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THE REVIEW
Sometimes, when a new album from a band you like comes out, you expect it to surprise you. Which, if you think about it, is a logical contradiction.
Yet, certain bands are capable of doing so.
So I am about to try Hail To The Thief, and I expect certain things from Radiohead.
I expect clean, descending arpeggios, Thom singing sometimes in a plaintive and sometimes erratic manner, certain loops suggesting emotions to the most die-hard electronic fans.
But I also expect Radiohead to surprise me and therefore, in a sense, to surpass these stylistic motifs.
I listen to it and feel that they replicate their style; I should have expected it, yet they surprise me nonetheless. Why, who knows, ask the electrical impulses that regulate emotions in our brain.
Yet, when I listen to 2+2=5 (The Lukewarm) I feel Radiohead's hysteria rewritten in a way I couldn't have imagined. When I listen to A Wolf At The Door (It Girl. Rag Doll) - the most beautiful song of the album, if not of their history, in my humble opinion - I hear those arpeggios and falsettos but also a strange driving vocal melody and a chorus that escapes from itself.
When I listen to We Suck Young Blood (Your Time Is Up) I hear that slow drum and Thom's high/low wails but also new haunting atmospheres.
Of course, some wish for the always melodic Radiohead of The Bends and OK Computer, and others want to follow them in every kind of electronic, jazz, and whatever else contamination.
I find that this album is a truly remarkable outcome for those like the Oxford quintet who first invented a style, and then, when everyone followed them, went where no one would have ever expected.
I feel indebted for the beauty they give us.
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Summary by Bot
The review praises Radiohead's Hail To The Thief for its ability to both replicate and surpass the band's established style. Highlights include the unique qualities of songs like '2+2=5,' 'A Wolf At The Door,' and 'We Suck Young Blood.' The reviewer finds the album a remarkable artistic achievement that balances familiar motifs with unexpected innovation, resulting in haunting atmospheres and emotional depth.Tracklist Lyrics
02 Sit Down. Stand Up. (Snakes & Ladders.) (04:20)
03 Sail to the Moon. (Brush the Cobwebs Out of the Sky.) (04:18)
04 Backdrifts. (Honeymoon Is Over.) (05:22)
05 Go to Sleep. (Little Man Being Erased.) (03:21)
06 Where I End and You Begin. (The Sky Is Falling In.) (04:29)
07 We Suck Young Blood. (Your Time Is Up.) (04:56)
08 The Gloaming. (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold.) (03:32)
11 A Punchup at a Wedding. (No No No No No No No No.) (04:57)
12 Myxomatosis. (Judge, Jury & Executioner.) (03:52)
13 Scatterbrain. (As Dead as Leaves.) (03:21)
14 A Wolf at the Door. (It Girl. Rag Doll.) (03:21)
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The members are Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien and Philip Selway. They evolved from guitar-based alternative rock into work that incorporates electronics and orchestration.120 Reviews
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 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."
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.
