How Radiohead Let Down Their Fans

As Radiohead arrive at the O2 this week on what is effectively a greatest hits tour, they find themselves in a novel and precarious position. For decades, the Oxford quintet reflected the zeitgeist so perceptively that it felt, at times, that they were the zeitgeist. An alienated band for alienated times. While Oasis, their near-contemporaries, looked to the past, Thom Yorke’s cut-up lyrics for The Bends, OK Computer and Kid A looked to the future.