Immerse Your Soul In Love - The Radiohead Thread

I'm about a page back and have stuff to do, sorry if the conversation's moved on.

One thing I've been thinking about lately is that anyone who thinks Radiohead are that innovative have never listened to who Radiohead listen to. And I don't mean to undermine their achivement, there's no doubt something impressive about mucking with Stockhausen until it passes for pop-rock, The Beatles didn't even attempt that. And the craftsmanship on Kid A if not it's status earn the glowing reviews it gets, not that common to hear an album that might as well be from another planet. But no, it's hard to say it ever really blew my mind. Except EiiRP.

Oops. This sounds like Christgau with verbal diarrhea. Wasn't trying to be all RaDiOhEaD aRe OvErRaTeD.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Don’t mind me. I’ll be in the corner rocking back and forth reading my awesome books about Kid A while blaring Yeezus on cassette and Aja on my turntable.

Also, I hope it goes without saying but I love you all @djdavedk @Joe Mac @gaporter and @Ericj32

And I absolutely tolerate @Mather existence.
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I love you, too. And we all love Kid A.

I just distinctly remember feeling like a weirdo for getting into Radiohead for the first time right when Kid A came out and hearing from a lot of people that their older stuff was better and they weren’t really fans of this new direction. I think in retrospect many people have changed their views on the album and it’s now pretty universally respected (if not enjoyed) but even then, that “universe” is limited to people who read articles about music. I think Radiohead’s fanbase is stronger than the fanbase of other artists but it's nowhere near as large as someone like Adele or Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran or Kanye.
According to Wikipedia, Radiohead has sold about 30 million albums (and they’ve released 9 albums over the last 28 years), whereas Imagine Dragons apparently has sold 46 million albums (and they’ve released only 5 albums in 9 years).
 
gaporter said:
I have to ask - would Kid A really be that mindblowing to a kid nowadays? It's a great album but it's been over 20 years since it came out and any album is going to start to sound a bit dated at some point. I'm much younger than the average poster on here but I'm also old enough to where I feel like my generation might be the last to really be wowed by Radiohead. Consider that we live in the age of streaming, where even the most experimental music can find a fairly large audience with the right promotion, and the "shock" of a band like Radiohead releasing something like Kid A just doesn't have the same impact to a modern audience unless they're given all of the context around it.
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I would argue no, because of the particular milieu in which I ran back when Kid A came out: I was heavy into experimental electronic and industrial avant music of the time and in that scene most of the reaction to kid was, charitably "well I guess electronic music was bound to hit the normals eventually" but mostly it was "these fucking guys fucking suck and they're aping Aphex, badly". People who were hard into IDM varied between amused and offended at Radiohead's post-OK Computer direction. Outside of that, it seemed revolutionary, if you didn't know electronica or warp records or krautrock or whatever.

So, if you're familiar with the sounds -- and I'd argue that a kid nowadays would be familiar with the sounds although probably not the history -- it's not particularly mindblowing.
 
Ericj32 said:
Swift or Ed Sheeran or Kanye.
According to Wikipedia, Radiohead has sold about 30 million albums (and they’ve released 9 albums over the last 28 years), whereas Imagine Dragons apparently has sold 46 million albums (and they’ve released only 5 albums in 9 years).
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I get that. My whole thing is Popularity AND critical acclaim AND experienmental/artistic innovation.

Lots of albums have one of these a few have two but Kid A is a rare bird that has all three. Typically Popular albums are not critically acclaimed and the few that are popular and critically acclaimed are very rarely experimental at the same time.

Here, I made a Venn diagram…
28E56651-1035-4189-89A4-23EEDF22C704.jpeg
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Don’t mind me. I’ll be in the corner rocking back and forth reading my awesome books about Kid A while blaring Yeezus on cassette and Aja on my turntable.

Also, I hope it goes without saying but I love you all @djdavedk @Joe Mac @gaporter and @Ericj32

And I absolutely tolerate @Mather existence.
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💙

I want to clarify that I don't know if I was even trying to make an argument, just hypothesizing on how future generations will look back on Radiohead! I am somewhat fascinated with wondering what the denizens of the future will think looking back on our current media 🤔
 
gaporter said:
💙

I want to clarify that I don't know if I was even trying to make an argument, just hypothesizing on how future generations will look back on Radiohead! I am somewhat fascinated with wondering what the denizens of the future will think looking back on our current media 🤔
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Eugh Dad turn off that classical music. Its sooooooo boring, I want to listen to new stuff.
 
