RAdiohead

I was saying it’s sort of a return of a more traditional rock album in song structures and instrumentation that a certain kind of fan (namely those who only like The Bends and OKC) would probably enjoy

OKC is by no stretch a traditional rock album. And I love OKC but don't care for The Bends so

not sure what kind of an RH fan I am

Trying in my head to rank the albums by moroseness--this is an impossible task

I'm a fan of Radiohead when Thom isn't singing in his head voice w/ horribly smeared diction. Sadly that's been a lot since before HTTT.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Radiohead

Thom is best when his singing only implies his hair might be bunned. When you can plainly hear it's bunned, i'm not interested.

I totally agree with fgti re: 'progginess'. Maybe a reductive way to look at it is flow vs jaggedness -- 'Everything in its Right Place' is in 5 (or really 10, or phrases of 4/4 + 6/4, however you like) but in a way that doesn't draw attention to itself, and it's not the main distinguishing feature of the song.

And on the "weird 4/4" flip side, the only thing that makes 'Pyramid Song' is odd or elusive is the chord movement, and putting a chord on the downbeat that doesn't sound like a resolution or the beginning of a loop. But you don't get the sense that they're doing it specifically to wrongfoot the listener, they're just the chords that Thom wrote and played.

'15 Step' for me is one of their rare missteps into odd times for their own sake, even though I like the song. It feels more like an exercise of writing in 5/4, and in a sort of cliched way.

On the new record, 'You Will Never Work in Television Again' is a fantastic 5/4. It doesn't sound cliched and I didn't even notice it was in 5 on my first listen.

'Pana-vision' is right on the line for me. It's very obviously 7/4 and feels like it, but commits to the bit and feels like it comes pretty naturally out of that first piano line (whereas a more proggy/math-y version could more like a 4/4 phrase that was arbitrarily cut off to make it in 7 for its own sake, if that makes sense).

yep, a more boring drummer. the same one who also turns sons of kemet into a stodgy one-paced jam outfit i believe. 'a hairdryer' would be a great song if he wasn't hellbent on tippy tapping that hi-hat in the same way for its entire duration

― imago, Tuesday, May 17, 2022 9:38 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol ok. Actually I don't think he's served very well by the mix on this album, the drums are pretty far back in the mix and Nigel's drum sounds have been very bland on almost everything post-HttT. I wonder why.

hellbent on tippy tapping that hi-hat

reminds me of the classic thread What's with that constant cymbal tapping in jazz drumming?

beyond that, i find the criticism of skinner's playing as 'boring' (especially in the context of a pair of musicians who most frequently play with phil selway, who, to be clear, i like and has, for better or worse, always been an essential radiohead "sound", whatever that means) kinda so beyond absurd that it is funny and good, i commend you

nothing to add, but just once i want to see a really serious and respected critic put something in their writing about "tappy whappy ploddy toddy" things they don't like in the music.

i haven't listened to a light for attracting attention yet. am i boycotting it? idk. (shrug)

the hi-hat is one of the most expressive parts of the kit, it can go clickety clack but it can also go whiiish

always been a big fan of the shickety-shoo myself.

well yeah but additionally it also can go ka-chunk into a sizrunk without needing to program it, in a good drummer's hands

i am just joshing with all that, of course. like i said, phil was fine, he fit their sound, and he helped them sound like they did, which was rock gods, for quite a while

I like it when it goes

snp
snp
snp
snp
snp
snp
snp
snp

I am a really serious and respected critic, and you are all flops!

xp but if phil was part of the smile they'd either have to program in quite a bit of it or just change it to match him

again, a lot of this was covered when ed, colin, and phil were all sacked on the same day, i think sometime in 2020

i also think skinner is a big improvement on the programmed beats on thom's solo work. i'm just spitballing here but to me, the percussion on the smile sounds like the improved human version of those old beats, maybe more like what thom was thinking. it's a real pain in the ass to program skittering percussion. a very reasonable path is to go minimal. when you start making it sound "human", like on most of thom's solo stuff, you either have to do that for the entire song, which is laborious and also sometimes feels like it defeats the purpose, or let it be minimal and throw in occasional human-like elements like unexpected fills or "mistakes" or effects.

all of that is great, and lord knows i've spent way too much of my life programming in beats and trying to make them sound good. but it ALSO really cool and probably a huge load-off to just have a really good drummer play with you

