flowchart

Getting into Radiohead

Adapted from the /mu/ "Radiohead 5" flowchart ↗
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Around the music

Every record in this chart

  1. OK ComputerRadiohead · 1997The pivot point. A guitar band's ambition bent toward paranoia and alienation, with arrangements that sprawl. Everything they did before leads here, and everything after starts from here.
  2. The BendsRadiohead · 1995Big, bruised 90s guitar rock with John Leckie's widescreen production. The record where Thom Yorke's falsetto and Jonny Greenwood's guitar noise click.
  3. Pablo HoneyRadiohead · 1993The debut: loud-quiet-loud alt-rock in the shadow of the Pixies and grunge. "Creep" is here, but so are the first hints of what came next.
  4. Drill / ItchRadiohead · 1992Pre-fame. Drill is their very first release, rough early versions of Pablo Honey songs; Itch is a Japan-only round-up of B-sides and live cuts from the same era.
  5. My Iron LungRadiohead · 1994The bridge between Pablo Honey and The Bends: a title track that bites back at "Creep", plus B-sides that already sound like the second album.
  6. Kid ARadiohead · 2000The left turn. Guitars traded for Ondes Martenot, drum machines and Warp-records textures; vocals chopped and buried. Cold on first listen, bottomless after.
  7. AmnesiacRadiohead · 2001Recorded in the same sessions as Kid A but darker, jazzier and stranger, from the brass funeral of "Life in a Glasshouse" to the reversed "Like Spinning Plates".
  8. I Might Be Wrong: Live RecordingsRadiohead · 2001Kid A and Amnesiac songs played by a band in a room, with more muscle and blood than the studio versions. Closes with the long-awaited "True Love Waits".
  9. In RainbowsRadiohead · 2007Warm, physical and openly romantic: the "pay what you want" record where the electronics serve the songs. Many fans' favourite.
  10. In Rainbows Disk 2Radiohead · 2007Eight more songs from the In Rainbows sessions, first released on the discbox. "Last Flowers" and "Down Is the New Up" stand with anything on the album.
  11. Airbag / How Am I Driving? / No Surprises / Running From DemonsRadiohead · 1998The OK Computer-era B-sides, arguably their strongest run of them. "Palo Alto", "Pearly*" and "Polyethylene" could all have been singles.
  12. Hail to the ThiefRadiohead · 2003A long, restless record recorded fast in LA, swinging between guitar rock, electronics and piano dread. Every Radiohead mode in one place.
  13. A Moon Shaped PoolRadiohead · 2016Strings arranged by Jonny Greenwood and the London Contemporary Orchestra, folk-tinged and heartbroken, finally including a studio "True Love Waits".
  14. COM LAG (2plus2isfive)Radiohead · 2004Hail to the Thief B-sides, remixes and live acoustic takes: the stripped "I Will" and the sparse "Gagging Order" are the hidden gems.
  15. The King of LimbsRadiohead · 2011Eight tracks of looped, skittering rhythms and woodland melancholy. Short and divisive, it makes sense once you hear it as a groove record.
  16. The King of Limbs: Live From the BasementRadiohead · 2011The King of Limbs played live with two drummers. The loops become human, and plenty of people prefer it to the album.
  17. TKOL RMX 1234567Radiohead · 2011The King of Limbs taken apart by Caribou, Four Tet, Jamie xx, Lone, Pearson Sound and friends. Doubles as a map of 2011 UK bass and electronica.
  18. AMOKAtoms for Peace · 2013Thom Yorke, Nigel Godrich, Flea, Joey Waronker and Mauro Refosco turn laptop sketches into an Afrobeat-leaning band record.
  19. The EraserThom Yorke · 2006Thom Yorke's first solo album: piano, voice and Nigel Godrich's laptop beats, anxious and quietly political.
  20. The Eraser RmxsThom Yorke · 2008The Eraser remixed by Burial, Four Tet, Modeselektor, Surgeon, Cristian Vogel and The Bug. The Burial "And It Rained All Night" mix alone is worth it.
  21. Spitting FeathersThom Yorke · 2006The Eraser's B-sides, odder and more skeletal than the album, with the fragile "Iluvya" and the restless "Jetstream".
  22. Tomorrow's Modern BoxesThom Yorke · 2014Released first as a BitTorrent bundle: eight tracks of dusty, minimal electronics, more ambient and abstract than The Eraser.
  23. WeatherhousePhilip Selway · 2014Radiohead's drummer's second solo album, fuller and more rhythmic than his first, with live drums at the centre.
  24. FamilialPhilip Selway · 2010Philip Selway's quiet, acoustic debut. Hushed folk songs about family and memory.
  25. Running BlindPhilip Selway · 2011A short follow-up EP to Familial in the same unplugged spirit, like the acoustic side of COM LAG.