Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

Whoever said 'The Numbers' reminded 'em of Led Zeppelin is pretty OTM. It's like the chords of in the second part of 'Stairway' mixed with the 'Kashmir' strings.

True Love Waits might make it into my Radiohead top 5. always loved the live version/s but this.. Jesus.

Is anyone lucky enough to be going to any of the upcoming gigs? I would have made the trip to London if I could have got a ticket.

I am gonna see them at Primavera Sound in two weeks

"broken hearts make it rain" is a both great and hilarious lyric imo

Yeah, written down it's such a daft, teenage lyric, but it's context and delivery make it work.

why oh why am i not going to primavera this year??

I didn't appresh the "broken hearts / make it rain" double-entendre until I watched older clips of Yorke dancing while singing it live, now I agree that it is v.poetic & sweet

another very 'poetic' bit of the album for me = the conceit of "Desert Island Disk"/'different kinds of love are possible', which projects an amusing image of Thom Yorke as single & ready-to-mingle

the piano on 'true love waits' reminds me of the way a lot of ambient piano bros like eluvium do their piano

― 6 god none the richer (m bison)

are you talking about the primary part or the sort of unhinged, background tinklings? the background stuff sort of recalls Charlemagne Palestine's "sliding fifths" style of (fluid) playing... sort of like Mick Turner's solo music.

....sort of

Whoever said 'The Numbers' reminded 'em of Led Zeppelin is pretty OTM. It's like the chords of in the second part of 'Stairway' mixed with the 'Kashmir' strings.

― Turrican

Yep, riffing is very Jimmy Page-esque when he uses acoustic guitars, reminds me of the Led Zeppelin III. Strings and laughs at the end seem like a reference to I Am the Walrus as well.

Strings remind me of Curtis Mayfield too.

Strings in Glass Eyes are very Debussy. It's a great piece if you're in the mood for it... would love to hear an instrumental only take.

I didn't appresh the "broken hearts / make it rain" double-entendre until I watched older clips of Yorke dancing while singing it live, now I agree that it is v.poetic & sweet

Which two meanings are you thinking of? Almost seems line there could be 3:

- broken hearts/tears
- divorce settlements
- making money selling albums that appeal to sad people (I don't really think that's true but the popular perception of radiohead's music is that it's for miserable people)

- choosing between kano and rain

- game 6 of 2015 nba finals

http://i.imgur.com/SuqlDWS.jpg

Strings on "The Numbers" seem to come straight out of here for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3WeNexb2a8

this album is a grower, huh?

Ha, I was thinking I was kind of done with it...

haha... well I'm only on 7th listen or so

anyone ever come up w an excuse for the album title?

Nah, they're talking about a person named moon (Keith?) and how they influenced the game of billiards

― 6 god none the richer (m bison), Monday, May 9, 2016 12:24 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well it's either a pool that's shaped like the moon or a pool shaped by the moon

something to do with the tide being affected by the moon... I dunno... guess we discussed all this up thread.

duno if it's been mentioned upthread but apparently identikit starts of with the mumbling of

A moon shaped pool
A desert cold
You love me
Now I know that there’s no more me
Whole me

well I guess I was never into radiohead for the lrx

I buy into the Keith Moon theory

lots of 'love/relationship' lyrics huh?

Huh, I would have never known those were the words if I hadn't read them.

xp people are calling it a breakup album right?

Ful Stop has a line something like "why should I behave if you can't" which is a bit ouch.

I don't get a Melody Nelson vibe from the strings on this at all.

Not in general, but on the Numbers it's almost an homage

I still don't really hear it... the Led Zeppelin comparison sounds closer to the mark, IMO.

Oh, I def do,more a JC Vannier one, but.

"Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
Dogen"

This seems to be a rather solid album. I am just in the middle of my first listen. What kind of surprises me is the relaxedness. Nice late night music. Cool and not depressive at all.

xpost - Yeah, I was also reading some sort of Buddhist reference in the title. Would also be consistent with the various Buddhism allusions in TKOL.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/radiohead-a-moon-shaped-pool.471923/

lot of people complaining about the lack of dynamic range (DR) on the album, poor sound quality (SQ) etc. the SH forum is insane, btw..

is it true that AMSP sounds best on Mac desktop speakers?

No no no strings for The Numbers are a Curtis hommage:

http://youtu.be/tE1K-hdRvmI

There is very little dynamic range but this is Radiohead, they've not been concerned with that or traditional sound quality for 20+ years.

Besides Melody Nelson, are there other Jean-Claude Vannier records that have strings that sound like this?

I definitely get a soul-y vibe from The Numbers strings too, maybe like something from an Etta James song.

xpost look around for Andy Votel's "Histoire De Melody Vannier" mix. It's a great introduction to Vannier's expansive arranging work in the '60s and '70s. Amazing arabesque string arrangements on tons of French pop records.

Voila!

Dynamic range is about a lot more than just production and mastering and, with the exception of the occasional swell of the strings, these just aren't songs with a great deal of dynamics full stop. OK Computer is about as compressed a record as any in their catalogue and it has WAY more in the way of dynamics than AMSP, which mostly drifts along in a haze. That's definitely a conscious aesthetic decision by the band though.

There's definitely a sag in this in the second quarter - Desert Island Disk and Ful Stop don't hold my interest at all, but there are so many great harmonic and textural shifts in the arrangements on the second half. The run from Identikit through to Present Tense is my favourite section now.

yeah i don't think this album would work in the same way if it were full of loud and quiet bits. it's a sustained piece from beginning to end in that respect

whoa thanks Captain Jay Vee !

My pleasure!

My ranking:

Decks Dark
Daydreaming
Tinker Tailor...
Ful Stop
The Numbers
Burn the Witch
True Love Waits
Present Tense
Desert Island Disk
Identikit
Glass Eyes

i wonder why they haven't played Glass Eyes yet

Cos it's the worst one?

I like the instrumention, but the vox so mopey.