History YMMV / Radiohead

* SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel:
** "Worrywort"
** The sounds after "Motion Picture Soundtrack" are beyond heavenly.
** The bridge of "Reckoner".
** "15 Step" is extremely upbeat, despite the [[LyricalDissonance anxious lyrics]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3GLYgJQARI "How I Made My Millions"]], an [[TearJerker emotional]] and informally recorded piano ballad.
** Whenever Thom says ''"release me"'' in "Morning Bell" (either version). It gets even better with the Kid 17 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCs63lh7pH4 version]].
** "(Nice Dream)".
** "Nude" is both sonically beautiful and [[TearJerker emotionally distressing]].
** "Separator".
** "Daydreaming"... well, until [[LastNoteNightmare the ending]].
** "Give Up the Ghost" may be a TearJerker, but that coda with the layers upon layers of vocals also qualifies as this trope.
** ''TKOL'' as a whole might fit, depending on who you ask.
** "Desert Island Disk" is the lightest and probably the most affirming song on ''A Moon Shaped Pool."

* SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel:
** "Worrywort"
** The sounds after "Motion Picture Soundtrack" are beyond heavenly.
** The bridge of "Reckoner".
** "15 Step" is extremely upbeat, despite the [[LyricalDissonance anxious lyrics]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3GLYgJQARI "How I Made My Millions"]], an [[TearJerker emotional]] and informally recorded piano ballad.
** Whenever Thom says ''"release me"'' in "Morning Bell" (either version). It gets even better with the Kid 17 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCs63lh7pH4 version]].
** "(Nice Dream)".
** "Nude" is both sonically beautiful and [[TearJerker emotionally distressing]].
** "Separator".
** "Daydreaming"... well, until [[LastNoteNightmare the ending]].
** "Give Up the Ghost" may be a TearJerker, but that coda with the layers upon layers of vocals also qualifies as this trope.
** ''TKOL'' as a whole might fit, depending on who you ask.
** "Desert Island Disk" is the lightest and probably the most affirming song on ''A Moon Shaped Pool."

* AwardSnub: There are lots of Radiohead fans who believe that if "Spectre" had been chosen as the official theme song for [[Film/{{Spectre}} the Bond film]] it was written for, it would've won (or at least gotten nominated for) the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestOriginalSong Oscar for Best Original Song]] that was won instead by the theme song that ''was'' used, Music/SamSmith's "Writing's on the Wall." [[note]]This ignores the fact that the final version of "Spectre" is probably very different from the version the band submitted to be used as the Bond theme, given that Thom remarked on Twitter that they had "played around" with the song after it was rejected and "made it their own."[[/note]]

*** "Anywhere '''[[SuddenlyShouting Any]][[CarefulWithThatAxe wHEEEEEEEEEEEEEREEEEEE!!!! AAAAAAAAHH!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! AAAAAUUGGGHHH!!!]]'''" [[note]]The same performance also has Thom screaming his lungs out, improvising the "Anywhere" part of the second refrain. Some fans have the liking to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmA9iYHt3Tc&list=PLyHuW7IK95WVC3HMeB967vDpCWgwnQg4J&index=13 make fun]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC_gdMBCmf8&list=PL7MXv-3mFypwA_9yq6WE6t4nCaNtKSBIn&index=37 of]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3pDB8CNaQs&list=PLyHuW7IK95WVC3HMeB967vDpCWgwnQg4J&index=47 his]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nccKVtXnqiY screams]].[[/note]]

** "Climbing Up the Walls" draws on Thom's time spent working in a mental hospital:

--->'''[[BodyHorror OPEN UP YOUR SKUUULL!]][[BeingWatched I'LL BE THEERRRRE!]]'''

---> [[ProperlyParanoid Either way you turn]]
--->[[LookBehindYou I'll be there.]]
--->[[BodyHorror Open up your skull]]
--->[[BeingWatched I'll be there.]]

*** "[[CarefulWithThatAxe ANYWHERE! ANYWHEEEEEEEEEEEEEREEEEEE!!!! AAAAAAAAHH!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! AAAAAHHH!!!]]" [[note]]The same performance also has Thom screaming his lungs out, improvising the "Anywhere" part of the second refrain. Some fans have the liking to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmA9iYHt3Tc&list=PLyHuW7IK95WVC3HMeB967vDpCWgwnQg4J&index=13 make fun]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC_gdMBCmf8&list=PL7MXv-3mFypwA_9yq6WE6t4nCaNtKSBIn&index=37 of]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3pDB8CNaQs&list=PLyHuW7IK95WVC3HMeB967vDpCWgwnQg4J&index=47 his]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nccKVtXnqiY screams]].[[/note]]

