I've been getting a kick out of this top ten list stuff, so I'm going to do a few more in the days ahead. Today, here are the first five of my top ten Radiohead songs: 1. "How to Disappear Completely" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAF8D0ugyVk): The amount of development that this track underwent between its sketch stage, heard in Meeting People Is Easy(1998), and Kid A (2000) demonstrates what they're about. Thematically, musically (this band can swing!), lyrics that at first might seem inconsequential but then resonate with possibility - pure Radiohead. Best place to listen to it: a country road, a starry sky, a good car stereo. 2. "Reckoner" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOoCixFA8OI&feature=related): Their conception of rhythm seems to grow and expand with every album. This song amazed me in October of 2007, and my admiration has only increased since. 3. "Everything in Its Right Place" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onRk0sjSgFU): On Kid A, they left aside almost every characteristic for which their work had become famous in the first place: the three-guitar attack, Yorke's expressively human vocals, etc. To do something that daring, right after OK Computer, and to succeed beyond anyone's expectations, well there's a reason that it's been named the album of its decade in several polls. 4. "Dollars & Cents" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_v2OsC9yT0): My favourite track from Amnesiac, which is certainly their most under-valued album. Has there ever been a rocker who has has done string arrangements with the depth and variety of Jonny Greenwood's? 5. "These Are My Twisted Words" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiJj_8yjLnU): Just in case anybody forgot that they can still be a guitar band when they want to.

Tomorrow: the other five.

I don't know about you, but I'm anxiously anticipating the new Radiohead album. It could be out soon, or in several months - no one knows (probably not even them). The only thing that we do know is that they're in the studio, which is cool. So while we're waiting, I thought that I would write something about their last official release, "These Are My Twisted Words", the free download single from August of 2009. Musically, the song is an experiment in texture, overlapping rhythms, and the magnetic pulls exerted by the use of harmonic pedals (i.e. a tone repeated throughout a progression), and for me anyway, it's one of their most interesting and beautiful pieces. The lyrics are very sparse (there are only eleven lines, and they don't begin until just before the song's midway point), but they're suggestive of a larger hidden structure, somewhat similar to the leafless tree branches in the accompanying artwork by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/These_Are_My_Twisted_Words). So give it a listen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Rvz-z5Kqw) and repeat as necessary, while we wait.