The Listomania I make the lists, you shoot them down. Quid Pro Quo.

75. Radiohead – Everything in its Right Place

            I know the rules. Listen, I wrote the goddamn rules. So I know them. But I told you I was going to make exceptions for albums that are the most important of the decade that have multiple songs that merit inclusion on their own. Well, there you go. This one counts.
It’s the opener to the best album of the ‘00s. It was a pretty revolutionary way to start a song set when it came out on Kid A in 2000. The warm keyboard tones were a total about face for the guitar-driven lonely nerd rock of the first half of their career, and were a daring way to raise the curtain on this particular grouping of tracks. There are more, I don’t know, welcoming sounds on this record. But upon many, many listens, it’s the only correct way to kick off the album. The meaty, menacing tones envelop the listener in sound quickly, a single-instrument surround sound that pulls one in to an engulfing musical experience.
            

With a child-like twisting-in-the-wind vocal effect, Thom Yorke careens about sucking on lemons. Which everyone in the U.S. ascertained was some brilliant allusion to alienation. Turns out in the UK that just means waking up with a bitter disposition. Go figure. The baby Yorke's continue to burble and whine underneath the now-soaring lead vocals as disintegrating keybroads drip up into the mix, the sounds slurring and leaving aural trails behind like the paint scenes in "What Dreams May Come." This is the sound of music leaving behind indelible streaks.
          

The cacophony builds and then receds, echoing out over the same bursting keyboard tones that ushered it in. And with 4 minutes down, we're all prepped for what is probably the single-greatest listening experience of the '00s.