best experimental rock songs

10 Best Experimental Rock Songs of All Time

Experimental rock is a genre that pushes the boundaries of traditional rock music by incorporating elements of avant-garde, jazz, electronic, and other unconventional styles.

The result is often a sound that is eclectic, unpredictable, and challenging to listen to. While experimental rock may not be everyone’s cup of tea, its impact on the music industry is undeniable.

Here we’ll take a look at the 10 best experimental rock songs of all time, each of which represents a landmark moment in the genre’s history. Let’s get started!

10 Best Experimental Rock Songs

10. “revolution 9” by the beatles.

Released on the band’s 1968 self-titled album, also known as “The White Album,” “Revolution 9” is a haunting and avant-garde soundscape that defies easy categorization.

It features a collage of manipulated sound effects, spoken-word samples, and musical fragments, all layered together to create a disorienting and unsettling atmosphere.

While “Revolution 9” may not be a traditional rock song, its influence on experimental rock is undeniable, and it remains one of the most daring and boundary-pushing tracks ever recorded.

9. “21st Century Schizoid Man” by King Crimson

The opening track on the band’s 1969 debut album, “In the Court of the Crimson King,” “21st Century Schizoid Man” is a hard-hitting and aggressive song that blends heavy rock with elements of free jazz and avant-garde experimentation.

The track features distorted guitars, frenzied saxophone solos, and pounding drums, all anchored by a driving bassline. The result is a powerful and groundbreaking song that set the tone for the experimental rock movement that followed.

8. “The End” by The Doors

The closing track on the band’s 1967 debut album, “The End” is a sprawling and hypnotic epic that features Jim Morrison’s haunting vocals, psychedelic guitar work from Robby Krieger, and a mesmerizing organ solo from Ray Manzarek.

The song builds to a climax with Morrison’s repeated cries of “lost in a Roman wilderness of pain,” before fading out into silence. “The End” is a dark and enigmatic masterpiece that has become one of the most iconic songs in rock history.

7. “Heroin” by The Velvet Underground

Released on the band’s 1967 album “The Velvet Underground & Nico,” “Heroin” is a brooding and intense song that explores the darker side of drug addiction.

Lou Reed’s raw and emotional vocals are backed by a droning guitar riff and a pulsing rhythm section, creating a hypnotic and mesmerizing atmosphere.

“Heroin” is a powerful and deeply affecting song that pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in rock music at the time.

6. “Sister Ray” by The Velvet Underground

Another groundbreaking track from The Velvet Underground, “Sister Ray” is a 17-minute epic that features a driving, repetitive riff and a chaotic, improvised jam session.

The song is filled with distorted guitars, pounding drums, and dissonant feedback, creating a sound that is both abrasive and captivating.

“Sister Ray” is a prime example of the band’s willingness to experiment with unconventional sounds and structures, and it remains a landmark moment in the history of experimental rock.

5. “Starless” by King Crimson

Another epic track from King Crimson, “Starless” is a haunting and beautiful song that features lush orchestration, intricate guitar work, and a soaring vocal performance from John Wetton.

The song builds to a powerful crescendo, with the entire band coming together in a moment of pure musical catharsis. “Starless” is a masterpiece of progressive rock, and it remains one of the most ambitious and innovative songs ever recorded.

4. “Echoes” by Pink Floyd

Clocking in at over 23 minutes, “Echoes” is a sprawling epic that showcases Pink Floyd’s mastery of atmospheric soundscapes and psychedelic rock. The song features haunting vocals, spacey guitar solos, and a hypnotic rhythm section, all culminating in a powerful and emotional climax.

“Echoes” is a stunning example of Pink Floyd’s ability to create immersive and otherworldly sonic landscapes, and it remains one of their most beloved songs.

3. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen

Released in 1975, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a genre-defying song that incorporates elements of rock, opera, and progressive rock. The track features Freddie Mercury’s operatic vocals, layered harmonies, and a complex, multi-part structure that is both ambitious and innovative.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a groundbreaking song that pushed the boundaries of what was possible in rock music, and it remains one of the most iconic and beloved songs of all time.

2. “Idioteque” by Radiohead

Taken from the band’s landmark 2000 album “Kid A,” “Idioteque” is a haunting and hypnotic song that blends electronic music with rock instrumentation. The track features thumping beats, swirling synthesizers, and a haunting vocal performance from Thom Yorke.

“Idioteque” is a stunning example of Radiohead’s willingness to experiment with unconventional sounds and styles, and it remains one of their most groundbreaking and influential songs. It’s just one of their many great songs .

1. “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin

Released in 1975, “Kashmir” is a majestic and powerful song that blends rock with elements of Indian music. The track features a driving, pounding rhythm section, lush orchestration, and a hypnotic guitar riff that builds to a thrilling climax.

“Kashmir” is a testament to Led Zeppelin’s mastery of dynamics and musical tension, and it remains one of the most epic and powerful rock songs of all time.

10 Best Experimental Rock Songs – Final Thoughts

Experimental rock is a genre that has produced some of the most groundbreaking and innovative music of all time.

The 10 songs listed above represent some of the most iconic and influential moments in the history of the genre, and they continue to inspire and challenge musicians and listeners alike.

Whether you are a fan of experimental rock or just appreciate music that pushes the boundaries of what is possible, these songs are a must-listen for anyone who loves rock music.

“ Led Zeppelin 2203730017 ” by  Heinrich Klaffs  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 .

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Best Music of 2022

The 11 best experimental albums of 2022.

OHYUNG's imagine naked! is one of NPR Music's top 11 experimental music albums of 2022. Photo Illustration: Jackie Lay/NPR/Jess X. Snow/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

OHYUNG's imagine naked! is one of NPR Music's top 11 experimental music albums of 2022.

The Best Music of 2022

Music not only has the power to transport but transform. "Experimental" music, a nebulous grouping of difficult-to-classify sounds, provides us lovely, sometimes challenging fractal windows to jump through — to escape, commune, blister and rattle, to try and express our edges and witness the unknown. In 2022, for us, this encompassed microtonal rock jams, tender ambient, woozy nostalgia, Egyptian ghosts and an epic synth symphony.

Below, find an unranked list of the year's most exploratory music, along with some personal favorites, by NPR Music staff and contributors.

Lucrecia Dalt, ¡Ay!

¡Ay! is Lucrecia Dalt 's sci-fi missive from space to Earth; or vice versa. The Colombian experimentalist tells an extraterrestrial's story through bolero, salsa, mambo, son and jazz submerged in a colloquial, nostalgic haze. The alien Preta's interpretations of home, love and the limits of having a body resonate exponentially against a textured, acoustic backdrop, a product of human imagination seeking to operate outside of its chains of time, form and grief. Dalt's world-building in sound and theme are jarring in its invention, yet altogether familiar. —Stefanie Fernández

OHYUNG, imagine naked!

