There are many moments in their career where critics and journalists often claim that Radiohead “shocked the world.” For only having 8 studio albums (to date), it seems like a tall order to do not once, but several times. With a band who’s so experimental, so spacy, and still yet so emotional and political, it’s essentially just what they do.
How could a Brit rock band of boys who met at boarding school and listened to grunge and indie rock have so many chilling messages to send? Taking a look through their discography is the easiest way to answer that question.
Here, ranked best to worst, are the Radiohead albums in question.
1. Kid A (2000)
Kid A was the millennium album that turned Radiohead into rock royalty. Some go so far as to hold the belief that everything that predated this album was a warmup, the culmination of their best work in a magnum opus.
If that’s the case, it makes sense. Radiohead have an uncanny ability to take what they’d done before and repurposing it for their next project. If OK Computer saw them considering the meaning of a life on Earth geared toward technology, then Kid A is when they break through the stratosphere.
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It’s hard to pick out the top songs from an album that released no singles. To truly appreciate this album, you have to listen from start to finish.
No matter where this album shows up in your personal ranking, it’s always a trip worth re-taking.
2. OK Computer (1997)
This album came like a slap in the face for many reasons. For one, it deals very heavily with the threat of imminent computerised reality ahead of Y2K. The world they paint in this album is dark, desolate, and overrun by computers. It’s more chilling given, now 20-years deep into the millenium, this album almost feels prophetic.
Still, even with it’s tech-apocalyptic undertones, OK Computer is some of Radiohead bests. Not only because of “Exit Music (for a film),” but the album plays out as a movie, complete with a dawn of the machines and the questions surrounding how humans got to this point.
Overall, it’s really beautiful, really fitting, and some of the band’s finest work.
3. A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
The millennium that was meant to spell death for life on Earth as we know it ended up being a sort of rebirth for Radiohead. On A Moon Shaped Pool, we get the intergalactic sounds that have become the band’s signature sounds. This album also came at a time when Tom Yorke was dealing with the death of his former partner and mother to his children. The resultant sound is the broken-hearted grief that, for better or for worse, lends itself whole-heartedly to making music.
And this was a highly personal album. There was very little press on its release, in part because there was no tour nor interview from the band. It was a private moment for them, a sort of true release through art. And to make it personal, they released its singles in waves themselves: first “Burn the Witch”, then “Daydreaming.”
On its full release, the album went gold in the UK and hit number three on Billboard 200.
4. In Rainbows (2007)
Many critics consider In Rainbows to be a stage of experiment for Radiohead. Neither the New York or LA Times were very impressed.
If they hold true to their ability to revise their sound with each studio album, then In Rainbows was definitely one of those stepping-stone works. So how does it rank so relatively highly here? It’s the singles.
While “Creep” wasn’t enough to save Pablo Honey from *spoiler alert* its final place ranking, In Rainbows has singles that are undeniable triumphs. “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” is a song with a much-debated message, but an undeniable all-time fan favorite. “Nude” falls into the same vein, while “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” has the ability to turn passive listeners into passionate fans.
If this was an experimental phase, then color them masters of their trade.
5. Hail to the Thief (2003)
This album is perhaps most in line with their earliest work on The Bends and Pablo Honey–which is to say not great. While Radiohead is a band that goes deep with their lyrics, this was an example of an album that just rambled on.
But in some ways, that works. This album can be seen as a sort of drama unfolding. It’s a feature length production of what happens when the band walks hand in hand with their friendliest enemy: technology.
You get the dark with the light; the fantasy with the nightmare. And really, what else do you look for when you listen to Radiohead?
6. The King of Limbs (2011)
After Kid A, there was a grand expectation from Radiohead. On the King of Limbs, they only partially delivered.
In the intergalactic journey of Radiohead discography, TKOL is a blip on the map. At less than 40 minutes long, it never really has the chance to shoot you into space. More importantly, the journey is clunky, with tracks that are good on their own but not organized in a way that lends to a smooth storyline.
Though the body of this album doesn’t seem whole, there are certainly moments to appreciate out on the limb. The general consensus of fans is that they either favor the first half or the second.
7. Amnesiac (2001)
This album is highly regarded by critics and fans alike. Released in 2001, it was a true product of the turn of the millennium. It follows up on Kid A, which released a year earlier with the best of the songs recorded in the same session. The rest appeared on Amnesiac.
Maybe that’s the problem: while Amnesiac is eclectic and experimental, it just doesn’t have that same strange yet cohesive resonance as Kid A delivered.
The real enjoyment of this album doesn’t begin until the end, on “Life in a Glasshouse.” And by then, it’s too late. You might as well go back to Kid A.
8. The Bends (1995)
The Bends played a role as the turning point between the pressurized success of Creep versus Radiohead reaching their full potential. It sits right before their debut album because it was a step in the right direction, even if they wouldn’t fully arrive until Kid A.
Ultimately, if Pablo Honey would go on to be the least favourable album, the Bends was like the hangover after that shitty party.
Still, even the shittiest parties have their memorable moments. The Bends is the place to relish the coming of Radiohead and look forward to what they’ll later become.
9. Pablo Honey (1993)
It’s rare that die-hard fans come to a similar consensus when it comes to studio album rankings, but Pablo Honey is the undisputed rotten egg of this race.
This might come as a surprise to some, given Pablo Honey is the place to find the everlasting “Creep.” That was about all that was special on this album.
Instead of this debut album offering us a bang out of the gate, it still got them through the door and onto the rock scene. Really though, we’re mostly just glad that we got “Creep”, standing in contrast to some of the worst Radiohead songs.
