Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Radiohead will always be a feel good story, I know it seems alien to combine the words "feel good" with Radiohead but Thom Yorke and co really did carve out a unparalleled creative legacy from the humblest of beginnings. The story of Radiohead seems more important now than ever. We live in an age where bands are made or broken on their first album, or even their first single. If you don't come out of the gate serving aces then you might never be given a second chance. First impressions are all important. Yet Radiohead made the worst of first impressions. Pablo Honey looking back seems like the anti-Radiohead record, it was plain, generic, a chudding rocker, devoid of creativity or spark. Were it not for tragically majestic Creep we may never have heard from Radiohead again. However beneath the distorted fuzz and bombast their lay a sleeping giant, under the formulaic 90s alt rock on tracks like You and Anyone Can Play Guitar their were signs that Radiohead had superstar potential. Now while we could all see the potential in Radiohead to be superstars and to become bigger and better than they appeared, I don't anyone expected what was to come next.

My Iron Lung was the first strike, heading up an EP of the same name, it was the moment when the whole world sat up and took notice. A wonderful concept, it was the anti-Creep, Thom Yorke knew just how important the "one hit wonder" Creep had been to them, but in this sick love song Radiohead decried their break through hit. It was keeping them alive but was slowly killing them artistically, Creep was their Iron Lung. My Iron Lung turned out to be merely the tip of the ice berg as we were then treated to the The Bends. Radiohead in one single stroke smashed Definitely Maybe and Modern Life Is Rubbish into irrelevance, the 90s true geniuses had emerged. The hits simple refused to dry up, The Bends was stacked, from the title track through to Just and Fake Plastic Trees, The Bends had it all.

It was around this time that Radiohead started to branch out artistically, not only reshaping the music industry they were turning the music video into a work of art. Many to this day consider Radiohead's greatest achievements to be in the visual realm . Four videos in particular grabbed the world's attention. First and least impressive High And Dry with it's gritty realistic narratives it felt like independent art house cinema, it felt dark, tragic and terrifyingly real. Then there was Fake Plastic Trees was a wonderous work of juaxtapostion, an assault on consumerism, set in a bright, colourful but uniform supermarket set against the heartbreaking music and Thom Yorke's expressions this gorgeous back drop became grotesque and terrifying, stripped of all individuality, it was sanitized life, everything organic was stripped away and replaced by the chillingly synthetic. It's a beautiful, haunting visual and completely unforgettable. The final two videos for Street Spirit and Just hardly need introduction, the former with it's incredible visual tricks and it's oppressive monochrome filter, and the latter Just is in my opinion the greatest music video of all time. While I perhaps enjoy others more from time to time, the sense of tragedy and wonder about the morbid and depressing conception of Just is irresistible, everyone wants to know what that final line is, it's a captivating work. The videos would continue to blow minds as Radiohead left The Bends behind, and took their next step into music immortality.

OK Computer confirmed not only that The Bends wasn't merely a fluke, but infact showed that Radiohead would continue to strive to get better, and better and better. It feels sonically warped, Johnny's guitar feels like it's been mutilated as Radiohead mesh stadium sized sound with the height of artistic conceptions. It's hard to say anything about this album that hasn't already been said, it instantly became the reference point for a new generation of artists, it instantly became the yard stick against which all other albums where measured and it's conquered every best album poll known to man. So you've made possible the best album of all time, you've got the greatest videos ever seen, and your the biggest band on the planet, what do you do next? Turn the world on it's head, what else.

Kid A I've always thought of as the artistic high point of Radiohead. Not that it's their best album, but the fact that it's their most challenging. What better way to welcome in a new Millenium that by destroying the world's biggest band? Well that's what Radiohead did, they could have joined the ranks of Oasis and U2 by churning out OK Computer part two, but instead they decided to throwaway that formula, almost throwaway the guitars all together, and for a brief moment it looked as though they'd thrown away their humanity too. As Kid A sounded otherworldly, it was cold, dark, oppresive and challenging as all hell, but at it's core it was truly beautiful. I've always considered this album a test of ones musical palate, it took me a long time to "get it" but once I'd did I've never been able to look at music in the same way. It's almost the ultimate musical awakening, you don't have to love it, you just have to appreciate it, understand the textures and come to terms with it's importance. Now I can say without a shaddow of a doubt I love this album, now whenever I want to put a Radiohead album on this is the one I reach for, it's beautiful, haunting and spacious. It truly is a work of art, and looking back now as Kid A is recognized as one of the greatest albums of all time it's hard to understand what all the fuss was about. As good as OK Computer was I wouldn't even want to imagine todays musical landscape without Kid A.

The next two Radiohead albums would see a band trying to find itself sonically, continuing to push boundaries and looking to consolidate all the influences and ideas that made Radiohead up until this point. Amnesiac always feels like the less loved sister of Kid A. Coming just a year after it felt less ground breaking and less complete, it never quite sat together in a satisfying way. It's a shame because Amnesiac contains some of Radiohead's must beautiful work including Pryamid Song a track many consider to be Radiohead's finest. Hail To The Thief also occupies an awkward spot in the Radiohead cannon, many consider it a welcome return to normality, others feel like it was a step back creatively. The truth is somewhere in the middle, this was their most accesible album since OK Computer but it still maintained a dark and relentlessly creative edge. Yet wherever you stand on this record it's hard to deny it spawned some of Radiohead's most beloved and varied classics, from the primal psychopathic rage of 2+2=5, to hypnotic fog of The Gloaming and the of course the thundering rhymic sensation of There, There. Hail To The Thief seemed to show the future of Radiohead, away for a band to harness it's great creativity into one wonderful formula.

In Rainbows achieved this goal perfectly, it was their first complete work since Kid A and OK Computer a nailed on five star album. It felt harmonious delicate and beautiful, it felt as though Radiohead had grown up and finished a decade of probing and challenging the very fabric of music industry by evolving into one complete and beautiful unit. The whole new essence of Radiohead was summed up by the stand out single Nude a work that had been knocking around since the 90s and was finally finished. It felt like a metaphor for the band, they had done it, they'd come full circle they were complete, another decade had reached it's conclusion majestically. The only question yet again was what's next? Have Radiohead finally settled? Are they happy? Well we all know what happened last time we thought they'd achieved perfection.

Of course while Radiohead may have ended the decade with their most traditional album they of course managed to cause a bigger fuss and a bigger media hoopla than even Kid A had managed by deciding to allow fans to pick there own price for In Rainbows. So while they may not have been musically rebellious, they still turned the industry on it's head, and became the first major band to embrace the internet, trying to find new answers to the new questions being posed of the industry. While others ran and hid away, reverting to the old dated business model, Radiohead free from their label dove headlong into the abyss, and of course came out with an earth shattering success and smelling of roses. While In Rainbows didn't nessecarily solve anything, it was a brave move, and one that music fans across the world appreciated. The music industry is in a state of flux, it's still evolving, we don't know what will come next, but one thing is for sure, Radiohead like The Beatles before them, will not be left behind, they have always been something more, they've always been that one step ahead, ready and waiting to make the next great leap regardless of the consequences, and that is why they are the second entry into Daveportivo's Musical Hall Of Fame. So let us sit back, raise a glass and say Hail To The...Radiohead (Sorry I couldn't resist).