anyone who thinks radiohead is pretentious obviously knows nothing about the men behind the music. they are just being popularity nazis. its ok, i am a fascist about some stuff, too.
unrelated, here is my opinion on their albums:
pablo honey - didnt actually care for it that much. they hadn't matured their sound enough to really hit anything groundbreaking. it was great for a early 90's rock album. but nirvana was still better.
the bends - was groundbreaking. they made a real imprint on music with this one. their name meant something new. they broke away from comparison to any other bands from the mid 90's.
ok computer - i liked more than the bends, as far as the sound they went for. the bends may have been received better because the world's ears hadn't been tuned to their true style yet (so nobody had anything to compare it to), but ok computer had better songs.
kid a - shocked me when i first heard it. i thought perhaps richard d james had snuck into a radiohead studio session. i grew more in love with radiohead with each listen. this particular pattern continued for the rest of the radiohead albums and even thom yorke's (amazing) solo album. the more i listen, the more i love. not many bands or artists are capable of evoking that in me. this may seem like a bold statement, and it probably is, but i really feel like with kid a, radiohead not only changed the direction of rock music, but that of electronic music as well. we now live in that alternate timeline. and im sure r.d james appreciated hearing his influence used progressively.
amnesiac - while kid a was better as a cohesive whole, amnesiac had the better songs. amnesiac is still my favorite album from them. pyramid song is still my favorite radiohead song. both albums were originally slated to be released as one epic to begin with, and they sound as if they were.
hail to the thief - felt more like a transitionary album. an idea between ideas. still brilliant, nonetheless, but not as effective as kid a and amnesiac. as musicians, the band was getting better.
in rainbows - a pleasant change of timbre while retaining the original soul of the band. an adept exercise in good-old fashioned quality songwriting. in rainbows proved that they didnt have anything to prove, except that they can still shit out an album that drops dookies on 98% of the other albums that came out that year. HOWEVER, yellow house, by grizzly bear, was a better album than in rainbows, in my tiny little opinion. i would have creamed my jeans if i had the chance to see grizzly bear open for radiohead during their tour together last year.
ok, im done sucking their dicks.
). the only thing that really matters is the subjective experience. 
