What is it about these two albums that makes people consider them some of the best albums of all time...

What is it about these two albums that makes people consider them some of the best albums of all time? I won't deny that they're both good albums, but is the music that good, or is there something else that's behind it as well? Something like influence on later music, or the context of the music at the time?

The first one is an incredible album that was easy to digest, with really good songs and a lot of attention to detail. And then, the radical departure from OKC to Kid A brought them even more acclaim. Both are just incredible albums.

fpbp

They are good and genuine (even with all the drama, they don'tt get melodramatic for me) and on top of that they were well crafted and ,most important of all, fairly accesible.

only tumblirnas in denial think those albums are anything special

they both hit you with emotion

I haven't listened to Radiohead in awhile. Which album should I listen to?

Both albums are incredibly moody and provide a conscious perspective of the looming computer age that was inevitably to come.


Personally, In Rainbows is my favorite album of all time and at least a step or two better than the 2 that OP posted, but nevertheless OLC and Kid A are fantastic and deserve high praise. I just don't think it's AOTD- worthy praise

In Rainbows

name 1 (one) album you consider a 10/10

because both of these albums concluded/summed up entire musical trends to such a standard that no one had really seen before. ok computer finished the britpop sort of guitar rock thing. after that there wasnt any really worthwhile mainstream releases in the same style to achieve the same level of ingenuity or display of songwriting prowess and with the same level of integrity. kid a combined the non mainstream trends in britain, and was an amazing display of actual artistic direction and showed they could still write the same quality songs regardless of style. its only made more significant by the fact it actually came when they were expected to write more of the same style of songs on ok computer, so it was a huge statement by the band themselves.

and for both of these to come at the start of insane culture change like said, the 90s the last non internet decade and the 2000's the first to have internet everywhere? pretty good, 7/10

this.

No alternative rock band of radiohead's fame and acclaim had ever made the foray into electronic music before.

Circle Takes The Square- As The Roots Undo

okay, i like CTTS but i really don't think they're a band anyone should use in support of their argument that Radiohead isn't a good band. OKC and Kid A were both infinitely more influential than As The Roots Undo.

They are well-written pop music covered by a veneer of "avant-garde" aesthetic. The genius of Radiohead is that they took a variety of musical ideas which had been created by experimental rock bands of past decades and then removed almost every challenging aspect of the music, replacing them with easily-digestible pop conventions. This was a perfect formula for success: its listeners can not only satiate their cravings for hipster cred by listening to music that sounds "out there", but they can actually enjoy themselves while doing it. No band has managed to strike that ideal balance as precisely as Radiohead has, which is why they are regarded so highly.

Yeah, and there is nothing wrong with that. Radiohead is not experimental music at all.

Both albums are stand on their own as complete bodies of work. I head Kid A when I was like a freshman in highschool and thought it was cool, but revisiting it last year when AMSP blew my fucking mind. Coming back at 30 years old with better critical listening skills and life experiences made Kid A and AMSP my absolute favorite albums.

It's not about lyrics, its not about instrumentation. I've never seen them live, so it's not about showmanship.
For me, it's 100% about their ability to evoke emotion. Which is really all I look for in art now, it took a long time to get here for me. (LSD helped).

I think they are good, but overrated a tad bit to be on the top of the billboard of all time.

What the other user's are saying plus the context of Kid A's release after OK Computer

The first 15 seconds of airbag

They were really really appropriate for the times they came out in.