Official RADIOHEAD thread

[MacGuffin]

The rest of the above article:

Radiohead has been working on a followup album to 2003's politically charged Hail to the Thief for months now, though no official timetable has been set for its release. However, the band said that it planned to release "music to download when we are excited about it, rather than wait 12 months for a full-blown album release."

In a post on the band's official Website, frontman Thom Yorke elaborated further on what the band has in store for its fans.

"By the way, listening back to things we are doing and looking through the lyrics today and stuff, it feels like we are finally getting somewhere," Yorke wrote. "There are lots of songs. Too many to get together straight away. So we will be furiously rehearsing and writing as we go."

Yorke, who will appear with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood at the Friends of the Earth's Big Ask Campaign benefit concert at London's Koko Club on May 1, also chastised those profiting off of tickets to the event by selling them on eBay at inflated prices.

"Might i suggest that those selling their Koko tickets on eBay for stupid money gives a contribution, say 30 percent of their proceeds, back to Friends of the Earth, for whose benefit we are all doing this show," Yorke wrote. "Seems only fair, unless you're a shallow ____, dont you think?"

The musician serves as an official ambassador for the charity, which is calling for international cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite his support for the cause, he recently turned down the chance to discuss climate change with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on its behalf, on the grounds that Blair has "no environmental credentials."

"It was just obvious there was no point in meeting him anyway, and I didn't want to," he said in an interview in British magazine New Music Express.

Yorke said the experience soured him on political activism in general.

"I came out of that whole period just thinking, I don't want to get involved directly, it's poison," he said. "I'll just shout my mouth off from the sidelines."

[hedwig]

Fuck yes.

You wanna know how excited I am? I'll show you how excited I am.

[sickfins]

ok computer, almost ten years old
i feel terrible
thoughts

[modage]

there has not been a better album since. 

[ono]

It shows its age, and aside from Paranoid Android, Exit Music (For A Film) and a few other tracks, it really isn't all that great an album.  While some would call it "filler," I don't really see it that way, or give any band so little credit as to think they don't realize what works and what doesn't.  I can't find it in myself to write off any track other than Subterranean Homesick Alien and Let Down.  All the others have their moments, but I wouldn't praise them to high heavens either.

As a concept album, it's still one of the best around, but as timeless rock ... nah.  Hail to the Thief is the best thing they've done, an album that continuously blows minds and reveals its riches with each subsequent play.  Critics of the album are so locked into a prescriptivist mindset, that they're simply unable to let a talented band evolve and explore all they're capable of.  Some claim it's too long, and I might see where they'd be right if every track wasn't necessary to complete the whole.

The album works in three movements.  2+2=5 is the essence of what rock should be.  Disagree?  Well, that's because... "you have not been paying attention."  I have a live performance that sends chills down my spine everytime I watch it.  Sit Down, Stand Up is foreboding and apocalyptic.  Sail to the Moon is an achingly beautiful lullaby.  The next three tracks are merely decent with Go to Sleep being the other stand-out, granting the fact that its video gives it much of the boost it needs.

The second movement begins with one of the most unique, possibly off-putting songs they've ever done, the death dirge We Suck Young Blood.  Love it or hate it, it leaves an impression.  The witching continues with the Gloaming, a perfect palate cleanser for what, if it weren't for Paranoid Android, Kid A, or Street Spirit (Fade Out), would probably be Radiohead's magnum opus: There There.  Everytime I hear it, I can't understand how a song so simple can be so rich.  It toes the line between rock and pop and is endlessly catchy and poignant.  Three sets of drums, two guitars (live, anyway), and it all works.  Seeing it live, again, just underscores how they're able to pluck ideas from the ether and mold them into something tangible.  And I don't feel so green and lonely when it's over.  I Will brings you down from the heavens and readies you for the album's closing which is equally as strong.

Piano and poignant lyrics pepper the peppy Punch Up At A Wedding.  "The pointed, snide remarks of hammerheaded sharks," indeed.  Myxomatosis is an idea personified, buzzing in like the disease itself, injecting itself in your brain.  Scatterbrain is a little weaker, but still beautiful in its own way.  The remix on Com Lag makes it worth the effort.  The album closes out with A Wolf At The Door, another of the album's best tracks, proving that the best art is borne out of personal experience.  Dance, you fucker.

Don't get me started on how Kid Amnesiac also destroys OK Computer.  I wouldn't go so far as to say every album is better than the last.  Amnesiac is amazing, but doesn't quite edge out Kid A.  And at times I find myself liking The Bends better than OK Computer.  It's a toss-up there.

Their next album, from all indications, will be a departure from even that, from what I've read on other sites and here as well.  Where can they go?  Where Bluebirds Fly and Arpeggi are indications of the style they'll probably seek out.  This will be a return to Kid Amnesiac material, but even more ethereal, atmospheric, and natural.  Organic.  Maybe an effort to remove even more language from their music.  They'll alienate even more people in the process, and I can't wait.  Radiohead has grown more and more able to conceptualize music as an expression of feelings with fewer and fewer words.  They didn't start out to do this, unlike bands such as Sigur Ros, but this was more of a realization along the way that they had the talent and needed to capitalize on it.  They have the uncanny ability to play with words, keying in on certain phrases and making mundane expressions more and more profound.  Case in point, the juxtaposition of How to Disappear Completely and Idioteque in "I'm not here, this isn't happening" and "This is really happening."  Denial and acceptance.  This skill is peppered all throughout Hail to the Thief as well.

This was longer than I meant it to be, but you can't just say "OK Computer is overrated and Hail to the Thief, much like Eyes Wide Shut, will get its due as a masterpiece one day" without elaborating.  So I did.