Whenever I needed a pacifier this year — in need of something that would bring me down not just to Earth but safely back to the very apartment room I was likely sitting in, imagine naked! was there. It makes sense: Robert Ouyang Rusli, who records tender ambient like this under the name OHYUNG , based its song titles on lines from a poem by t. tran le, titled "Vegetalscape," that summons deep magic from scenes of the everyday. That Rusli also composes for film makes perfect sense; mine might be titled Post-Pandemic Basement Boy. —Andrew Flanagan

Caterina Barbieri, Spirit Exit

The Italian electronic composer Caterina Barbieri thinks deeply about the spiritual impact of her music on the bodies and minds of others. Her intense album Spirit Exit was created in isolation during Milan's strict pandemic lockdown, inspired by hermetic visionaries including the mystic nun St. Teresa of Ávila and Emily Dickinson. Barbieri's layered tracks build and explode massively into moments of bliss, as if to musically recreate Ávila's ecstatic vision of being stabbed in the heart by an angel. —Hazel Cills

Nancy Mounir, Nozhet El Nofous

Nancy Mounir's Nozhet El Nofous is a conversation with the past. The Cairo-based composer and instrumentalist weaves aching arrangements around crackling recordings of 1920s Egyptian singers. In translations provided, we grasp how Mounir's own violin, bass and piano dance seamlessly with beautiful Arabic poetry of love, torment and darkness — characters who express longing and sorrow with the same nostalgic verve of what Brazilians call saudade . The ghostly effect, however, isn't haunting, but an empathetic hand across time. — Lars Gotrich

Evgueni Galperine, Theory of Becoming

Describing his music as an "augmented reality of acoustic instruments," the Paris-based composer masterfully displays his own personal orchestra of sounds derived from, but unheard in, the real world. Trumpet fanfares get twisted, strings shed a kind of rusty patina and who knows what produces that sublime subterranean bellowing. Each of Evgueni Galperine 's 10 pieces unspool like soundtracks to fevered dreams. In the final vignette, "Loplop im Wald," we're captive deep in the forests of surrealist painter Max Ernst, complete with ominous drum beats, woozy strings and a disturbing whistler. —Tom Huizenga

Gavilán Rayna Russom, Trans Feminist Symphonic Music

At 1 hour, 11 minutes, Trans Feminist Symphonic Music is maybe the only project on our list that, though wordless, successfully expresses as much information as a novella. The piece's first movement, "Elegy," folds and bounces within itself, bringing to mind, in both its aesthetic and its peacefully anxious rhythm, Manuel Göttsching's monumental modular album E2-E4 , from 1984. But unlike Göttsching, tranquility and innovation aren't the aim here; Gavilán Rayna Russom is legibly investigating the futility of binaries through the spooky actions of sound. The discordant meditations in the second movement, "Expansions," slide away for the transfixing and daydreamy "Beauty," before settling into the project's rhetorical core in its final movement, "Truth." The whole is greater than the sum of its already-magnificent parts — its conclusion, which is objectively correct, is that there are no right answers when it comes to the act of human being. —Andrew Flanagan

Joe Rainey, Niineta

Since the age of 8, Joe Rainey — a self-described Ojibwe "urban Indian," raised near Minneapolis' tribal locus of Little Earth — has captured 500 hours of powwow ceremonies, emerging as a powerhouse singer on the competitive circuit himself. Niineta is his debut collaboration with empathetic and attentive producer Andrew Broder; they crosshatch Rainey's archives with his own visceral melismas, turning it into a master storyteller's coat of arms across a ruptured firmament of mauling drums and sculptural squelch. Solemn but funny, vulnerable but aggressive, the messages are gripping, even if the tongue is unfamiliar. Rainey is at the radical edge of a wave of Indigenous experimental expression and acceptance in the United States. Niineta is his undeniable opening statement. —Grayson Haver Currin

Horse Lords, Comradely Objects

Into polyrhythms lately? Want sounds so mathy that they feel like they're made of fractions? Can't find your old copy of Neu! ? Do I have an incredibly specific album for you. Angular Baltimoreans — addicted to the tasty, old-school flavor of the West German avant-garde guitar minimalists — can't help themselves from chugging lavishly with guitars and saxophones for a violently kosmische album that sounds like 40 different looms weaving a tapestry. You would think this whole thing would be fustier per the weight of their admitted influence ("Russian Constructivism," which is to say, a utopian art movement that wants less commodity-fetishism and more utility-fetishism), but this album succeeds for feeling strangely rustic in its human filigree. —Mina Tavakoli

Anna Butterss, Activities

In terms of composition, the bassist Anna Butterss seems to shadow-chop through her songs, finding weak spots in their otherwise sparkling walls to pound a hole for peeking through. What lies beyond is anyone's guess (maybe hers most of all). Activities transitions fluidly and ceaselessly between — literally, between — jazz, classical, pop, avant-dance and nursery rhymes, the work of an artist at near-peak technicality having nothing but fun. —Andrew Flanagan

Ian William Craig, Music for Magnesium_173

Armed with a beautifully trained voice and a bank of custom tape decks that loop, slur and hiss, the Canadian artist has created limitless layers of decaying beauty over the span of 12 tracks. In "Attention For It Radiates," choral flourishes, dressed in William Basinski-like distortion, slowly oscillate, while in "Sprite Percent World Record" a single voice barely surfaces above lovely thickets of drone. Originally composed for a computer game, these expansive, slow-motion canvasses, with their desiccated resplendence, stand completely on their own and remain among the most arresting and immersive music released this year. —Tom Huizenga

Björk, fossora

The global grief we've shared during the last few years didn't limit, of course, our individual suffering; it merely made those cuts deeper. Björk used the space of the pandemic to consider her mother's 2018 death and how the influence of a mortal may become immortal through others, reaching ever outward like a mushroom's hyphae. The result, fossora , is a riot of new growth after a deluge. Armies of meticulous if vertiginous woodwinds and strings prance around Björk's singular voice , able to command and comfort at once. "Hope is a muscle that allows us to connect," she beams three minutes in, relentless hardcore drums hammering home this point so that we may never again forget it. These love songs, arguably the most audacious of her career, are brilliant blooms at a perceived new dawn. —Grayson Haver Currin

And 10 more, in no particular order:

Patrick Shiroishi, Evergreen Patrick Shiroishi made 18 records in 2022, all compelling; his finale, Evergreen , is the most exquisite. Using field recordings from the Los Angeles cemetery where his ancestors are buried, the saxophonist builds lush meditative spaces for considering the power that past holds over present. —Grayson Haver Currin

