17. No Surprises
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5CVsCnxyXg Artist: RadioheadAlbum: 'OK Computer'Year: 1997 'No Surprises' is a song that could pigeon-hole a lot of bands. It feels like a full-stop, a Louis Armstrong-like last dance, a culmination of what the band have come to be portrayed as: a pretty sad man writing pretty sad music, but it's pretty, all the same. But for all the clichés of the song, it's sadly overlooked as one of Radiohead's finest singles, and one of Thom Yorke's best written songs. It's soberingly sombre, but it moves in a way that pop songs just don't anymore, from the tinkly riff to the join-together chorus. It's like a hymn that's always been there: play it at a gathering and people will say, "Oh, it's that song", whether they've got Amnesiac B-sides on their iTunes or they've only ever heard of the band through The X Factor's Wagner murdering 'Creep' in front of millions. The power of a clichéd song must never be overlooked, because it's still art, and why should you let someone else's opinions or the overplaying of a hit alter a song's majesty? 'No Surprises' is brilliant, whether you've heard it a hundred thousand times or you're playing 'OK Computer' for the first time.