron Lung” is not as cool as “Creep.” It is cool in a totally different way.
What is great about “My Iron Lung” is that it marks a change in Radiohead’s musical style. Here is where they start incorporating an electronic edge into their sound, and it was done so smoothly in this song. The lyrics are also superb – an obvious expression of how Radiohead felt stifled by the success of “Creep.”
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2. “High and Dry” (The Bends, 1995)
Radiohead followed up their success with “Creep” with The Bends’ “High and Dry.” Though it was initially slated for the Pablo Honey album, the band decided not to put the song there because it did not fit with the rest of the songs in the album. Ironically, although “High and Dry” is one of the band’s most recognisable pop hits, the band is said to hate it and refuses to play it live.
The attitude Radiohead has taken to this unwanted child of theirs is quite understandable. “High and Dry” is safe, comfortable and somewhat like bubblegum, but it cannot be denied that the drum-and-guitar melodies are still remarkable.
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1. “Creep” (Pablo Honey, 1993)
“Creep” is the song that made the band – it is Radiohead’s first single off their debut album. The song can be called a sleeper hit. It was a flop at first release in the United Kingdom because it was seen as too depressing to play, but it gained a surprise following abroad. “Creep” remains Radiohead’s most loved and biggest selling song of all time.
The appeal of “Creep” is that it gave voice to the millions of young people out there who could not express their feelings to the ones they love out of fear and lack of self-confidence. The despair in that song, delivered in the almost monotone strumming of the guitar and rising in fevered pitches towards the chorus and the bridge of the song, is echoing and haunting.