21 November 2008 :: look at all these websites, just lying to us

:: Record Review

Radiohead

Hail to the Thief
(EMI; 2003)

Rating: 95%
Combined Rating: 89%

Really, who the fuck needs another Radiohead review? Radiohead fans don't. Lord knows I would've bought this album even if every possible reviewer has called it absolute crap. The great thing is the whole internet/advance copy deal, which allowed me to hear the genius of Hail to the Thief before NME gave it an average 7/10 (need I even mention that meanwhile they gave Jane's Addiction's Strays an 8/10?). I got to hear nearly all of the songs a solid month or so before they were released. And while I'm guessing no one is going to care about my praise for this album (it's fairly overdue), I'll be damned if I don't throw my two cents in the pile of critical change. If you do care it's going to be a long ride, 'cause I gotta do this my way.

Radiohead's paranoid leader, Thom, the great Thom, had talked (rarely, but often pointedly) about the pressures of fame and the supernova of press and focus on Radiohead caused by OK Computer. While normally I want to kick artists in the ass when they talk about how terrible fame is, Thom is an actual creative genius, which made me more empathetic to his suffering; I have personally known the stifling effect of enormous pressure upon one's creativity. And I can see, given Thom's genius, how the begging for another OK Computer would be answered with Kid A.

So obviously Kid A shocked everyone, but a great number of critics mistakenly call it pretentious, intentionally obscure, what have you. The thing is, they wholly miss the point that, well, Thom is the creative engine of the group, and Thom's conception of music was that it needed to be revolutionized (fortunately he's also backed by a couple other music geniuses, read: JOHNNY GREENWOOD). For him, to create anything remotely similar to OK Computer would have forced him to hold onto the demons of past gushing, pinning him much like Mr. Prufrock in the insect collection of critical history. He felt like he was being folded up and being put neatly into a (big) corner. What, then, would be more natural than to rebel against this?

But it wasn't rebellion. Not in the least. It was that long-standing intent to re-invent rock. For Thom, the stagnation of rock was something that killed him. What greater hypocrisy than to stagnate, himself? And if his bandmates didn't agree, then they certainly wouldn't have stayed along for the ride. Their comprehension of his genius and vision, and their proper contributions to it, their augmentations of it, was not forced or unhappy; hence, the greatness, the utter greatness, of Kid A. In fact, look at Radiohead's progression. The course of things becomes patently obvious. First, Pablo Honey - simply put, it was decent pop rock. Then, The Bends - genius pop rock with sinister undertones. Then, OK Computer - the mastery of rock/dark art rock with electronic effects. Where else to go? They had to fuzz the genre. Yes, they wanted to return to rock, but they understood that first they must advance beyond rock in order to come back and inject it with something new. Kid A was the immense project - perfect in coherence, flow, sound, arrangement, skill, and atmosphere - that would enable them to really obliterate the old rock boundaries.

Listening to Amnesiac reveals how the band, after, and even during, the production of Kid A, were already feeling that they wanted to now backtrack back into the cave and spread some light. Its imperfect execution evidences that they would not have been ready until they really completed Kid A (Amnesiac being an obvious set of b-sides, though largely excellent ones). As far as I'm concerned, Amnesiac was not an album proper but a toe back into the swimming pool without the completeness of vision that made Kid A so perfect. It was a kind of premature experiment, one which would be more skillfully carried out when the band was truly finished with Kid A.

Hail to the Thief is thus the ultimate product of this progression, an actual unified album that has the guitars of OK Computer and The Bends, but ultimately, Kid A's ethic in its blood. The reason a critic might say it's tinged with Amnesiac I've indirectly explained above.

It's not perfect. But it can't be because Radiohead is now not involved in the mastery of rock/music. They've done that. Now they're trying to reconstruct the vision of how music can be. It's inherently an experiment. At their hands Radiohead now have pieces of perfection. It's a matter of assembling them in a way that hasn't ever been done, and putting together perfect pieces isn't going to make a perfect whole; it's a matter of how it's built.

This is why critics claim that the album does not flow well enough, that some songs just don't seem to belong. This is, partially, rubbish. It assumes that there is a correct way to put all this together, but no one, no critic, knows what that is, and Radiohead doesn't either. The sheer fact that they're trying to, is what makes this album so fantastic. It is somewhat true in that there are still some older pieces/ideas here that just don't match up with the reinvention that mostly pervades the album. But thoughtful analysis will show that Hail to the Thief is indeed unified as much as it can possibly be given how many elements it's working with. It's not the unification that ought to be in question; it's the selection of ideas, and their form, that ought to be. Let's take this step by step.

