EMI to release Radiohead greatest hits; band not all that keen on the idea

February 11, 2008 12:05 p.m. by Mike Burr

Nothing says groundbreaking, credible rock band like a nicely packaged greatest hits collection. A group of artists who spent years developing their craft should have absolutely no problem with all of their most accessible material being crammed onto one disc, so value shoppers can get all the hit singles without having to worry about the songs’ context. This of course, is how the concept of a greatest hits album works in Bizarro world. In our universe, a band like Radiohead is somewhat less than jazzed that their albums are going to be cut apart and reconstituted by the corporate label they left last year. While a band with a catalog as diverse as Radiohead’s certainly deserves a retrospective at some point, it’s a given that they wouldn’t want it to come from EMI. No matter what Radiohead’s feelings are on the subject, however, EMI is within their rights and will likely release the album to coincide with the band’s North American tour. Venues for the concerts, scheduled to take place this spring, should be announced later this week. [Tiny Mix Tapes]

Posted in: RADIOHEAD

5 Responses

February 11, 2008 at 1:09 p.m.

I'm not sure who's gonna buy this, though. I mean generally speaking [and "Creep" aside], anyone who ever liked Radiohead enough to buy one album has most likely since bought them all. Really the only incentive would be to include some of the non-album tracks like "Pop Is Dead" or "Talk Show Host" and stray b-sides that didn't make their way onto easily obtainable EP's.

February 11, 2008 at 1:26 p.m.

In Rainbows won them a lot of new fans. I know several people who are completely oblivious to Kid A, Amnesiac, and Theif, but are "HUGE" fans now... Theres definitely a market for this.

The band should release their own greatest hits compilation, and deliver it as a pay what you will download, thereby sticking it to EMI one last time.

I know they said they'd never do it, but if EMI is going to pull the trigger on a greatest hits album anyway, may as well do it for spite. In fact they should release the exact same tracklist plus a couple of bonus b-sides to boot.

Wouldn't that be sweet.

February 11, 2008 at 11:02 p.m.

Steve L

"...anyone who ever liked Radiohead enough to buy one album has most likely since bought them all."

well put, sir.

February 11, 2008 at 11:20 p.m.

BangalterEgo

It would be sweet for them to release their own greatest hits album, Al, but unfortunately they don't have the rights to release any of their material that was recorded under EMI. The only reason they could do so with In Rainbows was because they weren't under contract to a label. Here's to hoping EMI continues on its path to self-destruction.

April 3, 2008 at 12:10 p.m.

Garreth

I must admit, I've never liked Radiohead. Winging, moany, dull and dank. I liked Creep and Just, easily the most accessible of their songs.

Anyhow I don’t know if its cos I'm approaching 30 or what, but because you can’t go and just buy singular tunes on iTunes, so I got a copy of The Bends off my friend. WOW, there’s some real juicy stuff on there. So I thought Ok, Ok Computer, wow! And Kid A WOOOoow I love it. I feel like each album is like reading a book. I'm reading Kid A again and again at the moment. Still haven’t even opened the 3 other books to come .

Excellent! oh and had a quick read of Pablo Honey... Very weak read, the creep chapter was good but I knew what was going to happen.

Bring on the rest though , genius.