No no no. Sulk is fine as is. I know people think Oasis were these killer mega rock Gods but one might say Radiohead rocked harder. Just look at the guitar solos on the My Iron Lung EP, The Bends and Ok Computer. Outside, Definitely Maybe, Oasis falls behind.

Trans-Atlantic Drawl is another great b-side. Has a mix of rock elements in the beginning, then quickly shifts into the Amnesiac sound.

Radiohead crash the UK charts at #1.
pitchfork.com/news/65460-radioheads-a-moon-shaped-pool-is-their-sixth-uk-number-one-album/

A very atmospheric album, perhaps the most soothing of Radiohead's career. Rather than being direct, it's quite restrained and distant. A great album for a rainy day, or, more specifically, one with overcast winter skies with a light layer of fog over the city, with very light, cold drizzle precipitating from the clouds. In other words, I'll have to exclusively listen to this album at night, since right now, the summer sun is shining brightly during daylight hours! Like the best of Radiohead, it's far from immediate, yet even before you "get" the songs, they keep inviting you back like an friendly neighbor in a new city trying to help you assimilate. Fully aware of this (and because I was having a bit of trouble getting into the songs), I decided to wait a few days before posting my review. It really boggles the mind how outlets like The Guardian can review a Radiohead album within hours of its release and believe that they've covered all bases. But without further ado, here's a track-by-track rundown!

Burn the Witch: Most Radiohead albums start with a direct statement of intent that introduces the album's major themes, whether it be the ghostly key presses of Everything in Its Right Place, the contrast between the guitars and stuttering drums of Airbag, or "that's a nice way to start, Jonny." However, because Burn the Witch is quite dramatic and conventional compared to its bedfellows, it doesn't really set the tone for such a subdued album. Lyrically it's equally out of place: the direct political message of the song doesn't sit well with other tunes that address more personal despair. It's almost as if they tacked it on to the front of the album just so they could comment on Donald Trump and the deranged state of American politics, or their record company forced them to open the album with a radio-friendly hit. If it weren't so strong a song, I'd call it a poor choice of opener. But kudos to Radiohead for finally releasing it. I had become afraid that it wouldn't live up to the ridiculous amount of hype that'd accumulated around only a song title!

Daydreaming: How clever of Radiohead to release the two most conventional songs of the album as singles, which also happen to be the first two songs of the album! Call me crazy (maybe), but this song would've been a better opener than the previous track. It would have been a more accurate preview of the intricate ambience of the other songs. Burn the Witch's conventional characteristics ensure it a place on alternative radio, but they stick out like a sore thumb on AMSP.

Decks Dark: Like Subterranean Homesick Alien had a kid with Down Is the New Up. Some very nice textures in this one. I'm fairly certain that it's Ed who's playing those subtle guitar bits in the corner, adding another dimension to the songs. I feel like his contributions often go unnoticed on the albums, probably because they're so hard to pick out from the dense production, but his parts might be the most pronounced on AMSP.

Desert Island Disk: Spacey, reminds me a bit of Travis production-wise, but in a good way! Though primarily acoustic, the synths and electronics in the background make it better than your average guitar + vocals song.

Ful Stop: Kind of like if Radiohead did Cuttooth during the TKOL era. Got a real hypnotic Neu vibe to it, with its steady motorik beats, and it just builds and builds without being dramatic or excessive (unlike some certain Radiohead copycats). The bit where all of a sudden Thom's vocals rise in the mix and Jonny's guitar comes in has got to be one of the best moments of the album. Surely to please those who miss the style of the previous era (ex: me), and definitely represents the most energetic part of the album. Also noteworthy in that it was the first track that really grabbed me, and may well be my favorite on the album.

Glass Eyes: At first glance, it seems like a rewrite of Faust Arp. But it's more than a simple interlude: it uses strings to absolutely beautiful effect that vaguely recalls How to Disappear Completely. As many have noted, Jonny's string arrangements really shine on this record, and this song might be their finest use on this album.

Identikit: The alienated masterpiece of the album. Recalls the bleak textures of Kid A with a more organic and human mood. And then there's the fantastic moment of eerie, echoing catharsis with the cry of "BROKEN HEARTS MAKE IT RAAAAIIINNN!!!!" that takes the song somewhere else, followed by an unsettling yet resolving guitar solo. In other words, classic Radiohead! The lyrics suggest a loneliness not found anywhere else on the record, and probably represent the record's darkest statement. Though it's certainly tempting to interpret AMSP as a breakup album, Ghost Stories done right, considering Thom's separation from Rachel Owen, like every album post-OK Computer (barring HTTT), AMSP is poetically vague and doesn't need a clear concept or interpretation in order to succeed.

The Numbers: Slightly jazzy in its own way. But really reaches a new height with the ethereal vocal harmonies that come in about halfway. Absolutely beautiful. RH have used them from the start, but it hasn't really been until now that these kind of ethereal voices have elevated Radiohead songs in a similar way that the Beach Boys made Pet Sounds what it is with their harmonizing. Looks like there are still paths RH haven't explored yet.