Rachika Nayar, Heaven Come Crashing A mesmerizing album that blends soul-crushing electronica and the Brooklyn composer's gloomy, signature guitar into a cinematic opus. —Hazel Cills

Bill Orcutt, Music for Four Guitars This is antechamber music spit like a piping-hot tar-loogie from the punkest guitar player ever. Yet these choppy, euphoric miniatures are somehow beautiful in their psychic bleed-through. — Lars Gotrich

Peter Coccoma, A Place to Begin Peter Coccoma's annual, winterly sojourn to a sparse island on Lake Superior sitting just off the coast of Minnesota's arrowhead was extended indefinitely by a certain global displeasure not too many years ago. The composer enjoyed the trapped time, though, and spent it well, fastidiously outlining the soul of a unique and quiet corner of the world in these sparse, lush pieces. —Andrew Flanagan

Clarice Jensen, Esthesis Lighter on the drones this time, the restless cellist and composer explores a broader sound world with help from pianist Timo Andres, in music layered with sensations. —Tom Huizenga

claire rousay, wouldn't have to hurt At its best, claire rousay's work can function like a poignant film score, with subtle layers of sound — iridescent electronics, spare piano — highlighting the emotional core of seemingly pedestrian moments. This absorbing EP stares down suffering and tries to transmute it into anything tolerable, be it friendship or mere understanding. —Grayson Haver Currin

Marina Herlop, Pripyat The Catalan composer's album is a work of truly alien music, twisting her freaky, high vocals and piano into soundscapes not of this world. —Hazel Cills

Vanessa Rossetto, The Actress Rossetto layers field recordings and instruments not as a canvas but emotional portraits that you move with your mind. An experience that changes on every listen. —Lars Gotrich

Tanya Tagaq, Tongues "They tried to take our tongues," the Inuk throat singer murmurs on this potent manifesto, demanding to reclaim what colonization has stolen from her culture. —Tom Huizenga

Lamin Fofana, The Open Boat The Sierra Leonean producer gives us a mysterious map, but there doesn't seem to be a ship capable of navigating its extraterrestrial electronics and submerged beats. —Lars Gotrich

• Nancy Mounir
• Evgueni Galperine
• Lucrecia Dalt
• Caterina Barbieri
• Anna Butterss
• Horse Lords
• Ian William Craig
• Gavilán Rayna Russom

17 Best Experimental Songs Of All Time

When we think of standout experimental songs, most people understandably think of the sixties.

It was a time of tremendous change, and that got reflected in the music. But music is constantly evolving, and experimental songs come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some of the best experimental songs of all time.

Shine a Light and Let it Loose by The Rolling Stones

Song Year: 1972

The Rolling Stones were notorious for musical experimentation. They are best known for inventing the folk-rock sound, but even so, no two songs are the same.

‘Shine a Light’ stands out as one of the best experimental songs ever, because it’s a peculiar blend of Gospel traditions and rock music.

It’s an unlikely combination, but the experiment pays off. The result is an emotive and meaningful song that listeners around the world connected with immediately.

Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles

Song Year: 1967

Another great experimental songs comes from the Liverpudlian rock group The Beatles.

As They grew in popularity, The Beatles increasingly began experimenting with musical convention and pushing the boundaries of harmony. ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ is an excellent example.

The band’s producer famously combined two separate takes. One is slightly slower than normal, and the other is sped up. The result was a truly unique listening experience.

A combination of eclectic instruments heightens the song's sense of atypicality. Keep your ears tuned to hear:

• Swarmandal (Indian harp)

Chameleon by Herbie Hancock

Song Year: 1962

Herbie Hancock is a jazz musician who played an instrumental role in developing jazz fusion .

Since jazz is one of those genres perpetually shedding its skin and donning a new one, that claim may not sound as remarkable as it is.

Hancock produced ‘Chameleon’ while struggling to create a new sound for himself. To reinvigorate his creative energy, he took inspiration from funk music.

‘Chameleon’ is immediately recognizable to jazz aficionados because of its idiomatic baseline. The blend of synth and other instruments is unlike anything previously recorded.

To say it’s one of the best experimental jazz songs of all time is to understate its impact on the musical landscape.

Interstellar Overdrive by Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd’s ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ was very different from other music at the time. It’s an instrumental composition that helped bring Pink Floyd into the popular consciousness.

The song’s genesis occurred when the band manager tried and failed to hum a popular melody. Several of the musicians mucked about with their instruments to help him out, and the unlikely episode laid the foundation of ‘Interstellar Overdrive.’

Like other experimental songs on this list, there’s a heavy emphasis on chromaticism and atypical chord progressions that contribute to the music’s unusual sound.

Five Years by Bjork

Song Year: 1997

Icelandic singer Bjork has an astonishingly versatile voice. In ‘Five Years,’ she combines it with distorted drums to fascinating effect.

The result is one of the best experimental songs ever. Bjork’s voice dips ever-lower down the scale, and the drums become increasingly distorted. The result is an undeniably fascinating study in effective editing and composition.

V-2 Schneider by David Bowie

Song Year: 1977

 ‘V-2 Schneider’ is one of the pieces Bowie composed while in Berlin. It’s an artistic period many Bowie fans view as one ongoing experiment, and that’s evident in ‘V-2 Schneider.’

It features the unlikely combination of Bowie’s imperfect saxophone artistry, a janty bassline, and disco-style drums. It’s a combination that shouldn’t work but does.

Arguably, Bowie has done more overtly experimental work. But one of the reasons ‘V-2 Schneider’ ranks as one of the best experimental songs of all time is because it sounds like the kind of musical accident but succeeded against tremendous odds.

Torches by Youth Choir of Great Briain

Song Year: 2001

So far, our discussion of the best experimental songs of all time explores overtly experimental genres like rock or jazz.

But no genre is static. Sir Karl Jenkins' ‘The Armed Man’ is a spectacular and moving example of how even classical music can be experimental. It takes the conventional movements of a Mass setting and blends them with:

• Medieval folk songs
• Muslim call to prayer
• Sanskrit mythology

The ninth movement of ‘The Armed Man’ shows Jenkins at his experimental best. It’s a violent indictment of wartime violence that uses spikey chromaticism, percussion, and vocal sliding to evoke the devastation of war.

It segues immediately into the much gentler Agnus Dei, which, atypically, precedes the Benedictus. But while the mass might be experimental, its effect on audiences is undeniable. It’s powerful, evocative, and designed to make you weep.

