Radiohead how many albums

Eventually, they came to the attention of Chris Hufford -- then best-known as the producer of shoegaze stars Slowdive -- who offered the group the chance to record a demo along with his partner Bryce Edge; the two soon became the band's managers. EMI bit at the group's demo, signing them in and suggesting they change their name. Next, the group entered the studio with producers Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade to record their full-length debut. The first fruit from these sessions was "Creep," a single released in the U.

The British music weeklies slagged it, radio didn't play it, and it limped to number 78 on the charts. Pablo Honey, the band's full-length debut, appeared in February , supported by the single "Anyone Can Play Guitar," but neither release gained much traction in their native U. By that point, however, "Creep" started to gain attention in other territories.

First, the song became a hit in Israel, but the bigger waves came from the United States, which was in the throes of the alternative rock revolution. Influential San Francisco radio station KITS added "Creep" to their playlist and it spread along the west coast and onto MTV as it became a genuine hit, nearly topping Billboard's Modern Rock chart and reaching 34 on the Hot , a big achievement for a British guitar band.

A re-released "Creep" turned into a British Top Ten hit, peaking at number seven in the autumn of The band who'd had no success suddenly had more than it could handle. Radiohead kept touring Pablo Honey into , but no subsequent hits were forthcoming, raising the specter of the band as a possible one-hit wonder -- a criticism that weighed heavily on the group, who were anxious to record their new songs.

They received the opportunity early in , entering the studio to work with producer John Leckie -- then best-known for his work with the Stone Roses -- with My Iron Lung, an EP released in late , being the first music released from the sessions.

Muscular and ambitious, the EP provided a good indication of what would come on 's The Bends. Released in March , The Bends not only found Radiohead growing musically -- it was dense and expansive, without skimping on songs -- but also in reputation, as critics in the U.

Radiohead's rise may have been assisted by the mania cultivated by Brit-pop, a term that didn't quite suit the band -- they were far artier and rock-oriented -- but nevertheless stoked interest in indie guitar bands, which the quintet certainly was.

Over in the U. During and , the group recorded new material with Nigel Godrich -- an engineer on The Bends sessions who was now the band's producer -- with songs slowly creeping out during the course of the year.

A breakthrough is precisely what OK Computer turned out to be, a record that proved pivotal not just for Radiohead but for the direction of '90s rock. Greeted with enthusiastic reviews and corresponding strong sales, OK Computer closed the doors on the hedonism of Brit-pop and the dour after-effects of grunge while opening a new path to sober, adventurous art-rock where electronics co-existed with guitars.

Over the next few years, the band's influence would become readily apparent, but the album made a sizable impact upon its release, too, debuting at number one in the U. Radiohead supported it with an international tour, documented in Meeting People Is Easy.

By the time Meeting People Is Easy showed up in theaters, the group began work on their fourth album, once again reuniting with producer Godrich. The resulting Kid A doubled down on the experimentalism of OK Computer, embracing electronics and threading in jazz. Appearing in October in , Kid A was one of the first major albums to be pirated through file-sharing services, but this bootlegging had no apparent effect on the sales of the record: it debuted at number one in the U.

Once again, the album took home the prize for Best Alternative Album at the Grammys and although it didn't produce any hit singles -- indeed, no singles were released from the record -- it was certified platinum in several territories.

Amnesiac, a collection of new material initiated during the Kid A sessions, appeared in June of , topping the U. Two singles were pulled from the album -- "Pyramid Song" and "Knives Out" -- a signal that the album was more commercially accessible than its predecessor.

At the end of the year, the band issued I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings, and by the summer of , they turned their attention to recording a new album with Godrich. The resulting Hail to the Thief appeared in June of , once again debuting in the upper reaches of the international charts -- number one in the U.

Over the next couple of years, Radiohead entered a hiatus as individual members pursued solo projects. Becoming the band's highest-charting release when it peaked at No4, The Bends is also significant for being the first Radiohead album to feature cover art created by Stanley Donwood.

As with Nigel Godrich — who's first production credit with the band would come two years later — Donwood's work has been present on every one of the band's releases since. Not only did that last score the band their first top five single — only four more have followed since — but it included Talk Show Host as one of its B-sides. Sparse and darkly minimal, in hindsight it was perhaps the most explicit indication of what was about to come.

Produced by Nigel Godrich, it shifted the band's positioning from slightly obscure, relatively complex five-piece guitar music to a more daring and inventive sound rife with creativity while still melodious enough to conquer a world stage. Indeed, Radiohead were no longer mainly a UK-based success. A few days later came the release of Paranoid Android as the record's lead single — which achieved the band's highest chart position to date when it reached No3 — and then in August Karma Police , which as one of its B-sides contained Meeting In The Aisle , Radiohead's first-ever instrumental offering.

This was also the period during which Yorke's voice was beginning to be heard on other artists' material — firstly on a collaboration with Sparklehorse for EMI's Come Again compilation that celebrated the label's biggest releases. Yorke was in fact also approached to write the score for David Fincher's adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel Fight Club , but declined to recover from promoting and touring OK Computer.

