Common wisdom is that the iPod killed the album and that iTunes resurrected the single. After all, why buy an entire album of material when there are only a couple of good songs and you can get them for $0.99 each? On the other hand, there are those that prioritize the integrity of an album with the belief that, on great albums, the first song is there for a reason and the last for a different reason. Radiohead has always been a band that has supplied credence to that argument. There seems to be a legitimate purpose for "Planet Telex" to start off The Bends, in the same way that "Motion Picture Soundtrack" closes Kid A. It is interesting, then, to experience The Best Of, a greatest hits of Radiohead's first six studio albums. These albums span Radiohead's time on Capitol Records, and thus does not include their notorious and excellent most recent album, In Rainbows. The Best Of CD comes in a number of varieties, a 17-track, one-disc version, as well as a 30-track, two-disc version. This review will consider the two-disc The Best Of. There is also a DVD The Best Of, collecting all of the band’s videos (that review is here).
The best thing about The Best Of is that it sequences all of the tracks non-chronologically, so that "Just" begins disc one and "Creep" does not appear until the fourth track. The point here is that it juxtaposes the songs in different ways and therefore makes you appreciate them as individual songs, rather than as pieces of the larger artwork of the album. The logical question of this collection is who is the audience? This is a legitimate query because Radiohead may be the biggest band in the world who do not write hits. Ask your average music fan what Radiohead songs they know or like, and they will probably only tell you "Creep" or maybe "Just." It is probably not an accident that this is called The Best Of, not The Greatest Hits because the vast majority of these songs are not hits. An average music listener has probably never even heard "My Iron Lung" or "Airbag," so they're not exactly clamoring for a greatest hits package with these tracks on it. Radiohead have always been a band with a substantial devoted following. However, those people already have all six of these albums and know them frontward and backwards.
Okay, so this is not a greatest hits package for an average music fan, for whom 30 Radiohead songs are probably a bit much. Is it then for the Radiohead fans? Well, not really. A way to make it desirable for these fans would be to sprinkle the familiar tracks with rare nuggets, such as live tracks, rarities, demos, alternate mixes, and non-album tracks from obscure compilations and soundtracks. Well, sadly, The Best Of drops the ball here, too. There are only two tracks of the 30 that are not from Radiohead's first six albums: a live version of "True Love Waits" from the already released I Might Be Wrong live EP and "Talk Show Host" from the soundtrack of the Leo DiCaprio film Romeo + Juliet. I think this is one of the major oversights here. There are many demos and B-sides out there. There was even an Airbag/How Am I Driving? EP released by Capitol in 1998 with a handful of rarities. None of those are here.
There is some enjoyment in The Best Of from the novelty of the sequencing, but the sequencing is only as good as the track selection. Best of albums are like all-star teams, in that there are always going to be oversights. It is rather curious, however, which albums comprise the majority of The Best Of. It is telling that Radiohead's first three albums contribute 17 tracks while their last three albums are only represented by 11 tracks. No song from Kid A appears until the tenth track of disc one. Also unusual is the fact the album with the most selection on The Best Of is The Bends. Seven of that album's thirteen songs are present on The Best Of. I like The Bends an awful lot and think it's a very good album, but is it a better album than OK Computer or Kid A? Well, no way. It is also curious that "Like Spinning Plates" and "Stand Up, Sit Down" were considered strong enough singles to be made into videos, but were not good enough to be one of the best 30 singles for this album.
As a listen, it is still great. If you like Radiohead, you will like these songs. But if you like Radiohead, you likely already have most, if not all of these songs. So maybe The Best Of is for people who only got OK Computer or Kid A. Or maybe your friend is always playing Radiohead and you want to check out what all the fuss is about. Or maybe your twelve-year-old cousin is tired of Green Day and emo. I guess these are all legitimate examples. Or maybe Capitol saw In Rainbows blow up online and then get released domestically and knew it wasn't seeing any of that green. The band was reportedly none too pleased about this compilation, and I can't say I blame them. If you are a Radiohead neophyte, perhaps the single-disc version of The Best Of is for you, but for everyone else, The Best Of is not anything to get excited about.
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