Passacaglia by Herbert Kegel, Theo Adam and Konrad Rupf

Song Year: 2013

Another of the best examples of experimental classical music comes from ‘Wozzeck,’ by Alban Berg.

Berg wrote his opera based on the 12-tone system. The result is an almost entirely atonal composition that plays with classical conventions. Singers sing symphonies, sonatas, and rhapsodies.

Here, the singers sing a passacaglia. Like other forms mentioned, this would typically be performed by an orchestra. It’s also distinctive for its dissonance and atonality.

For that reason, many find Berg hard to listen to. But that’s no reason to overlook genius.

Jim Dean of Indiana by Phil Ochs

Song Year: 1969

Folk artist Phil Ochs was all about experimenting with music and pushing its boundaries. His songs are famous for their biting satire.

But in ‘Jim Dean of Indiana,’ Ochs also pushes the boundaries of folk music convention.

The imagery is unrelentingly grim, and even the title of the album ‘Greatest Hits’ is a tongue-in-cheek experiment. Ochs had no hits to speak of, and he knew it. But his determination to expose the grey underbelly of the much-mythologized Americana gives his songs a staying power their composer never anticipated.

Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground

Song Year: 1968

The Velvet Underground was always unconventional and never more so than in ‘Sister Ray.’

Among other things, it features:

The result is one of the best experimental songs of all time. It redefined garage jazz and earned the Velvet Underground their reputation as unapologetically confrontational.

It’s a busy track that stands out for being almost entirely improvisational.

Only A Northern Song by The Beatles

‘Only A Northern Song’ was so unusual, even by Beatles standards, that it didn’t debut until two years after the band recorded it.

‘Only a Northern Song’ begins slowly but soon picks up speed. It’s helped by the harsh percussion and looping trumpets that give it a distinctive tonality. It’s a sound meant to sound as abrasive as the accent the title playfully mocks.

2000 Lightyears from Home by The Rolling Stones

As experimentations go, The Rolling Stones' ‘2000 Lightyears from Home’ is an exercise in the nightmarish. That’s not to deride it. Instead, it’s a creative exploration of a dystopian soundscape.

Listen carefully to the instrumentation. A mellotron creates a futuristic sound, while some of the instrumentation anticipates R2D2 ten years before Lucas conceived his epic space opera.

Milestones by Miles Davis

Song Year: 1958

In ‘Milestones,’ Miles Davis experimented with the concept of modal jazz. He eschewed conventional harmony in favor of the modal system.

That may not sound experimental, but before Davis did it, modal jazz didn’t exist. For that reason alone, ‘Miles,’ later renamed ‘Milestones,’ ranks as one of the best experimental songs of all time.

Reptile Smile by Th’ Faith Healers

Song Year: 1992

Th’ Faith Healers didn’t have a long career but the work they produced was incontrovertibly experimental. ‘Reptile Smile’ is a textbook example.

Part of ‘Reptile Smile’s’ appeal is that it's danceable. Whatever else is going on, it maintains a steady, almost monotonous baseline. But it’s combined with creative vocal lines and innovative lyrics, producing one of the best experimental songs of the decade.

Geiger Counter by Kraftwerk

Song Year: 1975

‘Geiger Counter’ takes its name from the sound it creates.

Part of the experiment on display with this piece is Kraftwerk’s efforts to mimic a Geiger counter.

But there’s more than experimentation at play here. The song flows naturally into ‘Radioactivity.’ It’s not hard to see that they are more than musically innovative. They're making a statement about nuclear armament.

Effective and to the point, it’s an excellent example of one of the best experimental songs of all time.

Malo by Tim Gasiorek

Song Year: 2020

These days we don’t always think of Benjamin Britten and experimental music in the same sentence. That’s a testament to how music has evolved since Britten started composing.

At the time, though, Britten broke many of the conventional rules. His operas, ‘Albert Herring’ and ‘Turn of the Screw’ are particularly striking examples.

‘Malo’ is sung by the boy tenor playing young Miles in ‘Turn of the Screw,’ and it’s an excellent example of how Britten was reshaping musical convention.

As you listen, pay attention to how raw and exposed it is. It’s also prominently chromatic and often harmonically dissonant.

That’s appropriate because ‘Turn of the Screw’ engages with themes of pedophilia and to some degree, homophobia. But for Britten’s contemporary listener, it made for some uncomfortable listening.

Lifetime by Yves Tumor

Song Year: 2018

Yves Tumor is another artist who never stopped experimenting with music.

‘Lifetime’ is an excellent example. It blends Tumor’s tremendous vocal capability with an eerie piano line and offsets both against a propulsive R&B drum beat.

Tumor wraps the song up with a blast from the horn section, an unlikely but effective choice.

Top Experimental Songs Ever, Final Thoughts

Everyone remembers the 1960s as a time of musical innovation. But when talking about the best experimental songs of all time, it’s important to remember music is never static.

If it was, it would lose its power and efficacy with listeners. Consequently, the best experimental songs of all timespan a variety of genres. They’re jazzy, classical, or even hard rock. What they share is a strong sense of purpose and an ability to move their audience.

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Search all Bandcamp artists, tracks, and albums

Welcome to the year-end edition of Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp, in which we’ve picked 12 of our favorites from 2021. As always, this year was overflowing with great experimental music, from all corners of the globe and all the growing spaces in between traditional genres. Our list, presented in alphabetical order by artist, includes tape loops made from old Christian albums, 2000-year-old Chinese lutes, virtual lockdown collaborations, and field recordings that vary from the documentary to the fantastical.

Michèle Bokanowski Rhapsodia / Battements solaires

Decades of writing for film, TV, and live performances have helped veteran French composer Michèle Bokanowski develop a unique knack for injecting narrative into abstract sounds. On Rhapsodia / Battements solaires , drama abounds: the 17-minute “Rhapsodia” pulses with purpose, while side two’s “Battements solaires,” the soundtrack to her husband’s film of the same name, offers an immersive atmosphere, with distinct sonic events—loud sounds, cuts to silence, swelling notes—forming a bigger arc, and giving a full sense of how Bokanowski can turn ideas into music.

Nina Dante + Bethany Younge Lizard Tongue

The weedy music of New York-based duo Nina Dante and Bethany Younge sounds like field recordings translated into cartoons. There are all kinds of environmental sounds used on Lizard Tongue , as the pair rattle wood, shake rocks, crack branches, and stretch their own voices, and it all sounds more fantastical than natural. This music isn’t just about humor; all types of emotions are conjured along the way. But Dante and Young bring unpredictable playfulness to even the scariest parts, making Lizard Tongue a wild ride that always lands safely.

