Every Radiohead Album, Ranked

Published Sep 14, 2026, 5:31 PM EDT

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Radiohead is one of those bands that, when it comes to introducing, it’s hard to know what to say, because most things have been said and thought and felt and everything. The first album was a grunge/alt-rock kind of one, then the band’s second album was alternative rock with a bit of Britpop, and from the third album onwards, things have become progressively harder to label with standard genres.

A rock band, then? You could leave it at that. Radiohead is a rock band, but then a whole lot more than just rock, obviously, even as early as the second or third album the band put out. There have been nine studio albums to date, and they're all ranked below, starting with one slightly awkward release that didn’t really have much by way of wow factor, before moving on to the albums that do (pretty much the remaining eight all have, at the very least, quite a lot to offer).

9 'Pablo Honey' (1993)

Thanks to Pablo Honey existing, it’s always easy to single out the worst of Radiohead’s studio albums. This one’s remembered for being the debut album, obviously, and also for containing “Creep,” which is kind of confusingly the most famous Radiohead song. It has about 3.1 billion streams on Spotify, and that’s more than twice as many as the song in second place, at the time of writing: “No Surprises,” at just under 1.45 billion streams.

This isn't being a contrarian for the hell of it, but “Creep” is not that good. It is the most memorable song on Pablo Honey, and its status as such an enduring song (again, somehow) is fascinating, but that’s about it. Nothing else on this album is anything close to fascinating. It’s somewhat listenable ‘90s grunge/alt-rock, but if Radiohead had not improved things massively come their sophomore album, this soon-to-be-praise-filled article probably wouldn’t exist, because Radiohead would not be the monumentally loved band they are now.

8 'The King of Limbs' (2011)

If you look at the length of The King of Limbs, you might feel inclined to believe it approachable, since it’s the only Radiohead album that clocks in at under 40 minutes, but in terms of how it actually sounds, it’s one of the band’s least approachable and immediate efforts. It is still quite a bit better than Pablo Honey, not to mention far more exciting, though it’s fair to single it out as potentially the most divisive Radiohead album…

The King of Limbs, at worst, can still be admired as one of many shake-ups/changes of pace for Radiohead.

…Well, most divisive if you're not counting Pablo Honey. It’s got one clear highlight at its center in the form of “Lotus Flower,” with just about everything else being songs that require some time to sit with; call them growers, if you're feeling “Optimistic.” The King of Limbs, at worst, can still be admired as one of many shake-ups/changes of pace for Radiohead, because even if the band had released some electronica-heavy music before, nothing really sounded quite the same as this particular album. Different itches were scratched in different ways and all that.

7 'Hail to the Thief' (2003)

Hey, Hail to the Thief is less divisive than The King of Limbs, but sort of occupies a similar space in terms of its quality. The big difference between it and that album (as well as Pablo Honey) is the fact that there are two heavy-hitters standout track-wise on Hail to the Thief: the album opener, “2 + 2 = 5,” and the ninth track (out of 14), “There There.”

As for the album overall, it’s heavy-going stuff, which isn't as surprising when you're talking about Radiohead, but it is also noteworthy for being the most politically charged album the band’s done (whereas other albums from them, like the ones released in 1997 and 2000, are a bit less pointed and more about society than politics, if that makes sense). Hail to the Thief is still good, though. It’s still Radiohead putting out an album that isn't Pablo Honey, so that’s pretty much a given and all.

6 'Amnesiac' (2001)

There’s been a fair bit said already about each Radiohead album having a different sound, but that sentiment doesn’t apply as strongly to Amnesiac, which is very much a companion album to another one that’s also electronic and experimental, and came out just one year earlier. The songs found on both were recorded around the same time, but ultimately didn’t come to make up a double album, so Amnesiac does very much still count as its own studio album.

It is still very good. It being a little familiar isn't really a problem, especially because being a Part Two of sorts to what was already a great album does mean “more” good to great stuff. While it’s not as easy to get excited about Amnesiac, it remains close to genuine greatness, but it’s after this point in the ranking that things get truly excellent, in terms of quality.

