Radiohead

The Best Of

After last year’s lovely ‘evil bear face’ USB of all their Parlophone albums comes the inevitable post-In Rainbows (or should that be pre-In Rainbows?) compilation. Radiohead went through three periods – 1) The Rubbish Years (i.e. Pablo Honey), 2) The Imperial Years (i.e. The Bends and OK Computer), and 3) The We’ve Discovered Warp Records Years (i.e. Kid A onwards). Here is as good an overview of those three distinct eras as you’re likely to get. What is most immediately is (’Creep’ aside) how weak they were to start but, seemingly, they did a Robert Johnson-style pact at the crossroads as, by the time second album The Bends came out, they were both unrecognisable and unstoppable (Jeff Buckey had a massive indirect influence here). The music is, of course, beyond debate and ‘Just’, ‘Pyramid Song’, ‘The National Anthem’, ‘Talk Show Host’ ‘Lucky’, ‘2+2=5′, ‘Let Down’ (the greatest thing they will ever do), ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ etc. make a weird kind of sense running here in non-chronological order. If only the other bands that slipstreamed them into the mainstream (we’re looking at you Snow Patrol, Coldplay and Keane) had even 10% of their ambition, then British rock would actually fulfill its promise rather than just talking about it.