I like it when the hi-hat goes CHchCHchCHchCHchCHsiupCHchCHchCHchCHchCH

like, skinner could be playing everything he's playing and eating a sandwich at the same time, and then could hear thom in the background daring him to "sound like a rubber ball for 3 seconds" and he just would, without missing a beat, and then go right back to the prior beat and the sandwich. he's fluent in drums

phil is great but there's a reason he plays the same exact fills in all the same exactly places in live performances over the past 25 years

(mainly i just want to turn this into defend phil selway day, lol)

the last time we had this conversation i think we all agreed that it was good phil took drum lessons around/after okc

and that the slurred 4/4 on "pyramid song" is cool and good

these are some of the consensus phil conversation beats, for sure

the phil meta

then there was the whole King of Limbs period where they got another Phil, and they had to deal with all of the confusion with that

(i'm assuming they found another second drummer, or a third drummer, after that, but it was also a bald white guy and they had to make one of those awful "listen, i don't mean to be unfair to this third guy but we can't have three phils in a row" conversations)

Phil should be canonized for 'Morning Bell' alone.

phil is great but there's a reason he plays the same exact fills in all the same exactly places in live performances over the past 25 years

― Bruce Stingbean (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 19:45 (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

...because they own and are part of the song as written? Radiohead's songs are incredibly tightly-constructed, it is their strength a d their curse, they've never done a studio song over 7 minutes long for example

I always loved his groove on subterranean homesick alien, too. the ghost notes alternating between the snare drum and the bass drum, like tides

xp

iirc "subterranean homesick alien" was the first thing that came to mind when i rushed to phil's defense before he was inexorably sacked

looked forward to the new album by the sacked members of radiohead "we don't need no stinkin hi-hats"

First there was Thom. Then there was Tom. And before anyone realizes what was happening, they were covering “Lorelei” and Jonny had been sacked

I kind of want to play the old Radiohead conversation hits and subtly change up my parts, introduce some new things

where is the ride cymbal in all this

there wasn't really anything on this album that made me think 'phil couldn't have done this' idk, didn't feel like a huge stylistic shift

'the smoke'?

half of this album is pretty good (though not up with rh's best) and the other half loses me

still feels like it suffers a little from having less moving parts than radiohead, the orchestration helps fill in those gaps but sometimes it feels like things aren't quite as fleshed out still

i also wasn't serious about this being their prog album or anything lol sorry for starting the "what is prog" debate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upWL_oB53vQ

they're doing "feeling pulled apart by horses" live

okay i'm going into this with a megapint of haterade and even i can't front on "thin thing."

whoo that is some psychotic hypnotic post-kraut ephemera. megajam.

listening again.

like if you told me this was a kid a outtake, i would believe it completely. easy highlight.

second half of the album is way better, but it still feels like maybe a solid 3 mic side project to me. makes sense that they're playing thom's solo material live - that's what it reminds me of most. not bad, though it's not hitting me like anima did at first. that one's lustre wore off with repeat listens for me, so maybe i'll revisit and compare with this again. it's alright though - pretty good, i guess. sorry again for my outburst re:jg upthread. he might be a jerk, but whatever fine, he's in the band whether or not it bugs me so i might as well listen.

thin thing is fuckin incredible

This album is great!

they're not playing any other thom solo stuff live (would have thought "cymbal rush" would be a reasonable chance though) & "feeling pulled apart by horses" is one of thom's solo tracks that started off as a radiohead song & jonny has a writing credit on it & played on the studio version

I'd put Atoms for Peace and this ahead of King of Limbs, easily.

i wouldn't, at all.

they're not playing any other thom solo stuff live (would have thought "cymbal rush" would be a reasonable chance though) & "feeling pulled apart by horses" is one of thom's solo tracks that started off as a radiohead song & jonny has a writing credit on it & played on the studio version

― ufo, Tuesday, May 17, 2022 7:36 PM

yeah, i always liked thom's recording of that song, but i hardly ever put it on. something about his "thom" material just doesn't keep my attention for very long.

That song “feeling pulled apart by horses” is the original Reckoner and the one where the IR “Reckoner” came from.

The intro to “feeling pulled apart by horses” is the section where Reckoner came from. You can sort of hear it on the outro to the latter, however who knows what those initial demos of the song sounded like, I guess they used to be in the same key before being different songs.

I think Jonny also has a writing credit on The Eraser’s title track.

Would be amazing to see them try that one on this new setting but I don’t think they’ll do it.