Present Tense: In recent years Thom has had a habit of debuting half-finished acoustic songs in live performances that later appear on albums in amazingly beautiful final versions (ex: Lotus Flower). Which is why I had high hopes for Present Tense ever since hearing Thom perform it all the way back in 2009 (can you believe that was SEVEN years ago? feels like yesterday!). And it doesn't disappoint. Nice Latin vibe with a warmth that's distinctly Radiohead. Stunning. One thing remarkable about AMSP is that it's recognizable as Radiohead, yet it expands their already diverse sound enough that it sounds fresh with every new release.

Tinker Tailor....whatever: Along with Identikit, TTSSRMPMBMT (an acronym to rival WPTWOTWOMS!!) is the most ominous song on the album. Starts out like Interference from Thom's TMB, but morphs into a full-fledged Radiohead song, complete with haunting Jonny strings, Ed textures, and other hallmarks of the band by the end. It's as if someone created a mashup of each band member's respective solo works, and serves as a reminder of the trend throughout musical history that a band is always greater than the sum of its parts.

True Love Waits: I remember the first time I listened to I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings. A good friend of mine gave it to me as a birthday present some years ago. It was fantastic to hear the Kid A and Amnesiac tracks rearranged for live performances, as many were just as good, if not better than their album counterparts. And then there was the last track. To put it simply, it had me in tears a minute into the song. The hopeful yet sorrowful Thom made this one of the greatest Radiohead songs, and the fact that it was acoustic, in marked contrast to the densely layered songs of the same era, made the message so much more impactful.

So naturally, when I finally saw the tracklist of AMSP, I was shocked to see that True Love Waits had reappeared as the album closer. I was afraid that they'd buried the song underneath layers of synth and obscured its immediacy and desperation. In my mind, the song was only meant to be acoustic, and could only suffer from overdubs of additional elements. But boy, was I wrong! Now transformed into a haunting piano track, True Love Waits looks back toward its origins in an arrangement that recalls Kid A opener (and live closer) Everything in Its Right Place. And, thankfully, the meaning of the song is as clear as day, and made all the more depressing by the multilayered pianos. Its placement on the album is like surfacing from a deep sea dive: all of the dense textures of the previous songs give way to the naked piano and desolate plea of a song. In that regard, it's similar to the effect of hearing the organ at the beginning of Motion Picture Soundtrack. It's great that Radiohead finally found a place for this ancient song because, let's be honest, it was way too good to be squandered on an obscure live album.

And that's A Moon Shaped Pool! Radiohead's most organic record, distant yet personal, and soothing yet unsettling, but never frightening nor boring. It has the signature of the band written all over it, yet it sounds startlingly fresh, packed with new perspectives in a time in a band's career when they need it most. 15 years ago, Thom Yorke sang on the song I Might Be Wrong "have yourself a good time and never look back, never look back". And in those 15 years, it appears that this band has adopted those words as a motto for their desire to continue evolving. Above all things, A Moon Shaped Pool reaffirms, once again, that Radiohead is truly one of the greatest bands of their time, if not of all time.

From Ed's online Kid A diary. Remember when he did that? Cool stuff.
www.greenplastic.com/coldstorage/articles/edsdiary/



February 9, 2000

put 'true love waits' up again....this is a song which has been kicking around for four years or so, in fact we recorded a version of it when we were making the last album and this is something like approach number 561. but it is a great song.....it's simply trying to find a way of doing it which excites us. and we may have found a way, at the very least we've found a new approach ........ basically the track has the same vocal melody but the chords have changed underneath it. so we'll come back to it and see how it sounds. it may of course be utter crap and we have so lost the plot on this song...............please don't let that be the case........

I'm not a huge fan of ranking things, but here's how I'd rank AMSP compared to their other albums:

Kid A
OK Computer
The Bends
Amnesiac
In Rainbows
A Moon Shaped Pool
The King of Limbs
Hail to the Thief
Pablo Honey

I don't know if it's emotional attachment to the older albums, but I was initially quite hesitant to rank AMSP above both TKOL and HTTT, and I'm not really on board with this "best since Kid A" view. But there's no doubting that it is an exceptional release, especially for a band so late in their career. Were Pink Floyd or U2 making albums this good 23 years after their debuts? Hell they were!

1) Let Down 
2) Idioteque
3) Pyramid Song 
4) The Tourist 
5) Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was 
6) Reckoner
7) There There
8) A Wolf at the Door 
9) Videotape 
10) Black Star 

1. Sail to the Moon
2. Karma Police
3. How To Disappear
4. Knives Out
5. Lotus Flower
6. Where I End And You Begin
7. Talk Show Host
8. All I Need
9. House of Cards
10. Spectre

Wait. Did you edit this post to remove Present Tense? For shame! 

Oh crap! A Pablo Honey track! 

That primal scream lol Thom nearly died on that dive at the end of the song. Imagine that.