Kwitel - You obviously like Radiohead.
I can speak as somebody who likes neither Dream Theater NOR Radiohead. Dream Theater has some incredibly skilled musicians in the group. There is absolutely no doubting it. They do things on such a technical level that it baffles musicians, and that includes myself. As a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer, some of the stuff they do is simply astonishing. But I can't get past their corny metal sound and corny metal vocals. However, this does not discount their ability as musicians and as song writers. They are brilliant.
However, Radiohead is a band that has never demonstrated this talent. They're copy cats. They write music that has no substance. A song can "drone" on such as how Sunn 0)), Sigur Ros, Boredoms, and Growing do time and time again. However, these bands offer immense amounts of substance in their songs. Radiohead exercises technology wastefully. They are pretentious, yet have nothing to show off. Kid A was their closest attempt at actually doing something original, but it still contained the classic Radiohead characteristics: Little stylistic originality, an overly-dramatic and useless singer, and, quite simply, a little amount happening over a large span of time. Most of their songs sound more like kitchen appliances to me. If the instruments they sampled/played were kitchen appliances, then I could appreciate that kind of bold move. Pink Floyd wanted to do that before they came up with "Wish You Were Here".
And how interesting - have you guys ever thought maybe they were 'copying' Pink Floyd? Being inspired is fine, but they seem to not want to get past these inspirational roots. Unlike Sigur Ros, who took the qualities originally used by the Floyd and brought them to a whole new extreme and a whole new stylistic quality, Radiohead seems to want to do nothing more than write simple songs and have them drone on for long periods of time, with little to no changes in the song, and with little to no meaning behind the songs. It's like they took all of the qualities which made Pink Floyd unique and bastardized them.
When I see Radiohead actually try and do something different for a change, I will give them their merit. Until then, however, I will continue to see them as a lesser, modern version of Pink Floyd who hides behind contemporary studio technology.