Crazy Doberman Everyone is Rolling Down a Hill

On Everyone is Rolling Down a Hill , the sprawling collective Crazy Doberman continue to explore the fuzzy overlaps between damaged rock, sputtering noise, primitive free jazz, and other ecstatic, unhinged sounds. The Morricone-on-speed dramatics of “murro egg robber hero” and the Krautrock-leaning journey of “inverted pyramids slowly projected from the firmament” manage to sound both unfettered and efficient. Crazy Doberman’s resistance to genre makes them proud outsiders, but it also puts them in a venerable lineage with label-dodgers like Oneida , The Dead C , and Trumans Water .

Marsha Fisher New Ruins

To make New Ruins , Minnesota’s Marsha Fisher culled through old Christian records collected from thrift stores while she lived in Nebraska. Creating tape loops from all this religious music while also playing modular synthesizer, Fisher made music that lands far from its sources sonically, but still seems imbued with the devout spirit of the originals. On the opening title track, buried voices hum and moan, while on “Prayer” trembling oscillations blur into wordless hymns. Most compelling is 17-minute closer “Clouds Over Shoemaker Marsh,” which transforms opening low tones into a high-pitched drone that parts the skies.

Seth Kasselman UV Catamaran

In 2014, after living in Los Angeles for 17 years, Seth Kasselman moved to Arizona and spent four years recording the pieces on UV Catamaran . The resulting four tracks, filled with mysterious sounds, tonal shifts, and lots of forward motion, reflect both the disorientation and optimism of big life changes. Each piece touches on water themes, as Kasselman uses actual underwater recordings to express the feelings of drift and float that a move can create. Kasselman funnels his themes into a rich sonic palette: take “Long Time Machines,” in which murky synth tones give way to atonal saxophone, then cut hard to a monstrous drone, like a map of the way time shapes the mind.

Charmaine Lee KNVF

The human voice gets stretched, distended, and detonated in the music of New York City’s Charmaine Lee . Using “microphones of varying fidelities, contact mics placed on the throat, and amplified hair combs,” Lee creates tactile pieces that mimic the inner workings of not just her larynx, but every part of her body. Many of her sounds are arranged in unpredictable patterns that veer from repetition to entropy, but KNVF ’s best tracks emerge when Lee focuses on one sound like a scientist with a microscope. Take “Market Slip,” where a short lip smack recurs in varying lengths and pitches, as if Lee is reading an entire dictionary in morse code.

Chloe Yu Nong Lin Pi Sound

On her debut album Pi Sound , Chloe Yu Nong Lin explores the pipa, a Chinese lute created almost 2000 years ago. Lin herself was born in Taipei and currently resides there, but Pi Sound was recorded at the end of a three-year stay in Chicago. She used her experiences in both places to create a distinctive approach to electro-acoustic improvisation. Using the pipa ’s reverberant aura, Lin makes each track sound like the shape of the room it was played in. Her pieces feel present and immediate; during the rattling “Between” and the chiming “Still in the Ghost Month,” you can practically touch Lin’s strings. In the process, she finds emotional resonances that reach beyond the specific tones of her instrument.

Annea Lockwood Becoming Air / Into The Vanishing Point

Legendary composer and sound artist Annea Lockwood ’s latest work demonstrates how her musical approach remains so fertile for collaboration. On the A side, “Becoming Air,” she works with trumpet player Nate Wooley to achieve “disorderliness…in its magical sense of allowing something outside of you to unfold in its own way.” Over 20 minutes, Wooley’s breaths and bursts are disrupted by Lockwood’s manipulations. On side B, Lockwood converses with New York ensemble Yarn/Wire in reaction to news of global insect species loss, merging nature sounds into subliminal territories. Both pieces contain so many different shifts that they elude description, unlocking a realm to which Lockwood seems to own the only key.

Norman W. Long BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN

A few years ago, a nature trail opened in the Southeast neighborhood of Chicago where sound artist Norman W. Long lives. He planned on leading soundwalks there, but due to lockdown orders, the most he could do was walk by himself. He recorded these walks for his latest tape, BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN . On the aurally-immersive 20-minute “SOUTHEAST LIVE 2019,” he reveals an area filled with housing, factories, and abandoned space, while “Marsh Filter” and “Recovering Landscape Community” serve as both documents and meditations on the human disruption of nature. It’s a lot to take in, but Long is a master at absorbing the world and delivering something just as big in return.

Rambutan parallel systems

During pandemic isolation, Eric Hardiman—who records as Rambutan —asked 69 different musical comrades to send him audio material, which he then layered and mixed into a series of 33 collages. He envisioned each set of contributions working together like a virtual group, and the tracks do have a surprising cohesion, as if the participants are telepathically communicating across space and time. Each piece is a closed system with its own style and logic; as the album progresses, drone, noise, ambience, heavy rock, and free improv all rub up against each other. By the end of parallel systems ’s 180 minutes, these tracks become part of a family tree whose branches envelop the globe.

Tears|OV Pluto’s Return

Tears|OV ’s aural concoctions float between music and sound art; songs and collages; literal meaning and impressionistic abstraction. Pluto’s Return ’s closest parallel is Negativland ’s mix of samples and loops (plus lots of humor: Check out how “Send in the Clowns” includes cheesy synth takes on the titular classic). But whereas Negativland usually crafts short songs, this trio of sound artist Lori E. Allen, cellist Katie Spafford, and illustrator Deborah Wale fuse everything into one stream of consciousness, with the surreality of a vivid dream.

Xïola Yin Self-Contained Illusion (The Peak)

France’s Aloïs Yang, who works in visual, sound, and performance art, calls his project, Xïola Yin , “the opposite yet not contradicting side of Aloïs Yang.” That may provide a clue to the title of his new tape, Self-Contained Illusion (The Peak) , which feels like a hermetically-sealed fantasy world filled with alien sounds and cosmic echoes. Yang finds motifs in hyper-repetitions looped through each other like shoe strings twisted into knots. The words “joy” and “madness” also pop up in song titles here, marking the wide parameters of Xïola Yin’s music, where happiness feels crazy and vice versa.

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The 200+ Best Experimental Bands & Musicians, Ranked

Unlike other musical genres, anything that experimental bands do is unpredictable. Whether that's by nature, by training or just something they enjoy doing, experimental artists know how to push the envelope on what their fans consume sonically and their songs generally challenge the convention of even what loyal fans can predict will happen. The bands on this list are generally of the pop and rock music variety. Many of the experimental bands and experimental artists are on here for their willingness to change song structure, fuse genres and use instruments and sounds that weren't well known or even thought of in the same way.

