Radiohead: An Evolution of Sound and Influence

Radiohead pushes musical boundaries with every release. They’ll keep you guessing, which is precisely what made dropping the needle on a new album so enjoyable ages ago.

The band has its share of hit records. With each one being unintentional, including Creep. Their most widely known song from their debut album, Pablo Honey.

Experimentation dwells in the spirit and DNA of the band members (i.e., Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Philip Selway). It’s like they’re not satisfied until new avenues, new sounds, and new approaches to their music have been unleashed.

It’s rare to watch a band release a debut that includes a timeless hit, then pivot as sharply as Radiohead did with their second release, The Bends.

Then comes OK Computer, and when you think they’ve found a definitive sound, they turn the page again and start over with a brand new one. That’s daring.

Radiohead’s music is thought-provoking, political, and socially conscious at times, and on a couple of albums, there’s an underlying sadness.

That’s the energy coming across to me on The King of Limbs and A Moon Shaped Pool.

For Black listeners, especially those with a love for the silky smooth falsetto of a Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind & Fire), a Maxwell when he rises into his highest range, or El DeBarge on 1980s hits from DeBarge, Thom Yorke’s falsetto won’t have you yearning for more.

His falsetto strains to cut through loud, dense music. The need to reference the lyrics often arises to enhance your enjoyment of Radiohead’s music.

Plan to scroll down to the lyrics on Spotify every time a new song starts playing.

Pablo Honey (1st Album)

One noticeable and common thing with debut albums is a band’s search for a distinctive sound and style. This manifests in different ways.

They fiddle with genres and styles. They sound raw. They may sound similar to other bands, typically bands they’ve admired.

A couple of those elements appear on Pablo Honey. This album leans into grunge, punk, and rock. There’s a bit of folk and even a hint of jazz on Blow Out.

A song like Stop Whispering brought U2 straight to my mind. All are indicators of a band working to find its collective voice and true identity.

Radiohead struck gold with Creep.

A single record propelled the band from obscurity to prominence. The song has gone on to have a life of its own when you consider how many artists have covered that song alone.

Pablo Honey provides hints of the talent the band possesses. It’s fair to think of it as an uneven debut.

Honestly, you’re only more surprised by their rapid evolution and the musical gems coming from Radiohead later.

Blow Out and Prove Yourself are two songs I enjoyed from the album.

The Bends (2nd Album)

Yorke’s artsy. He holds your attention with his awkwardness.

Secretly, that’s his appeal. His core fans likely identify with his emotion and intensity, while also being deemed uncharismatic for some, and charismatic for others.

After listening to the first few tracks on The Bends, including one of the standouts in High and Dry, you sense the band has become more comfortable and confident in the two-year gap between their debut and second album.

Their songs and soundscapes are built to give Yorke’s voice more room upfront.

Underneath the core elements of grunge rock still exist, but with far greater control. Several songs begin with soft acoustic intros that gradually evolve into melodies and guitar riffs, capturing your attention without detracting from Yorke’s vocals.

Undeniably, this is a different band than the Radiohead of two years ago.

The kick drum on High and Dry keeps you bouncing. Other standout tracks include:

• Street Spirit
• My Iron Long
• Just

A definitive sound has emerged with The Bends.

OK Computer (3rd Album)

Radiohead’s third album, OK Computer, brings back what it means to make a great album.

Not typical radio-friendly singles. A band intentionally crafting an album filled with songs written and music created to fit together.

Let Me Down feels like a great song from the 1970s. However, it’s a modern alternative rock song, carving out a new sound for a constantly evolving band.

These words will rub Radiohead’s faithful the wrong way, but this needs to be said. Yorke shines vocally when he sings in his midrange.

That’s what came to mind while listening to Karma Police, which brought me back to his singing and approach on Creep.

Another gem and my favorite on this album was Climbing Up the Walls.

The track can be easily viewed as head-nodding hip-hop. To the Radiohead fans, please don’t kill me for this — I’d love to hear Little Simz on this very track.

She’s one of my current favorites in hip hop today. With OK Computer, Radiohead breaks all connections with their first release.

They have a brand-new sound, and you’ll like it.

Kid A (4th Album)

Free and untethered.

That’s Radiohead’s attitude with music.

Nothing about Kid A reflects what came before it with the band.

This album is part electronica, part experimental jazz, and even part transcendental meditative music in the vein of Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra.

There’s something I learned in listening to all of Radiohead’s original music. It takes listening to each album twice to transition from those strange moments when everyone else is laughing and you don’t get it, to the inflection point of, “I get it.”

Their songs grow deeper and better with each listen.

Starting with Kid A, Yorks begins using a tool of poetic prose, repeating lines of his lyrics multiple times.

The meditative, hypnotic feel of many of these songs makes his use of poetic prose especially effective.

Radiohead’s brand of electronica isn’t the swallow two ecstasy, hit the dance floor for hours, and check both arms for bruises in the morning variety.

Everything it its Right Place, and Idioteque are more like songs you hear thumping in the background inside the club while you’re talking with your friends about serious shit.

Treefingers epitomizes that song you hear playing softly inside the spa as you wait patiently for your masseuse to come for you.

It goes with the sweet smell of burning incense, a comfy white bathrobe, and a pair of ultra-soft slippers.

My favorite song on Kid A is In Limbo. It’s experimental jazz to my ears, stretching the band into new realms of music.

