Full radiohead discography
We try not to talk about the two-month period during which fans scoured shipping manifests for evidence of a never-to-arrive sequel to The King Of Limbs.Ĭertainly, A Moon Shaped Pool’s sense of finality has other sources. For a while, in the early ‘00s, the “Kid 17” experience demanded two versions of Kid A be played exactly 17 seconds apart, revealing a sort of galaxy-brain syncopation in the album’s DNA. A vast numerological argument suggests that OK Computer and In Rainbows are actually companion albums, intended to be listened to interlaced. These threads get carried to strange conclusions. Lyrics appear like wormholes through time: references to 2016’s “Burn The Witch” pop up in the liner notes to 2003’s Hail To The Thief. Almost every album in the discography sits atop a submerged pyramid of b-sides, alternate cuts, and live reconfigurations that suggest vastly different versions of the albums we ended up with. Supercharged off two decades of restless reinvention and statement-making, they are one of the most conspiracy-prone fandoms on the modern internet, which is saying something. Yorke’s lyrics pair memories of “your crazy kitten smile” with a chorus that pleads and soars in equal measure: “Just / Don’t leave / Don’t leave.” An argument can be made that the song’s crystallization here is reason enough for the album to exist.īut Radiohead fans rarely stop at a reasonable argument. After Radiohead attempted to record it for several previous LPs, it’s breathed into being amidst a swirl of fading, Caretaker-esque piano glissandos. The closer - the band’s 100th album song - is “True Love Waits,” a storied live favorite that dates back to 1995. They’re arranged in alphabetical order, as if to exhale, “Here are the songs this band has made,” forgoing any other narrative cohesion. Seven of the 11 songs had been kicking around for years, sometimes for decades. Its individual songs sounded, immediately, like some of the best the band had ever committed to tape, but to what end? They convey exhaustion, the sort of transparency that comes when you’ve got nothing left to give, no secrets left in store. Courtesy of Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood / XLĪnd yet there’s something overwhelmingly final about the band’s ninth album, released a half-decade ago next month.