It is in my mind unarguable that "2+2=5" and "Sit Down, Stand Up," are perfectly sequenced; their structural identity with one another necessarily makes them a pair. The difference is, of course, in the actual sound of the parts of that structure. In "Sit Down, Stand Up," it's more sinister, with the genius of Thom repeating "all the raindrops" 42 times creating a stunning sense of desperate distraction, ostensibly to focus on the real sensation of rain in order to forget the fucked up world around us. It is an expression of a desire for something real, something cleansing, in the midst of automatic commands to "sit down, stand up." Both "2+2=5" and "Sit Down, Stand Up" would be impossible without the electronic forays that Radiohead has made. On the former, an electronic beginning turns into a more rock oriented explosion with Greenwood's guitar - spectacular as usual - underlining a rock climax that still is tinged with electronic fuzz. On the latter, the electronic beginning, touched by glockenspiel, implodes instead, giving way to a darker, electronic climax that suggests a subjugation of the raging rock protest at the end of "2+2=5." Thom is crying out in the first track; in the second he's covering his ears and muttering a brainwashing panacea.

The stuttering bass and yes, laser-gun electronic effects, and their on-a-dime-cutoff positively require a breathing-point. Hence, "Sail to the Moon" is next. Its placement is perfect, but it's here that my point about selection of ideas applies. "Sail to the Moon," beautiful as it is, is a ghostly haunt from the past. It has the soul of Kid A's "How to Disappear Completely" fused with Amnesiac's "Pyramid Song." But the idea is not fleshed out, internally, enough to fit in with the general intent that Radiohead is moving with on this album, even though it fits in sound-wise, tempo-wise, and energy-wise. It is beautiful, and at least a partial departure from the old ballads. But it's not as good, and is still clinging to those two albums with one arm while trying to pull itself into Hail to the Thief with the other.

However, the transition to "Backdrifts" is perfect. When Thom's last wail is distorted to an oscillating synth loop that is soon accompanied by other oscillating loops, it sets the stage for the sine-wave loops of "Backdrifts." The ideas may not make the transition perfectly, but the songs certainly do. "Backdrifts," unlike "Sail to the Moon," is precisely the kind of song that Hail to the Thief is reaching for. Its electronic effects are bold and present, as well as deceptively simple. The background yawns of static synth, and the sampled guitar (Greenwood is a god), fill up the song's bleeding soul, before leaving Thom wailing gorgeously, "there was nothing we could do," and it joins back in momentarily. The piano interlude, with its reverse echoes, forms a perfect hollow accompaniment to the sine-wave loops. And when the song finishes amidst clicks and a final sampled guitar wail, it's a full completion of an amazing idea, simple but effective, and it wraps up the first quartet of electronic-influenced tracks soundly.

This sets the stage perfectly for "Go To Sleep." What's so striking about the song is that while it seems so traditional because of the instruments used, its structure, its brevity, and its form are all actually quite-non traditional. Check out especially the rising back up vocals to Thom in the last third of the song. Greenwood gets to show off at the end with two compact solos that mirror one another and close out the song, and Hail to the Thief's most rocking track finishes.

"Where I End and You Begin" is the real interesting, and somewhat disappointing one here. The transition between "Go To Sleep" and "Where I End" works because of the temp consistency between them - they're both driving tracks. Unfortunately, "Where I End and You Begin" doesn't have the method to its beauty that the tracks before it have. The synths are gorgerous, but they don't fit well enough as an idea - they're not really under control. While the percussion is flawless, and the bass is superb, and the guitar attacks that surface once in a while are fantastic in their jagged slashes, the synths are too much of a superficial decoration. Admittedly they fit sonically, but conceptually, structurally, they're a kind of wild-card - Radiohead's concerts will affirm this, as the band has a difficult time replicating the effects live.

