Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

treefingers has raised a bit in my estimation over the years. it used to sound like flat tones to me, now I hear all the variations and different voices added and subtracted all the time. i feel like a common HS radiohead moment is when everybody's listening in the car and then it gets to treefingers. and it's like, is anyone going to make us skip this tonight.

i also have to say that i got lit 420 earlier today thought that the transition at the end of Optimistic into In Limbo is maybe underrated. when In Limbo kicks in it suddenly sounds like the lyrics in a way that is sickening and awesome

It's a double transition - there's the brief "funk" rendition of "Optimistic", and then the even briefer intro to "In Limbo" before the triplet guitar arpeggi start. It's perfectly timed to lead into the second song: "Not this... and not this either... but this!"

yeah, i love it! that little fake-out transition is 23 seconds long.

the exact number of years he was together with rachel. but how would he know that in 2000??

also jordan's number think abt it
two GOATs acknowledging each other

(jordan retired the season ok computer was released, returns following the release of amnesiac, i just think its an underdiscussed series of events)

anyway "kid a (the song)" is great, "fitter happier" is the "providence" of ok computer (this is Good), "treefingers" is good ambient, "hunting bears" more like "hunting for a point (and starving to death)"

i like the idea of fucking around so you know that the good shit really is the good shit

"fitter happier" is the "providence" of ok computer

yes

also WTF, WOWOWOWOW at the michael jordan connection, makes sense

other important dates
93 - mj retires for the first time, same year as the release of pablo honey
95 - mj returns once the bends comes out
03 - retires for the final time when httt comes out

9-3 = 6

colin and phil sacked for mj and phil (jackson) confirmed

paranoid android's 3-songs-in-1 vibe = a reference to the triangle offense

9-3 = 6

― just staying (Karl Malone), Sunday, November 7, 2021 9:49 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is true but no one wants to talk about it bc they think they're too good for early elementary math facts

2+2 = 5
2 + 2 - nigel = 5
2 + 2 -(-1) = 5

again, nigel is a negative presence

the transition at the end of Optimistic into In Limbo

co-sign, one of my favorite moments on any radiohead album.

Ennh “fartsong” wasn’t meant to be a diss,

― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, November 7, 2021 6:45 PM

no, i knew exactly what you meant and i liked it! thank you for expounding, just confirmed what i got from it initially but also very well articulated! i also like that you compare THEM to coldplay and not vice versa. not being snarky, i find that genuinely funny and it makes sense to phrase it that way because at this point . . . it's kind of true.

he is "a negative one" to be around

I like the fartsongs flamboyant tie goon mentions upthread. It's the tracks like Burn The Witch, Bodysnatchers and a few strange sequencing choices on HTTT which I was meaning upthread about certain (otherwise good) songs sticking out on otherwise consistent albums

The biggest (and worst) fartsong is 'Feral'

"bodysnatchers" doesn't really stick out at all, they make it work in the sequence very well somehow

amnesiac and httt are the albums where the sequencing is noticeably a problem & amnesiac is a real 'what could have been' because there was a lot of strong material left off the album

In Rainbows has always felt like an excellent mini album with a strong double A-side tacked on the front of it. For me, it's 'Nude' that really kicks off that album's blissy, languid vibe whereas 15 Step and Bodysnatachers are spikey and/or blustering

in fact I'd say those two songs sound much more like they'd fit on HTTT, so maybe I could look at them like they're transitioning from 2003 Radiohead to 2007.

Speaking of “In Limbo”: yes the transition into it is brilliant but also the sort of “digital collapse” or what feels like waves of sound washing the song away at the end is one of my favorite Radiohead outros of all time. The song just disintegrates.

faust arp is lovely, sorry all

Yes

If I'm working and have a Fender Rhodes dialed up on ProTools, I'll add a bit of delay and play the little two-note riff from In Limbo over and over.

more like fart arp

mares, that's a fun thing and something semi-related that i think about a lot is how kid a, for me, is one of the definitive *FENDER RHODES* albums. it's not all over every song, but when it is used, it's just so perfectly realized and placed within everything else. really playing to the instrument's strength.

yeah that opening riff = instant calm

also Faust Arp is filler? wtf it's insanely good and a perfect breather, the strings are magical

i haven't listened to kid a in years but don't remember the rhodes being featured on it much. there's the little riff from in limbo, the chords in morning bell, and... i think that's it?

I probably associate it more with okc because of the bitches brew-style rhodes clutter on 'subterranean homesick alien', but i don't think it's on a ton of okc songs either

there's the live version of "everything in its right place" too (& the studio version's synth is a pretty good imitation of one)

yea, it has an EP-like color but some of its behaviors are not rhodes-like obv :)

EiiRP is Prophet 5, I believe

The electromechanical element of the Rhodes is hard to manufacture digitally and even with deep sampling, I've had a few different plug-ins over the years, the Arturia one is the best imho.

I think my favourite Rhodes moment is 'A Reminder', Jonny with his slightly self-consciously extended chords tinkling away like some sort of bell tree really makes it.

I wonder if it was ever a contender for the album but was tonally a bit too close to The Tourist and Lucky.

the prophet 5 also apparently shows up to imitate a rhodes again on "all i need", & again they just use the rhodes live

Weird, I always wondered what the low sizzle and slight wah were on the EIIRP Rhodes, now I realise it was all a lie

sorry for confusion re:rhodes specifics. that's why i wrote it like this:

one of the definitive *FENDER RHODES* albums

i understand there's actually not much of the actual instrument on the record, it's just that there's a ton of stuff on it that is reminiscent of the rhodes to the point where those things could played on a rhodes and nothing would be lost in translation.

was listening to a moon shaped pool while drifting off to sleep some nights ago and i was in that grey area between lucid and dreaming and i don't remember much about the things i was perceiving, but it sounded about a million times more beautiful than i remembered. when the album ended, i came to long enough to set my headphones on the nightstand and settle in properly to bed and i slept through the entire night without waking up once, a very uncommon thing for me (happens maybe one or twice per year if i had to guess). i didn't have any dreams that i remember, but i woke up the next day feeling like i had overcome something. accomplished something important. it was a very opaque, yet rewarding feeling; surely influenced by the vibe of the album. anyway.

Except that you can't open up the filter/cutoff on a Rhodes!

This explanation makes perfect sense when listening: https://thekingofgear.com/post/630974807221075968/a-photo-of-thom-adjusting-the-prophet-5-during-the

Two different takes of the Prophet 5, one panned to each side, so you get that sound where one of them has the cutoff turned up high while the other still has a more Rhodes-y/squarewave-y tone.

there's a ton of stuff on it that is reminiscent of the rhodes to the point where those things could played on a rhodes and nothing would be lost in translation.

I actually think it's fairly important to EIIRP that it's a distorted reference point and not an actual Rhodes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm1w_llg3VI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Vry4Zsdes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF0sWb4hmpM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqvkSgur8Fg

the smile streamed some rehearsals today. two run throughs of "look at all the pretty lights", & one each of "free in the knowledge" and "you will never work in television again" - only the latter was played at glastonbury. interesting to hear "free in the knowledge" because it shows they're carrying on with the neil young-esque acoustic side of the last decade of radiohead as well as the jammy side that's been predominant in all the smile material so far.

jonny also said the album is almost done - they're just sorting through the material & figuring out an album tracklist & deciding if they need to put any more work in. it sounds like the thom/jonny dynamic is thom is the perfectionist who wants to keep tweaking the details forever, while jonny is less concerned and would be happier if they released things more often.