Best-Of Radiohead

[bloop]

The eliminated:

Just (from the Bends)
No Surprises (from OK Computer)
Everything In Its Right Place (from Kid A - you've gotta be kidding me, but ok)
Like Spinning Plates
Dollars & Cents (both from Amnesiac)
A Punchup at a Wedding (from Hail to the Thief)

Thanks to Andree for breaking up some of the ties

Anyway, this is the part where we pool all of the remaining tracks.  Your finalists:
Creep
Anyone Can Play Guitar
Lurgee
Blow Out
The Bends
High and Dry
Fake Plastic Trees
Street Spirit
Airbag
Paranoid Android
Exit Music (for a film)
Karma Police
Climbing Up the Walls
The National Anthem
How to Disappear
Idioteque
Morning Bell (Kid A version)
Pact Like Sardines...
Pyramid Song
I Might Be Wrong
Knives Out
2+2=5
Sit Down Stand Up
Where I End and You Begin
There There

The top four are from "Pablo Honey".  Try to find some way to listen to them (I only know of two of us that know the songs from that album).

VOTE OFF FIVE and RANK your choices.  We'll go on a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 system and will lose 2-3 in this round (again, depends on the results - this could be completely insane).  Hopefully, we can pare this list down to 13 or 14.

May the best songs win!

[bloop]

In order from least to greatest, so to speak

Anyone Can Play Guitar (-5)
Lurgee (-4)
High and Dry (-3)
Knives Out (-2)
Sit Down, Stand Up (-1)
 

[DvChWi]

Lurgee(-5)
Anyone Can Play Guitar(-4)
High and Dry(-3)
Morning Bell(-2)
Exit Music(For a Film)(-1)
   

[Josh]

Lurgee (-5)
Anyone Can Play Guitar (-4)
Fake Plastic Trees (-3)
Blowout (-2)
High and Dry (-1)

[bloop]

I discussed this with Dv last night, and I think it's appropriate to give the last track standing on any given album immunity so the final disc will be a real career-spanning collection.

Oh, and Blow Out ] Creep.

[Josh]

I discussed this with Dv last night, and I think it's appropriate to give the last track standing on any given album immunity so the final disc will be a real career-spanning collection.

No arguments here.

[bloop]

I discussed this with Dv last night, and I think it's appropriate to give the last track standing on any given album immunity so the final disc will be a real career-spanning collection.

No arguments here.

Cool.  As long as there are no objections, I think it's a good plan.  I would just hate to finally finish it and realize...wait a minute!  This best-of collection is "OK Computer"!

[DvChWi]

We also need to start thinking about track order. Should we just do it chronologically, or should we try to come up with a good arrangement where each song flows into the other?

[bloop]

I think what we'll do is take suggestions from the floor as to how we'd order the tracks, then vote on the order.

[murlough23]

Anyone Can Play Guitar (-5)
Lurgee (-4)
Creep (-3)
The Bends (-2)
Knives Out (-1)

[bloop]

Hey, you left "Blow Out" (for this round anyway).  This makes you cool.

[murlough23]

Hey, you left "Blow Out" (for this round anyway).  This makes you cool.

Yeah, that one and "You" were the most tolerable tracks on Pablo Honey, in my opinion.

[Guest]

"You" is a little too obviously U2 for me to include it.  I think all of the tracks I chose are better than "You".

(no stupid pun here, that's just the way it came out)

I still maintain that Pablo Honey is better than Kutless's debut, but it shares its complete normalcy in its time (Pablo Honey being released at the height of Kurt-ism).

[bloop]

^that's me.  I do that too much.

Anyway, I think "Stop Whispering", particularly the chorus, is most reminiscent of U2, but "You" is up there, too.

Most embarrassing song on Pablo Honey is "Prove Yourself" without a doubt.  ("Thinking About You", with its masturbatory lyrics, comes close - no pun intended)

Have you heard "Pop Is Dead"?  If you ever download that, the video or the song, prepare to laugh until your head comes off.  It's the single most terrifically horrible songs in their enitire career, IMO, but it cracks me up ever time.

[murlough23]

Funny, I didn't really hear a lot of U2 influence on that album. I only disliked whatever annoyed me... which was actually quite a bit. But in all fairness, I've only listened to it once.

[bloop]

I was speaking to using the big U2 arena sound, and Thom occassionally sounds like he's trying his hardest at a Bono impersonation.  I don't much like the album, except I think there are a few songs that you can see where they could break out in the future.  Retrospect is 20/20 anyway, though, I just think "Blow Out" tries on a sound that is better-suited to the band.

Critical concensus pretty much says that Radiohead didn't find their voice until their sophomore album, and didn't establish themselves as a band to remember until OK Computer, and I think that's just about accurate.

You don't have to say that you only listened to it once.  Pablo Honey isn't one of those albums that you're going to be ho hum about it one day, and the next you'll notice something new that'll blow your socks off.  The band needed their major radio hit, "Creep", at that time anyway.