5 'The Bends' (1995)

The leap in quality from Pablo Honey to The Bends is wild. Two years made a huge difference, because there’s more than one song that’s memorable here, and it’s not a “Creep” situation where that one memorable song is also kind of a meme. Speaking of two years making a big difference, two years on from The Bends, Radiohead would make another massive leap forward artistically, but that’s getting ahead of things a little too much.

That confidence is heard from the first track, “Planet Telex,” though “High and Dry,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” “Just,” and “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” all prove even more worthy of being considered highlights. Maybe The Bends loses a tiny bit of momentum after “Just,” which is the seventh track out of 12, but then “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” is what closes the album, and it does so on a high, so the second half of this album is indeed prevented from feeling too dry.

4 'In Rainbows' (2007)

Listing off highlights in terms of individual tracks feels hardest to do with In Rainbows, owing to how well the album flows, and how consistent it is. Once you mention “15 Step,” “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” “Jigsaw Falling Into Place,” and “Videotape,” there becomes something of an obligation to mention the also great “Bodysnatchers,” “Nude,” “All I Need,” and “House of Cards.”

By then, you’ve mentioned eight out of the album’s 10 songs, and so you sort of have to give an honorable mention to “Faust Arp” and “Reckoner,” or perhaps even an apology to the latter for not mentioning it earlier. Look, all the songs here are really good. It might feel like a bit of a hot-take to only have this in fourth place in this overall ranking, but the best Radiohead albums are just too good. It gets difficult at this point. Sorry!

Radiohead: In Rainbows From the Basement

Cast

• 

  Jonny Greenwood

  Self

• Thom Yorke

• Colin Greenwood

• Ed O'Brien

3 'A Moon Shaped Pool' (2016)

While it’s sad that A Moon Shaped Pool, at the time of writing, is Radiohead’s most recent album, despite being more than a decade old, it isn't too outrageous that there hasn’t been a follow-up, because it feels difficult to top. Not that every new album has to top the one that came before, but it would be a monumental undertaking in this case, with part of that feeling coming about because A Moon Shaped Pool does feel like it could serve as a strong finale for Radiohead’s whole discography.

The members of the band have kept busy since 2016, especially Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood, who've composed film scores independent of each other while also forming a new band: The Smile. So, if you want more music by the members of Radiohead, you’ve got that, post-2016. But as for Radiohead… this probably won’t be a swan-song (hopefully, at least, and the band is still touring as Radiohead), but if it were, there’d be worse ways to make a final artistic statement, as a band.

2 'Kid A' (2000)

Kid A really, REALLY cemented Radiohead’s reputation for shifting things up in sound with every album, even if Amnesiac, as mentioned before, was a departure from the whole departure thing, since it was basically more Kid A, but a little more experimental. Kid A is still extremely experimental, and the first Radiohead album that’s more electronic-focused than rock-heavy, though you do still get some songs that function as rock, like “The National Anthem.”

Much can be said, though, about how strange – and, ironically, maybe even wrong – “Everything in Its Right Place” would've sounded upon first listen, in 2000. You have to face that one first and head-on, since it’s the album’s incredibly bold opener, and a pretty great mission statement of things to come. It might've sounded too jarring at the time, and once upon a time, Kid A was considered divisive, but nowadays, it sounds alien and bold in the best of ways, and is deservedly regarded as a masterpiece of an album.

1 'OK Computer' (1997)

Admittedly, OK Computer doesn’t feel as ambitious as Kid A, in hindsight, because it is still mostly identifiable as alternative/art rock, and as the band’s third release, it was the follow-up to two other studio albums that can be labeled “rock.” Still, it was a big change of pace, just not the biggest, and then it was a huge step-up in quality, even compared to the excellent The Bends, which was better than the band’s debut in every single way (as mentioned before).

There is nothing to complain about, when it comes to OK Computer. It contains many of Radiohead’s best songs, and it’s another In Rainbows sort of situation where mentioning highlights would involve mentioning just about everything. It’s the fact that all those great songs combine into something even better than the sum of its parts that makes OK Computer as legendary as it is. Well, okay, speaking of parts, “Fitter Happier” is probably the only song that doesn’t work in isolation, but if you listen to it within the context of the album, it’s hard to imagine OK Computer feeling entirely complete without it.