Sidenote: Fog was used on last week's episode of The OC.  A Radiohead track used on a TV show?  That's crazy, Mr. Chubbs!

[tpfkabi]

i like Amnesiac and HTTT quite a bit, but there's something about the sound of them.........once someone pointed out how they were mastered - they even had .jpg's of the wave files of the tracks showing how i think they were almost distorting. HTTT picked up too much of the LA vibe - as it was made there. HTTT is definitely too long, though i like all the tracks. Sail to the Moon as the 3rd track on an album? it's an album closer. i know Wolf at the Door does well there, but STTM never feels right there.

OKC is perfectly sequenced.
the perfect album to listen to from beginning to end on headphones with eyes closed.
the perfect album.
not a weak track imo.
Let Down is actually on my favorites.

[ono]

I think the reason I have a problem with Let Down, and why I don't agree about the perfect sequencing, is Exit Music is just too good.  Operatic in its build up and let down, waves crashing, children laughing, you're taken away from consciousness after that song, and Let Down sounds like a jumble.  It's the same reason I don't like Subterranean Homesick Alien too much.  What precedes it, Paranoid Android, is too powerful.  And for all we're promised in that powerful opening (you think Airbag rocks, then you get Paranoid Android), the end of the album is just too slow.  Karma Police kinda sits there in no-man's land.  Fitter Happier is an okay bridge.  The only other song that really rocks though is Electioneering, and though I like it, I know it's not too much of a favorite among other fans.  And while I understand the appeal of tracks like Lucky and The Tourist, in theory they're great, but they've never been much of a draw for me.

Want to talk perfect album to listen to, to zone out to, on headphones, lights off: Kid A (or The Moon and Antarctica, but that's neither here nor there).  I think Everything In Its Right Place is overrated, but what follows more than makes up for it.  It truly can transport you if you let it.

[RegularKarate]

I agree that Kid-A flows a little better than OK Computer, but to say "it really isn't all that great an album" is kind of bullshit.
OK Computer is WAY better than HTTT, but if they follow the Beatles pattern they've been following, the next could be the best (or at least MY favorite).

(this isn't exact, but based off the major US releases):

Everything before Rubber Soul = Pablo Honey (fun bubble gum, hardly go back)
Rubber Soul = The Bends (Excellent album, shows serious progress and makes you realize what a great band they are)
Revolver = OK Computer (The more serious experimentation kicks in and the first brilliant album)
Sgt. Pepper = Kid A (the most experimental stuff... brilliant throughout)
Magical Mystery Tour = Amnesiac (pretty much leftovers from Kid Pepper, but leftovers from the best meal you've ever eaten are stil delicious)
White Album = Hail to the Thief (Stipping away JUST enough of the experimentation, but maybe cramming too much in... resulting in a minor step down)
Next Album = Abbey Road

Then we can look forward to the sloppiest album they've ever released followed by a quick break-up, some solo albums, then death.

[polkablues]

And if you play Myxomatosis backwards it says "Jonny Greenwood is dead."

[modage]

And if you play Myxomatosis backwards it says "Jonny Greenwood is dead."

i wouldnt know if it said that FORWARDS.     because that 'song' sucks.  i have to skip it.

[grand theft sparrow]

aside from Paranoid Android, Exit Music (For A Film) and a few other tracks, it really isn't all that great an album.

And if you play Myxomatosis backwards it says "Jonny Greenwood is dead."

i wouldnt know if it said that FORWARDS. because that 'song' sucks. i have to skip it.

I think Everything In Its Right Place is overrated

Sidenote: Fog was used on last week's episode of The OC.  A Radiohead track used on a TV show?  That's crazy, Mr. Chubbs!

BLASPHEMERS! 

I agree that Kid-A flows a little better than OK Computer, but to say "it really isn't all that great an album" is kind of bullshit.
OK Computer is WAY better than HTTT, but if they follow the Beatles pattern they've been following, the next could be the best (or at least MY favorite).

(this isn't exact, but based off the major US releases):

Everything before Rubber Soul = Pablo Honey (fun bubble gum, hardly go back)
Rubber Soul = The Bends (Excellent album, shows serious progress and makes you realize what a great band they are)
Revolver = OK Computer (The more serious experimentation kicks in and the first brilliant album)
Sgt. Pepper = Kid A (the most experimental stuff... brilliant throughout)
Magical Mystery Tour = Amnesiac (pretty much leftovers from Kid Pepper, but leftovers from the best meal you've ever eaten are stil delicious)
White Album = Hail to the Thief (Stipping away JUST enough of the experimentation, but maybe cramming too much in... resulting in a minor step down)
Next Album = Abbey Road

Then we can look forward to the sloppiest album they've ever released followed by a quick break-up, some solo albums, then death.

This is correct. 

[modage]

i cant agree with the beatles analogy if only because HTTT was their worst since their first and The White Album is the best ever.

[squints]

Then we can look forward to the sloppiest album they've ever released followed by a quick break-up, some solo albums, then death.

In a tragic turn of events, a fat Jared Leto will murder Thom Yorke.

[RegularKarate]

i cant agree with the beatles analogy if only because HTTT was their worst since their first and The White Album is the best ever.

It's okay to be wrong once, Mod, but twice in the same sentence?  jeez

[squints]

i cant agree with the beatles analogy if only because HTTT was their worst since their first and The White Album is the best ever.

It's okay to be wrong once, Mod, but twice in the same sentence?  jeez

I'm with mod, not so much for HTTT, but the White Album is the best ever!