Amnesiac (5th Album)

Can you imagine this?

Radiohead’s debut album is Amnesiac. The band’s perception today is radically different from its inception.

Instead of labels such as experimental rock, art rock, and grunge (which followed them for several years), they’d initially be known for a new take on jazz fusion.

I have been an avid jazz listener for years. As a huge fan of modal jazz, free jazz, hard bop, jazz fusion, and avant-garde jazz, Amnesiac is jazz fusion with tinges of acid jazz and rock mixed in.

On my first listen to Packt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box, I knew what I heard.

Yet much of what I’d read about this album leaned toward pushing me to believe this was electronica or experimental rock.

Then I stumbled upon a Robert Glasper live rendition of the song. I knew my ears were dead-on. He heard the vibe underneath as much as I did. It’s an old-school hip-hop beat with jazz flourishes throughout.

It’s noticeable how much the guitar riffs heard on their earlier work have disappeared. Jonny Greenwood’s doing some of his best guitar work on this album.

Maybe because of the love I have for jazz, I’m biased toward this particular album. However, it’s my favorite out of Radiohead’s originals.

Amnesiac delivers a simplicity which makes it enjoyable to listen to track after track.

A few songs that I particularly enjoyed are:

• Dollars and Cents
• I Might Be Wrong
• Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
• You and Whose Army?

Radiohead’s concerts must bring together an immensely diverse group of people.

Hail to the Thief (6th Album)

Hail to the Thief stands as Radiohead’s most straight-ahead political album.

Beginning with an album cover reminiscent of the great covers from the Beatles in the 1960s, you need to pause and think about the message behind it.

Black listeners may struggle to enjoy this album to the fullest.

Yorke’s vocals take center stage for many songs on this album. His falsetto is an acquired taste. Not that he’s a bad vocalist.

Yorke’s solid and dynamic in his midrange. Less audible as a falsetto.

Go to Sleep, and There There are songs where his vocals don’t connect for me.

A Punch Up at a Wedding with a strong bassline bounces for me. Yet there’s a point where I’m listening and wondering what this song might sound like with a Maxwell or possibly The Weeknd on lead vocals.

In Rainbows (7th Album)

Upbeat.

Genuinely, not a word associated with Radiohead’s music until In Rainbows.

This album sparkles with uptempo songs. Again, this is not typically what comes to mind when you think of Radiohead.

The sizeable gap between the release of In Rainbows and their sixth album, Hail To The Thief, probably explains the dramatic shift in the tone of their music.

These songs mix electronica, experimental rock, and alternative rock.

While the music gives off warmth and sunniness, the lyrics aren’t what sunshine and rainbows are made of.

Yorke’s wrestling with and exploring some of our deepest thoughts, such as mortality and guilt. He’s exposing the depth of human desires on Nude and All I Need.

Introspection dominates the album lyrically.

Ironically, you’ll speed through a couple of listens to the album in a terrific mood before attempting to grow more familiar with Yorke’s lyrics.

The King of Limbs (8th Album)

An inevitable thing happens when bands have stuck together for 20 years or more — they grow apart, and oftentimes they splinter.

Maintaining chemistry is exceptionally challenging. Refreshing the creative juices and keeping the band’s magic is equally challenging.

Yet, watch Radiohead at work in the studio as they perform Morning Mr. Magpie from The King of Limbs; you see their gravitational pull to one another, and more importantly, their music.

It’s when I watch a performance like this that I start looking at that guitar in the corner of my living room, and I think, “No way, it’s not too late for you. You can do this.”

How seductively easy it is to think and believe what they’re doing is within our grasp.

The songs on this album percolate with the thumping energy of electronica. Still, some pieces sound like jazz fusion and experimental jazz to me again.

Aside from Morning Mr Magpie, one of my favorites on the album, I liked:

• Feral
• Lotus Flower
• Separator

The artwork on the album cover is also truly amazing.

A Moon Shaped Pool (9th Album)

This album is the band’s darkest. You feel it from beginning to end.

Articles have been written attributing this to Yorke’s split with his longtime partner, Rachel Owen. Only he knows where the truth exactly lies, and sometimes how experiences are influencing us in our lives isn’t apparent to our conscious minds.

Who knows?

Radiohead doesn’t typically make upbeat albums. That said, A Moon Shaped Pool shifts to a noticeably somber place.

Songs like Daydreaming, Ful Stop, and Glass Eyes take you slowly into a trance-like state as you listen further.

For listeners currently going through an intense slice of life, a death, a breakup, a heartbreaking medical diagnosis — you might end up listening to the album quietly, alone, on repeat.

A Moon Shaped Pool, released in May 2016, leaves listeners wanting more new music from the band.

Now, more than nine years since their last release, fans have been thirsting for new music for quite some time.

Many of their fans are seeing signs of a new album coming, in the concrete and obscure, as the wait grows too long to bear.

Beyond the Band: Nigel Godrich Elevates Radiohead’s Sound

Good books often become great books through ruthless and challenging criticism given by editors who have strong and trusted relationships with talented authors.

Much the same happens with good music. Nigel Godrich, a producer and engineer who has worked with Radiohead since The Bends, has been the band's extra ears.

Their relationship strengthens my belief in the power of consistently working with the same producer, again and again, when there isn’t another person external to the band with the gift for helping them bring out the absolute best in their music.

Godrich’s work and their work together speak for themselves. ■