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Rating: The 'ode to the thief' by Radiohead is a dense sonic universe and at times loaded with an unusual communicative urgency for them; a meeting point between the anguished melody of 'Ok Computer' and the 'cryptic' experimentalism of 'Kid A'.
The disillusioned analytical vein in Thom Yorke's lyrics explores the absurd madness of man in a world where, by now, the nightmares and paranoias of modern society are everyday reality: therefore, from the Orwellian '2+2=5', a hybrid between the guitar expressiveness of Radiohead from 'The Bends' and a seething magma of hermetic and dark sounds, it is clear that the five from Oxford are interested in tracing a darkly tinted landscape over the fears of the present and the anxiety of an uncertain future; where all the political and social contradictions of the West emerge. 'Sit down, stand up' explodes at the end into a hypnotic/electronic mantra while outside it 'keeps raining, keeps raining...'; the darkness ('The Gloaming') surrounds us and for Radiohead, the only possible solution is an illusory escape to the moon ('Sail to the Moon') in a peak of 'cosmic' lyricism before the rhythmic tangles of 'Backdrifts'.
The union between instrumental and electronic breaks again in the surprising 'Go to Sleep', almost a folk-song transfigured by Yorke's evocative singing and acoustic sounds of Greenwood and O'Brien into a post-apocalyptic scenario, which anticipates the dark progression of 'Where I End and You Begin', between new wave and gothic. 'We Suck Young Blood' is a grim and 'vampiric' metaphor about the loss of innocence in the false appearance of show-business; with Thom Yorke's funereal voice accompanying a gloomy clap of hands. But the rediscovered harmony with the song form compared to the previous works of the English group continues in the emotional conveyance of the single 'There There' and in 'Punch Up at the Wedding', the latter halfway between the soul of the '70s and an 'alienated' jazz played during a wedding gone wrong. 'I Will' is a tender elegy that instead hides anger and wrath against those who can decide the fate of others, where an earnest Yorke warns that all this will not happen to his own children, and he will try in every way to protect them from the blind hand of the system. A resolute and utopian rebellion against the current state of affairs, against the mystification of reality operated by politicians and mass media in recent years, where there are those who try to make you believe that the sum of 2+2 is 5, which culminates in the surreal fury of 'Myxomatosis' and its "bastard dog with half an animal head" infected, indeed, with myxomatosis: an oppressive, anxiety-inducing and lacerating atmosphere with glam guitars set against a 'Blade Runner' backdrop, and the doubt that we could all have been victims of a contagion.
The sweetness of 'Scatterbrain' hopes for a purification that, in the final catharsis of 'A Wolf at the Door', heightens the discomfort regarding 'someone' intent on watching us, spying on our every small and futile action. A real 'Big Brother' deciding for us. A wolf at the door, waiting silently to take everything away from us. Nonetheless, even for Radiohead, there can be a way out of these dark times, despite 'the main road is that of the devil and there's no point in shouting'; and it's evidenced by a desire to reclaim human dignity, from the matrix and its machines, that emerges clearly from listening to 'Hail to the Thief'.
With best regards to George W. Bush.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm.) (03:19)
Are you such a dreamer
To put the world to rights?
I stay home forever
Where two and two always makes a five
I'll lay down the tracks
Sandbag and hide
January has April's showers
And two and two always makes a five
It's the devil's way now
There is no way out
You can scream and you can shout
It is too late now
Because
You have not been
Payin' attention
Payin' attention
Payin' attention
Payin' attention
Yeah, I'm not feeling it
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Yeah, I need it
I needed attention
I needed attention
I needed attention
I needed attention
Yeah, I love it, the attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
I try to sing along
I get it all wrong
Cause I’m not
Cause I’m not
I swat them like flies
But like flies the buggers
Keep coming back
But I’m not
Oh, hail to the thief
Oh, hail to the thief
But I'm not
But I'm not
But I'm not
But I'm not
Don't question my authority or put me in the box
Cause I'm not
Cause I'm not
Oh, go and tell the king that the sky is falling in
But it's not
But it's not
But it's not
Maybe not
Maybe not
09 There There. (The Boney King of Nowhere.) (05:24)
In pitch dark I go walking in your landscape.
Broken branches trip me as I speak.
Just 'cause you feel it doesnt mean its there.
Just 'cause you feel it doesnt mean its there.
There's always a siren
Singing you to shipwreck
(Don't reach out, don't reach out
Don't reach out, don't reach out)
Steer away from these rocks
We'd be a walking disaster
(Don't reach out, don't reach out
Don't reach out, don't reach out)
Just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean its there.
(theres someone on your shoulder)
(theres someone on your shoulder)
Just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean its there.
(theres someone on your shoulder)
(theres someone on your shoulder)
There there!
Why so green and lonely?
And lonely
And lonely
Heaven sent you to me
To me
To me
We are accidents
Waiting waiting to happen.
We are accidents
Waiting waiting to happen
10 I Will. (No Man's Land.) (01:59)
I will, lay me down
In a bunker underground
I won't let this happen to my children
Meet the real world coming out of your shell
With white elephants, sitting ducks
I will rise up
Little babies' eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes
Little babies' eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes
Little babies' eyes, eyes, eyes
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Other reviews
By 2+2=5
Have you ever woken up with the absolute conviction that you had a beautiful dream?
This is Music. ...don’t come to talk to me about intellectualism for its own sake or excessive experimentation, because the dream is mine.
By massimo1
The album seems simply FANTASTIC to me (perhaps because of the anticipation?)
To close, I would just like to emphasize how I liked this CD on the first listen, unlike the previous ones
By josi_
When I listen to 2+2=5 (The Lukewarm) I feel Radiohead’s hysteria rewritten in a way I couldn’t have imagined.
A Wolf At The Door ... the most beautiful song of the album, if not of their history, in my humble opinion.
By dado
"It's incredible how in a three-and-a-half-minute track like 2+2=5, the band manages to incorporate three radical tempo changes without clashing."
"The lyrics, even if incomprehensible in parts, show Thom’s talent as a writer, depicting a world that seems a symbiosis of our own and Orwellian dystopia."
By Bleak
"The album blends the psychedelic and expansive atmospheres of 'OK Computer' with the less linear and more electronic ones of 'Kid A'."
"I’m faced with a complete work, rich in emotions, ideas, implications, and capable of provoking thoughts and reflections."
