Acquiring a taste for radiohead?

[PiemanLK]

[PiemanLK]

[blingdomepiece]

A lot of my favorite albums left me with an "I don't know what to think" or "I'm not sure I see the appeal" reaction on first listen. It's the fact that there was more to peel away later that has made those albums last longer for me and made me appreciate the vision that went into them. Conversely, many albums/groups that blew me away on first listen ended up having kind of a "sugar pill" effect. Everything that is appealing about it is right at the surface, and it didn't hold up to repeat listening.

This leads me to think that there's really not that much of a link between initial reaction and long-term reaction.

Not to mention that if you never stop growing and changing your perspective, even if the music holds up to your standards or doesn't at one point, that may all change as your standards themselves do. There is a segment of the population that has their musical taste set in stone by 21, and everything from then on is relative to that, but for the rest of us you can't really count on things staying the same.

About Radiohead... I would start with The Bends. For a band that has experimented so much, Radiohead was a killer "straight alternative" band. I like all the Kid A stuff too, but as someone who was already familiar with Can and Faust I knew what to expect too. I think The Bends is a better rock album than Kid A is an "experimental rock" album. From The Bends, I'd go forward in order more or less... if Kid A loses you, skip Amnesiac and go to Hail to the Thief, then stop. If you like Kid A and The Bends, get everything.
_________________

Expert Pro Keys: 50/63 GS, most recent The Killing Moon
Expert Pro Drums: 53/83 GS, most recent Free Bird / Oh My God / Oye Mi Amor
Expert Pro Bass: 6/83 GS, most recent Everybody Wants to Rule the World

[blingdomepiece]

A lot of my favorite albums left me with an "I don't know what to think" or "I'm not sure I see the appeal" reaction on first listen. It's the fact that there was more to peel away later that has made those albums last longer for me and made me appreciate the vision that went into them. Conversely, many albums/groups that blew me away on first listen ended up having kind of a "sugar pill" effect. Everything that is appealing about it is right at the surface, and it didn't hold up to repeat listening.

This leads me to think that there's really not that much of a link between initial reaction and long-term reaction.

Not to mention that if you never stop growing and changing your perspective, even if the music holds up to your standards or doesn't at one point, that may all change as your standards themselves do. There is a segment of the population that has their musical taste set in stone by 21, and everything from then on is relative to that, but for the rest of us you can't really count on things staying the same.

About Radiohead... I would start with The Bends. For a band that has experimented so much, Radiohead was a killer "straight alternative" band. I like all the Kid A stuff too, but as someone who was already familiar with Can and Faust I knew what to expect too. I think The Bends is a better rock album than Kid A is an "experimental rock" album. From The Bends, I'd go forward in order more or less... if Kid A loses you, skip Amnesiac and go to Hail to the Thief, then stop. If you like Kid A and The Bends, get everything.
_________________

Expert Pro Keys: 50/63 GS, most recent The Killing Moon
Expert Pro Drums: 53/83 GS, most recent Free Bird / Oh My God / Oye Mi Amor
Expert Pro Bass: 6/83 GS, most recent Everybody Wants to Rule the World

[sadied0g]

Probably about 90% of my favorite bands/artists are one's that I initially didn't think anything of or disliked. The majority of my favorite music is an acquired taste, in fact, there isn't much music that I actually enjoy right away without listening to it quite a bit first, and getting to know it. For the people telling me "If you don't like it, then you don't like it" I'm obviously not going to force myself to like it, I just looked at the discography, saw how big it was, and how "out there" some of there sound is and was wondering what was the most easily approachable; a more mainstream sound.

I tried listening to The Bends the other day, and I still can't tell if I'm going to like radiohead or not. It was like my reaction to most music the first time I listen to it, pretty much apathetic, and whether I end of loving them to death, or hating them, or remaining apathetic are all still equally possible.
_________________

Hylian Hero13 on XBL, I Started playing GH in June 07

[sadied0g]

Probably about 90% of my favorite bands/artists are one's that I initially didn't think anything of or disliked. The majority of my favorite music is an acquired taste, in fact, there isn't much music that I actually enjoy right away without listening to it quite a bit first, and getting to know it. For the people telling me "If you don't like it, then you don't like it" I'm obviously not going to force myself to like it, I just looked at the discography, saw how big it was, and how "out there" some of there sound is and was wondering what was the most easily approachable; a more mainstream sound.

I tried listening to The Bends the other day, and I still can't tell if I'm going to like radiohead or not. It was like my reaction to most music the first time I listen to it, pretty much apathetic, and whether I end of loving them to death, or hating them, or remaining apathetic are all still equally possible.
_________________

Hylian Hero13 on XBL, I Started playing GH in June 07

[aikaline]

I for sure agree that The Bends should be the first album to listen to in full to see if Radiohead could possibly be your thing, and ya it may take more than one time through to really know if it's for you, certain tracks like "Sulk" and "Bones" appealed to me more after a few listens, personally I feel it's a fantastic album

Ok Computer would be my second choice for getting into Radiohead, the album is really the best of both worlds of what the band has done since in the last decade or so it's become more abstract and experimental, and the two albums before Ok Computer were more just alternative/rock.

IMO they have never released a sub par album, though i feel some of them are much better than others all of them ( well maybe outside of Pablo Honey) are mind blowing in their own way.
_________________

[aikaline]

I for sure agree that The Bends should be the first album to listen to in full to see if Radiohead could possibly be your thing, and ya it may take more than one time through to really know if it's for you, certain tracks like "Sulk" and "Bones" appealed to me more after a few listens, personally I feel it's a fantastic album

Ok Computer would be my second choice for getting into Radiohead, the album is really the best of both worlds of what the band has done since in the last decade or so it's become more abstract and experimental, and the two albums before Ok Computer were more just alternative/rock.

