10 Disappointing Albums By Legendary Bands

Every single Radiohead release that has come out since OK Computer always feels like a new risk for them to take. These guys aren't ones for doing just the same record over again for the hell of it, and each new project almost seems to have a mission statement regarding what they can do to tinker with their own sound. Since they had already conquered the world by going electronic on Kid A, then going in a more dance-y direction would work just as well...right?

While the basic idea of using different rhythmic textures to bring the Kings of Limbs to life sounds interesting, what we're left with is a just a bunch of fragments of songs that never feel fully fleshed out, like Morning Mr. Magpie sounding almost unfinished compared to the other classics tracks in Radiohead's discography. Although the spare ballads on here like Codex do strike a decent balance between the organic and artificial sides of their sound, most of the other tracks aren't nearly on the same level, often fumbling around trying to find some musical lane to stick with and never really settling into one.

Then again, it might have been the manner in which they recorded these songs as well, with the Live From the Basement sessions actually giving us much better versions of the tracks. The mindset behind this record was to make something that could put the audience into a trance while they listen to it, but somewhere during the mixing, the King of Limbs went from a trance-y experiment to just sounding tired.