Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

The Eraser is incredible but none of the other solo/side stuff has done anything for me

The Eraser > The King of Limbs > Amok, which I thought was quite bland aside from a couple of tracks.

I can't remember much, if anything about Tomorrow's Modern Boxes.

they've gotten increasingly awkward as an arena band as time has gone on, particularly post-HTTT. the bits I've seen online of them from this tour have looked pretty dull tbh but maybe it's coming across better in person. I absolutely adored those PTA-directed videos of Thom and Jonny playing "Numbers" and "Present Tense" outdoors, I'd love to see the full album performed that way.

Eraser and Amok were both great but damn I'd forgotten TMB even existed, I probably listened to it no more than twice.

Grooves in TKOL are miles better than those on AMSP imho.

AMSP is all about the arrangements for me which are slme of the prettiest they've done. Hopefully they take this approach and add the more interesting grooves of TKOL for the next one.

They seem to get mellower each passing year so I suppose it's probably a far shot.

The record doesn't seem "mellow" to me, just not "rocking". And they were most successful "rocking" when they had dynamic arrangements (i.e. 'Paranoid Android' and the like), not when they applied a guitar/drums emphasis to more repetitive (rarely "grooving") material. Their best work from 'Kid A' on has been, to me, about the sounds themselves, the production and the arrangements, when married with a song form and not a groove form. "Idioteque' seemed the high point of that attemt, or maybe Yorke's stuff with Atoms For Peace. 'In Rainbows' had some strong songs, but boring arrangements. 'The King of Limbs' had some interesting ideas, but no great songs and not terribly memorable arrangements.

'A Moon Shaped Pool' stands above, for me, because the songs are melodically and lyrically as strong as anything York has done (and mostly avoid "Hail to the Thief" overt politics) *and* has their best arrangement and production work in at least a decade and a half.

But even with its cohesion, and it's frequent beauty, I don't find it to be "mellow" in the sense of just chilling out and not trying too hard and "aging gracefully" or whatever. Which for a group starting from a "rock," and therefore "youthfulness," "angst," etc. basis, is pretty remarkable--to mature, but not to become nostalgic retread or mellow chill.

the thing that kills In Rainbows for me is the dry, barebones production. it sounds like a radio session. complete opposite of AMSP, and... pretty much every other Radiohead record. i hate the way those songs sound but i love a lot of them. probably didn't help that I listened to the 2006 bootlegs for a year and a half before the record came out. same thing happened with AC's Strawberry Jam just weeks before that, too.

Yeah for all the talk about Nigel Godrich being the sixth member of Radiohead and all his fame as a producer he fails for me more often than not. IR is very dry sounding, the From The Basement live versions are probably better sounding than most of the album.

It's clear to me that the band wanted IR to sound that way, I don't fault NG for following their wishes, and tbh it was (and still is) refreshing in the context of their discography to have a strong set of songs presented without much sonic embellishment

In Rainbows sounds fantastic, the opening guitar on 15 step is so beautiful

I know they wanted it to sound that way. I don't think they really needed much. But the thing is bone-dry. It's a radio session.

In Rainbows remains to me the best record Radiohead have made post-Kid A and flappy bird is continuing to be wrong about the production - there's fucking reverbs all over the thing, hardly "dry" ...

Yeah, what the hell, man? In Rainbows has crazy textures and a very warm sound.

Flappy bird logic: the snare isn't treated like it's on a Bryan Adams record = dry production. Have you even fucking listened to 'All I Need'!?

xpost:

Indeed. I don't know why flappy bird is from where he keeps hearing radio sessions produced like In Rainbows. Narnia, probably.

*why=where

In Rainbows is beautifully produced. I never thought about it as being 'dry'. My difficulty with it is that even though it has some of their best songs, I can't find a satisfying 'through-line' with that one. It's sequenced in this way where it kicks off with two hectic bangers and then mellows out until by the end it's almost fizzled out into something slightly dull. It's not that the songs are individually boring but they just don't sit alongside each other so well. I'd have preferred it if they'd released 15 Step and Bodysnatchers as a separate single and made IR a bit more like AMSP.
This is a problem with almost all Radiohead albums since HTTT - even AMSP, which is kind of a perfect LP in terms of shape and structure were it not for Burn The Witch working as a false start

So, flappy, I'm. . . uhh. . . interested in. . . hrm. . .

. . .not really sure how to say this. . .

. . .oh, BOLLOCKS, I'll just say it: HOW DO I GET TO NARNIA, MAN?

And don't say the freaking wardrobe. This is 2017.

i too would like to get to narnia

In Rainbows has some of my favourite production on a pop record ever!

I forgot all about the weird song choices and sequencing for 'In Rainbows'. I ended up making my own, with songs from 'Disc 2,' and forgot that wasn't the normal sequence!

01. 15 Step
02. Bangers & Mash
03. Up On the Ladder
04. Nude
05. Arpeggi
06. Mk. 1
07. Videotape
08. Faust Arp
09. Reckoner
10. Go Slowly
11. House of Cards
12. 4 Minute Warning

I don't remember dryness being an issue per se, just. . . boring production? But on the whole the songs are so much stronger than 'Hail to the Thief' that I felt reasonably content with the record at the time. But it's far more settled-in and comfortable, a "rock record," more than 'A Moon Shaped Pool'. .

the thing was just never immersive for me like every other Radiohead record. i agree that the production is boring, also a record can sound dry even w/ reverb - the production on In Rainbows sounds like preset ProTools plugins. Calling it a radio session is a pox on radio sessions - In Rainbows isn't even super saturated like a good Peel Session. Dog Latin's point about the sequencing is spot on, it just drops off, and imo a lot of the best stuff (Last Flowers til the Hospital, Down is the New Up, Bangers & Mash, Up on the Ladder) was relegated to the bonus disc. But I like every song on Hail to the Thief more than anything on In Rainbows proper, though Last Flowers til the Hospital is one of my favorite Radiohead songs ever.