So, what are the best experimental bands and experimental artists? You've probably heard of the experimental music artists that are in the top half of this list. David Bowie, Bjork, Animal Collective, Frank Zappa and Peter Murphy are names associated with experimental music. These artists have all challenged their listeners by releasing music that isn't conventional and thus, have actually become more beloved by their fans.

That said, it's up to you to determine what are the best experimental bands. If you notice that a band isn't on this list and should be, feel free to add them. This list answers the questions "who are the best experimental music bands of all time?" and "who is the greatest experimental music musician ever?"

David Bowie

The Velvet Underground

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band

Frank Zappa

• Genre Finder

Genre: experimental rock

Experimental rock music is a genre that pushes the boundaries of traditional rock music by incorporating unconventional sounds, structures, and instrumentation. It often features experimental production techniques and a willingness to explore new sonic territories. This genre can range from psychedelic and dreamy to noisy and chaotic, and can incorporate elements of electronic, jazz, and world music.

Most popular experimental rock artists

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• experimental
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Here you can see the popularity of Experimental Rock genre over time. This graph shows albums and singles releases count by year and decade.

Popular experimental rock Songs

Throbbing Gristle

Cabaret Voltaire

Glenn Branca

Top New experimental rock Songs of 2024

Einstürzende Neubauten

Les Savy Fav

Most popular experimental rock albums

experimental rock music by decade

Explore experimental rock history by listening to songs from every decade. Click on the decade to view songs.

List of experimental rock artists

Here is a list of experimental rock artists on Spotify, ranked based on popularity, who exemplifies the experimental rock genre. You can find out what experimental rock genre sounds like where you can preview artists or sort them the way you want, just click the headers to sort.

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#	name	popularity	followers
1		47	306383
2		26	35768
3		28	19542
4		47	322019
5		43	241272
6		32	106680
7		31	102804
8		52	335666
9		17	24915
10		45	375572
11		22	41822
12		42	210172
13		28	34327
14		30	42389
15		26	49662
16		42	176896
17		43	214420
18		45	163872
19		45	393509
20		34	125070
21		29	80010
22		36	79525
23		23	8650
24		34	74674
25		37	49383
26		36	93126
27		29	70166
28		45	165730
29		31	52749
30		47	210027
31		38	132862
32		34	68206
33		33	69108
34		25	15746
35		44	205119
36		36	92774
37		52	371946
38		22	29322
39		28	30661
40		43	98115
41		40	155048
42		15	45547
43		45	115293
44		42	97143
45		39	112813
46		36	85030
47		27	44568
48		36	34100
49		32	61780
50		21	41035
51		41	141461
52		37	89138
53		38	139344
54		31	29983
55		34	94971
56		43	175141
57		35	93186
58		36	140973
59		28	28871
60		18	24153
61		27	31978
62		34	131791
63		38	93174
64		23	12565
65		33	77290
66		31	43203
67		21	23680
68		36	80387
69		30	25821
70		32	70444
71		52	230540
72		19	10468
73		18	7063
74		24	12657
75		18	9285
76		28	31047
77		24	25065
78		29	72052
79		33	82831
80		22	18347
81		20	14102
82		31	92883
83		34	165578
84		30	36939
85		22	16114
86		34	50925
87		42	136989
88		20	24775
89		34	19285
90		33	19650
91		28	49957
92		24	24460
93		23	23936
94		22	10875
95		21	15878
96		25	12066
97		21	39363
98		19	9741
99		17	16422
100		17	7572

experimental rock playlist created by Chosic

Enjoy this playlist of popular experimental rock music. We made this playlist using an algorithm created by our team.

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17 of the best rock and metal songs to test your speakers

Try testing for clarity with a lot of dirt

There is a tendency in hi-fi circles to stick to the same old genres, and even use specific tracks consistently for decades when demoing a system or piece of kit.

Go to any hi-fi show and within the first hour you'll have heard Stevie Ray Vaughan and Hotel California enough to last a lifetime. (Well, imagine working there all weekend!)

We strongly believe you need to test hi-fi with the music to which you actually like to listen. And yes, that's still true if you're a rocker or metalhead.

We'd always recommend you put together a playlist of your own favourites, but if you're looking for a selection of rock and metal tracks that will give your system a top-to-bottom workout, we've got you covered here.

Below, you'll find a collection of heavy music that runs from the compressed and grungy to the epic and lavishly produced. (There's no such thing as a bad test track!) Every track will thoroughly test your system in at least a couple of regards, as well as give you a great excuse to rock out.

If you'd like to skip our individual recommendations and reasoning, and get straight to the music itself, you'll find the complete playlists here on Spotify and Tidal .

Spit It Out by Slipknot

Slipknot's debut album is simply relentless, and Spit It Out is one of the most intense of its 15 (16 if you count Frail Limb Nursery separately) tracks. That intensity and its explicit lyrics made Spit It Out a bold choice as a single release, but it clearly did the band no harm.

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At a time when hard rock music was populated almost exclusively with bands fronted by that creepy older guy who shared booze with teens at the skatepark, the Iowa nine-piece came along with a baseball bat to cave in his head and scare the kids away. Entrenched in hardcore and punk as much as it is metal, Spit It Out is terrifyingly loud even on mute and cannot be surpassed for its aggressive energy.

Listen to Spit It Out on Spotify

Listen to Spit It Out on Tidal

Buy Slipknot on Amazon

Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin

Whole Lotta Love might be an obvious choice, but it's also completely essential; just imagine the uproar if it had been missing from this list. For starters, the soundstage is ginormous, and your hi-fi system should be able to reproduce the space and place each instrument (and its echo) precisely, tracking the movement from speaker to speaker where appropriate.

Listening to Whole Lotta Love played through a well organised system is a dizzying thrill, the likes of which is very rare. Stop reading and do it right now (but then come back and read the rest of this page).

Listen to Whole Lotta Love on Spotify

Listen to Whole Lotta Love on Tidal

Buy Led Zeppelin II on Amazon

In Bloom by Nirvana

Grunge has still yet really to recover its reputation from the hordes of cheap imitators who flooded the airwaves in Nirvana's wake, but Nevermind still sounds as bitingly hostile as it did 30 years ago – a testament to the genius of Kurt Cobain and the band's undeniable place at guitar music's top table.

It's an album full of stand-out tracks, but it's In Bloom that we turn to most readily when testing on account of its clearly defined instrumentation, screeching solo and layered vocals.

Listen to In Bloom on Spotify

Listen to In Bloom on Tidal

Buy Nevermind on Amazon

Minerva by Deftones

Deftones' self-titled fourth album saw the Californian alt-metal band really begin to spread its wings in terms of musical style, introducing more electronic and synthesized sounds while also borrowing elements from disparate genres such as trip-hop and shoegaze.

