Search - Radiohead :: Best of

Great music... but to whom is this marketed to?

Paul Allaer | Cincinnati | 06/12/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Music: 5 stars.... Compilation: 3 stars



When Radiohead decided with the "In Rainbows" album not to re-up with EMI, it was only a matter of time before the label would squeeze a few more drops out of the money machine that Radiohead was for EMI. The label simply had to find a good time and excuse to do so, and that time has come now (new tour!). The band has made clear that it has nothing to do with this "best of", all the while also acknowledging that EMI has the legal right to do this. Now the question is: is this compilation any good?



"The Best of Radiohead: Special Edition" (2 CDs, 30 tracks, 135 min.) is a very generous overview of Radiohead's best songs from the 7 albums it recorded for EMI. CD1 (17 tracks; 76 min.) brings the "greatest hits", and hence not surprisingly focuses on tracks from three albums: a whopping 6 tracks from 1995's commercial breakthrough album "The Bends", including the singles Just, My Iron Lung, High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, and Street Spirit (Fade Out) and also the fabulous title track. 1997's "OK Computer" album, viewed by many as one of the most important albums of the 90s, gets 4 tracks, including the singles Paranoid Android, Karma Police, No surprises, and also Lucky. 2000's so-called experimental "Kid A" album gets 3 tracks: Optimistic, Idioteque, and Everything In Its Right Place. With that, 75% of this "best of" compilation is filled. The remaining 3 studio albums get a mere 4 tracks: the monster hit Creep from 1993's "Pablo Honey"; Pyramid Song from 2001's "Amnesiac; and finally There There and 2+2=5 from 2004's "Hail to the Thief".



CD2 (14 tracks, 63 min.) brings deeper tracks from the various albums, and is just slightly more of a headscratcher to me than CD1. There are 2 singles that didn't make CD1 (Knives Out from "Amnesiac" and Go to Sleep from "Hail to the Thief"), and after that it's a bit all over the place: You and Anyone Can Play Guitar From "Pablo Honey"; Planet Telex from "The Bends" plus Talk Show Host, a B side of that era; Airbag, Let Down and Exit Music (For a Film) from "OK Computer"; The National Anthem and How To Disappear Completely from "Kid A"; I Might Be Wrong, You and Whose Army, and Knives Out from "Amnesiac"; and even the live mini-album "I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings" is represented with "True Love Waits". Note that this Japanese release includes You and Whose Army, not included on the US or European release.



In all, while it is always possible to split hairs and argue over the selection of the tracks, it is difficult to be upset with the final result. EMI actually did a pretty good job of it! I will say that I am not crazy with the sequencing of the album. I would have preferred a chronological sequencing, for one. Notice that on CD1 the 3 tracks from "Kid A" are scattered and buried in the second half for some reason. For anyone not all that familiar with Radiohead, if you are wondering whether to buy this, or to buy the single CD, I would urge to buy the single CD compilation. If you like what you hear there, the next step is to explore the individual studio albums of Radiohead. I have no idea to whom the 2CD Special Edition is marketed to, to be honest. The causal Radiohead fan doesn't need that much and the rabbit Radiohead fan already has all of this. But the music is fantastic, let there be not doubt about it.

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