The madness and wonder of that period is well encapsulated in the documentary film Meeting People Is Easy — released on 30 November , losing out to Jimi Hendrix for the Best Music Film Grammy — a toll it would take more than a year to pay.

The new millennium began with Radiohead having been dormant for more than a year, and when they did return it was with the resolve to do pretty much the opposite of what happened with OK Computer. A potentially alienating array of experimentation and heavy use of electronics, with no promotional singles or music videos, it inevitably shot straight to No1 in both the UK and the States and scooped a second Best Alternative Album award at the Grammys.

It wasn't that Radiohead tried to release this record under the radar, though; they were simply using means that at the time were extremely forward-thinking. Namely, the internet. The album was available to stream online, along with some short animated films including the album's music and artwork, while bootlegs of early performances were up on file-sharing websites and the record was also leaked early. Eight months is all we had to wait for Radiohead's next record, Amnesiac.

Often regarded as a kind of sister album to Kid A , it continued challenging listeners with its experimental arrangements but without forgoing deep hooks and often hauntingly beautiful melodies. The only other official release from the album was Knives Out in August, but the band released their first live album — a collection of performances of songs from Kid A and Amnesiac — in November.

Though there would be no further Radiohead releases for another two years, Ed O'Brien and Philip Selway featured in Neil Finn's 7 Worlds Collide project, a collective that released a self-titled live album in November — and who would enter the studio a few years later.

Those disappointed by Amnesiac , having hoped for a return to Radiohead's more guitar-led roots, are likely to have been delighted when There, There became the lead single from the band's sixth album, Hail To The Thief.

The single reached No4 in the UK — the last time to date Radiohead have broken the top ten — but was not wholly telling of the record that was to follow. Rather than a regression to a previous style, Hail To The Thief married live band recordings — as opposed to overdubs — with the synthesized sounds that had dictated their previous two albums.

Brought out on DVD on 1 December , this collection of 24 short films directed by Chris Bran was designed initially for a four-episode run on regular TV. Instead, Radiohead launched their own online TV channel on 26 May , with the episodes beginning on the hour — those who turned up late would be faced with a test card and s-style intermission music. Charting at No3 in the UK and No2 in the US, its connection to Radiohead is strengthened by Nigel Godrich's production and artwork by Stanley Donwood, but there is an intimacy that distinguishes this electronics-led record from the band's catalogue.

Yorke also featured on Modeselektor's Happy Birthday! Without a label, having left EMI-owned Parlophone Records, Radiohead were free to release In Rainbows whenever they wanted — 10 October , as it happens — and fans were free to pay whatever they wanted for it. Initially self-released online on a pay-what-you-like basis, lore is that In Rainbows was actually more financially successful than major-released Hail To The Thief — even before it was afforded a physical form by XL Recordings the following year.

Despite no singles having been released at this point, the songs on In Rainbows were far from alien to fans, with Radiohead having performed most of them on a tour leading up to the album's release, and the record duly topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

It was largely a year of promotion in , with the band now backed by XL, with Jigsaw Falling Into Place and Nude put out as singles. For the latter, the band made stems available online so fans could remix the track at home — something they would do again later in the year for the release of Reckoner.

Also that month came the debut studio record from the 7 Worlds Collide collective. The torch passed once again to Yorke in September, who gave us the singles Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses — a track of which an early version became Reckoner — and Hearing Damage , written for the Twilight soundtrack.

In May he teamed up for the first time with Flying Lotus, co-writing the track Having released probably their most mainstream-friendly album since 's OK Computer when they brought out In Rainbows , Radiohead again turned their back on the popular vote with probably their least accessible record to date.

Debuting on 18 February , The King Of Limbs is far from being bereft of melody or traditional structure, but its sprawling rhythms and off-kilter arrangements are not exceedingly radio friendly. There were no singles as such, and it became the first Radiohead album since 's The Bends not to top the UK charts. It was also the first to do better in the USA than on home soil, ranking four places higher at No3 on the Billboard list. Those singles were effectively replaced by remixes.

The first Radiohead-related release of was a collaboration between Jonny Greenwood and Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Recordings of Penderecki's early s pieces Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and Polymorphia are each followed by Greenwood's responses, Popcorn Superhet Receiver and 48 Responses to Polymorphia respectively.

Perhaps the most interesting and even most accomplished of Greenwood's non-Radiohead work came when the guitarist travelled to India to work with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and local folk group the Rajasthan Express. Released in November , Junun was recorded at Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, fusing the influence of all three components for an album that sounds far more cohesive than describing it would have you believe.

Produced again by Godrich, it was also filmed by Paul Thomas Anderson for a worthy documentary release. One track you won't hear on film, however, is Radiohead's Spectre. Recorded to lead the soundtrack for the James Bond film of the same name, after OK Computer outtake Man Of War was rejected due to being ineligible for a Best Original Song Oscar, it was discarded for being too melancholy and replaced by an offering from Sam Smith. Within the space of a week at the beginning of May , Radiohead collectively returned with the singles Burn The Witch and Daydreaming , and their ninth studio album A Moon Shaped Pool.

The highlight for many fans, however, was the inclusion of True Love Waits.