Lead single Minerva is the most clearly shoegaze-influenced track on the album, blending an airy guitar drone with a particularly ethereal delivery from vocalist Chino Moreno. At the same time, this is a fantastically heavy track that will reward systems with plenty of weight and dynamic range.

Listen to Minerva on Spotify

Listen to Minerva on Tidal

Buy Deftones on Amazon

Báthory Erzsébet by Sunn O)))

Báthory Erzsébet previously appeared in our list of albums recorded in strange places due to the fact that the vocals were recorded by Xasthur frontman Malefic while he was locked inside a coffin – but it's also a hauntingly fantastic track for giving your system a thorough workout.

The drawn-out intro combines ringing bells that should sound distant and authentic with Sun O)))'s trademark hum and nastily deep bass. When the voice kicks in around the halfway point of the track's 16-minute runtime, it's all about the aridly dry vocal track cutting through filthy guitar drones like a rusty knife through butter.

It’s an unnerving sonic juxtaposition that sits uneasy on the ears, and near drags you into the casket – as long as your system's doing its job right.

Listen to Báthory Erzsébet on Spotify

Listen to Báthory Erzsébet on Tidal

Buy Black One on Amazon

Then Comes Dudley by The Jesus Lizard

Although the band eventually signed with Capitol Records in the mid-90s, The Jesus Lizard's following always remained more cult than commercial at a time when alternative rock was edging ever closer to the latter. Listening to the Texan noise outfit's willfully abrasive second album Goat suggests the group were perhaps never destined for the mainstream, but to remain significant long after many of their contemporaries had been found out.

Opening track Then Comes Dudley is a brilliant combination of crisp drums, jangly guitars and fuzzy vocals, and your system's doing well if it can make sense of it – particularly towards the busy crescendo.

Listen to Then Comes Dudley on Spotify

Listen to Then Comes Dudley on Tidal

Buy Goat on Amazon

Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine

Rage Against The Machine's brutal debut will forever sit among the rock and metal albums at your local record store, but in many ways it is more a hip-hop record with guitars. Its political conscience is one shared with acts such as Public Enemy and N.W.A, while Tom Morello's guitar is made to squeal like a scratched record within riffs that could easily be used by such artists with alternative instrumentation. Either way, Zack de la Rocha's spat lines are painfully poignant even three decades on.

While it's always tempting when putting together a list such as this to avoid the most famous tracks in favour of a less well-known gem, Killing in the Name simply can't be passed over – particularly if you want to test or tweak your system's stereo imaging.

Listen to Killing in the Name on Spotify

Listen to Killing in the Name on Tidal

Buy Rage Against the Machine on Amazon

Bruma by Møl

Certain to be the most divisive entry on this list, Bruma is the standout track from Jord , the first full album from Danish blackgaze band Møl. "Blackgaze?", we hear you ask. Why, it's the melding of black metal and shoegaze, of course.

That might sound like a mismatch of smoked salmon ice cream proportions, but approach Bruma with an open mind and we think you'll find the combination of shoegazey dreamscape, thudding drums and screeching vocals rather exciting. Or perhaps it's just us. Either way, your system's going to be tested like it never has been before.

Listen to Bruma on Spotify

Listen to Bruma on Tidal

Buy Jord on Amazon

Nothing Else Matters (Live S&M recording) by Metallica

We've no doubt that many metal fans will be furious that out of Metallica's vast back catalogue we've picked this relatively gentle live rendition of Nothing Else Matters . For testing, though, there really is no better track.

It's legendarily hard for hi-fi kit to make crowd noise sound real and authentic. If your system gets it right, you'll be immediately transported to The Berkeley Community Theatre.

The collaboration between Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra might smooth out some of the former's rough edges, but this is a performance of epic scale and atmosphere, with the juxtaposition of metal and orchestral resulting in a real challenge for even the most high-end of setups.

Listen to Nothing Else Matters (S&M) on Spotify

Listen to Nothing Else Matters (S&M) on Tidal

Buy S&M on Amazon

The Pot by Tool

It's so hard to pick just one Tool track for a list such as this, such is the overwhelming strength and suitability of the band's back catalogue. Indeed, 2019's 13-years-in-the-making Fear Inoculum is packed with lavishly produced and exotically layered tracks that reward those who've spent the time and money putting together a hi-fi system of genuine quality.

In the end, though, The Pot from 2006's 10,000 Days proves irresistible on account of its relative immediacy, rapacious pace and thundering attack. Your system needs to be weighty and spritely in almost equal measure in order to keep up with this one. Best buckle up.

Listen to The Pot on Spotify

Listen to The Pot on Tidal

Buy 10,000 Days on Amazon

Dry Fantasy by Mogwai

We could create a whole list of only Mogwai tracks for testing your system (and perhaps we will one day) but for this feature we're going with Dry Fantasy from the Scottish post-rockers' most recent album.

Said album, As the Love Continues , is arguably Mogwai's best since 2006's Mr. Beast , blending the band's enhanced knack for epic and emotive soundtrack-style soundscapes with its eternal instinct for driving rock, and no other track typifies that better than lead single Dry Fantasy .

Listen to Dry Fantasy on Spotify

Listen to Dry Fantasy on Tidal

Buy As the Love Continues on Amazon

Reducer by Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

Despite the band's moniker, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs's approach is far more elephantine as mammoth riffs tear through the speaker cone and plant their feet square in your gut. 

Playfully eccentric as much as it is colossal, 2020's Viscerals  shares a Sabbath-like nous for using rhythm and pace as much as pure noise to achieve a truly British style of heaviness, and opening track Reducer gets things off to a rip-roaring start.

Listen to Reducer on Spotify

Listen to Reducer on Tidal

Buy  Viscerals  on Amazon

Burning by Fugazi

13 Songs is effectively a compilation formed of Fugazi’s first two EPs – Fugazi and Margin Walker – that has spent the past 30 years providing a huge influence on alternative rock music.

Its post-hardcore arrangements are sometimes eerily sparse, which often only accentuates their brutality, and beg a sharp performance from your speakers. Burning is a great example that also boasts a chuggingly deep bass line.

Listen to Burning on Spotify

Listen to Burning on Tidal

Buy 13 Songs on Amazon

Abandon Ship by Gallows

It can be easy to dismiss quite compressed-sounding records, such as Gallows' Orchestra Of Wolves , as simply not being 'hi-fi' enough. But to do so would be to deprive yourself of one of the most frantic and frenzied hardcore punk albums in existence.

What's more, while the album sounds rather closed in and claustrophobic, rather like it's been recorded from the sweaty mosh pit of a pub basement, it's a stern test of your system's sense of rhythm. Play Abandon Ship and if your toe isn't tapping maniacally, it's time to look into a tweak or upgrade.