"We Suck Young Blood" is another needed tempo-pause in the general scheme of things, and it is certainly one of the best tracks here. In fact, "We Suck Young Blood" is precisely what I meant when I was talking about finding ideas and then reforming them into something stunning. "Life in A Glasshouse" was the first pointer to "We Suck Young Blood." Notice that it came from this album's predecessor, but here the idea has been refined to fit into the scheme of Hail to the Thief. Its beautiful crescendo into crashing, cacophonous piano and rising electronic effects is reminiscent of the album's first two tracks, though here it's not the ending so much as the internal climax.

"The Gloaming" is an academic piece to be sure, a study of the structuring of glitches, clicks, and tempo melding of different elements, all of which seem to fuse perfectly despite their own unpredictable internal tempos. Its placement after "We Suck Young Blood" is appropriate; "We Suck Young Blood," is the perfection of a previous, immature idea, while "The Gloaming" is the introduction of a brand new idea.

The thick bass atmosphere of "The Gloaming" translates well into the unique, heady atmosphere of the album's gorgeous anthem, "There There." The structuring of the guitar line, its semi-regularity, and the tap and thud beat of the drums reflect the different song-writing approach Radiohead have taken over the course of their development; odd yet recognizable. The lyrics are killer: "Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there." The vocals echo the distinct vocal approach from the previous songs, and what will reappear for the rest of the album; the odd but superlative harmony between the band members is a relatively new feature for Radiohead. And when all hell breaks loose and Johnny Greenwood is given free rein to manipulate his guitar into a gurgled wail, the song shows its true strength: the expert organization of all these sounds into a coherent, lovely piece of rock craftsmanship.

"I Will" is the emotional comedown from "There There." Just Thom and his guitar, it caresses the pain of "There There" into a lullaby of reassurance. It's just Thom and his multitracked vocals, and the melody they follow is absolutely lovely. And while the repetition of "little baby's eyes" seems disturbing, the image of a parent (Thom is one, now) looking into his child's eyes and seeing why he needs to protect the future is powerful and fitting.

The final chord of "I Will" eases into the bluesy, New Orleans rock and vocal harmonies of "A Punchup at a Wedding," a short story of a wedding gone wrong, punctuated with the occasional cacophonous piano key to stress the fracturing of the situation. It's a languid pick-up from "I Will," and calmly and steadily rides on a great bassline and piano, along with the guitar static from Greenwood to finish out as it began: coolly, confidently, and assured. From its composed basis "Myxamatosis" kicks in.

It's one of the best tracks here, incorporating all the experimentalism of Radiohead into a wicked bass/guitar (?) sampling, and a perfect drumbeat with an irregular-sounding but actually coherent rhythm. Synths, this time controlled and excellent complements to the sampling, dirty and bleeding, fill out the song perfectly, and rising to a devilish high note that stays sustained until the final sigh of the song, leave you astounded.

"Scatterbrain" is, by contrast, one of the weaker tracks, with an unpredictable but placid melody. Yet it fits the bill. More importantly, it sets up "Wolf At the Door," an unquestionable masterstroke of a closer, entering on an insinuating synth line and adopting the New Orleans style jazz into its rapidly shot-out vocals and lilting drum beat. Guitars fill up the space that the synth line alone cannot occupy, and complete a sinister melody that transitions into an unbelievably lovely interlude before the angry spats from Thom resume and the song intensifies to a fantastic climax.

And that's it. When Hail to the Thief is over the temptation to go back purely to compare ideas and just analyze the approach of the thing is ineffable. As it ought to be. I would argue that the album is a bridge to something greater, but on its own is a specimen of Radiohead's enormous capability to reinvent their sound, and constantly improve on it. And while the many ideas tug in different directions, it keeps together wonderfully. I've listened to this album all the way through dozens of times by now, and never skip a song.

With that said, it becomes apparent why Thom has issued, what are to some, alarming statements about Radiohead no longer making albums, and devoting themselves to EP's. There is no way to explore music and rock in all the different ways Radiohead has in mind without doing it in experimental nuggets. From here on out everything they produce will undoubtedly be stamped with Radiohead's signature sound; now they can try all that they've been working towards, but in isolated, appropriate pieces. Whether that will all unify back into album-making again is not for me to say. All I know is Thom should never have apologized for this, what I still believe to be Album of the Year; as far as I'm concerned, the brilliance and consolidation of the great ideas the guys have been up to, is enough to persuade me to buy whatever experiments they come out with in the future, with the full confidence that they won't blow up in my face. Amir Nezar :: 9 September 2003 |