gaporter said:
💙

I want to clarify that I don't know if I was even trying to make an argument, just hypothesizing on how future generations will look back on Radiohead! I am somewhat fascinated with wondering what the denizens of the future will think looking back on our current media 🤔
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Sorry. Yeah, I just didn’t want ya to think I was salty toward you (or anyone else) I took your question in the spirit in which it was asked. I just didn’t want to offend anyone caught up in the spirited discussion.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Sorry. Yeah, I just didn’t want ya to think I was salty toward you (or anyone else) I took your question in the spirit in which it was asked. I just didn’t want to offend anyone caught up in the spirited discussion.
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It's all good, I didn't take offense to anything, I enjoy a nice back and forth once in a while 😄 at the end of the day we are all just passionate music fans with opinions and I think that's neat! 🥳
 
FWIW: my Kid A experience was very similar to that of @TenderLovingKiller®. I was a Senior in High School and most in my circle thought it was an excellent album. I mean most of my high school was into the usual 90s mix of cheesy rap, nu-metal, and boy bands, but those who had slightly broader tastes loved Kid A.

Steely Dan is amazing and Ye has an amazing rise, decline and fall. Has an artist fallen harder with so many self-own fails as Ye?

On thr legacy of Radiohead, I think they are an all time top 10 artist of all time (with all the caveats that go towards defining such a list).
 
wmeugene said:
FWIW: my Kid A experience was very similar to that of @TenderLovingKiller®. I was a Senior in High School and most in my circle thought it was an excellent album. I mean most of my high school was into the usual 90s mix of cheesy rap, nu-metal, and boy bands, but those who had slightly broader tastes loved Kid A.

Steely Dan is amazing and Ye has an amazing rise, decline and fall. Has an artist fallen harder with so many self-own fails as Ye?

On thr legacy of Radiohead, I think they are an all time top 10 artist of all time (with all the caveats that go towards defining such a list).
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I feel seen.
 
wmeugene said:
FWIW: my Kid A experience was very similar to that of @TenderLovingKiller®. I was a Senior in High School and most in my circle thought it was an excellent album. I mean most of my high school was into the usual 90s mix of cheesy rap, nu-metal, and boy bands, but those who had slightly broader tastes loved Kid A.

Steely Dan is amazing and Ye has an amazing rise, decline and fall. Has an artist fallen harder with so many self-own fails as Ye?

On thr legacy of Radiohead, I think they are an all time top 10 artist of all time (with all the caveats that go towards defining such a list).
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Mine was more like @Gavaxeman’s. I absolutely hated Kid A when it came out. I was in the middle of my metal phase and was therefore disgusted by all the bleeping and blooping coming from what “used to be a rock band…” Eventually I grew to appreciate it, though there are at least 3 Radiohead albums I enjoy more (The Bends is my #1).
 
Ericj32 said:
I just started reading that Steven Hyden book “This Isn’t Happening” and maybe it gets better but so far it’s pretty cringey to me, and I’m not sure if I should keep going. It just feels like he kind of misses the point of what makes Radiohead special, at least, to me. Here are some highlights from the first chapter:
  • He interrupts himself many times to quote italicized Kid A lyrics, like he’s telling you what they really mean. Ummmmmmm, yeah pretty sure they’re not meant to have meaning projected on to them by you, guy who didn’t write them. Like it’s fine to speculate, but don’t act like you’re any kind of authority on the meaning of Radiohead lyrics. Or that the lyrics are the point of Radiohead’s music.
  • At one point, he states, “By the end of the aughts, Kid A will be regarded by many as the best album of the twenty-first century’s first decade”
    • For one- dude, you already called the decade “the aughts” in that sentence - you don’t need to end the sentence by saying “the twenty-first century’s first decade.” Just say “that decade” - we’ll know what you’re talking about. He has this way of drawing things out to make it seem more grandiose and it’s just so unnecessary and annoying.
    • He follows that sentence by citing as proof of Kid A’s cultural influence:
      • The fact that Pretty Lights made a mashup song of “Everything in It’s Right Place” with NIN’s “Closer” and Nirvana’s “All Apologies”. OMG not a mash-up! Holy shit - those never happen unless a song is truly iconic and paradigm-shifting. Lol
      • He then cites the fact that that same song (EIIRP) appeared in the trailer for the Ben Affleck movie “The Accountant” and he ends that sentence by stating that this confirmed “that Radiohead has ascended to ‘thinking-man’s Smash Mouth’ status.” Wha? Why? These comparisons are just upsettingly odd.
      • And that’s it - those are the only pieces of evidence cited. Those are his cultural touchstones, apparently.
  • He kicks off a rundown of each track on Kid A on the next two pages of the chapter with this sentence: “Let’s quickly recite the track listing for Kid A like bros quoting the Dude at a Big Lebowski convention.” Or how about we don’t - since bros at big lebowski conventions are fucking irrelevant. Seriously, is THAT the lens that you want to look through to analyze Radiohead’s Kid A ?
  • The next few pages are all about him and his life and how Radiohead was, like, actually pretty influential for “63%” of his life. Cool story, bro. Super fascinating. Never heard of someone who thought Radiohead was super influential - glad you walked us through that.

