It would have been difficult to envision back in 1992, when a young British band, Radiohead, from Oxfordshire, named after an obscure Talking Heads song, released their breakthrough single “Creep” and its accompanying albumPablo Honey,that they would someday become far and away the most important band of their generation. Sure, there were flashes of brilliance on that album, like the unhinged eruption of self-loathing in “Creep” or the slow-boiling tension of “Lurgee”, but Radiohead had every appearance of being one of those countless 1990s alternative rock groups that would make a quick splash and then just as quickly disappear into the ether.
Fast-forward 23 years, and Radiohead remain the world’s preeminent rock band. There is nobody else in rock that can generate such a massive frenzy of excitement and speculation with the prospect of a new release as Radiohead. Their second album, 1995’s critically hailed The Bends, was an artistic leap forward over their debut. At that point, it became abundantly clear that Radiohead were not an ordinary rock band.