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Radiohead

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Radiohead is a British rock band considered by some to be one of the major Britpop bands, formed in Oxford circa 1989. They took their name from a Talking Heads track. The original members were Thom Yorke (vocals), Ed O'Brien and Jonny Greenwood (guitars), Colin Greenwood (bass guitar) and Phil Selway (drums). The group was originally named On A Friday, and several demo tapes were recorded under that name in 1991.

The group first came to notice with the single "Creep", which received extensive airplay and charted in many countries, striking a highly popular note of self loathing. Their first album, Pablo Honey (1993), is almost folksy, with less of the force and experimentation of their later recordings. The follow-up The Bends (1995) saw them finding their feet, with a much more "rocking" feel and greater maturity, both lyrically and musically. Widely praised, it is often considered of the better albums of the decade's second half. Notably, the EP My Iron Lung (1994) was released between the two albums, and sees the band in a transitional stage between the poppy simplicity of Pablo Honey and the beauty and depth of The Bends.

After two years of relative quiet, they released the album OK Computer (1997), which if anything received greater plaudits than The Bends, featuring prominently in many magazine "best album" polls.

Seemingly disconcerted by the attendant fame and on the verge of burnout following a huge world tour to support OK Computer, the band spent the latter part of 1998 and all of 1999 in relative quiet, performing only occasionally. In 2000 they returned to the studio to record Kid A, a sprawling, improvised album that replaced the lyrical and musical hooks of their earlier work with a more minimalist style and arrangements reminiscent of Pink Floyd. The band were more experimental on this record, citing Alice Coltrane and Paul Lansky as influences. Amnesiac continues in a similar vein, and indeed contains a reworking of one of the Kid A songs. Amnesiac contains a lot of tracks that were recorded at the same time as Kid A.

Discography

Albums:

EPs:

Singles:

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