Sorry, I just needed to vent. I hope it gets better. I can’t decide whether the issue is that I care too much about how people talk about this album or if he’s trying too hard to try to have an original take on an album that’s not exactly a hidden gem. I think at least part of my frustration is regret at spending $28 purchasing this book. To be fair, I don’t read many books about musicians or albums so maybe it’s just a hard thing to do and maybe he’s doing a better job than most here, but if that’s the case, that would just affirm that I shouldn’t waste my time with these kinds of books.
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My favorite part of the 33 1/3 book on OK Computer is where he does a track-by-track breakdown and goes on, at length, giving written descriptions of the music in the driest most boring way possible:

20211202_180804.jpg

But don't worry, he's got plenty of that word-padding BS going on too.
 
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yukbon said:
My favorite part of the 33 1/3 book on OK Computer is where he does a track-by-track breakdown and goes on, at length, giving written descriptions of the music in the driest most boring way possible:

G-ZHhXSoSFRyTVRNJtFac9Aka43DCns8H5cqpowS5eSATzs2aRDz-EWohc0EHnmZoDnj_HUPefNNEEgGhVTQpqW1kczLsYpSv6CXjj92rZLtTNuWclp_hIo_OCo1PU56eQFJGlx98T-HIxYnk6SgbjDJAmQnAO1QT75D-ADSIemuRYj2W_igJ8atwkZSR7YmNuuWkl0UDfcP8vdaNjYipPB4CrkR-BcIrBCKhwtAuGPgyM3c1cOPwWL2tQ3otWjrFMWvwyTNCLfVliZS-aX8IL6hWgghVxtO6y53dbfFthZtqffNHCsxNxz5hGV6uQ5sZkEHffz8c-zmAB7xGK3o-H30Mv36Pms-zjd_ny3sxVlI-1vx5HWSU9v0A4XCpnmw-GuGI_Wy_UzbN3Yy-19pNGcke1XRUcBL1Dab3OVo0hQzToWa4V2XnFWrF27CqoLunJPSt5sgWNqy8WIUumv8hUH-IEkVN9fcaqoAXZqNrQJvLa9xCtTeCqo263wJrTK_RRO6FLVIy3r9rmOeJtNSw9Zt4tpnF1VTEvbvD-hlByICXI670g7oSLVNv2C457pj52sMrAfmq87j06XirKF6cyfPc4S1cRhqqcN4SUs0qFS-XZzZKEGSdKk88bZOZQDjm7_ZhHEdFGCNllXTP7XkahHa8BU2h2i0bY6Sxd2QrDkWO4JZpVDuJGCR29YdsxcLAcGbfxKb1C9HK2NjdYSAsIPl4w=w1250-h937-no


But don't worry, he's got plenty of that word-padding BS going on too.
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That photo's not working for me…
 
yukbon said:
Weird, I edited and it should work now...

View attachment 120094
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This is kind of interesting as an effort to dissect the songs, and I appreciate that the information is factual and detailed (all good things) but I hope the author here isn’t actually trying to reduce music to any type of mathematic equation. I haven’t read that book so don’t have enough context to really know what they’re getting at.

Music does rely on patterns, but that’s not all that goes into it. The musicians make choices about the extent to which they want to rigidly adhere to those patterns and where and how they want to subvert them to produce the desired affect for the listener.

I’d be much more interested in a deep dive into all of the intricate sounds used on the album and the decisions they made to use certain instruments rather than others. But I expect that musicians tend to be more tight-lipped about sharing all of those details and insights into their creative process. But that type of discussion would give me insight into the details of the songs in a way that would enhance my listening experience as I could then try to listen along and pick out those sounds and appreciate nuances that I’ve never noticed before.
 
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