IMO they have never released a sub par album, though i feel some of them are much better than others all of them ( well maybe outside of Pablo Honey) are mind blowing in their own way.
_________________

[METALfootball]

I'll put in a suggestion for approaching Radiohead from a singles perspective, even though they're more of an album band. Particularly, "2
+2=5," "Jigsaw Falling Into Place," and "Just" from experience stood out as worth repeating and helped promote getting into their other songs.
_________________

New Song

[METALfootball]

I'll put in a suggestion for approaching Radiohead from a singles perspective, even though they're more of an album band. Particularly, "2
+2=5," "Jigsaw Falling Into Place," and "Just" from experience stood out as worth repeating and helped promote getting into their other songs.
_________________

New Song

[this1neguy]

This might help:


_________________

i played GH once upon a time | big 3000th post
links:
youtube | twitter | tumblr | last.fm | rateyourmusic

Silly wrote:

yksi-kaksi-kolme wrote: I hope the April Fool's joke is expertwin becoming a mod Reports coming in that over five hundred thousand players of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games have simultaneously committed seppuku

[this1neguy]

This might help:


_________________

i played GH once upon a time | big 3000th post
links:
youtube | twitter | tumblr | last.fm | rateyourmusic

Silly wrote:

yksi-kaksi-kolme wrote: I hope the April Fool's joke is expertwin becoming a mod Reports coming in that over five hundred thousand players of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games have simultaneously committed seppuku

[PiemanLK]

[PiemanLK]

[Ontwikseltsaar]

[Ontwikseltsaar]

[thecaptainof]

Sorry, what? They have a label for 'ambient' and Treefingers isn't right next to it, underlined a few times for emphasis? Fail.
_________________

yksi-kaksi-kolme wrote:

Wow Mr. Mad, who fucked your buffalo?

[thecaptainof]

Sorry, what? They have a label for 'ambient' and Treefingers isn't right next to it, underlined a few times for emphasis? Fail.
_________________

yksi-kaksi-kolme wrote:

Wow Mr. Mad, who fucked your buffalo?

[Ontwikseltsaar]

[Ontwikseltsaar]

[footballtom3685]

15 Step! Seriously, listen to 15 Step. The guitar sound (or timbre, if you will) is beautiful. Then listen to Everything In Its Right Place. Similarly beautiful sound. If those don't interest you at all, try Pyramid Song. Beautiful for different reasons, but equally awesome. From there, maybe force yourself to listen to an album or two all the way through. Hopefully you'll find that there are at least some redeeming qualities to it, and you'll listen again. It really does take some time to appreciate Radiohead; or at least it did for me.

I felt the same way you did a year ago. I had heard many Radiohead songs and none of them really interested me. They weren't bad, they were just fairly boring, or so I thought. Songs I remember hearing were Paranoid Android, House of Cards, 2+2=5, Creep, and Jigsaw Falling Into Place. I like these now (well, Creep & Jigsaw Falling Into Place are still not that great). Personally I still don't care for a pretty good amount of Radiohead songs, but it seems like every time I listen to an album there's something I like that I never did before. Recently I've been listening to In Rainbows a lot and I now like a lot more of it than I did before.

At this point the only album I'm still not a fan of is Hail to the Thief. Aside from 2+2=5 and maybe A Wolf at the Door (oh and like 20 seconds in the middle of We Suck Young Blood) it is just flat out boring for me.

Anyway, I think those 3 songs I mentioned in the beginning of my post are the best of a few different categories of Radiohead songs. What those categories are, I don't know, but that's what I say nonetheless. 15 Step was the first Radiohead song I absolutely loved, which is why I recommend it as your starting point. Good luck

Edit: Oh, so most people have said The Bends. "Just" is the go-to song for this album, I'd say. But I feel like listening to The Bends might not help so much with the rest of their work. Then again, I didn't do it this way, so it might work great!

[footballtom3685]

15 Step! Seriously, listen to 15 Step. The guitar sound (or timbre, if you will) is beautiful. Then listen to Everything In Its Right Place. Similarly beautiful sound. If those don't interest you at all, try Pyramid Song. Beautiful for different reasons, but equally awesome. From there, maybe force yourself to listen to an album or two all the way through. Hopefully you'll find that there are at least some redeeming qualities to it, and you'll listen again. It really does take some time to appreciate Radiohead; or at least it did for me.

I felt the same way you did a year ago. I had heard many Radiohead songs and none of them really interested me. They weren't bad, they were just fairly boring, or so I thought. Songs I remember hearing were Paranoid Android, House of Cards, 2+2=5, Creep, and Jigsaw Falling Into Place. I like these now (well, Creep & Jigsaw Falling Into Place are still not that great). Personally I still don't care for a pretty good amount of Radiohead songs, but it seems like every time I listen to an album there's something I like that I never did before. Recently I've been listening to In Rainbows a lot and I now like a lot more of it than I did before.

At this point the only album I'm still not a fan of is Hail to the Thief. Aside from 2+2=5 and maybe A Wolf at the Door (oh and like 20 seconds in the middle of We Suck Young Blood) it is just flat out boring for me.

Anyway, I think those 3 songs I mentioned in the beginning of my post are the best of a few different categories of Radiohead songs. What those categories are, I don't know, but that's what I say nonetheless. 15 Step was the first Radiohead song I absolutely loved, which is why I recommend it as your starting point. Good luck

Edit: Oh, so most people have said The Bends. "Just" is the go-to song for this album, I'd say. But I feel like listening to The Bends might not help so much with the rest of their work. Then again, I didn't do it this way, so it might work great!