Just go buy it. It's an excellent album for the collection.

Just for views to generate ad dollars..

It flows EXTREMELY well. It's amazing that it does that and it's constructed in alphabetical order. Coincidence??? You're right, one of their best ordered LPs for sure. First two weeks I listened to it everyday. Now maybe 1-2 a week and when random tracks pop up on my iPhone. Brilliant album. My favorite thus far in 2016.

I definitely agree with this. It's not a game changer but as I said on a previous thread, the ability for bands to make 'game changing' albums have deteriorated as I think musical innovation has arguably got to the point of saturation.

So maybe it all has to be a bit more subtle like on this album. The next best thing is listening to bands and picking up on little subtle elements that contribute to the mood of the tune, like you mention with the synth like sound at the end of Identikit. It's just one little bit, but it's all marginal gains and added all together form one cohesive work of art. They all fit together like a jigsaw and it's only then you really appreciate the painstaking work that has gone into it. The brain picks up on it subconsciously on first listen - something is contributing to the moods you feel but you don't know what, and it's not just simply vocal melody. Only on the hundredth listen do you start figuratively taking it to bits in your mind!

It's albums like these you'd like to hear the multitracks for. It's like that for loads of great albums and it's like a constant quest to search deeper into the songs you're listening to. Layered production (not overproduction mind) and all that, I love it. For a few of the best albums this year, I've heard this album, The Magnetic North album and David Bowie's new album and it's the beauty of the seamless nature of it for what are quite complex recordings.

So the recording process - very complex, yet flows so naturally like a river. That's what you can sum up the soundscapes from this album.

A fantastic interview with Jonny Greenwood on the Adam Buxton podcast.
soundcloud.com/adam-buxton/ep-22-jonny-greenwood

Throw him on the fire, throw him on the fire, throw him on the....!!

www.amoonshapedpool.com/livefrom/

Interesting

It was because it was initially released only on Radiohead's website, so sales from there wouldn't be counted by OCC, and it didn't have the same publicity that surrounded In Rainbows that enabled it to reach number 1 when it was finally released on CD and vinyl.

Packt Like Sardines is one groovy motherfucker.

#KermitLiam

A preview of Sunday's upcoming BBC interview with Jonny Greenwood.
www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36540679



The setlists for your recent live shows have changed radically every night. How many songs did you rehearse?

We started with 120. It's crazy. I mean, it's just every song we've done. And then we gave up and realised that was stupid and got it down to about 60 or 70, and we played 24 songs a night. So there's a lot to choose from.

What was the thinking behind that?

Variety. Keeping it fresh and interesting. It drives our crew crazy, as you might imagine, because they don't know what to do with the lights. But that's okay. We've always been like that. We've always decided the setlist just before we play.

The image that's grown around Radiohead's studio work is that it's very tortured, very emotionally draining... a very difficult experience for everybody concerned. Is that is that true?

It's by turns really exciting - and there's usually Thom [Yorke] in the middle of it getting very excited and motivating everyone and getting worked up about how well it's going - and then there's periods when nothing's happening and it's just not working and it's frustrating.
But it's like that for everyone with work. When it's going well it's such an exciting and "up" and happy time that gets you through anything, really. It's only torturous looking back.

Such as?

We recorded No Surprises [from 1997's OK Computer album] and then worried about it. And then we recorded it again because it didn't sound very good. And then we recorded it again. And then went back to the very first recording and released it.So it's tortuous in that way. It's not like you're sitting looking for a kick drum sound for two weeks, it's more effort than that. More hitting brick walls over and over again. That's just how it goes.

What are your memories of headlining Glastonbury in 1997 - a gig that is now regarded by many as one of the greatest Glastonbury performances ever.

I just remember it being very stressful and the monitors breaking and Thom walking off because he couldn't hear anything and it just being a disaster!
It was pretty bad. It was like, "We can't hear ourselves, and we don't know what's coming across," and then I remember asking Andy Watson, our lighting guy, to illuminate the audience so we could finally see them. I remember that. You can't hear what you're playing and you hope everyone is hearing each other and that something is coming across, but it was a struggle.

You released your track Spectre on Christmas Day - explaining it had been intended as the theme as a James Bond theme, until Sam Smith's track was chosen instead. What happened?

It wasn't right for the film, what we did. So we thought, "Great! Then it's ours. We can finish it how it's meant to be and we can release it." So that side of it was really positive, you know? But I guess there's lots of people interested in who does it [the Bond theme]. There's a lot riding on it and the song we did was just too dark or whatever, so that's fine. [It] means we get to have it back and it's ours and we got to put it out. We're really, really proud of it. Why be attached to an old fashioned idea of what a James Bond thing was and it being a big deal? It's like it's sort of stupid to get worked up about, really.

A Moon Shaped Pool features a lot of arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra, who you're a great champion of.

Well there's songs like Burn The Witch which, very rarely for us, we managed to get strings on near the beginning. We left it unfinished on purpose and left lots of room for the strings and we never do that usually. Usually the strings are the icing on top.At the end of Daydreaming I got the cellos to all tune their bottom strings down about a fifth [of an octave] but then still try to play the music. So you can hear them struggling to stay in tune and you have the low growl sound.
You want to use strings in a way that isn't just pastiche and that can be hard to avoid. That was fun, trying to square that circle.

I was lucky enough to see a couple of the recent shows and it looked like you were really enjoying being on stage.

Yeah, it was really enjoyable. I think we're appreciating being in a band with each other in the moment and enjoying the sound that we put across. So it's a very happy time, yes. What can I say? There's nothing to complain about really!

Apart from when it comes to actual albums coming out, and criticism having to be given.

NME have awarded only one record Noel Gallagher's been a part of a score of 9 (or more) out of 10. There are only two Radiohead records Pitchfork HAVEN'T rated at least 9/10. And you know Pitchfork don't hand out scores like that on a whim (unlike the NME - 10/10 for Arctic Monkey's last one, anyone?)...

They're appalling fanboy bed wetters, and they must be stopped.



And Pitchfork can do one, as well...