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: When ''Music/TheBends'' was first released in 1995, its melancholy tone, introspective lyrics, and eclectic influences were a radical deviation from {{Britpop}}'s generally upbeat and rockist template. Alongside its follow-up, ''Music/OKComputer'', it instigated a shift away from the genre and directly influenced its successor movement, post-Britpop. However, while ''OK Computer'' is still regarded as standing apart from the artists it influenced, the initial novelty of ''The Bends'' is hard to see decades later, when its style became the new basic standard among British AlternativeRock; Radiohead themselves were aware of this, motivating their shift to more GenreBusting material in the 2000's.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: ''Music/KidA'' and ''Music/{{Amnesiac}}'' are definite candidates. The band has denied being purposefully difficult, however.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Yorke's politics tend to veer into this during interviews (and arguably on ''Music/HailToTheThief'').
* AwardSnub: There are lots of Radiohead fans who believe that if "Spectre" had been chosen as the official theme song for [[Film/{{Spectre}} the Bond film]] it was written for, it would've won (or at least gotten nominated for) the Oscar for Best Original Song that was won instead by the theme song that ''was'' used, Music/SamSmith's "Writing's on the Wall." [[note]]This ignores the fact that the final version of "Spectre" is probably very different from the version the band submitted to be used as the Bond theme, given that Thom remarked on Twitter that they had "played around" with the song after it was rejected and "made it their own."[[/note]]

* FaceOfTheBand: Averted. Thom seems like a candidate for this, since the band has admitted that Thom has the most say in everything material-wise (and he's the frontman). However, the other members, most notably Jonny Greenwood, have a sizable amount of the fanbase's and media's attention.

* TrueArtIsAngsty:
** Jonny Greenwood [[DiscussedTrope discussed this]] in an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GR00I2X0l4 interview]]:
--->'''Jonny''': But then I remember, we started ''Kid A'' in Copenhagen in the middle of December, because we had this rightly inflated idea of ourselves that we were a... were a kind of cold northern European band. We need darkness and snow and, you know... which is just, [[SubvertedTrope it's just nonsense, really]].
** Their signature sonic angst [[SubvertedTrope hasn't stopped them from taking a break and doing]] LighterAndSofter material such as ''In Rainbows'' and ''The King of Limbs''.
** ''A Moon Shaped Pool'' marks a return to a bleaker sound, which may not be a surprise given it was made in the wake of [[RealitySubtext Yorke's separation from his partner of twenty-three years and the death of Nigel Godrich's father]].

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Few people thought ''Music/OKComputer'' was going to be successful, and the record was deemed commercial suicide. Cue several million copies being sold (and debuting at #1 in the UK for two weeks), ''skyrocketing'' Radiohead's international fame, and frequently being listed as one of the greatest albums of all time.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Few people thought ''Music/OKComputer'' was going to be successful, and the record was deemed a commercial suicide. Cue several million copies being sold (and debuting at #1 in the UK for two weeks), ''skyrocketing'' Radiohead's international fame, and frequently being listed as one of the greatest albums of all time.

* HilariousInHindsight: "Idioteque" contains the lyrics "ice age coming, ice age coming". Two years later, ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' was released, with the timing of it becoming meme fodder once fans discovered it.

*** ''TKOL'' as a whole might fit, depending on who you ask.

** "True Love Waits" for being a [[{{Tearjerker}} heartwreching]] BittersweetEnding To "A Moon Shaped Pool".

** Burn The Witch probably has to be this.

** "Not Surprises"
** ''Everything in It's Right Place is both beautiful and somehow terrifying.

** "Worrywort".

** "Fat! Ugly! Dead!" [[note]] Radiohead's SoBadItsGood live performance at the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0si0fB0lnow 1993 MTV Beach House]] gives us a rather infamous improvised quote shouted by Thom when they were playing "Anyone Can Play Guitar", right after the "I wanna be, wanna be, wanna be Jim Morrison" verse. [[/note]]

* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Businessmen, yuppies, and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corporate figures]] are all sharply targeted in ''Music/OKComputer''.

** Thom Yorke's dancing is as crazy as [[http://thomhipsdontlie.ytmnd.com/ it is hypnotizing]].
** Thom [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xN-H5QTYWs playing the battery like a madman while singing]] is even crazier ''and'' cooler.
** Jonny Greenwood's "abusive guitar" also gets a mention, be it on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IQfn97KRFg this performance of "Bangers + Mash"]] or... any other rocky guitar-based song. Jonny's done it so much that he had to get an arm brace from repetitive strain injury.
** Jonny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DCWdYVyytY using the head of his guitar to play the synth]] ''and playing his riff at the same time''. This comment under the video says it all:

** Thom Yorke's dancing. [[http://thomhipsdontlie.ytmnd.com/ Hypnotizing]], too.

* EnsembleDarkHorse: ''Amnesiac'' is probably the band's least-recognized album outside of the fandom, with critics preferring ''Music/KidA'' and mainstream audiences preferring ''Music/OKComputer'' and ''Music/InRainbows'', but it has a stalwart following in hardcore Radiohead circles. Its B-sides are considered to be some of the best of the band's career, and "The Amazing Sounds of Orgy"'s live debut on the ''King of Limbs'' tour was greeted with much enthusiasm.

* EvenBetterSequel: ''Music/TheBends'' got a much better response than ''Pablo Honey''.

* TearJerker: [[TearJerker/{{Radiohead}} They have their own page now]].