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Rating:
Sixth attempt for Radiohead, the quintet led by that sprite Thom Yorke. Sixth attempt and a new change of direction, in the new "Hail To The Thief," which sounds with a style that, through the right synthesis between the electronics of the previous "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" and the live sound of "Pablo Honey," has already been characteristic of the multi-award-winning "Ok Computer".
The record starts spinning, and immediately sounds more gritty than the previous ones. It's incredible how in a three-and-a-half-minute track like 2+2=5 (The Lukewarm), the Oxford band manages to incorporate three radical tempo changes without clashing, moving from the usual paranoid entrance, characterized by the wails of Yorke's lead vocals, to a finale with tighter rhythms highlighted by faster, frantic singing.
After such an intriguing start, the album proceeds flawlessly with some peaks of originality and quality in Backdrifts (track 4), The Gloaming (t.8), and There There (t.9).
While the album seems to conclude without further flashes of genius, the last song gives us the final welcome surprise of the album. Indeed, the lament initially monotonous and then melancholic and a bit angrier from Thom, who sings the text of "A Wolf at the Door" (It Girl. Rag Doll), so scathing towards today's society that it echoes "Fitter Happier" from O.K. Computer.
The lyrics, even if incomprehensible in parts, as a whole show Thom's talent as a writer. Melancholic and paranoid, they depict a world that seems to be a symbiosis between our world and another just emerged from Orwellian descriptions.
Almost ten years after the debut of "Pablo Honey," "Hail To The Thief" represents a return to melody for the British quintet and is yet another demonstration of their talent and their positioning outside of any specific genre, belonging only on the list of the greatest artists of all time.
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 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."
By Blackdog
A meeting point between the anguished melody of 'Ok Computer' and the 'cryptic' experimentalism of 'Kid A'.
A resolute and utopian rebellion against the current state of affairs, against the mystification of reality operated by politicians and mass media.
