Artist Spotlight: Radiohead's Top 10 Essential Tracks 🤖
Discover Radiohead's 10 best songs across their 30-year evolution. Essential tracks from Kid A, OK Computer, In Rainbows and beyond - plus the controversial #1 pick.
The band that killed rock music—then rebuilt it from the wreckage.
Most bands peak and fade. Radiohead exploded into stardom, then systematically dismantled everything that made them famous. From grunge heroes to electronic pioneers to art-rock architects, they've spent 30 years proving that commercial success and artistic integrity aren't mutually exclusive. Here are the 10 tracks that trace their evolution from Oxford students to musical prophets.
10. "15 Step" (2007)
Album: In Rainbows
The sound of Radiohead returning to Earth after years in the digital stratosphere. Built on a hypnotic 5/4 rhythm that shouldn't work but absolutely does, it's their most groove-based song since The Bends. Phil Selway's tribal drumming anchors the whole thing while Jonny Greenwood's guitar flickers like malfunctioning neon. After the icy perfection of Hail to the Thief, this felt like rediscovering their pulse.
9. "Burn the Witch" (2016)
Album: A Moon Shaped Pool
Twenty years in the making, this orchestral nightmare finally emerged as their Brexit-era battle cry. Those aren't traditional strings—they're played with guitar picks, creating controlled chaos that mirrors political upheaval. The stop-motion video's Wicker Man homage isn't subtle, but subtlety was never the point. This is Radiohead's most direct protest song, wrapped in their most sophisticated arrangement.