I've never listened to Bryan Adams. 😜

do you not have the same issues with boring production with the bonus disc?

Yeah. But I find the songs more compelling.

And I think the production serves Last Flowers til the Hospital really well.

That's cool.

So. . . uhm. . . the whole Narnia thing, then?

I've got your back on In Rainbows flappy, there are some really character-free, home recording-ish drum sounds on that record. Not all of it - 'Reckoner' sounds amazing, with a cool crushed kit sound smashed to one one side and one of the best tambourine sounds ever on the other. But Weird Fishes and some of the others have that super dry drum sound that I'm not into. I'm sure a lot went into it but it sounds like throwing up some 57s and calling it a day.

Flappy bird, Jordan, might it be the relatively flat dynamics of In Rainbows pressing your buttons? Everything sounds a bit boxed and breathless overall, it's the one thing I would change about the album, which I think if push came to shove is my favourite. However I'm one of those people who found them bombastic up until Kid A, which changed my opinion drastically, and thus my feelings about HTTT and IR are almost the perfect inverse of FB's, excepting that I agree "Last Flowers" is wonderful. Would not change a molecule of "Weird Fishes" which is a lock for my all-time top ten.

I'm sure a lot went into it but it sounds like throwing up some 57s and calling it a day.

otm. i really liked all the IR songs when I heard the summer 2006 shows, and I probably listened to the March 2005 orchestral performance of Arpeggi hundreds of times before I heard that wack ass version on the record. So my hostility towards IR has a lot to do with living with the songs for a year or two and having preconceived notions about how they would sound. And it's not like I married to any one arrangement or sound - I was just expecting something a little less brittle and amateur sounding. I don't know how anyone could prefer the album version of Arpeggi to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsYTXqVySy0

Otm, orchestral radiohead needs to happen on a future basis

Ha Ha Ha, Oh Wow

Sorry shd say full time basis but whatever

The production on 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi' could not be more on the money, IMO. I really wouldn't want it to sound any other way - besides, I generally trust Radiohead's judgement with regards to the final versions of their tracks.

I certainly trust it more than the judgement of someone that can't comprehend that wet =/= dry, anyway.

I listened to In Rainbows yesterday. The production isn't the problem at all - it's lush - but it's the fact the songs qua songs are a bit boring. Yorke's lyrics are at their most obfuscated and most of the tunes are based on a repetitious riff that goes on for an interminable amount of time. The production saves it, but they'd sound awfully dull on acoustic. I don't think that would be the case with AMSP songs which seem more considered and structured-out

yesterday's show opened with Daydreaming, but instead of going into Desert Island Disk afterwards they did Lucky! Twas then I knew we were in for a treat... check out this encore:

Encore:
You and Whose Army?
There There
Paranoid Android
Lotus Flower
Karma Police

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/radiohead/2017/adalen-aarhus-denmark-13e751a5.html

ooof! Three of my favourite songs in there. I've still not seen them live yet, despite being a fan for at least 22 years..

Yorke's lyrics are at their most obfuscated

You say that like it's a bad thing. In Rainbows is their best. I'm not an audiophile like some here, but the production sounds great to me.

what is the difference between an 'arrangement' and a 'song' xxxxxxxp

The song is the chords, melody and lyrics. The arrangement is the cellos and wooshing noises etc.

wooshing noises probably better ascribed to "production" as opposed to "arrangement" if we're going to be pedants

I'm working through the Radio head albums this week. my god King of Limbs is a terrible album. what the heck is Feral all about? Why those drums on In Bloom? How was Codex even considered to be anything other than a b-side? I'll keep Give Up the Ghost and Little by Little. The rest is just bad

this makes in bloom make a lot more sense. this album is sort of radiohead trying to be 'remain in light' era talking heads i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2084nQbmvk

in fact this video is about 10x better than the album track

That version of Bloom is phenomenal. It sounds like the universe being born. The studio cut is a damp fart in comparison.

what the heck is Feral all about?

At last me a DL agree on something Radiohead related. It's maybe the most nothingy thing they've ever done. I think it's maybe supposed to be their take on dubstep?

Lotus Flower is great though. Such a seductive little melody on the verses.

Problem with Radiohead is that when they try and 'be' people (like Talking Heads or Aphex Twin) they usually end up sounding like they missed the point. In Bloom sounds like something off Byrne's Catherine Wheel album but with all the funky low end stripped out. Similarly, Radiohead's IDM and dubstep moments felt like copycatting, with none of the charm left in.

I certainly trust it more than the judgement of someone that can't comprehend that wet =/= dry, anyway.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Monday, June 12, 2017 2:26 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i understand that there is reverb on All I Need. it still sounds airless and artificial and like a ProTools preset. i.e. amateurish, home recording, radio session, whatever. it's not the reverb on Exit Music, for example.