:: Track Listing

01. 2+2=5
02. Sit Down. Stand Up.
03. Sail to the Moon
04. Backdrifts
05. Go To Sleep
06. Where I End and You Begin
07. We Suck Young Blood
08. The Gloaming
09. There There
10. I Will
11. A Punchup At a Wedding
12. Myxomatosis
13. Scatterbrain
14. A Wolf at the Door

:: Record Review

Radiohead

Hail to the Thief
(EMI; 2003)

Rating: 90%
Combined Rating: 92%


"Radiohead is back."

This cliche phrase sat as the away message on my IM client for days in March after downloading the leaked rough mixes of Hail to the Thief. I now fully admit that my statement was incorrect - little more than a knee-jerk reaction that comes from listening to music that didn't require altering one's consciousness or a snobbish 'art-rock' attitude. Had I the power to correct my statement, I believe I would change it to this:

"Radiohead is better."

While I truly enjoy Kid A and portions of Amnesiac, both are outstripped by the sounds that drip out when this release hits your speakers. The reason (or at least, one of the major ones)? Thom & Co. remembered something. To be more specific, I mean guitars and that they exist. Not to say the guitar was ever fully abandoned by Camp Radiohead - just that the group became so obsessed with making a guitar sound like anything else that apparently the simple pleasure of a correctly utilized guitar was forgotten.

The experimental (dare I create a horible word and say 'Neo-lectronica'?) nature that drove Kid A and Amnesiac hasn't been placed by the wayside - 'The Gloaming' has slight undertones of 'Like Spinning Plates', but has a far more inviting musical 'hook' than 'Plates'. (I refer to the studio recording of 'Like Spinning Plates' - the live recording on the "I Might Be Wrong" ep is wonderful and trumps the studio cut.)

But what does this mean to you, Joe/Jane P. Consumer? I'll put it in easier to understand terms. Mix equal parts OK Computer & Kid A, add a bit of The Bends for flavor and just a hint of Amnesiac for color, and you have Hail to the Thief. It's easily one of the group's best albums to date and I can't wait to see what they will do next. Perhaps they will "regress" a bit more and we'll have another Pablo Honey - if anyone can bring back Brit-GrungeRock, it's Radiohead. Andy Watkins :: 23 June 2003 |