Listen to Abandon Ship on Spotify

Listen to Abandon Ship on Tidal

Buy Orchestra Of Wolves on Amazon

Hey by Pixies

Producer Gil Norton cleaned up Pixies’ sound somewhat for their second album Doolittle , accentuating the shifts from loud to soft and making one of the band’s most popular sets of songs more accessible for worldwide consumption.

As influential on the landscape of alternative rock as Fugazi’s 13 Songs , Doolittle has been regularly imitated but never surpassed, and the stripped-back arrangement of Hey makes it possible to really enjoy all of the detail and texture of the recording – assuming your system is as insightful as it should be.

Listen to Hey on Spotify

Listen to Hey on Tidal

Buy Doolittle on Amazon

Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath

Like applause, heavy rain is a surprisingly tricky sound for a stereo system to reproduce, so the downpour at the very beginning of Black Sabbath , from the album of the same name and by the band of the same name, immediately sets the cat amongst the pigeons, sonically speaking.

From that awesomely atmospheric start emerges that stunningly unsubtle riff, followed by a stark, stripped back verse. Every stage of the song is its own challenge, and on the right system, it sounds superb from start to finish. It's hard to believe this album is now more than 50 years old.

Listen to Black Sabbath on Spotify

Listen to Black Sabbath on Tidal

Buy Black Sabbath on Amazon

Aftermath by Rolo Tomassi

On 2018's Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It , experimental rock outfit Rolo Tomassi regularly switch at a moment's notice between gentle introspection and breaks heavier than a carb-loaded elephant.

Aftermath is comfortably the most accessible track, boasting fairly indie-pop verses with gentle vocals. But the complex rhythmic pattern underneath hints at the band's penchant for technical structures, giving the timing of your system a real workout, and its sparkling, thumping chorus requires decent dynamic range and punchy bass.

Listen to Aftermath on Spotify

Listen to Aftermath on Tidal

Buy Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It on Amazon

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Tom Parsons has been writing about TV, AV and hi-fi products (not to mention plenty of other 'gadgets' and even cars) for over 15 years. He began his career as What Hi-Fi?'s Staff Writer and is now the TV and AV Editor. In between, he worked as Reviews Editor and then Deputy Editor at Stuff, and over the years has had his work featured in publications such as T3, The Telegraph and Louder. He's also appeared on BBC News, BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and Sky Swipe. In his spare time Tom is a runner and gamer.

• NHL99 And which system responds best to this workout? Room size 20 sq.m. to 50 sq.m. Reply
• Winter also within temptation s "LOST " a true killer for sure ! Reply

Winter said: also within temptation s "LOST " a true killer for sure !

• daplein Would have expect a Qobuz PL as well ? Reply
• Nothing Else Matters is my favourite Metallica song. (y) Reply
• Weinor Some of these songs in my opinion aren’t that great for sound quality especially if you’re looking for a more hard hitting sound I would say saferwaters or red by chevelle and jambi by tool also last resort by papa roach will test your “hitting” ability on your systems. Reply
• View All 6 Comments

The Best Experimental Rock Albums of 2020

• Alternative Rock
• Contemporary Folk
• Death Metal
• Hardcore Punk
• Psychedelia
• Singer-Songwriter

1 . Horse Lords - The Common Task

2 . OOIOO - nijimusi

3 . Young Jesus - Welcome to Conceptual Beach

4 . Man Man - Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between

5 . King Buzzo & Trevor Dunn - Gift of Sacrifice

6 . Wasted Shirt - Fungus II

7 . The Garden - Kiss My Super Bowl Ring

8 . Osees - Panther Rotate

Ranking the 5 Best Songs on ‘OK Computer,’ the Breakthrough Classic by Radiohead

Jim Beviglia

OK Computer is one of those albums that’s so hallowed that even contrarians have a hard time finding reasons to knock it. Radiohead put it all together on their third album in 1997, settling in the sweet spot right between the straightforward rock of their early records and the experimentation of their later ones.

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There’s no real weak spot on OK Computer , which is why choosing the top five songs of the bunch is such a bear. But we’ll try anyway.

5. “Airbag”

This was the toughest call, since “Karma Police” might be the most well-known of all the songs on the record and expertly captures the creeping dread that’s prevalent throughout OK Computer . But we’re going to go with the opener for how well it sets the tone, not to mention it’s a pretty fantastic piece even taken out of context. What happens if we mistrust technology and yet it still comes in handy? That seems to be the point of Thom Yorke’s lyrics, which come in the middle of stop-and-start rhythms, skittering guitars, and ghoulish backing vocal effects.

4. “No Surprises”

There’s something chilling about the way the shiny arpeggio notes that underpin “No Surprises” emerge from the grinding gears of “Climbing Up the Walls,” the song that precedes it on the record. Even when you hear the song on its own, there’s something almost too bright and chirpy about those notes, as if you can’t trust them. And you can’t, because Yorke piles up the ailments that afflict modern life like they were Jenga blocks. The alternative he suggests, a life spent striving for numbness, is somehow just as chilling.

3. “Exit Music (For a Film)”

Retelling Shakespeare is always tricky business, especially a story as well-worn as Romeo and Juliet. Radiohead not only dare to do it on this song, but they go for the gusto with a sweeping crescendo. But before we get to that point, we get Yorke mumbling his vocals as if barely conscious, just wisps of instrumentation burbling behind him. This is Exhibit A for how to do a musical and lyrical slow build. Yorke’s Romeo goes from focusing on practicalities about his escape with his beloved to shouting down all those who would dare hold them back.

2. “Paranoid Android”

Here we have the perfect song for those who aren’t quite sure how they like their Radiohead. Mid-tempo and twitching with restrained energy? That’s how it starts. Loud and punkish? Check out the connecting section, with Jonny Greenwood’s guitars slashing through the tableau. Slow and anthemic? Reserved for the end, as Yorke’s countermelodies alternately reach for the heavens and scramble in the dirt. Every generation gets the “Bohemian Rhapsody” they deserve, which means the folks who came of age in ’97 clearly did something right to get “Paranoid Android.”

1. “Let Down”

“Let Down” sums up so many of the themes racing through the album. Modern life whizzes by the narrator, leaving him feeling dazed and ineffectual. His attempts to transcend all that are futile; Hysterical and useless is how he describes himself. Musically, the interlocking guitars, Phil Selway’s climbing beat, Colin Greenwood’s thudding bass, and the video game blips, all assemble in a kind of somber harmony. And then Yorke lets out a rebel yell that unleashes the combined frustration of every narrator on the album. Simply flawless.

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