Radiohead

Five boys from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, started a band in 1985 and never replaced anybody. Thom Yorke sings, Jonny Greenwood plays whatever the song needs, his brother Colin plays bass, Ed O'Brien handles guitar and texture, Philip Selway drums. Since 1994 the same two outsiders have been attached to every record: Nigel Godrich producing and Stanley Donwood making the artwork, which is why the sleeves look like one continuous argument.

The 1993 debut sold on a single sardonic hit and gave no indication of what followed. The second album turned them into a very good guitar band, the third into something else entirely, and then in 2000 they walked away from guitars almost completely, at the exact point where a rock band is expected to consolidate. That decision is what the reputation rests on. Their real skill is arrangement rather than melody: they take a small, sad tune and surround it with the wrong instruments, a horn line playing against the beat, strings scored to sound anxious, a drum machine that will not settle, until the tune sounds like it is being observed rather than performed.

They have a Grammy for best alternative album and a permanent place near the top of critics' lists, which sits oddly with a band whose default mode is discomfort. The records arrive slowly and at long intervals now, each one arguing with the last.