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.

Arranging is the step that is missing from a lot of rock music. Many groups consider the song to be finished once the harmony (i.e. the chords) and the melody are done, producing an effect that usually sounds underwritten. If a group features one or more great players, their improvisational abilities (sometimes thought of as "arranging in the moment") can mask this fact. But even better is when the band is comprised of great arrangers, as is the case with Radiohead, a group that has developed their arranging abilities to an unprecedented level in rock music. And they didn't start out that way. Their first album, Pablo Honey (1993), although it shows some of their promise, almost approaches grunge music in its lack of development. Their next album, The Bends (1995), was a huge step forward with many (but not all) of the tracks showing their abilities at full power. OK Computer (1997) was the first in their unbroken string of five straight masterpieces, culminating in 2007's In Rainbows. The primary factor that led to these accomplishments was their growth as arrangers. In my post of June 25, I wrote about their songwriting process, which I learned about from a New Yorker article by Alex Ross entitled "The Searchers", the main point here being that their method of working requires that each member of the group be entirely responsible for creating his own parts, and in a band that features three guitarists, and has made two albums largely dominated by electronic instrumentation (Kid A and Amnesiac), that means creativity was (and is) required. More tomorrow. (Suggested listening: "I Might Be Wrong", "Scatterbrain", "Reckoner")