Radiohead - The Best of

Published

Thursday 26th June

EMI

It’s not until you read the tracklisting for The Best of Radiohead that you realise how staggeringly adequate they could have been. With the exception of the inevitable inclusion of “Creep”, there’s nothing off Pablo Honey and, to be perfectly honest, that’s probably a smart decision. While early Radiohead isn’t bad (and has actually aged pretty well, all things considered), pitting it against tracks like “2+2=5” or “Pyramid Song” just isn’t fair. Instead, this release divides its time fairly evenly between the remaining albums, and manages to showcase the changes in the band fairly well.

You have to give Parlophone credit, to a certain extent, for avoiding that trap-the-hardcore-fan-into-buying-the-best-of-by-throwing-in-a-live-track-or-rarity thing that record labels seem to love doing. The downside of this, however, is that there’s no real reason for someone to buy this. If you’re a fan of their radio-friendly stuff, there’s only a few tracks you’ll like. If, like myself, you like their new stuff better than their old stuff then you’ve probably already got these songs in their album context. Points for trying, also, for going with a non-chronological track order. Even if there’s a few things I would change (I can’t get used to “Everything in its Right Place” as a closing track), it’s nice to see someone’s attempt to make fit the pieces of the Radiohead puzzle together.

Perhaps the best thing about the release is that two of the best tracks (“2+2=5” and “There There”) are off their last album (not including the non-major-label In Rainbows, which is not represented here for obvious legal reasons). In all probability the best of Radiohead is yet to come.